Bob’s Blog

When Jesus-followers hold to Biblical authority as it speaks of Christ’s uniqueness, we embrace the conviction that Jesus is the only way of salvation.

The Doctor is In!—Treating Ailments that Demand a Diagnosis. This message series is designed to stimulate Jesus-followers to live out their daily lives with prescriptions diagnosed in God’s Word. Jesus Christ came into the world to treat the aliments of sinners. Every ailment needs a diagnosis. Under the direction of the Great Physician, Doctor Bob seeks to diagnose various ailments common to the Christian community and provide a prescription from God’s Word. The Doctor is In to treat the trauma experienced by a vast majority of Jesus-followers today.

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentence.” —Luke 5:31-32 [TNIV]

Ailment: “Pluralism”
Diagnosis: “A Breakdown of Truth”

Time magazine published a special sixtieth anniversary edition about a generation ago with the title “The Most Amazing 60 Years.” In recalling the world into which Time was born, this special issue began with the words: “The atom was unsplit. So were many marriages.” Here two things occurred in our era are properly brought together—one, the scientific technological explosion; and two, a moral breakdown. It is not just by accident that these two things have happened simultaneously. There is something which lies behind both phenomena, and in recognizing this Time magazine has shown amazing comprehension.

Dr. Bob believes that what has transpired over the past 60 years in our culture is the attempt to have absolute freedom totally autonomous from any intrinsic limits. It is the attempt to throw off anything that would restrain us from our own personal autonomy. But it is especially a direct and deliberate rebellion against God and his Word. There is no longer for many people in our culture absolute truth—it has been compromised or accommodated to mean whatever we as humans desired it to be. When it comes to faith and reason, religion has taken a new journey down the road of pluralism.
A pastor I know starts each of his new believer’s class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those estimates, he helps them make another list: their favorite songs. When the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar.

The whole class looks over their guesses, to see which estimate was closest to being right. Then the pastor turns to the list of favorite songs. “And which one of these is closest to being right?” he asks. The students protest that there is no “right answer”; a person’s favorite song is purely a matter of taste.

This pastor who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy asks, “When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like choosing your favorite song?” Always, the pastor says, from old as well as young, he gets the same answer: Choosing one’s faith is more like choosing a favorite song. When my friend told me this, it took my breath away. “After they say that, do you affirm their convictions?” I asked him. “Well,” he smiles, “First I try to argue them out of it.”

Few facts have become more evident in our lifetime than the fact that we live in a pluralistic world and society with people identifying one’s faith like choosing their favorite song. With the rapid increase in the transmission of information and the ability to travel on a worldwide scale has also come an increasing awareness that both our world and society contain a multitude of diverse and conflicting viewpoints on many different issues.

Dr. Bob believes that nowhere is this pluralism more evident than in the realm of religion. More than ever before, we are conscious of the existence of the world’s many religions—not only the major religions of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, but also a host of smaller yet enduring religious movements.

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are approximately 1 billion Muslims, over 650 million Hindus, over 300 million Buddhists, over 200 million followers of Chinese folk religion, in addition to the world’s 1.6 billion nominal Christians. What is important for us to understand is that these figures are more than statistics in a book or almanac. They represent real people; people who are born, live, and die every day.

What brings this reality home even more, however, is the fact that an increasing number of followers of non-Christian religions are living in our cities, in our communities, and in our neighborhoods. Islamic mosques and Buddhist and Hindu worship centers can be found in Southern California, let alone every metropolitan area of the United States.

Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. “What did he find?” asked the cohort. “A piece of the truth,” the Devil replied. “Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” asked the cohort. “No,” said the Devil, “I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.”

As followers of Jesus Christ, what should our attitude be toward non-Christian religions and toward those who embrace them?

Among those who are seeking to respond to this question, several distinct answers can be heard today.

Three viewpoints are considered by many people:

1. Religious pluralism—most people are saying that we must acknowledge that all religions are equally or nearly equally valid as ways to approach God. Though there may be superficial differences among the world’s religions, at heart they are fundamentally the same. In essence, there are many paths to God.

2. Christian inclusivism—some people today believe that all religions are equally valid and that Christ is the unique Savior, but that his salvation can extend to followers of other religions.

3. Christian exclusivism—few people today believe the view that biblical Christianity is true and those other religious systems are false. There is only one path to God.

We will discuss two schools of thought—religious pluralism and Christian exclusivism. The turning point of religious belief hinges on these two viewpoints.

Religious pluralism—Many Paths to God

Often the analogy is used of people taking different paths up the same mountain, but all arriving at the same summit. This is the viewpoint known as religious pluralism. Culture says, “Many roads lead up the single mountain of religion to God at the top. It is unsophisticated, narrow-minded, and blind to deny the validity of other roads than yours.” Religious pluralism suggests that there are only superficial differences among the religions and that these differences are greatly overshadowed by their similarities. Thus, to this school of thought all religions share a fundamental unity that renders them equally valid as approaches to God.

