Baptism Quick And Biblical (April 25, 2004)

I like to point out that it is biblical to baptize very quickly. On the day of Pentecost 3,000 people were baptized moments after they heard the first gospel sermon ever preached (Acts 2:41). The family of the Philippian jailer heard the name of Jesus for the first time just after midnight, and were all baptized by dawn (Acts 16:25-35). The Ethiopian Eunuch heard the gospel and then minutes (at most, hours) later was baptized in ditch water by the side of the road (Acts 8:36-38). And after hearing the word of the Lord from Ananias, Paul got baptized before he broke an absolute fast that he had observed for three days! (Acts 9:9, 18-19).

A seminary professor of mine once warned us to delay baptizing people until we were sure they were ready. Then later another professor said, "I understand there are those who believe we should wait and exercise caution as to whom we should baptize. I say that the New Testament knows no such caution." As I studied the matter it became clear that the second professor had all the Scriptures on his side, and the first professor had none. In the Bible, no one has to wait to prove his sincerity before an apostle will baptize him! Simon the Sorcerer, for example, was baptized in Acts 8:13, though he quickly proved how unworthy he was by trying to buy the ability to give away the Holy Spirit. Peter told him to go to hell (Acts 8:20).

So I baptize at the drop of a hat, and, frankly, in so doing, I have probably baptized people who were no more "ready for it" than Simon the Sorcerer. One case in particular sticks in my craw. I once baptized a young woman who left the worship service with her family immediately afterward. They didn't even bother sticking around for the sermon. She never returned to church.

Now, though I never refuse baptism to an individual who, as a believer in Christ, requests it, I have learned to warn people about the seriousness of the commitment they are making. Jesus himself warned potential disciples that following him was a life-changing (even life-sacrificing) decision. He said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). See Luke 9:57-62 and John 6:53-66 for instances in which Jesus' strong words seemed almost determined to drive away those who were less than whole-hearted in their decision to follow him and obey his commands.

Baptismal candidates should be baptized quickly, but not without being warned of the seriousness of sealing forever their decision to follow Christ.

Worshipping For The Fun Of It (April 18, 2004)

I'm feeling guilty over having recommended a couple weeks ago to sing louder because it was "more fun" - as though the goal of fun should motivate praise. Should it?

Probably not. Not that there is anything wrong with fun. Like sex, fun is a gift of God, but also like sex it is a dangerous thing when pursued for its own sake and in the wrong way. Just as we must channel sexual appetite into the confines of marriage, so also we must channel the yearning for fun into those areas best designed for it. A person who indulges sexual impulses indiscriminately becomes a rapist, a pervert, an adulterer. A person who seeks fun without regard for appropriate channels or restraint becomes a rude buffoon at best, a psychopath at worst.

The rush to locate "fun" at the heart of worship is a disease plaguing our churches, and I never fail to be alarmed by efforts to attract people to our houses of worship on the basis of how much fun they'll have. I have before me three letters mass-mailed to me by local churches, and all three feature the word "fun" either in boldface or all caps. Example: "At Westbrook Church you'll find friendly, accepting people and a comfortable place to ask questions - and you might just discover that church can be a lot of fun!"

So I'll have fun if I attend, but is there any chance that I, an unchurched visitor, will be convicted of sin and discover my soul's peril apart from God? When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he instructed them to conduct their worship with such powerful and reverent prophetic utterance that a first-time visitor would be "convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'" (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). It is hard to imagine such conviction of sin occurring in a church that has labored to show its visitors that "church can be a lot of fun!" As C. S. Lewis said, "Repentance is no fun at all."

More than 100 years ago, in a message titled "Finding Sheep or Amusing Goats?", Charles Spurgeon wrote the following:

[P]roviding amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." That is clear enough. So it would have been if He has added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel." No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him...I do not hear Him say, "Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive and with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!" Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them.

Offering up our hearts in worship and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus are not occasions in which we should seek to amuse ourselves or others. If singing to the Lord is fun - as it was for King David (2 Samuel 6:14-15)- then wonderful! Praise God. But to proceed from that truth to the thought, "We could make this a lot more fun if we do such-and-such" is to take the first step away from the goal of glorifying God and toward the goal of indulging our desire for a good time. That selfish path leads to corruption and sin.

