A Reason for God. . .Interview with Tim Keller

This video is lengthy, but great.

As our culture is becoming more and more bombarded with myriads of belief systems, there are good reasons to develop a reasonable apologetic for the Christian faith. That is, you better know why you believe what you believe. It is our responsibility to do so. We are called to be able to "give an account" for why we believe what we believe.

Of course, there are good, good reasons for the existence of God. However, you're not going to win over a skeptic of the faith by proving the existence of God by way of the Bible. . .skeptics today don't believe the Bible. We cannot use the Bible to prove the Bible, as it were.

So, we need to start at even a more foundational place with people in order to help them come to understand practically that there is a God. The older Christian apologetic books like Evidence that Demands a Verdict often assume that the reader has at least some respect for the authority of the Bible. Today that is not as true as it was thirty years ago. The arguments (I mean that word in the best sense) that we have for our faith need to be sourced in the reasonability/plausibility of the existence of a God. In fact, there is good reason to see that being an atheist actually requires more faith than being a Christian.

What Keller is brilliant at is entering the predominate belief systems of the day and showing that those systems are often self-contradictory and collapse on themselves. . .they require great faith to believe in.

Here is a great conversation with a tough interrogator who is asking some deep questions about the Christian faith. Not only does Keller answer thoughtfully and thoroughly, but with civility and kindness.

Enjoy.

The God of Mission

"It is not the church of God that has a mission. It's the God of mission that has a church."

-Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury

Living Incarnationally

The following excerpt came from one of my teacher's (Dr. Charles Arn) books entitled "Heartbeat".

KESWICK, UNITED KINGDOM (ANS) — Walking slowly to the podium, assisted by a cane and his research assistant, the theologian was met by a standing ovation from the overflow crowd on the warm summer evening of July 17th. Several years earlier TIME magazine had named him “One of the 100 most influential people on the planet.” What would he say in his final address to those listening in that room and around the world?

John Stott began by recalling how perplexed he had been as a younger Christian, about the answer to the question, “What is God’s purpose for His people?” In his message that night Stott described the resolution to his lifelong search:

“ I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth. Here it is: God wants His people to become like Christ. Christ-likeness is the will of God for the people of God.”

Stott spent the rest of the evening addressing this matter of incarnational evangelism; a process, he noted, “that can turn the world upside down.” Stott’s simple definition of incarnational evangelism was: “Entering into other people’s worlds with Christ-likeness.”

Incarnational evangelism, said Stott, is the road the church must walk in the 21st century. Our evangelistic efforts often lead to failure, he observed, simply because we don’t act like the Christ we proclaim. Quoting John Poulton, Stott noted that, “The most effective preaching comes from those who embody their message. What communicates now are not words or ideas, but rather personal authenticity; that is, Christ-likeness.”

From small groups to missional communities

Is the purpose of small group communities merely community? Here is a discussion that asks some essential questions about why small groups exist and if they go far enough in accomplishing the tasks that we are called to accomplish as Christ's body. The conversation talks about transitioning from small groups to missional communities. Granted, we have several small groups in our church that, functionally speaking, are missional in nature.

Notice "missional" doesn't necessarily mean "doing lots of stuff". It means that a community has a sense that they are being called to enter into God's mission for the world. They are asking, "what is God up to in the lives of those in our neighborhood, and how can we join Him"?

Check it out and you'll get the gist of what's being said.

Nurturing Societies

We often speak of small groups as a late 20th century invention or programmatic method to get people "plugged in". Nothing could be further from the truth. Small Groups as they exist today should meet in the same vein as Christ did with his disciples. To corporately invest in the life of the Master and be sent out to do the Master's business together.

In the mid-1700's John Wesley influenced thousands of people into Christian discipleship through small societies we might refer to as small groups. Wesley was noted for saying, "Preaching like an apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them in the way of God, is only begetting children for the murderer."

Humility

"Humility is not thinking less of myself. It's thinking of myself less."

-Tim Keller

The Paradox of Choice

I was listening to a Tedtalk recently called the "paradox of choice". The paradox of choice goes like this.....the more options we have, the less content we actually are.

