David Vogel

Thursday Roundup (4/6/17)

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Thursday Roundup

Today’s video looks at how Islam’s conception of God is different from the Bible’s. The Answers for Ambassadors podcast considers Joel Osteen’s call for Christians to live generously (and why—which turns out to be important). The links of the week cover filthy rags and perfectionism, grey hair and Down Syndrome, “the strange persistence of guilt,” and much more!

(If you receive these posts by email and aren’t seeing the video and podcast, just click the “Thursday Roundup” title to view the original post on my site.)

“We have no real sense of the terror and awesomeness of God, for we think intimacy with God is an inalienable right rather than an indescribable gift. There is nothing amazing about grace as long as there is nothing fearful about holiness.”
~ Dale Ralph Davis

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Puzzlement at Pence: How the World Lost Intimacy and Doesn’t Know It

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Initials on a tree

Last week, the Washington Post reported that vice president Mike Pence avoids dining one-on-one with women other than his wife, and the internet erupted. Pence’s policy was puritanical, silly, sexist. It might, in fact, be “rape culture at work” according to one writer, because it shows “we still live in a culture that produces vice-presidents who ardently believe women are a wellspring of possible sin.”

The obvious rebuttals are, well, obvious. There’s the fact that Pence might possibly be avoiding extended social time alone with other women not because he believes women are the root of all evil but because, of the two genders, only one of them can offer any temptation to compromise his marriage. (If an influential woman avoided dining alone with other men, would that be sexism against men?) Then there’s the cynical amusement of listening to 20-something singles earnestly pontificate about healthy relationship boundaries. And there’s the hypocrisy angle: Apparently Bill’s serial adultery is no one’s business but the Clintons’, but Pence’s attempt to avoid adultery is a threat to the republic which demands endless think pieces.

But as I perused the flood of commentary which followed the revelation of what was dubbed “the Pence Rule,” I was struck by something else: the amount of sheer puzzlement over why such a self-imposed restriction might be needed or helpful. One journalist wondered whether “social conservatives actually have higher libidos on average, hence the greater perceived need to control sexual desire.”

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Thursday Roundup (3/30/17)

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Thursday Roundup

Want to know more about Islam and how to reach your Muslim neighbors? My “Islam: Understanding and Apologetics” online class starts one week from today at 7:30 EST (I moved the start-date back one week because I have lost my voice today due to a cold), and it’s recorded too, in case the time doesn’t fit your schedule. Click here for more information.

Today’s video asks whether God is “interested in relationship, not religion.” The weekly podcast looks at Joel Osteen’s call in Your Best Life Now to stand strong and trust God amid trials. And the links of the week range across catechisms, productivity, intimacy, tithing, and more!

(If you receive these posts by email and aren’t seeing the video and podcast, just click the “Thursday Roundup” title to view the original post on my site.)

“A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated through eternity… The same may be said of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks which we put upon it, it will exhibit forever… Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever.”
~ Adoniram Judson

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You Have Enough Time

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Hurrying crowd

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
~ Matthew 6:25-33

For most Americans, Jesus’ promise of provision in the Sermon on the Mount may seem like a nice abstraction. It’s lovely to think of God providing for our physical needs, but how many urgent needs do most of us really feel? How many of us have really had to worry about the next meal or whether we’ll have someplace to spend the night? Of course, for some in America and for many of our brothers and sisters around the world, these assurances are a much more urgent and wonderful thing, but for most Americans they are promises to meet a need they have never really felt.

But even if God’s rich provision for our nation means that you never have to worry about food or clothing, studying Jesus’ promises in Matthew 6 offers a helpful, encouraging template for thinking about another resource, one which we always seem to be needing more of: our time.

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Thursday Roundup (3/23/17)

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Thursday Roundup

Want to know more about Islam and how to reach out to Muslims? My popular “Islam: Understanding and Apologetics” online class is beginning next Thursday, March 30. The live class meets on three successive Thursdays at 7:30pm EST, but it’s also recorded. Click here for more info or to register!

Today’s video takes a look at the difficult topic of church discipline. It can seem more judgmental than loving, so why would Jesus command it? The Answers for Ambassadors podcast considers Part 4 of Your Best Life Now, in which Joel Osteen discusses how to deal with pain and disappointment. And I have an unusual number of excellent links this week, ranging across loneliness and celibacy, the Ten Commandments and the Apocrypha, Christian satire, The Benedict Option, and more!