C.S. Lewis says, “An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical reason is idiocy. If a man’s mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut.”

The example of religious pluralism is found in the following illustration. El Capitan in Yosemite National Park towers 3,000 feet above the valley floor. The valley’s elevation is 4,000 feet, so this huge piece of granite scales upward over 7,000 feet. Many rock climbers have scaled the heights of El Capitan. In fact, there are 60 different routes to choose from if you desire to reach the top of El Capitan. The nose route is the most popular—three thousand feet straight up. Many have used this example to conclude that there are many different routes to God. All we have to do is choose the one that conforms to our freedom.

Although this school of thought is arousing a lot of enthusiasm in many people today, it is important to know that it is not the only one, as Christianity and Islam each claim to be the only right path to God. Therefore the other option is that world religions are not pieces of the same puzzle or alternative paths to the same goal.

According to the pattern suggested by this viewpoint, it is often said that world religions form a unity, and only this unity provides the right perspective on ultimate truth. A similar syncretistic trend is encouraged by the suggestion to consider the various world religions as alternative paths to the same transcendental finality.

Let’s look again at the El Capitan illustration for a moment. The unproved assumption of this very common mountain analogy is that the routes go up, not down; that humanity makes the roads, not God; that religion is humanity’s search for God, not God’s search for humanity. C. S. Lewis says this sounds like “the mouse’s search for the cat.”

Dr. Bob believes that Christianity is not a system of people searching for God but a story of God’s search for people. True religion is not like a cloud of incense rising up from special spirits into the nostrils of a waiting God, but like a Father’s hand thrust downward to rescue the fallen. Throughout the Bible, human-made religion fails. There is no human way up the mountain, only a divine way down. That one way down is through Jesus Christ.

The apostle John affirms in John 1:18,

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only [Son], who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

If we made the roads, it would indeed be arrogant to claim that any one road is the only valid one, for all human things are equal, at least in all being human, finite, and mixtures of good and bad. If we made the roads, it would be as stupid to absolutize one of them as to absolutize one art form, one political system.

However, if God made the road, we must find out whether God made many or one. If God made only one, then the shoe is on the other foot: it is humility, not arrogance, to accept this one road from God, and it is arrogance, not humility, to insist that our human-made roads are as good as God’s divine-made one.

But which assumption is true? Even if the pluralistic one is true, not all religions are equal, for then one religion is worse and more arrogant than all others.

What makes Christianity different from other religions?

So many people today believe that one religion is as good as another. Many religions teach that people can achieve salvation through doing (or not doing) certain things. There are even Jesus-followers who believe in Christian inclusivism. The former holds that all religions are equally valid. The latter holds that Christ is the unique savior, but that his salvation can extend to followers of other religions.

Christian Exclusivism—One Path to God

The alternative option is the attitude of Christian exclusivism—the view that biblical Christianity is true and those other religious systems are false. This is more than implied in numerous biblical statements.

One religion might have its followers pray at specified times and another may teach that people must refrain from eating certain things. Some religions teach that people have to spend great amounts of time in meditation or chant certain mantras or participate in ceremonies or do certain good deeds to assure themselves of salvation.

Although each of these requirements are different, they each have something in common—they place a great emphasis on what people have to do for God. It’s called works righteousness. Christianity is different. Christianity is not based on what we can do for God but on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ! The Bible tells us that all people have been disobedient to God (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:10), and that we are separated from God because of it. But because Christ came and took the punishment we deserved for this disobedience (1 Peter 2:24) we can now have a personal relationship with God by accepting his sacrifice in our place (see Romans 10:9, 2 Corinthians 5:19).

As for “one religion is as good as another” we must not believe it! Speaking of Jesus, Peter testifies in Acts 4:8-12,

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

11 Jesus is” ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Even Jesus claimed to be the only way to God in John 14:6,
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Peter shares in these verses the exclusivism of the Christian faith. The Jews did not have any place for Jesus in their building scheme, so they rejected and crucified him. But God raised him from the dead and exalted him in heaven. Jesus is indispensable. There are no other paths to God. There is no salvation without Jesus. No other name under heaven has been given for salvation, and it’s by this name Jesus Christ alone that we must be saved.

For Christian exclusivists, the Nicene Creed is the definitive statement of Christian Orthodoxy. It is the most widely accepted creed in the Christian church, it is up to present time in use in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Coptic, Nestorian, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and most Protestant churches.

Icon depicting the Holy Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea holding the Nicene Creed.
The purpose of a Christian creed was to establish conformity of belief, uniquely essential for Christians, and by public professions of the faith, to identify heretics or any disconformity within each community. The Creed is an epitome, not a full definition, of what is required for personal orthodoxy. It was hoped that by memorizing this summary of the faith, lay people without extensive theological training would still be able to recognize deviations from orthodox Christianity.

The Text of the Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through Him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
He came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day He rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son He is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
AMEN.

