Bathing our Minds in Him

 

 

In The Silver Chair, Aslan tells Jill, “Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind….and pay no attention to appearances.” (Page 560).

 

As I write this I am reminded of Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 4:18 that we do not look at the things that are seen but rather at the unseen, and then of Hebrews 12:25 – 29 in which we are told that God will shake all things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

 

While there is shaking all around us, the glorious reality for those in Christ is that we are receiving “a kingdom which cannot be shaken” and that because of this we ought to show “gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:18 – 29).

 

We ought not to be like puppies chasing their tails as we run after purveyors of prophetic entertainment, purporting to interpret the headlines the way ancient religious types interpreted the present and discerned the future by reading the entrails of animals to hold the attention and allegiance and patronage of both the elite and the masses. These things do not wed our hearts to Jesus Christ, they do not call us to lay down our lives for Him and others – they do not stabilize us in Him with His peace and wisdom, they do not ground us in Him and with one another. They do not call us into a mature reading and experience of the Word of God in Christ Jesus. (I write as someone who has been there and done that.)

 

It is bad enough when confusion reigns throughout the world, it is more troubling when it reigns within the professing church. Confusion is disorienting, and just as Jill would be disoriented by the heavy atmosphere of Narnia, so we are easily disoriented by the heavy atmosphere of our present age. Just as Jill would forget the Word that Aslan gave her, we tend to forget the Word that Jesus gives us – and so we must continually bath our minds in Him and His Word, meditating on His Word both day and night (Psalm 1) and presenting ourselves as offerings to God (Rom. 12:1 – 2), not being conformed to the present age, but being transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. O dear friends, we need the Bible more than we need the headlines and commentators and the latest financial news.

 

A few days ago, as I sensed myself being pulled into the atmosphere of confusion, I went to the clean, clear, and pure air of Ephesians Chapter One. I knew that I needed a trip to the Mountain, I knew I needed to breathe the air of the “eternals” and to bathe my mind in Christ.

 

And so in verse 3 I was reminded that I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. In verse 4 I saw that the Father chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world so that we would be holy and blameless.

 

I was reminded in verses 5 and 6 that we are predestined to be His sons and daughters to His praise and glory.

 

In verses 7 and 8 I saw the greatness of our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us.

 

Then in verses 9 – 11 I was encouraged by the vision that life is all about Jesus Christ and about us being in Him, and that we have an eternal destiny which our Father is working out through His Son and in and through us – to His glory.

 

O friends, when we look at the world around us, let us see not the foolishness of political movements and nations and economic engines and entertainment idiocy, let us see our need of a Savior and Redeemer, let us see the suffering around us – the suffering in our communities, in our cities, in our countryside, at our borders, beyond our borders – for make no mistake, we will be held accountable for whether we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, housed the homeless, visited the prisoners (Matthew 25:31 – 46).

 

I cannot do everything, nor can you, but we can all do something.

 

In Ephesians we begin in the heavenlies in Chapter One, so that we may walk the walk on earth in chapters 4- 6. “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (4:1).

 

Let us bathe our minds in Christ, remembering Paul’s words:

 

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Eph. 5:15 – 17).

Our Time

 Good morning friends,

Some quotes should need no explanation or comment.

Much love,

Bob

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

 

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But it is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien, page 50, Houghton, Mifflin).

“Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light…Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness; but instead even expose them…Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (From Ephesians 5:7 – 17 NASB). 

Mutual Assured Destruction

 

Dear Friends,

I wrote this in August 2020. As I read it again there isn’t a word I’d change, and if it was relevant then, it is surely relevant now. We, including the professing church, continue our descent into the abyss of insanity and self-destruction.

When I was a lad in Christ, there was a little saying that still holds true, “Tis only one life, it will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I love Jesus more today than ever, and tomorrow I want to love Him more than I do today. I want our marriage to portray Jesus to the world around us, to our friends and family and community. I want our love for Him to be unambiguous – for our hearts to be wedded to Jesus Christ. I want to be passionate about Him, and to communicate that passion and excitement to others.

Much love,

Bob

Mutual Assured Destruction

Robert L. Withers, August 28, 2020

 

For the past few years, as I’ve been observing the polarization and fragmentation of our society, and the societies of the world, I’ve grappled with words and images to describe what I’m seeing. One of my favorite words since around 2005 has been “tsunami”, for this word conveys sudden and chaotic destruction. Undersea earthquakes hundreds of miles away can visit destruction and death and disorientation on the unsuspecting.

 

There is another phenomenon which I’ve been observing, for which I have not one word but rather a term borrowed from the Cold War, “mutual assured destruction.” This was the Cold War doctrine that if the superpowers each had enough nuclear weapons to destroy our planet many times over that they would not dare initiate nuclear war. What did not happen in the Cold War is happening within our society, and I frankly think the church (a term I use loosely) is an enabler of this insanity.

 

What do I mean?

 

Let me begin with the political climate in the United States. Politics has always been hardball and ugly, a serious student of history knows that for every bright and shining moment in government and politics that there might be ten moments that make one ethically and morally sick. Today we have a situation in Washington, D.C. in which it appears that the avowed goal of both political parties is to destroy the opposition. Not only that, but within each political party there are factions whose agendas seem to be the elimination of their ideological opponents within their own parties.