(If you receive these posts by email and aren’t seeing the video and podcast, just click the “Thursday Roundup” title to view the original post on my site.)

“[Prayer] turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.”
~ Samuel Chadwick

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After We Sin

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Kneeling man

There are few more famous sins in the Bible than David’s adultery with Bathsheba, followed by the murder of her husband. Yahweh’s anointed king, “the man after God’s own heart,” showed the ugliness that lurks in every one of Adam’s sons, and the Lord’s response was swift and angry. II Samuel 12 describes the scene as the prophet Nathan challenged King David, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?” The account only includes the initial, simple response of the stricken king: “I have sinned against the Lord,” but Psalm 51 conveys the depth of David’s repentance and grief as he writes,

I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.

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Thursday Roundup (3/16/17)

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Thursday Roundup

Today’s video was inspired by my recent discussions of The Shack and Your Best Life Now. It considers when imperfect Christian books are still worth reading and when we ought to skip them. The weekly podcast looks at Joel Osteen’s view of the importance of our thoughts and words. And the links cover pleasing God and giving to the poor, singleness and happiness, secularization, the national epidemic of opiate addiction, and more!

(If you receive these posts by email and aren’t seeing the video and podcast, just click the “Thursday Roundup” title to view the original post on my site.)

“It’s easier to avoid temptation then to resist it.”
~ Bill Shannon

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The God of The Shack in a World Without Enemies

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The Shack movie poster

It’s hard to throw a stone in the Christian blogosphere right now without hitting a review of The Shack, the bestselling novel by Paul Young which was just released as a motion picture. And if you’re reading evangelical or Reformed writers, the reviews are going to be pretty uniformly negative—a negativity which finds justification in Young’s just-released Lies We Believe About God, which explicitly teaches the unbiblical and even heretical ideas which critics saw woven into the fiction of The Shack.

For what it’s worth, allow me to join my voice to the chorus saying that The Shack should not be on a Christian’s reading list. Yes, it has a worthy goal (showing the love of God amid the realities of suffering and pain), and yes, it gets some things right, but it also gets some things badly, badly wrong. It is true that it is “only a story,” but story can influence and shape us just as powerfully as more direct teaching. In fact, bad theology in fictional form can actually be more dangerous, as it digs deeper into our mind and is harder to recognize than straightforward false teaching.

But my interest today isn’t really in The Shack itself. If you want some good, biblical perspectives on the book, check out the articles I linked above. My interest, rather, is in what makes the God of The Shack so appealing.

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Thursday Roundup (3/9/17)

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Thursday Roundup

This week’s video asks what faith is and whether it’s rational. The podcast examines Part 2 of Your Best Life Now, where Joel Osteen talks about the importance of self-image. And the links of the week cover suffering and smiling, Victoria and Veggie Tales, why Christians need church, whether Jehovah is God’s true name, and more!

(If you receive these posts by email and aren’t seeing the video and podcast, just click the “Thursday Roundup” title to view the original post on my site.)

“Christians who neglect corporate prayer are like soldiers who leave their front-line comrades in the lurch.”
~ Derek Prime

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One Reason Why a Compassionate God Permits Suffering

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Crying on a couch

Why does God’s world contain pain and suffering? If there is a more challenging, painful question in Christian apologetics, I don’t know what it is. It is viscerally compelling for anyone who has ever suffered a loss, or watched another do so (which would be all of us). And it is logically compelling as well; why would an all-knowing, all-powerful, loving deity allow the sort of sadness and pain we see around us?

Ultimately, the best and most complete answer to the problem of pain comes at the cross, where our Father, as he so often does, answers us with a picture rather than a treatise. God may not fully explain why he permits evil to burn through his creation, but two thousand years ago he stepped into those flames with us and gathered the coals into his own arms. The mutilated hands and feet of the Son of God do not explain why suffering is permitted, but they do promise that there is a sufficient reason. And the empty tomb he left behind promises something else as well: an ultimate end for every sort of evil, whatever the reasons for its existence today. Like Job, the Bible’s other great picture-answer for suffering, the cross calls us to trust even when we cannot fully explain.

But our inability to comprehensively explain the problem of evil does not mean we are without any answers at all. In fact, the Bible offers many pieces of an explanation which may be too deep and multifaceted for us to grasp in its totality. Today I want to explore just one of those partial explanations.

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