So the most immediate difficulty posed by religious pluralism for Jesus-followers is that it not only compels us to deny any claims to the uniqueness of Christ or of Christianity from historical Christian convictions, but it also denies the claims found in God’s Word.

The claims of the New Testament that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God and Savior of the world must be recast as mere exaggerations of the early Christians. It is impossible to embrace religious pluralism and hold to the authority of the New Testament when it speaks of the uniqueness of Christ and of the salvation He has provided.

Beyond this, however, religious pluralism significantly underestimates the differences between the teachings of the various religions. This can be seen, for example, in the differences between Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, with regard to their teaching concerning salvation.
In classical Buddhism, the problem facing humanity is the suffering caused by desire. Since whatever humanity desires is impermanent, and ultimately leads to frustration and sorrow, the way to peace of mind and ultimate “salvation” is through the elimination of all desire—even the desire to live! In classical Hinduism, the problem facing humanity is our being trapped in this illusory, material world over the course of many lifetimes primarily due to our ignorance of our true identity as fundamentally divine beings! The solution to our dilemma is our recognition of our true divine nature. In Islam, humanity’s problem is the failure to live by the law of God which has been revealed through his prophets. The solution is to commit ourselves to obeying God’s laws, in hope that our good deeds will outweigh the bad. In Christianity, the problem is similar–our rebellion against the will of God. But the solution is much different. It is through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, provided by God’s unmerited grace. From these examples alone, it is evident that though there may be superficial similarities among the world’s religions the differences are fundamental in nature!
What then should our attitude be toward other religions?

It is important for us to distinguish our attitude toward non-Christian religions from our attitude toward followers of those religions. Though we are to reject the religion, we are not to reject them by mistakenly perceiving them to be “the enemy.” The biblical injunction is to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves no matter what their religion. Rather than viewing them as “the enemy,” we should see them as “the victims” of the enemy who are in need of the same grace that has freed us from spiritual slavery—in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Mark of the Jesus-follower—Honest Answers, Observable Love

Many people today will not believe the fact of absolute truth. So seeking to convince them to subscribe to Christianity by believing in God’s Word will not necessarily lead them to Jesus. But there is a mark of the Jesus-follower that our peers and pop culture cannot refute. It’s the personal and vibrant testimony of a changed life!

Dr. Bob believes that we must not minimize the need to give honest answers to honest questions regarding the issues of other religions. We should have an intellectual apologetic. Yet, without true Jesus-followers loving one another, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers.

At the close of his ministry, Jesus looks forward to his death on the cross, the open tomb, and the ascension to his Father. Knowing that he is about to leave, Jesus prepares his disciples for what is to come. It is here that Jesus makes clear what will be the distinguishing mark of the Jesus-follower.

Jesus says in John 13:34-35,
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The Lord has undoubtedly placed us in contact with people of different religions, religious beliefs, economic levels, and other variables. How are we going to effectively show them Christ? We are living in a time that is calling us to live the claims of Christ more powerfully than ever before.

Loren Mead, in his book entitled, The Once and Future Church, writes…no longer can we assume that everyone is a Christian. No longer does the community, through schools, festivals, associations, and standards reinforce Christian values and beliefs. No longer are we living in a society which encourages the growth and development and spread of the church. In the years ahead people will not be Christians because they were born in Christian homes, or because their parents were Christian, or because being a Christian is the socially acceptable thing to do. Instead, to be a Christian is going to require a conscious and costly choice, a deliberate and difficult decision.

Riveting words. These words signify that the door of opportunity to reach people for Christ is closing fast. The latest statistics are claiming that 85% of those who make a personal decision to follow Jesus will do so before their 13th birthday.

The August 8, 2005 issue of Time Magazine recently highlighted a special report on “Being 13.” Inside that mystifying age, kids are shaped by the push to achieve and the pull of pop culture. In the rise of cyberbullies, they have an intense search for God. What does it mean to be 13? The 13 year old says things like, “I’m a very complicated child, polite conversation can be boring, and just a phase.” Is it any wonder why Time chose to highlight being 13? The reason we are high on children and youth ministries at Christ First is because we want kids to come to know Jesus Christ at an early age—hopefully before their 13th birthday!

So what prescription do we receive from God’s Word?

We walk the path to God, following God’s prescription by doing three important things:
Walking the Path in Love

• stand upon absolute truth found in God’s Word
• guard against religious pluralism
• visibly live in love with all people

Doctor Bob believes that we as Jesus-followers must hold true to God’s Word in the midst of a pluralistic society. We must live with the conviction that Christianity is different. Christianity is not based on what we can do for God but on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. There is only one path to God, and that path is Jesus Christ. Let’s walk this path in love! Amen.

When Jesus-followers handle crisis situations by wisely taking strength in God, we gain the wisdom, insight, and direction necessary to overcome our emergency moments.