Whose Prayers Does God Hear? (April 11, 2004)

A question was put to me the other day about whether God hears the prayers of Muslims. If they grew up addressing their Creator as "Allah," and that is all they know, can it really be wrong for them to pray that way? Won't God still answer them? Or what about those who pray to saints - does God receive those prayers?

The first thing I would say is that God is gracious, and he is free to respond to any prayer no matter how errant, misguided or malformed it is. All of us pray amiss to some degree. We pray with selfish motives, and we pray to our idea of God rather than to God as he is. Since our limited conception of God only dimly resembles him, I believe that in order for him to hear the petition of even the wisest, holiest and most theologically accurate saint he still has to reach out and snare it like a baseball player catching a bad throw.

A prayer to Allah is a bad throw indeed, but I do not feel it is for us to say whether God is willing to stretch out and grab it. I do see from Scripture that God hears prayers from people who have a minimal understanding of him. Hagar stood outside the covenant that God made with Abraham, and knew him apparently only by the name she gave him, "The God Who Sees Me," (Genesis 16:13). But God heard her (and her son - Genesis 21:17), and met her need. Though Naaman was a pagan idolater at the time he sought a cure from Elisha, (2 Kings 5), he received healing nonetheless.

But it would be wrong to assume that just because God graciously condescends to receive wrong-headed prayer and worship, it is fine to keep rendering him wrong-headed prayer and worship. We must grow. When I play basketball with a 7-year-old, I don't call him on every traveling violation. But if he is to mature as a player he will have to learn the rules, all the rules, and follow them.

The rule now is that we must pray to God the Father in the name of, or through, his Son Jesus Christ. (See for example John 16:24, where Jesus says, "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”) One of our jobs as Christians is to make plain that this is how God is to be addressed and worshipped and glorified. God has shown us his love by sending Jesus to be our Savior, and Jesus by his death has opened the way for us to be united with the Father. Our communication with God must now be mediated through Jesus.

And only through Jesus. The Bible says that "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Protestant Christians grieve that our Catholic brothers and sisters direct some of their prayers to other mediators - the departed saints - and we plead with our separated brethren to abandon this practice immediately. The Bible forbids contacting the dead (Deuteronomy 18:12: "Let no one be found among you who...consults the dead"; Isaiah 8:19: "Should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?"). The one time in the Bible when someone (Saul) sought help from a dead person he was roundly rebuked for it and the results were disastrous (1 Samuel 28).

Overall, I believe it is worse to pray to a saint than it is to pray to Allah. You could argue that Muslims don't know any better, but Christians definitely should know better than to pray to the dead. We are without excuse, since our Bibles give us clear instruction about how to pray, and to Whom, and through Whom. Also, Muslims at least could be said to pray to one whom they regard as the Supreme Being, who alone is worthy to receive the worship of prayer. But prayer offered to a mere saint is an abomination. If the saints in heaven are aware of the prayers made to them, I believe they recoil with the same kind of revulsion shown by the angel in Revelation 22:8-9. When John bowed to worship him, the angel insisted, "Do not do it!...Worship God."

Having said that, I believe that God may re-direct to himself some petitions errantly sent to his creatures - especially if the petitioners are humble and ignorant and the victims of bad teaching. Of course, it is not a good thing to remain the ignorant victim of bad teaching. It is the duty of all God’s children to learn and grow, to practice what is true and discard what is false. This includes how and to Whom we address our prayers.

The Joy Of Zealous Singing (April 4, 2004)

May I be bold and ask you all to sing louder?

This past week I had the pleasure of participating in a Haitian
worship service in Rogers Park. It was the second time I've heard
Haitian Christians sing, and the second time I've been happy to hear
how loud they are. The roof rattles not because of electric
amplification but because the thronging worshipers like to belt it
out.

Seventeen years ago a Catholic friend of mine came to visit the
Protestant church where I was speaking, and afterward he talked about how different the singing was at our church. "Catholics sing in a
whisper," he said. "You guys sing LOUD." He wasn't complaining - in
fact he wished his fellow Catholics sang as we did. I'm reminded of an
old Reader's Digest anecdote where a Catholic choir director told his
singers, "I'm going to pay you the ultimate compliment. Today you
sounded like Protestants!"

