Weekend Christians

There are “real” golfers and then there are “weekend” golfers. I am neither. I am more of an “annual” golfer. While I thoroughly enjoy the game of golf, it does not really fit into the schedule or budget of our lives right now. However, there are those rare and wonderful occasions when I am invited to join a threesome for an important meeting with “Mr. Green.”

Here’s the deal with me and golfing. I come from a family of golfers–dad, mom, and brother all played while I was growing up and still play regularly today. Though I was raised in a golfing home, I did not like golf. Often times our vacations would be to golfing destinations. So while they were out chasing that little white ball around, I was swimming in the pool, playing at the beach, hitting tennis balls, wasting (no, “investing”) quarters at the arcade, or bowling. Occasionally I would begin a round of golf with them thinking I would learn to like it, but after a few holes I would resign to golf cart driving duty and ditch them at the turn. It was not until my days in seminary that I actually took golf up and enjoyed it. Every once in a while a few classmates and I would head north on Interstate 5 to the middle of nowhere and get a welcomed reprieve from the rigors of seminary life. One of my golfing buddies and I decided that if we could not be quality golfers, we could at least increase the quantity of our golf. So on one Monday we left the house before dark and arrived at the course just at sunrise. We played all day long, taking only a break for lunch, and got in 65 holes.

When I go golfing now, I can temporarily fool people into thinking I am actually “a golfer.” I dress the part, having been given nice golf shirts from tournaments my parents have attended. I can speak the golf lingo and know the rules pretty well. I have nice clubs. They are hand-me-downs from my dad after he got new clubs for his 50th birthday, but they’re really nice 2nd-hander’s. I even have an okay swing, since I have watched a lot of golf in my life and had free coaching from my dad and brother. So when I step up to that first tee and join a group of strangers, they probably think they are getting a real ball-striker. And I can usually keep fooling them off the tee box. My driver is my most consistent club in the bag. I don’t hit it terribly long, but I can generally hit it straight about 225 yards down the fairway. I might even hit my second shot well and end up on or near the green–still fooling the rest of my foursome. But then reality sets in on and around the green. Because I don’t play more than 2-3 times a year, I have absolutely no feel for short game. My chips and putts are wildly unpredictable.

And this is how the game of golf works for a hack like myself. I have enough muscle memory to go out and hit my woods and irons decently even though I only play sporadically. But I cannot keep the “feel” of putting and chipping without consistent practice. I can fool the casual observer with my golfer-like dress, equipment, and even swing. But if they watch carefully at all, they will notice that I am not the real deal. I don’t have “the touch” that comes with hundreds of rounds of golf and hours of putting and chipping practice. I am in fact, a poser.

There are posers in the church as well—“Weekend” Christians. They may have grown up in Christian homes, speak Christianese, dress Christianly, decorate their home with the latest “Jesus Junk,” have their car covered in Christian bumper stickers, consistently go to Sunday worship and all the church’s extra functions, and maybe even have some speaking ability that makes them appear to be a good teacher and example. They fool casual observers into thinking they are the real deal. But watch them closely and you realize that something is missing. They can fool people with external shows of righteousness, but they have no “feel” for holiness–there is no humility, gentleness, patience, purity, self-control, love, or prudence. They understand the basic “rules” of the Christian life well, but they have no zeal for Christ. There is a thin facade of external righteousness that covers over a vacuum of godlessness. Like the Pharisees, they ”clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25). They are “like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (23:27).

It would be easy to talk about “them” and to bash “those” hypocrites in the church. But with only a small dose of self-examination, the little pharisee within my own heart is clearly seen. The “log” in my own eye is big and it hurts. On the importance of true holiness in the life of a pastor, Charles Spurgeon said this:

Your whole life, your whole pastoral life especially will be affected by the vigor of your piety. If your zeal grows dull, you will not pray well in the pulpit; you will pray worse in the family, and worst in the study alone. When your soul becomes lean, your hearers, without knowing how or why, will find that your prayers in public have little savor for them; they will feel your barrenness, perhaps, before you perceive it yourself. Your discourses will next betray your declension. You may utter as well-chosen words, and as fitly-ordered sentences, as aforetime; but there will be a perceptible loss of spiritual force.

