Days of the Comet

Days of the Comet

by | Dec 17, 2013 | Discipleship, Growth

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The recent hoopla over comet Ison, which many astronomers thought might become the comet of the century, died quickly with the comet’s ignominious end, or as one astronomer quipped – as “the particles formerly known as comet Ison.”

The hoopla reminded me, however, of a comet I saw in my teens.  It was an incredible sight as an object  no larger than a speck in astronomical terms glowed as a beautiful lamp in the darkness around it. 

Since seeing that comet, the cosmic travelers have always fascinated me, not least in the way in which they shine. Nothing more than small lumps of and ice and other frozen matter, comets orbit around the sun, of course, and are relatively invisible till they come close to the solar orb. 

Once comets come close enough to the sun, however, the power of the solar wind begins to give  them the visible lamp-like tails which stream out behind each comet’s body and glow by reflected light. The closer they get to the sun, the brighter they shine.

For the Christian, the comet is an obvious metaphor – an analogy for a truth we all know but need to remember.  Although we may be spiritually insignificant of ourselves, the closer we move to the One who is the center of our spiritual orbit, the closer we come to the One who scripture calls the “Rising Sun” and the “Day Star”  (Luke 1:78, 2 Peter 1:19), the more we become visible as a light in the darkness which may surround us. 

If, physically, even a “failed” comet such as Ison can attract as much attention as it did, perhaps we can see the spiritual potential in moving ever closer to the One who, through His power working in us, can make us a light in the dark.

Help Needed

by | Dec 8, 2013 | Discipleship, Great Commission, Prayer

 “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’ “ (Matthew 9:37-38).

Although these verses are usually interpreted to mean that we should pray for more people to come to the knowledge of the truth who could join the work,  it seems to me that they may just as well mean that we should pray that laborers who are available, but not in the field, should get involved in the harvest. If that is the case, then we should all be praying for help to see what we can be doing, not just for others to come along who will do the work.

In any event, it is clear that we are told to pray earnestly (the Greek word is a form of deomai signifying “beseeching” or even “begging”).  We can hardly pray in this manner without personal involvement in the need for which we pray.  How?  We can pray earnestly for more workers to be called, or to become involved, for their needs, and for the success of their work.  What else can we do?  Certainly we can help financially, as we are able, to support good work where it is being done [Note: TacticalChristianity.org  does not accept donations or gifts],  but prayer always must be the first priority.    That’s what Jesus stressed.  On the other hand, other scriptures do show the necessity of helping those workers who “go out” into the harvest.  Notice the words of John in this regard:

“Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are … You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.  For they have gone out for the sake of the name … Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 1:5-8 ESV).

So, even if it is not our calling to personally go out into the “harvest field,”  there is much that we can do to support those who do go and to be “fellow workers.”  The “advertisement” for help needed has already been published.  It is up to us to respond today!
Salt and Light

Salt and Light

by | Nov 29, 2013 | Discipleship

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“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world … let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 13-16).Although Jesus’ statement  regarding being the light of the world is related directly to His disciples’ good deeds, His words at the same place in the Sermon on the Mount regarding being the “salt of the earth” do not say exactly what the salt represents.  All we are told is that it is important that salt has “saltiness” or “flavor” and if it loses that, it isn’t good for anything.

Despite attempts to explain the symbolic importance of salt in this verse as a preservative, a purifier, a symbol of righteousness,  and other things, it would seem best to simply accept Christ’s words that if the salt loses its flavor, it is useless.  This was, after all, the primary use of salt – to give flavor and make things pleasing and palatable – as we see in the Book of Job: “Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?” (Job 6:6a). The apostle Paul used a metaphor of salt in a similar way, saying: “Let your utterance be always with graciousness, seasoned with salt…” (Colossians 4:6). This understanding of the function of salt to make something pleasing and acceptable seems to be strengthened by Jesus’  additional comment recorded in Mark:  “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other” (Mark 9:50).  Here we are to be “palatable” and thus acceptable to each other and at peace.