 

The notion of compromise, of reasoned discussion, of give-and-take, has itself become a target of elimination by both parties.

 

The excesses of the party in power, whether in the White House, the Senate, or the House of Representatives, are surpassed when the party out of power gains the supremacy – then it is payback time. Thus, I find the term “mutual assured destruction” an apt description of the escalation of what payback time looks like. This abdication of moral leadership on the part of both parties, and of the church (which I’ll address below), is propelling us into an abyss from which it is doubtful we will recover. We will likely have the moral equivalent of a nuclear winter.  I am reminded of the title of a book written some years ago by Dr. Richard Swenson, Hurtling Ourselves Into Oblivion – this is what we are culturally doing, politics being the particular rocket that I am focused on in this reflection.

 

Political and social “mutual assured destruction” is not without precedent, it reaches at least as far back as the Roman Republic. In his book, The Storm Before the Storm – The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic, Mike Duncan makes the following observation and quotes Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86 – 35 B.C.) on the political dynamics that led to the Roman Republic’s demise and the rise of the dictatorial Caesars:

 

“But though there were not formal parties, it is true that there were now two broadly opposing worldviews floating in the political ether waiting to be tapped as needed. As the crisis over the Lex Agraria [land reform legislation] revealed, it was no longer a specific issue that mattered so much as the urgent necessity to triumph over rivals. Reflecting on the recurring civil wars of the late Republic, Sallust said, ‘It is this spirit which has commonly ruined great nations, when one party desires to triumph over another by any and every means and to avenge itself on the vanquished with excessive cruelty.’ Accepting defeat was no longer an option.” [Italics mine].

 

Duncan observes that in the late Roman Republic “it was no longer a specific issue that mattered so much as the urgent necessity to triumph over rivals.” This is what we have come to in the United States. We have abandoned long-term thinking for short-term victories. We have hardened ourselves across the political spectrum against the suffering and needs of others as we look to vanquish our opponents. The term “culture war” is an apt term indeed, but we ought to expand it to, “a culture war of mutual assured destruction.” Many of those leading this war have their economic bomb shelters which they think make them invulnerable, impervious to the spiritual and moral nuclear winter descending on humanity – they are the wolves licking the knife bathed in blood, their insatiable appetites will consume them.

 

Through all of this, the professing church has been an enabler through its identification with political parties, by identifying with competing worldly worldviews, and by the abdication of its Biblical mandate to be “in the world but not of the world”, to be seeking a City whose builder and maker is God. We are called to be witnesses to Jesus Christ, not advocates for a political party or for a worldly worldview – and when we are seduced into adopting a view of life and of the world that is other than a Biblical view – which all sub-Christian views necessarily are, then we exchange the glory of God for the glory of man, God’s vision for man’s vision.

 

In the United States, our syncretistic civil religion, with its blend of pseudo-patriotism and Christianity, is particularly seductive. While there are professing – Christians who lament political correctness and the thought police, many of those same Christians are quick to condemn the notion that we are a deeply sinful nation with an ingrained sinful past, and that Christians are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) before we are citizens of anywhere else. (I will mention that the concept of dual citizenship is not helpful here, for there can be no parity in our thinking or dual allegiance in our hearts, “no one can serve two masters”).

 

The Church is not called to take sides in culture wars, doing so pulls us down into the toxic morass of the present age. We are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ, to be His faithful Bride (not the harlot of an element of the world-system – no matter how attractive it may appear – note what happens to harlots in Revelation 17:16). The Church is called to be separate and distinct from the war of mutual assured destruction swirling around it.

 

The people of the world; our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers; need to hear us speak from heaven, not from earth. The world needs us to wear the white linen of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not the red and blue garments of political parties.

 

In the war of mutual assured destruction, we are called to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), agents of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20), and medics on the battlefield (Matthew 5:43 – 48).

 

Consider these words from John the Baptist (John 3:29 - 30):

 

“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.”

 

And then of Paul (2 Corinthians 11:2 – 3):

 

“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

 

Let me be straightforward here; pastors, priests, elders, deacons, evangelists, church leaders, are called to wed the Church to Jesus Christ in a monogamous marriage, a pure marriage, a holy marriage. The “Christian” leader who in any way suggests and encourages God’s People to dye the white linen of Jesus Christ with the colors of this world, including blue or red, is not acting as a friend of the Bridegroom. (There are many other colors we could include here, including green – the color of money - one of the gods of our pantheon).

 

Dear friends, the people of the world need us to bear witness to Jesus Christ, not political or economic or social agendas. They need the Church to demonstrate the Gospel and what it is to love one another as Christ loves us, they need to see us actually living in community across ethnic, racial, socio-economic, political, and educational barriers…yes, even nationalistic barriers.

 

There are two women portrayed throughout the Bible; the harlot, and the Bride of Christ (Proverbs Chapter 9, Revelation Chapter 17; 19:7 – 10; Chapter 21).

 

Which one are we?