That thought frightens me to my knees in prayer. May God give us (me) the grace to walk in the fear of the Lord and live authentic, godly lives for His glory in Christ Jesus. May we not find contentment in being superficial, man-pleasing, posers, but rather strive after being men and women who are holy from the inside out.

Justin Culbertson
Berachah Bible Church

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

I am going to show you two images and you tell me if they look anything alike.

One of these images you have probably seen all week. More than likely you have not seen the other image since the last time you went to the doctor’s office. Well, if we are going on looks alone, it is clear these two images look nothing alike. However, we all know that they are both images of the heart.

The curiosity bug bit me this Valentines Day, and with the power of the internet I set out to figure out where in the world this symbol for the heart came from. It is clear it bears little to no resemblance of a real human heart. I wish I could tell you some neat story about where the icon for the heart came from, but instead what I got was more questions and a lot of theories. One of my favorites is that the symbol is modeled after a cow heart instead of a human heart. Back when the symbol first popped onto the scene, people would have been much more familiar with a cow heart rather than a human heart. If that is the case, it makes giving a heart shaped box of chocolates a little funny.

With all the theories I read, none seem to do a good job at explaining the huge difference between our symbol for a heart and a real heart. This vast disparity in the image of the heart reminds me of the equally vast disparity between the biblical view of the human heart and the world’s view.

Now, of course, when we speak of the biblical view and the popular view of the human heart, we are not talking about the physical heart that is in one’s body, instead we are speaking of the inner man. This inner man, according to society, is inherently good.

In direct contrast to the world’s view, the Bible tells us that our heart is sinful and wicked. Furthermore, the Bible tells us that the sin we see manifest in our lives is a direct result of our sinful hearts. This is when the world’s view becomes very attractive. It feels and sounds a lot better if I can say, “I am a good person, but I just make some mistakes sometimes.” It makes fixing the sin in our lives simply behavior management. This is where Jesus’ exchange with the Pharisees comes in. As He was chastising them He says, “… for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” Of all the things we do, it seems that if anything could be a simple mistake, it would be a “slip of the tongue.” Scripture is clear that even the mouth itself can only speak what flows from the heart. The sin that we see in our life is a reminder that our heart is sinful.

What do we do with this sinful heart? What do we do when we find sin in our lives and if changing behavior alone will not solve the problem?

Put your faith in Christ. Whether you have never trusted Christ as Lord and Savior before, or if you have been a believer for years, this still applies. Heart transformation is not something we can do on our own before or after salvation. Paul in Colossians says; “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” At salvation we put our faith in Christ to save us from our sins, and that is what we need to do everyday. That is what we need to continue to walk in.

Put your heart on a good diet. One of the best ways to expose the evil that lives in the closets of your heart is to meditate on the Word of God. Over and over in the book of Proverbs the father instructs his son to, “Incline his heart toward wisdom.” The idea is that the son will not just hear wisdom, but meditate upon it so that it becomes deeply rooted in his thoughts, will, emotions, and desires.

Lastly, guard your heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Since the Bible makes it clear that our heart’s natural desire is toward sin and wickedness apart from Christ, after we have come to Christ we must guard it from being taken captive by sin again. In one of Paul’s prayers for the church at Ephesus he uses a great word picture. He says, “…that Christ may dwell in your heart.” The image is that of Christ being at home in our hearts. As a husband and father I have a very strong desire for my family to feel comfortable and safe when they are at home. I would likely go to great lengths to protect my home. The question is, am I doing a good job guarding my heart so Christ feels at home?

Well, we may never know where the modern symbol for the heart truly came from, but praise God we do know what to do with our real heart, our inner man. May the Father “grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith…”

Eric Flintoff

When I Consider the Heavens

Football player, policeman, or G.I Joe… these were the things I dreamed about being “when I grow up.” I don’t ever remember even considering being an astronaut. Maybe it was from growing up in the city where I could hardly see the stars at night. Maybe it was because I did not like science in school. For whatever reason, from childhood until now I have never taken much of an interest in this big universe we live in. It wasn’t until I began to browse through some of the latest pictures from the Hubble telescope that my interest began to grow. The more pictures I saw the more amazed I was. I began gathering facts about the different things I was looking at, and the facts just piqued my interest all the more.