Understood in this natural way, Christ’s words that His disciples are the salt of the earth mean that they represent humankind to God in a pleasing manner – making the world “palatable” to Him, as it were.  As the light, His disciples represent God to humanity through good deeds.   The expressions thus encompass in only a few  words the roles and responsibilities of discipleship as it relates to God and man.   Representing humanity to God and God to humanity might seem like huge responsibilities, and they are, yet we can be encouraged.  Jesus does not say to His disciples “Strive to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” He says “You are the salt and the light.”  We can always strive to better serve in these ways – and hopefully we will – but if we are His disciples,  if we have not lost our spiritual “flavor” and we have the good deeds that are part of our calling, we can rejoice that we have the privilege to function as salt and light in God’s plan.

Extreme Activities

by | Nov 1, 2013 | Discipleship

Mountain climbing was always challenging enough for me, but I am amazed by some of the extreme sports people get into now.  People routinely do things that are extremely challenging, difficult, and often downright dangerous – all in the name of excitement and sport.   I was watching and listening to some of the practitioners of these sports on television recently and I must admit their commitment is amazing – their extreme activities are their lives!

Do we take our calling that seriously?  Extreme sports require extreme dedication, extreme training, and sometimes they do involve extreme danger.  In all these things they are like Christianity.  Now I’m not suggesting for a minute that Christianity is a sport,  just that like extreme sports, Christianity has some extreme challenges.   Although the Book of Ecclesiastes says that “Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes” (Ecclesiastes 7:18 NIV), that is talking about being extremely bad on the one hand, or self-righteous on the other. The Bible makes it clear that true living religion is going to involve some extremes:

* Extreme dedication:  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

* Extreme training:   “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25)

* Extreme danger:   “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea” (2 Corinthians 11:25).

This last extreme may not apply in our own situation. We may be spared the dangers faced by believers  in many parts of the world (http://www.persecution.org/), though we should, of course, be involved in praying for those who are endangered.  But the truth is, Christianity should be an extreme activity.  If our Christian walk is not extreme in the first two of these ways, perhaps we are missing out on something.

The rewards of our extreme commitment and training certainly far outweigh the “blood, sweat and tears” put into them.  Paul makes it clear  in 1 Corinthians 9:25 that the rewards are far beyond the momentary highs of extreme physical activities:  they are both extreme and eternal. Just as extreme sports often become the lives of those practicing them, shouldn’t the extreme activities of our calling become our lives, too?

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This week we uploaded a new article on the Strategic Understanding page,  “The Truth About Tebow”.   This reproduces a Bible Advocate article Sherri Langton wrote early last year looking back on the Tim Tebow phenomenon.   Although, as Sherri rightly surmised, the phenomenon would pass, her retrospective on Tebow’s impact has some very interesting thoughts on how events  sometimes work out in the scheme of things.

Offense or Defense?

Offense or Defense?

by | Oct 13, 2013 | Discipleship, Warriors of the Way

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We all know that in football, if we want to move the ball, we have to think offense.

Sometimes I wonder if we concentrate too much on defensive tactics and strategy in our Christian walk. Defensive thinking is necessary, of course, for any campaign or goal. You don’t climb a mountain (at least I don’t want to!) without anchors and ropes.   But my point is that too often our tactical stress is only on defense. Consider just a couple of examples. 

Generally speaking, how much more time and energy do we put into praying for people (ourselves and others) to be healed than we spend in praying for work being done to wipe out severe and crippling illnesses.  How much time do we spend thinking about  proactive things we can do to help those who suffer get back aspects of their lives they might not otherwise have (see the October 2 article on “Helping the Sick”). 

The economy is bad, but do we respond only defensively, praying for friends who are out of work, or do we pray also for the national and local economic  situation?  (Read Jeremiah 29:7 if you don’t think that’s a topic for prayer).  Focusing on the broader issues as well as the specifics of which we are aware is focusing on offense as well as defense, and the principle can be applied in dozens of areas of our lives if we think it through. 

The main thing is to start to train ourselves to think offensively, or at least to constantly keep that half of the equation in mind. I was reminded of this as I read Psalm 144 recently.  Look carefully at the duality of what the psalmist is saying:  “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me” (Psalm 144:1-2).  God is likened to a Rock, Shield, Fortress and Stronghold of Refuge (all defensive). He is also said to be a God who figuratively trains us for war, for battle, to subdue enemies.  The active aspect is just as present in these verses as the static aspect. The Offense is as real as the Defense.   We need both, but to win we need to think offense.