Ten People I’d Most Like To Meet

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I’ve met some interesting people.  Some are well-known: Sean Connery, Bobby Knight, and Arnold Palmer come to mind.

The ones who’ve had the most influence on me (besides family) are Dennis Peacocke and George Grant, whom I both count as friends, and two pastors I’ve had.  But there are some people I’ve never met with whom I would love to meet and talk.  Here they are:

1. The Apostle Paul. Bold, evangelistic, and heuvos the size of Texas.  Confronted Peter and preached the gospel to Nero, the Athenian Supreme Court, Sergius Paulus, Agrippa, Felix, Festus.  Need I continue?

2. Charlemagne. Changed his world and brought about a cultural renaissance by the propogation of Christianity throughout what is now Europe.

3. Moses. A liberator.  Freed people from oppression and gave them a vision for the future.

4. Constantine. (a/ka Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus, Constantine the Great, Constantine I).  The first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire.  Was the first to attempt to model a Christian nation and did a pretty good job of it considering.

5. Herman Melville. A Christian and perhaps the greatest writer who ever lived.  Not appreciated in his time, but a true genuis.

6. Saint Louis. (Louis IX of France).  A brave, virtuous man who insisted on going before his men into battle.  Loved the Lord and ruled righteously.  A model for any Christian leader.

7. C.S. Lewis. A honest, clear thinker and great writer who left us all the wiser for having given us a candid glimpse into his mind and life.

8. Polycarp. A Christian martyr who went out in a cool, Dirty Harry style. I blogged on him here under the title, The Kingdom’s Dirty Harry.

9. Godfrey de Bouillon. The recognized leader of the first crusade who, upon entering Jerusalem victoriously refused the peoples’ request to be called king of Jerusalem, stating, “How can I wear a crown of gold in a place where my King wore a crown of thorns?”

10. John Calvin.  More responsible for Western thought than you probably realize.  A brilliant guy who wrote his masterpiece, The Institutes of Christian Religion when he was just twenty-six years old.  He also had a law degree.

You may have noticed that all these men are dead, but they are all Christians.  So, perhaps I’ll meet them in heaven.  Who would be on your list?

Why Being A Swell Guy Won’t Cut It

It’s what everybody thinks until they read the Bible:  “If I’m good enough the Lord will let me into heaven.”

It’s what I thought before I became a Christian, and it is the default philosophy for just about everyone who thinks they are a Christian but have never read what the Bible says about the subject.  On the scale of accurateness though this philosophy is right there with the flat earth society.

There are some good reasons the Lord didn’t set up a goodness standard as the test for eternal life.

First, how would anyone this side of heaven ever know how good was good enough?  One could never know whether one had done enough good to have their ticket punched.

Second, it would make us the means to our own salvation.  We would, in effect, become our own saviors.  While that might seem attractive at first blush, it would actually foster pride, which makes us more self-centered and less good.  The means to our salvation would become the means to our own destruction. Our quest for salvation would ensure its failure.

Third, it would create an uneven playing field because people who come from broken homes, are victims of physical or sexual abuse or other dysfunctional conduct, would always start off at a severe disadvantage as a result of something over which they had no control.  That would hardly be fair.

It makes sense then that the Bible says to the Christian, “…by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”  (Eph. 2:8-9).

Salvation occurs by believing on Jesus who paid the price for our sin.  It is Jesus who saves, not us.  And it happens by grace, i.e., as a gift that is offered to us by God.  If it was a result of our good works, we would be able to brag and be full of pride.  And, salvation happens on the even playing field of the heart, about as fair a playing field as you can find in a fallen world.

Seems like the Lord knew what He was doing. GS

History v. Fantasy

In response to Christianity’s claims regarding Jesus’ resurrection many critics argue first century people were just naive and prone to believe fantasy and myth. Not hardly.  Consider the following.

This from Peter:  “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16).

From the blind man whom Jesus healed, responding to a disbelieving crowd: “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” (John 9:32).

Thomas, after hearing initial reports of the resurrection: “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25).