The Doctor is In!—Treating Ailments that Demand a Diagnosis. This message series is designed to stimulate Jesus-followers to live out their daily lives with prescriptions diagnosed in God’s Word. Jesus Christ came into the world to treat the aliments of sinners. Every ailment needs a diagnosis. Under the direction of the Great Physician, Doctor Bob seeks to diagnose various ailments common to the Christian community and provide a prescription from God’s Word. The Doctor is In to treat the trauma experienced by a vast majority of Jesus-followers today.

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentence.” —Luke 5:31-32 [TNIV]

Ailment: “distress”

Diagnosis: “fear”

All of a sudden, the unthinkable has happened to you! It started off as a day like any other day but then without warning, a crisis situation entered your life and now you have to find a way to deal with it. It could be a sudden accident, an unexpected diagnosis, the loss of a loved one or some other unforeseen emergency or event. What will you do in such situations? How will you handle it? What will be your response when the moment of crisis arrives in your life? It is called a “Red Alert!”

Most people don’t like to think about “Red Alerts”—those unpleasant things like accidents and emergencies, and that’s totally understandable. But the truth is that just about everyone will have to respond to some kind of crisis or emergency sometime in their life. The way that we deal with these crisis situations can tell a lot about who we are and what we really believe about God.

Protecting the Homeland. Since that dreaded day of September 11th, President Bush has restructured and reformed the Federal government to focus resources on counterterrorism and to ensure the security of our homeland. Homeland Security has developed an Advisory System to alert the American people to the current degree of security needed due to the threat of terrorism. The system has five key levels: Severe (Red); High (Orange); Elevated (Yellow); Guarded (Blue); and Low (Green).

If we read through the Bible, we’ll find that a lot of really godly people had their own “moments of crisis” where they were forced into dealing with unexpected events. Reading about how these men and women handled these situations can really help us when we experience our own times of adversity. Let’s take a look at one such crisis situation involving ’s King David and see what we can learn and apply from it today.

In the years before he became king, David and a group of his men had split away from to get away from King Saul who wanted to take David’s life. During this time David and his men had joined up with a man named Achish, a leader of the Philistines. However, some of Achish’s army officers were very suspicious of David and his men. They were afraid that David would eventually turn against them during battle so they talked Achish into sending David and his men back home.

Now “home” for David and his men was a place called Ziklag. Ziklag served as both a home city and military base for David and the men who were with him. Ziklag was a place where David, his men and their wives and families had been living for over a year, so things had become pretty comfortable and well established there. In fact, David and his men were probably looking forward to getting back to their homes and enjoying a little rest and relaxation with their families.

But when David and his men returned home they made a horrible discovery as recorded in 1 Samuel 30:1-5…

David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, ² and had taken captive the women who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way. ³ When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴ So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. ⁵ David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.

We can all imagine the horrible realization that began to dawn on David and his men—a group of terrorists had come into their very homes and destroyed them! Their families had disappeared and everything that they owned and worked for had been totally destroyed.

Now we know from the text that it was the Amalekites who were responsible for destroying this city. The Amalekites of David’s time were a group of raiders and terrorists who attacked without being provoked and had no problems with killing large numbers of people. In this instance, they probably moved into the city without warning and caused tremendous destruction and devastation on the defenseless women and children who were left behind.

So we can imagine again this whole scene in our minds. The city is in a ruin, burnt to the ground. There’s a heavy smell of smoke still in the air. There are little pockets of rubble still smoldering and areas where fires are still burning. All around, people are frantically searching for their loved ones, not knowing if they were dead or alive. As we can vision, the effect of all this was absolutely devastating on the men who remained. Many were angry. Some even wanted to kill David because of what had happened.

So what was David’s response to this situation? What did he do when the moment of crisis suddenly arrived?

Well, here’s the answer in 1 Samuel 30:6…

David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

Did we catch that last part? When the moment of crisis came, David took strength from the Lord in the midst of his distress!

There was a sign seen in a textile mill, “When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman.” A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, “I’ll just straighten this out myself.” She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman. “I did the best I could,” she said. “No you didn’t. To do the best, you should have called me.”

How did David find strength in the Lord and how can we find that same strength for ourselves today?David called the foreman and so must we!

Doctor Bob believes that a really good way to take strength from the Lord during a time of “Red Alert” is to stop and remember who God is. For example, what are some things that we know about God? Well if we’re Jesus-followers, a “perfect ten” should quickly come to mind…

1. God Is Truth - Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

God is Love - And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16)

3. God Is All Knowing - If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:20)

4. God is All Powerful - “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you!” (Jeremiah 32:17)

5. God Is Perfect - As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 18:30)

6. God Doesn’t Change - Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

God Is Gracious - But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15)

God Is Merciful - But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6)

9. God Is Forgiving - You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. (Psalm 86:5)

God Has A Plan - For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.(Jeremiah 29:11-13)

David first took strength from the Lord.

Doctor Bob believes that David found strength in the Lord by thinking about who God is, what God has promised and how much God loves us! If God is who he says he is then we can be sure that he will keep his word regardless of what the outward circumstances may look like. David was trembling, but trusting!