I don’t know if it makes me a nerd, but I have taken several of the latest Hubble pictures and made them a screensaver on my computer. One of my favorites is the Helix Nebula. The Helix Nebula is a dying star that is somewhere around 450 light years away from earth (that’s 5,865,696,000,000 miles times 450). As it dies it shoots out brilliantly colorful gases. Scientists estimate that from one edge of the gas ring to another is 1.5 light years across.

Another of my favorites is the Red Supergiant Star v838 Monocerotis. Given its name, you can imagine it is one huge star. It is thousands of times bigger than our Sun, and out of nowhere in 2002 it spent several months lit up more than 600,000 times brighter than our Sun. Scientists are still trying to figure out what made the star put on such a dazzling display.

When I look at pictures like these, and when I start thinking in numbers as big as light years, I start feeling really small. Did you know that our solar system in relation to our galaxy is about the same size as that of a quarter in a space the size of North America? And our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies in the known universe? The truth is that I don’t just feel small…I am small.

I know these are not the kinds of things one should be thinking about to boast his or her self esteem, but these thoughts are biblical. In Psalm 8 the psalmist says, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” In a world that has a default setting resting on ‘me-centered living,’ verses like these seem odd. In a society that preaches a self-love gospel (so you can be healthy and function, of course) this would seem like heresy.

The sad thing is that me-centered living does not just affect our society or unbelievers. Me-centered living is alive and well within the Church. Listening to some of today’s most popular sermons and reading the most popular Christian books, one would think God’s sole reason for existing was to serve us. However, the teaching of Scripture and creation stand in stark contrast to this.

For the thousands of years that the universe has been in existence, there have been stars dying with stunning brilliance like the Helix Nebula. There have been Red Supergiants that have been shining with inconceivable radiance. The only difference between those then and the one now is that, for the most part, they went completely unseen. We would not know that the Helix Nebula even existed without extremely powerful telescopes. Scientists would not have been trying to solve the flare up of the Red Supergiant v838 a thousand years ago because they would never have seen it happen. It makes me wonder what amazing objects of beauty are living out their lives right now that we just can’t see yet. It also begs the question of why.

If we as human beings are intended to be the center of the universe, why in the world is it so big? Why are there thousands, millions, billions, and even trillions of stars, planets, solar systems, and galaxies that exist so far away that we can’t even see them? Truth is, if the universe was created for us, then it is way too big. But if the universe was created for God, then it is just the right size.

All those stars, planets, and galaxies that exist far beyond our ability to see them do not go unnoticed, for they were not created for us but for Him. In Isaiah 40 we are told that God brings the stars out one by one, and that He knows them each by name. This universe was not created for us, nor was it intended to center around us. This universe exists for God. It is declaring His glory, and He has not missed a second of its powerful declaration.

So this week as we all fight the sinful desire to put ourselves in the center of the universe, may we remember that we are indeed very small. As we read God’s Word and think of His amazing love for us, may we remember that God does not exist for us, but we exist for Him. His making much of us is not proof of our bigness, but of his awesome grace. There is only one person big enough, worthy enough, and great enough to be the center of all things. May our lives be spent this week, alongside the rest of the universe, declaring His praise.

Eric Flintoff

Super Bowl Marriage

Super Bowl Sunday is finally here and will soon be history. In a matter of hours, some wives will have their husbands back from a five month season long couch-sitting, potato chip-eating, ESPN-watching period of dormancy. Last year’s big game was the second most watched program in U.S. television history (2nd only to the final episode of “M*A*S*H*”) with 141.1 million viewers tuning in. And now these masses of American males (and a few females) will have to undergo a period of detoxification from the football hoopla and re-adjust to life sans-Madden.

This Sunday also falls only ten days from Valentine’s Day (hint, hint, men). While Valentine’s Day, or the “Hallmark Holiday”, is highly commercialized and preys on the guilt of romantically lethargic husbands, it does provide an easy opportunity to evaluate our marriage relationships. So as some husbands are coming off of this NFL ecstasy, I thought it might be helpful to give us a quick readjustment back into the domestic world.