Maybe some day I'll say at Faith Bible Church, "Today you sounded like
Haitians!"

I know that not everybody likes to sing, and some can't sing at all.
And I know that voice volume corresponds less to spirituality and
maturity than it does to simple enthusiasm. I also know that decibel
level will often be dictated by cultural expectations: Asians will
sing softer than Blacks as surely as Episcopalians will stand stiffer
than Charismatics. And I even know that my hero, C. S. Lewis, despised congregational singing and wanted less of it. (I never dismiss anything Lewis wrote without first thinking very hard about why I might be wrong.)

But with all those qualifications duly noted, it is still inescapably
biblical to sing loud to God. See Isaiah 12:6: "Shout aloud and sing
for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among
you," or Psalm 95:1: "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us
sing aloud to the Rock of our salvation." It is more fun to sing loud.
I think it makes visitors more favorably disposed to us. I know it
encourages the song leader. And, I believe, when matched with purity
of heart and zeal of spirit, it brings greater glory to God.

When You Are Slandered (March 28, 2004)

Both my sons were recently subjected to false accusations by classmates. (No, I didn't choose to believe "their side of the story" simply because they're my boys: both accusations, though unrelated, were demonstrably false.) They didn't get in any trouble, but they still had to nurse the wounds of blighted reputation, and defend themselves with "I didn't do that! Ask so-and-so!" or "Trust me, I'm not like that."

I tried to speak words of comfort and counsel to them. I can sympathize with the falsely accused, having been subjected to an absurd slander about five years ago that had me grinding my teeth with anger. I later found out that my accuser - who never confronted me but only talked to others - turned out to be guilty of the very sin that I was being accused of! I thought bitterly, "Well isn't that ironic."

Or maybe it isn't so ironic. Perhaps the person most likely to suspect you of sin is the one who is yielding to it himself. A thief thinks you're embezzling because, well, that's what he would do in your situation. A liar just knows you're shading the truth because she herself deals falsely with people all the time and can't imagine you're any different.

People project their sinful souls onto others. Among the many corrupting influences of sin is the fact that it darkens spiritual vision, making the sinner incapable of seeing - much less appreciating - holiness and kindness and goodness in others. All the world looks dark through the welder's goggles of sin. If you have stuffed your
nostrils with dung, even a rose will smell bad.

Human scum found Jesus bad, and killed him. And if they slandered him, certainly they'll slander you and hate you for things you never did. It will always grieve us, but ought never surprise us, when we are lied about and made to bear the punishment for things concerning which we are innocent.

Some words of counsel regarding slander: First, it is o.k. to defend yourself. St. Paul does so vigorously in 2 Corinthians chapters 10 through 12. My sons did the right thing in protesting their innocence. Second, avoid slanderers. I have forbidden one son to have any further contact with the person who wrote a nasty email about him. ("Arguments and fights will come to an end if you chase away those who insult others" - Proverbs 22:10, CEV). Third, be careful about believing too hastily the bad reports you hear about others. Check the source, and when possible speak to the individual accused. Many times I have seen an absolutely reliable individual pass along unreliable information because he never imagined he had cause to doubt it. And finally, when slandered, consider this humbling thought: most of us have gotten away with lots of sin that nobody ever found out about or rebuked us for. Since those remain hidden from the eyes of others, maybe it is only fair in the long run that our reputations should get slammed from time to time for wholly fictitious crimes and misdemeanors.

A Reason To Risk Your Safety (March 21, 2004)

On October 24, 1901, a 43-year-old schoolteacher named Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She had hoped to become rich off the stunt, but her attempts to parlay it into fortune failed miserably. The public shunned her lecture circuit, and she returned to Niagara Falls to make a meager living selling her autograph to tourists. She died penniless and bitter in 1921.