David testifies of this strength when the Lord delivered him from his enemies in 2 Samuel 22:33…It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

Paul explains it like this in Philippians 1:6…Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And Paul also describes it like this in 2 Timothy 1:12…That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, cause I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

One of the best things we can do in any tragic situation is to first find our strength from God. And, like David, the way to do that is to stop and think about who God is, what he has promised us and how much he loves us. But David didn’t just stop there—he continued by doing a very smart thing.

Let’s look at 1 Samuel 30:7-8…

Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, ⁸ and David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”

David then asked God for the right answer for his situation. Now asking God for wisdom might seem like a no-brainer but people will often try lots of different things before finally turning to God and asking for help in dealing with their problems. But anyone who asks for God’s help in knowing what to do will definitely get it based on what we read in James 1:5, If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

J.I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, says wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.

But sometimes we try human insight instead of godly wisdom in handling our problems. A woman in Arrowhead, California called the police station to report a skunk in the cellar of her cabin. The police told the woman to make a trail of bread crumbs from the basement to the forest and to wait for the skunk to follow it outside. A little later the woman called back and said, ‘I did what you told me. Now, I’ve got a family of skunks in my cellar.‘

If we’re in a crisis, we ask God to give us the wisdom to know how to handle it! We must never ever let a “Red Alert”—a tragedy or a crisis situation—push us away from God. We must let those situations draw us nearer to God!

David finally did another wise thing—he simply did what God told him to do.

Let’s look at 1 Samuel 30:9…

David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley… David and the other four hundred continued their pursuit.

So David asked God what to do, God told him and then David just went and did it! It seems pretty simple, right?

King Jehoshaphat also affirms his dependence upon the Lord in 2 Chronicles 20:12…

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Experience teaches most of us a lesson on obedience: “It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it.”

Now this may not always be as easy as it sounds because following God and doing what God says can sometimes be a very difficult thing. Of course there are other times when God will give us an answer to our request for wisdom but then we choose to ignore it because it’s not the answer that we want to hear. The best response is to do what David did here—he simply asked God what to do and then he did it. When we are confronted with a crisis, we ask God what to do and then we remember to do what God tells us!

So how did this story end?

Well, if we read a little further in 1 Samuel 30 we find that David and his men caught up with the Amalekites and fought them all night and into the evening of the next day! And what was the result of that battle?

Well, we find the answer in 1 Samuel 30:18-19…

David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken… ¹⁹ Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.

Maybe we can all relate to the morning I experienced a few months ago. It’s Sunday. Sundays are usually busy days for me. Sundays are usually early days for me. Today promised to be no exception. With a full slate of activities planned, I got up extra early and drove to church. I parked outside my church office and took a minute to enjoy the quietude. I set down my bible, picked up my cup of tea, and leaned against the car. The calmness of that early morning would all change within a couple of hours. Let a few hundred alarm clocks buzz and a few hundred garage doors open, and the serenity would be invaded as the city awakened. But at the moment, the city slept. Life is like that at times. No noise. No rushing. No crises. There are measures in the music when the choir director silences the voices, and only the organ is allowed to play.

With a bible in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, I walked and whistled across the street and through the outdoor center to the church patio door. Arriving earlier as usual, our church custodian hadn’t yet reported to duty so in order to enter the church; I had to get past the sleeping dog of the twenty-first century: the alarm system. I set down my bible and unlocked the door. I picked up my bible and walked in. The code box on the wall was beeping and flashing a red light. Now, I’m not too electronically inclined, but I do know what a red light on an alarm system means: “Punch in the code, buddy, or get ready for the music.”

I punched in the code. Nothing happened. I punched in the code again. The beeping and the little red light kept flashing. I punched it again. Time was running out. The little light snickered at me as to say, “Hey, do-do brain, you’re entering your bank-card pin number again!” I kept pushing, the box kept beeping, and the red light kept flashing. Get ready! Ten seconds and counting. Ten, nine, eight…I panicked and forgot the code.

The siren pounced on me like a mountain lion. I thought we were under red alert. The siren was ear piercing, even for one who is hearing-impaired! I kept pushing buttons, and the alarm kept blaring. You’d have thought it was a breakout at Alcatraz. My pulse raced, my forehead moistened, and my situation was desperate. I raced down the hall to my office, pulled open the lap drawer of my desk, and the found the right code number. The next few minutes were loud, demanding, confusing, and aggravating. I finally punched in twice the correct code into the system. The siren ceased. What had been an air-raid shelter became a church again. That’s when the police officer came. He taped on the class door window. I opened it. “I couldn’t get the thing to shut off!” I yelled. “You the preacher here?” he asked. “Yes,” I said with a raised voice. He just shook his head and walked away, probably muttering something about what they don’t teach in theology courses. I walked back into my office, sat down, and sighed. What a way to begin a day! The morning lesson I had prepared was lying on my study table. I picked it up and read the first line: “When calm becomes chaos.” “Appropriate,” I muttered.