Jesus’ miracles validated his authority and His resurrection validated His identity, and He hid neither in clever theological arguments but instead planted them firmly in history, in space and time, where they could be observed by all who would attempt to answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” GS

Muslims On Planes

Like me, you probably saw last week that NPR fired Juan Williams for stating on Fox he gets nervous when he’s flying and sees Muslims on the plane. The story was hard to miss. Even NPR, not wanting to be left out of the news bonanza they created, covered the story.

I like Juan Williams. He’s always seemed to me an intellectually honest man who would concede another’s argument when correct, even if it didn’t line up with Williams’s political affiliations. That’s more than I can say for most of what I see from the talking heads on Fox, CNN and the other networks. And I think that’s part of what gets me about Williams’s sacking at NPR.

If you’ve not seen the entire segment from The O’Reilly Factor, I encourage you to watch it because you will see that, while Williams did make the statement attributed to him, the context of the statement is almost the exact opposite of what is being portrayed by the media and implied by NPR through it’s decision to fire Williams.

In the segment, Williams makes his candid admission as a predicate to his argument that people should be careful about making sweeping generalizations about Muslims. It’s O’Reilly who takes the reactionary position, which Williams tried to counter when O’Reilly allowed him to talk (which, as usual, wasn’t much).

Williams’s take, if you can piece it together with O’Reilly’s interruptions, is the right one. Even though people may may be concerned about getting on a plane with Muslims–and as Williams seems to suggest, there is nothing unreasonable about that fear given the multitude of Islamic terrorist acts directed at Americans–we must be careful about painting Muslims with a broad brush.

That is the right take. It’s not the politically correct take, which would insist on telling Williams he should not be concerned when getting on a plane with Muslims;  nor is it the reactionary take that would label all Muslims latent terrorists. The tragedy here is not Williams’s statement but that he got fired for it.

The termination reflects poorly on NPR, and its CEO, Vivian Schiller, who compounded the blunder with a gaffe that was offensive. Schiller said Williams should have kept remarks about Muslims between himself and “his psychiatrist and publicist.”

I don’t know if Williams sees a psychiatrist. If he doesn’t Schiller’s remark is slanderous. If he does, the remark may be a HIPAA violation. Either way the remark displays a maturity better suited for talk radio than National Public Radio.

Schiller, to her credit, apparently realized this and quickly apologized to Williams publicly. But I’m still waiting to see if she will commit the self-sacking necessary to effectuate the consistent application of NPR company policy. I’m not holding my breath though because I suspect she values self-preservation over fairness (which, in fairness to her, makes her no different from most of us).

So, there you have it: another injustice in a fallen world that needs more of Jesus. GS

Lessons From Las Vegas

This is third in a three-part series on risk-taking in the kingdom of God. I started with When Safe Sucks, followed that yesterday with Cautious Christianity v. Kingdom Christianity. I end here with some lessons I’ve learned in Las Vegas.

I love Las Vegas for a lot of reasons (but not for the prostitution and girly shows).  One of those reasons is Blackjack.

I stay away from the other games because I am smart enough to know you don’t build an $800 million hotel by just cooking a good steak.

Blackjack is different though.  If you learn to play according to basic strategy, you play at only about a 1% disadvantage to the house.  If you learn to count cards, you can play at anywhere from .05 to 1% advantage over the house.

I began playing years ago and over the years have learned to count cards.  Don’t get too excited though because to make money, real money, counting cards you need to play on teams, and that’s the sort of thing that gets you a date in the back room with Nunzio. I just love to play, and by playing well and counting cards hopefully win a little money in the process.

One of the most important skills in basic Blackjack strategy is doubling down, which means doubling your bet after the dealer deals you two cards but before you’ve seen both of the dealer’s cards. To pull up to the nearly even odds Blackjack can offer, you have to know when to double down and be willing to do so, otherwise you might as well be over at the slot machines throwing your money away and helping them build the next billion dollar hotel.

Here is where all this is going.  The Bible provides principles by which to live our lives, basic strategy if you will, and we can plod along making reasonable, cautious decisions about our careers, callings, finances and futures, but there will come times when the Lord calls us to double down, to take a risk.

The Bible says, “My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in Him.” (Heb. 10:38).  That means if the Lord calls you to take a risk and you chicken out, He’ll not be happy with you, and you may miss your destiny.

So, know when to double down, and when the time comes, do it. GS