Grace Horsely Darling, on the other hand, sought no public acclaim for her watery ordeal. During a terrible storm on September 7, 1838, the frail 22-year-old daughter of a lighthouse keeper spotted some boat wreckage floating on the churning sea near their home on England's Farne Island. She summoned her father, who with his spyglass saw nine individuals clinging to a rock about a quarter mile offshore - the sole survivors of a shipwreck from the previous night. Knowing that these shipwreck victims faced certain death from the pounding waves if not rescued immediately, Grace and her father braved the North Sea gales in a 20-foot rowboat and somehow managed to save seven of them. (Two had perished).

News of Grace's heroism captured England's imagination. She was besieged with requests for pieces of the clothing she had worn during the rescue, and for so many locks of her hair that one pundit joked she faced the danger of baldness. Artists painted seascapes of the girl in the storm-tossed boat, and writers commemorated her deed in books and plays. But she never tried to capitalize on her fame, and she remained at the lighthouse with her family until she died of consumption four years later. Her legacy was the rapid growth of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which flourished throughout the British Empire in the wake of her much-publicized heroism.

Two women defied the waters of death - one to benefit herself, the other to save people's lives. Adulation and fame eluded Anna Taylor, who bequeathed nothing more than a quirky example that inspired more barrel-riding Niagara Fools - some who would die, none of whom would do anybody any good. But a nation adored Grace Darling, who, through the inspiration she gave to lifeboat rescuers, saved many more lives than the seven she rescued in 1838.

The Bible says, "Should you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5). Instead it commands us, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit...Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4). If you ever have the urge to do something grand and dangerous, fraught with personal risk, make sure that you are doing it to benefit someone else, not to make yourself look big.

Confessing Quickly Or Ratcheting Up Your Crime (March 14, 2004)

I think Martha Stewart deserves to go to jail, but not because she was guilty of making use of inside information. That was bad, of course, but I can understand it if a person got a call from a broker saying “Dump this stock - it is going to tank” and in a moment of unguarded, unpremeditated weakness the client said, "Thanks! Sell!" That is illegal, of course, and worthy of a fine, but it is not the same as plotting fraud or clubbing someone over the head to steal his wallet. A slap on the financial wrist and a term of community service would suit the white-collar crime.

But Stewart deserves prison time because of the way she chose to escalate matters when she got caught. Rather than admitting guilt, she stonewalled. She lied, obstructed justice, lied, falsified documents, lied, covered up, lied, sought out fellow conspirators, and lied. At this point it would be a miscarriage of justice to let such relentless contempt for the law evade the iron bars of confinement.

More misery is wrought by moral misfits feigning innocence than this world dreams of. If you are caught doing wrong, admit it - just admit it, take your penalty, repent and go on. That is what President Clinton should have done six years ago when he was busy expressing outrage that anyone should accuse him of marital infidelity. Rather than coming clean, he chose to drag the nation through an embarrassing and expensive investigation that we all had to endure and fund. Shameful.

When I worked with at-risk middle school students I frequently had to contend with delinquents who had mastered the art of contemptuous escalation. Brian, for example, would crumple up a piece of paper and throw it on the floor. I would say calmly, "Brian, you need to put that in the wastepaper basket." Brian would pretend not to hear, so I would repeat. Brian would say, "I didn't put that there!" I would say, "Even so, Brian, I would like you to put it in the trash." "I ain't no janitor!" he'd shout, and things would proceed like that until he got suspended. In his view, he got suspended for a picky little thing like throwing a piece of paper on the floor (when nobody was supposed to have seen him do that anyway). But in reality he was suspended for the tantrum and the shouting and the insubordination that followed. Things could have been so simple, so easy, if he had just thrown out the piece of paper in the first place.

As I read through the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel with my boys it impresses me that, though David sinned a lot, he responded quickly to rebuke and took full responsibility for his actions. He promptly admitted that his lies triggered the slaughter of the priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:22). He acknowledged that he was the villain of Nathan's parable (2 Samuel 12:13). He allowed Joab to slap some sense into him (2 Samuel 19:5-8). You do not see David saying, "Who? Me? I didn’t do anything. I did not have sex with that woman, Mrs. Bathsheba."

Denial escalates mistakes to misdemeanors, misdemeanors to crimes, and crimes to atrocities. Confess your sin quickly and honestly. It is the right thing to do, and it might save you a lot of trouble in the long run.