As I began this message I said, “all of a sudden, the unthinkable has happened to you! It started off as a day like any other day but then without warning, a crisis situation entered your life and now you have to find a way to deal with it. It could be a sudden accident, an unexpected diagnosis, the loss of a loved one or some other unforeseen emergency or event. What will you do in such situations? How will you handle it? What will be your response when the moment of crisis arrives in your life? It is called a “Red Alert!”

Our lives go from calm to chaos in 60 seconds:

pushing the wrong computer code and losing eighteen months worth of ledgers

the mechanic calls and says the car repairs are worst than estimated

spouse calls at the office and talks about being audited by the IRS

doctor’s report is diagnosed as cancer

the boss says due to the recession there are going to be some cut backs

the youth walks in and asks if the car insurance coves the other car

We know that life can go from calm to chaos in a matter of moments. No warnings. No announcements. No preparation. The result can be strength or stress. It all depends on one factor: Do we know the code? The code we need to know right now for our “Red Alerts” is found as David’s prescription right from God’s Word.

So what prescription do we receive from God’s Word?

We see that David handled this crisis wisely by following God’s prescription by doing three important things:

Handling crisis wisely

take strength in God

seek God for wisdom and direction

act obediently on God’s direction

Doctor Bob believes David’s example is a good one for all of us to follow today. Let’s listen. Nobody wants to be in a crisis like the one David experienced, but the question isn’t, “What are we going to do in a crisis?” The question really is, “How are we going to respond when the time of crisis comes?”If we follow David’s practical example, then we’ll be ready to handle our own personal “Red Alert” whenever it may come! Amen.

When Jesus-followers are examined by others, it is God’s desire that we would be found to be genuine people of God and not hypocritical.

The Doctor is In!—Treating Ailments that Demand a Diagnosis. This message series stimulates Jesus-followers to live out their daily lives with prescriptions diagnosed in God’s Word. Jesus Christ came into the world to treat the aliments of sinners. Every ailment needs a diagnosis. Under the direction of the Great Physician, Doctor Bob seeks to diagnose various ailments common to the Christian community and provide a prescription from God’s Word. The Doctor is In to treat the trauma experienced by a vast majority of Jesus-followers today.

Introducing Dr. Bob. Doctor Bob needs little introduction to Jesus-followers at Christ First. However, some people have asked to know a little more about Doctor Bob and his qualifications. Currently Doctor Bob is conducting a research project with the renowned biotechnologist Dr. Ima Fraud. Dr. Fraud is widely respected as a pioneer in the field of DNA manipulation. This research—while preliminary—is still very encouraging.

For example, in a recent clinical test, a laboratory mouse was exposed to a sample of basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal’s DNA. The mouse later went on to record a “triple double”—scoring 42 points, pulling down 21 rebounds and setting-up 12 assists in an exhibition game against the Los Angeles Lakers. “We’re very excited”, Dr. Fraud was quoted as saying.

In addition, we are pleased to say that Doctor Bob has also received the following degrees…

Ph.D, Catatonic State University

M.A., Connecticut School of Cranial Development

B.O., Neuman Institute of Nasal Sensitivity

Doctor Bob is currently sharpening his scalpel in preparation for his next surgical appointment with the traumas Jesus-followers face. While we are waiting to see Doctor Bob, please take a moment to answer the following questions. Our answers will greatly aid us in our diagnosis and treatment…

Why is it always that “4 out of 5 doctors agree” on some product or service? Can’t all of these guys agree on anything? Explain.

On this Super Bowl Sunday, don’t we just hate the San Francisco Forty-Niners football team? I mean, look, we know they won five Super Bowls in the 80’s and everything, but why do they have to be so smug and arrogant about it? Please be specific.

As a small child, did we ever make faces at our mothers and have them tell us, “Your face is going to freeze like that”? Did it?

Why do American beer commercials try to teach us that if we drink the right kind of beer, then we can spend all our time on the ski-slopes, or at the beach, and party all night without having to sleep, and beautiful women or gorgeous guys with perfect teeth will throw themselves at us, and when we get tired of all that, we can go into the bar and watch beer commercials with guys who say “Wasssss-Uppppp?”, and it’s OK that we never finished school, or held a job, because all we need to know is “Tastes Great - Less Filling.” Explain.

Why do they call them “strait-jackets” when they aren’t?

Thank you for waiting. The Doctor will see us now!

Ailment: “saying one thing and doing another”

Diagnosis: “hypocrisy”

Doctor Bob dislikes to hear people say, “I won’t come to church because its’ full of hypocrites.” They’re right, of course. If we ran all the hypocrites out of the church, our campus would be empty! At times we are all hypocrites. We say one thing and do another. We fail to live up to the life demonstrated by Jesus. We need to be thankful to God who wants to be with sinners like us. God has taken the initiative in Jesus Christ to make us forgiven people, new people, and whole people.