The theory can be tested through the lens of buying a pair of jeans. Back in the day, when there was only one kind of blue jean to buy in the store, I got them wore them and for the most part was content with them, because the only other alternative was, well nothing, or an uncomfortable pair of corduroys. So, compared to not having jeans at all, having a pair was great.

Fast forward 30 years.

Now I can choose literally 100s of different brands, colors, shapes and sizes of jeans all within my reach....and, while the jeans I wear today actually look and fit better than the pair I used to have when back in the day, I'm paradoxically, less content. "Why", you ask? Good question.

I'm less happy because, in a world of choice, I'm perpetually wondering what I missed out on. I'm continually ruminating over whether there might be another pair that might fit a tad bit better. And, the thought of there being something better just out of grasp haunts me, and breeds a spirit of dissatisfaction with that which I do have.

That's the paradox of choice. Logically, we assume, more choice should bring more freedom. But, in reality more options bring more consternation, frustration, dissatisfaction and self-obsession.

I see this as one of the great problems of consumeristic society. Options breed dissatisfaction. And, so it goes within the church. The answer to church dissatisfaction is not creating more options. More options don't make us happier. . .look at our culture for goodness sake!

What is necessary within the Church is that she develop a theology of less. Speaking of paradoxes, one of Jesus' great paradoxes in the gospels is that less is more. And, so we must attempt to think less like our culture and more like Jesus.

I remember those provocative words from Christ as he gently chides Martha. "Martha, Martha, you run after many things, but only one thing is necessary". Maybe, this economic crisis we are in will force us away from our smorgasbord diets, and we'll find that only one thing is necessary.

And, in finding that one necessary thing, we'll find personal contentment in those things that we do have.

Where was God on 9/11?

As the ten year anniversary of 9/11 draws near, my thoughts go to my Uncle Bernie and Aunt Barbara and the rest of the Heeran clan. Growing up our family would travel up from Delaware to visit our New York relatives, and I have great memories of my cousin Charlie, who always lit up a room with his mischievous smile and Irish eyes.

Charlie's life was stolen from him on September 11.

As humans, it's hard to reconcile where God fits into our losses and pain. We don't see what God sees or know what God knows, and when evil strikes us personally, we are left with lots of unanswered questions. One of the biggies is "where were you God"?

Below is a Frontline Documentary called "Faith and Doubt: God and 9/11." Uncle Bernie and my cousin Sean are both featured, and discuss how the loss of Charlie has impacted their faith.

What I think is profound about Uncle Bernie's statements in the video is that while he doesn't claim to have all the answers, he doesn't blame God or hold God in contempt like others do in this documentary. In his own way, he basically says, God was is in the trenches that day fighting evil right alongside everyone else at ground zero.

As I reflect on Uncle Bernie's statement I think it's a pretty Biblical response.

I heard a story once that goes like this. . .A man loses his son tragically and is in terrible grief. In time, his pain turns into anger. And, in a moment of desperation he cries out to God from the bottom of his tormented soul. . . "God, where were you when my son was dying?? Then, after a long silence, a voice replies back. "The same place I was when my Son was dying."


Uncle Bernie is right. God is fighting evil right along side of us. He's not immune to suffering, death and misery. His own son, according to the Scriptures, was a casualty of the war against evil. Ground zero for Jesus Christ was Calvary.

He too suffered in the hands of terrorists. We have a God who is able to sympathize with our pain, because he has entered it on our behalf, and has been through hell too. God knows what it is like to lose a Son. And, I know that he stands alongside every grieving mother and father who lost a son 10 years ago.

But, Christ did not just passively die in the hands of evil. Through his resurrection, sacrificial love conquered evil once and for all. 9/11 reminds us that evil is real and on some days seems to win the battle. But, the resurrection shouts to us that the war has already been won. The grave is not the end. Evil cannot withstand the relentless, courageous, self-sacrificial love of our God. Evil is shattered and rendered impotent by the cross of Christ.

The God who is in the trenches fighting evil and suffering in the hands of evil, is the same God who rose victoriously and one day is returning to this world to once and for all snuff out any resemblance of evil.

Charlie, we love you and know that today you are with Christ.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.