On the subject of football and marriage, one woman who had been married to a coach for 34 years said she had begun to suspect that sports had a higher priority than their marriage. On one particularly frustrating day she decided to test his priorities and see if her suspicions were true. She burst out, “Frank, you’d miss my funeral to go to a ball game!” Her husband calmly replied, “Roberta, what ever made you think I’d schedule your funeral on the day of a game?”

Marriages that aren’t energetically and attentively nurtured will stagnate and become cold. There is no successful marriage that stays on autopilot. The kind of gospel-loving, Christ-exalting, others-preferring marriage that God intends is only for those who chase hard after it together. So for all husbands who need help in this area (present company included), God’s Word has a charge to us—“Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25).

There are several things about this verse that grab my attention. First, it is aimed at me (the husband), and not my wife. American men tend to think of love and romance as women’s stuff. But the Scriptures place it right in our laps as men. We are to be lovers of our wives.

Second, it is commanded. This is not a suggestion or a helpful hint. It is not to be done at our earliest convenience or when we are in the mood. If I am going to be obedient to Christ, I must continually and creatively think hard about what it means to love my wife as He loves His church. One writer said, “Nowhere does the Bible say that love is the basis for marriage; marriage is the basis for love. Paul’s command is, ‘Husbands, love your wives’ rather than ‘Men, marry your lovers.’” If love in a marriage has grown cold, it is in that marriage that it must be fanned into flame again.

Third, I look for and cannot find any command that says, “Husbands, get your wives to submit to you.” There is a command for her. But the command for me says nothing about getting my wife to do anything. Instead, it hits me right between the eyes with the ongoing responsibility I have of loving my wife.

Fourth, it is an impossible command to obey perfectly because Christ’s love for the church is a never-attainable standard (Eph. 3:17-19). But that is not an excuse for apathy. Rather, I must keep working at it and striving by the Spirit’s power to better my obedience to this charge.

So I offer a few suggestions to help in obeying this command—first to myself, and then to each husband (and future husband) in the church.

• Make time to be together. Deliberately work to cut some of the busyness out of your life and carve out time to have a t.v.-free talk, take an evening walk, or do something fun together.

• Don’t belittle small talk. As men, we tend to make light of the “unimportant” details of life and focus on the “big” stuff. Be careful here. Ask your wife, “How did your day go?” and then give her undivided attention as she tells you. Robert Oxton Bolt made an insightful observation: “Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.” Don’t disparage the many threads of daily small talk.

• Genuinely be helpful. With kindness and sincerity in your voice, ask how you can help her. Offer to wash the dishes, shop for groceries, pack the kids’ school lunches, cook dinner, or make a bed.

• Love your wife in a way that makes her feel loved, not in ways that you think ought to make her feel loved. I may think that working harder and longer hours in order to make more money and provide nicer things will prove my love for her. But she would happily give up luxury for my time and attention.

• Be creative and make memories together. Plan a special evening out—something more than dinner and a movie by default. Write a poem, song, or letter to her. You don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to be attentive and thoughtful.

• Watch your words. Are you speaking with a tongue that is kind and encouraging or one that is sharp, sarcastic, critical, or angry? Do you tell her often that you love her? Do you respond to her anger with a counter-offensive or with a blessing (1 Pet. 3:8-9)?

• Provide spiritual leadership to your wife and family. The Bible consistently directs commands for spiritual leadership to the husband and father. We tend to feel inadequate and overwhelmed by this sobering responsibility. But don’t let your fear of failure lead you into a state of apathy where you do nothing. You don’t need to be a super-hero, but you do need to continually grow in fulfilling this important responsibility. Develop your own personal time with the Lord. Pray for your wife and children. Lead the family in Bible reading and prayer. Talk with your wife and children about the things of the Lord throughout the day during the ordinary stuff of life. Be vulnerable to admit your own struggles.

Men, it’s time we turn our t.v.’s off and tune our marriages up. Jonathan Edwards made this resolution as a young man: “I frequently hear persons in old age, say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.” Not many guys hit 70 and say, “I sure wish I would have spent more time watching football!” (or whatever your particular diversion may be). But quite a few wish they had spent more time working on their marriage.

Justin Culbertson
Berachah Bible Church