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentence.” —Luke 5:31-32 [TNIV]

Doctor Bob has noticed that people sometimes look at Jesus-followers who have made mistakes and say things like this: “Look at her—she calls herself a Christian and she did that?!?” Or perhaps they might say, “Look at him—I thought he was supposed to be religious. What a hypocrite!”

Saying these things may help such people feel better about their own personal shortcomings but it still brings up a good question…

What’s the difference between making a mistake and being hypocritical in our faith?

Well, let’s drop in on the Apostle Paul’s Biblical letter to the church in the town of Philippi and get the answer in Philippians 1:9-10…

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

When the Bible speaks of being “blameless” in this passage it uses a word that means to be “sterile and not a stumbling block”. However, the actual meaning of this word really goes deeper than that, for in the Greek original language this term means…

Blameless = “to be tested by sunlight.”

Now what does sunlight have to do with being inwardly clean?

Well, let’s look at the background information first and then we’ll talk about what it means.

Back in the days of the first century dishonest pottery vendors sometimes tried to sell cracked clay pottery to unsuspecting buyers. An unethical vendor would do this by covering the cracked portion of a clay pot with wax and then painting the crack over. The resulting cracked pot looked like a new unbroken piece—until you got home and filled it with water! So to avoid getting cheated, a smart person would hold the piece up to the sun and check it for cracks before buying it. The sunlight could then be seen through the cracked portion and the buyer would know not to purchase it.

So what does this illustration mean for us today?

Well, the Apostle Paul is saying that his prayer for the Jesus-followers from Philippi is that they would be totally genuine in their relationship with Jesus. When the Philippians were “brought into the light” and examined by others, his desire was that they would be found to be genuine people of God and not hypocritical “cracked pots.” This very same thing is also true for us today. God desires that we be sincere and genuine in our faith.

But this presents something of a problem for us, doesn’t it? After all, none of us are perfect, right? If we are totally honest with ourselves then we have to admit that we aren’t always everything that we should be in our faith. All of us have a few cracks here and there and we all make mistakes.

However, we should enjoy being around those who admit their mistakes and ask, “What can I do to get straight with God and with other people?” Jesus came for people like that. He came for all of us. And Jesus wants us to reach out to others with all the love that is in us.

What group of “sinners” do we tend to avoid?

There must be a group of people outside the church that we can reach out to with the gifts, resources, and experiences God has given us.

But the unfortunate truth is that most of us aren’t always as sincere and genuine as we’d like to be as Christians in reaching out to “sinners.” In fact, 1 John 1:8 tells us, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So does the fact that we sometimes fail to live a totally perfect, genuine Christian life make us hypocritical?

Well, let’s think about that for a moment. A “hypocrite” is someone who pretends to be something that they really aren’t. In the days of New Testament the word hypocrite has a clear implication.

Hypocrite = “one who wears a mask”.

It was used in the ancient Greek theatre to describe actors who used masks to portray different emotions. Over time, the word came to be used to describe anyone who wasn’t really what they claimed to be. A hypocrite then, is not someone who makes mistakes or struggles to do the right thing. A hypocrite is really a “mask-wearer” who is knowingly and intentionally different from what he or she outwardly claims to be.

He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity–with no inward reality!

Now perhaps there have been times when we’ve felt that we haven’t been everything we’ve claimed to be in our Christian life. Perhaps we’ve been struggling with some particular sin or maybe we’ve repeated the same mistake over and over. In cases like this, it can be very easy to feel hypocritical in our faith. But making a mistake—even a big one—doesn’t necessarily make us hypocrites. After all, some of the greatest people of God in the Bible made some tremendous mistakes!

Struggling repeatedly with some particular sin doesn’t necessarily make us a hypocrite either. Psalm 37:23-24 tells us that,

the LORD makes firm the steps of those who delight in him; though they stumble, they will not fall, for the LORD upholds them with his hand.

The meaning of this verse is pretty simple: it means that if we mess up and fess up, we can count on God to uphold us if we are really giving Him the first place in our lives. God can help us overcome unhealthy behaviors in our lives but it’s important to realize that God’s process may take some time and may involve some struggles along the way.

So here’s the defining question: are we real in what we believe or is it all just a show for others?

To guard against hypocrisy, no matter if we are young or old or what generation we represent, we must be really interested in living the kind of life that is pleasing to God, not just wanting to appear to do so. It‘s definitely hypocritical to wear a mask and pretend to be something that we’re not. It’s also hypocritical to habitually live an ungodly lifestyle with no desire to change and still call ourselves Jesus-followers.

We can usually tell if people are living a pure and blameless life or a hypocritical life simply by listening to their words and watching their actions. A person who is living a sincere and genuine lifestyle will demonstrate it by the things they do and say. Of course, doing good things doesn’t necessarily make us a godly person, but godly people will demonstrate their godliness by doing good things.

The apostle John tells us that there should be a clear difference in the lifestyles of those people who claim to be Jesus-followers and those who don’t.

I John 3:10 says,

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Those who do not do what is right are not God’s children; nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.

The Ambiguity of Saints. There is the story of the man who came down from the North Carolina Mountains. He was all dressed up and carrying his Bible. A friend saw him and asked, ‘Elias, what’s happening? Where are you going all dressed up like that?’ Elias said, ‘I’ve been hearing about New Orleans. I hear that there is a lot of free-running liquor and a lot of gambling and a lot of real good naughty shows.’ The friend looked him over and said, ‘But Elias, why are you carrying your Bible under your arm?’ And Elias replied, ‘Well, if it’s as good as they say it is, I might stay over until Sunday.’

One quick way to see if there is a clear difference in the lifestyles of those people who claim to be Jesus-followers is to simply ask ourselves some questions like this:

Am I are going to all the same movies and listening to all the same music as my non-Christian friends?

Am I watching all the same television shows and reading all the same magazines and hanging out in all the same places and playing all the same games as my non-Christian friends?

Am I using all the same language and wearing all the same clothes and involved in all the same kind of relationsips as my non-Christian friends?

If the answer to those questions are “yes” then the next question might be, “Is there any real difference between myself and those who aren’t really interested in Jesus?”

Jesus gave some of his harshest criticism to those people who outwardly claimed to follow God but inwardly couldn’t care less about Him, not to those who struggled or made mistakes.

Double Message Noted. One blistering hot day when they had guests for dinner, Mother asked 4-year old Johnny to return thanks. “But I don’t know what to say!” the boy complained. “Oh, just say what you hear me say” his mother replied. Obediently the boy bowed his head and mumbled, “Oh Lord, why did I invite these people over on a hot day like this?”

On a more serious note, a man sat down to supper with his family and said grace, thanking God for the food, for the hands which prepared it, and for the source of all life. But during the meal he complained about the freshness of the bread, the bitterness of the coffee, and the sharpness of the cheese. His teenage daughter questioned him, ‘Dad, do you think God heard the grace today?’ He answered confidently, ‘Of course.’ Then she asked, ‘And do you think God heard what you said about the coffee, the cheese, and the bread?’ Not so confidently, he answered, ‘Why, yes, I believe so.’ The girl concluded, ‘Then which do you think God believed, Dad?’ The man was suddenly aware that his mealtime prayer had become rote, thoughtless habit rather than an attentive and honest conversation with God. By not concentrating on that important conversation, he had left the door open to let hypocrisy sneak in.

On the other hand, the Bible has this to say to those who may be struggling but truly desire to live a God-honoring life.

Psalm 103:8-13 says…

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

We were hiking in the mountains above Yosemite Valley when I saw the stone–a small one, about the size of a half-dollar, with smooth rounded edges. Ordinarily I would have passed it by, not being a rock hound. It would have remained there for another thousand years perhaps, a mere pebble among the larger stones on the trail. But this one instantly caught my eye. It was special. Glinting in the sunlight, it seemed to reflect all the surrounding colors, as though trying to mirror nature. Into my pocket went the rare find. All the way home I thought about where I should display it so its beauty could be most enjoyed. I finally placed it on the shelf in my den, next to other mementos. I forgot it for a while. Then one day, while dusting, I was surprised to see that the stone had completely lost its luster. It sat on the shelf among the other lovely objects, a hard, gray chunk of nothing, downright ugly. I was shocked. What had happened to the prize I had so carefully brought back with me? Where was the sparkle and the colors that had attracted me so much? Disgusted, I snatched it up and started for the trash can in the backyard. Then, just as I opened the sliding glass door from the living room, a beam of light struck the stone. As though by magic, it began to shimmer, to glow again. In an instant the beautiful jewel tones shone brilliantly. Had they returned? Or had they always been there, dormant, waiting to be released? Wondering, I glanced up at the sky.

Sunlight? That was the answer. The rays from the sun were all my stone needed to come alive. How much like each of us! Of ourselves our lives are subject to hypocrisy– empty, colorless, without meaning. Only when we are touched by the glory of God, and brought into the sunlight is our inner beauty revealed.

As we are called to the Lord’s Table to receive Holy Communion, we don’t have to timidly come to God because we have made some mistakes in our lives. The Bible reminds us that God doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our mistakes. As high as the heaven is over the earth, so strong is God’s love to those who honor him.

So what prescription do we receive from God’s Word?

Living Pure and Blameless for the Day of Christ

take off the mask before others

stand in the light before God

don’t be a hypocritical crackpot

If we are truly seeking to place God first by inwardly following him, then Jesus Christ’s sacrifice removes our sins from us. When we are “brought into the light,” and are examined by others, let’s make sure that we are found to be sincere and genuine people of God and not hypocritical “crackpots!”

Forgiving and loving God, we thank you that you continue to love us even when we sin, even when we are hypocrites, even when we fall far short of the life revealed in Jesus. Lord, as we come before the Lord’s Table to receive Communion, use us as your forgiven children to bring your love and forgiveness to others. Amen.