Chapter 2 Leading an Unexamined Life
Last week we saw that one key problem of life was a materialism that extended even to the way we evaluate the Church. Success can be viewed as evidence of godliness even when Scripture offers plenty of warnings against that philosophy. Jesus’ warning that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:23-24), and the disciples amazement at His statement, show us that wealth was considered evidence of righteousness in the first century too.
This week we move on to another facet of the problem and that is living our lives in such a rush that we don’t stop to think and consider why we live the way we do. Just the speed of life can make it unlikely that we will stop and think about what and why we live. Tombstone pizza had an advertising campaign in which they put up billboards that asked, “What do you want on your tombstone?” I remember the ads because (if I wasn’t too hungry) they would make me think about the larger question of my life and what I really would want on my tombstone. Covey in his 7 habits teaching stresses the importance of beginning with the end in mind. A job that I’ve recently applied for stressed that they wanted someone who could think strategically. I hope they really understood what they were saying because the difference between tactical and strategic thinking in our lives is really an important thing. If you are not careful then all your decisions will be tactical decisions and you’ll do little or no strategic thinking. What do I mean by that? Well a strategic plan should give you an overall goal and direction. In your life, it should be established by core values and tell you where you are going. Tactical decisions should be made in light of your strategic goals. I make tactical decisions every day in light of my strategic goals but the problem is that I make tactical decisions every day without considering strategic goals. Yogi Berra said, “You gotta be careful if you don't know where you're going, otherwise you might not get there.” Yogi was on to something and we need a conscious awareness of our God given goals to direct our path.
One of our real problems is that we lose track of any strategic plan we have. Our Father in heaven doesn’t. Think about our memory verse for today (Jeremiah 29:11-14a). God knows that plans He has for your life. He is going to give you a future and a hope. With God as Lord we need to make sure that our tactical decisions are made in light of God’s strategic plans. Ignoring God’s plans for your life will me that you make wrong decisions and get corrected by God. Life is much less painful if we seek God and God promises in our memory scripture that we will seek Him.
Morley talks about how we live unexamined lives and how life views drive our decision making process. The problem is that we lose track of our values that set our strategic plans and start making tactical decisions without reference or connection to our strategic plan that represents our goals and values. Tactical decision after decision is made until we wonder how we got to where we are. Morley uses the example of the Christian couple who drift apart because they never examined their life to see if the decisions they were making were really consistent with their values.
Back when I could beat a computer at chess (years ago) I noticed that they really weren’t very good at strategic planning. They made tactical decisions only. So I would beat the computer by making it pick between bad and worse every time until it was checkmate. Don’t let the enemy get you so distracted that all you do it pick between bad and worse. God has a plan for you. He plans for wholeness and not for evil. We really do need to seek for Him with all our hearts to find His plan and live according to our values.
It is hollow and deceptive philosophy that the enemy of your soul uses to oppose your growth in God. Don’t let your lifestyle (in which you make tactical decisions everyday) become inconsistent with your values and goals (in which you find your strategic plans). We really must take responsibility for these decisions. We always choose according to our strongest inclination at the moment. When we make decisions that are inconsistent with our values then it is because we valued something in the moment more highly than we should have. Peer pressure, lust, anger, love of money, love of pleasure, etc. are just ways of expressing our sin nature that wars against what God is calling us too.
We need to examine our lives as Morley indicates. My children are both very talented in the arts. One of the most striking things for me is to see things that my son draws. Morley uses an example in which the fish example and my son (Joshua) can really draw fish. He draws fish that you can recognize. It is obvious that he “sees” the fish. I’ve drawn and painted before and the first thing you realize is that you can’t reproduce it because you never really saw it.
I don’t know if any of you remember the TV show called “Combat” with Vic Morrow but they had one episode that I’ve remembered all these years. It was about a new guy (The new guy was always going to die. Don’t ever be cast as the new guy) who it turns out was a botany student and an outstanding one. He could see the snipers in the trees because they didn’t look like “tree”. He had really looked at trees and saved the lives of others. I remember Morrow’s character asked him how he did that. He said something like I look at the trees and the part that isn’t “tree” is sniper. I think part of why it was so striking for me was that I had tried to draw trees and realized I had never looked at them well enough to really see them. As much as I liked trees I hadn’t looked closely enough. You need to be able to see the snipers in the trees of your life. Look at your life. Examine your life. Jesus said if your eye or hand offends you to get rid of it. If you live a life in which your decisions are consistent with your values then you won’t need to worry about what it will say on your Tombstone.
Chapter 3 Biblical Christian or Cultural Christian?
Morley discusses false values that become adopted if we don’t examine our life. He identifies personal peace and affluence as the heart of an impoverished value system and then move to a discussion of “cultural Christianity” in which God is viewed as owing us personal peace and affluence. God is love but not holy in this watered down and impotent version of Christianity. I was a member of a local church that had a significant mixture of biblical and cultural Christians. The church had grown rapidly and was viewed as a good political and social place to be and it was certainly interesting to see so many people who were there because it was the “in” place instead of because of God.
The parable of the sower is used by Morley to help us understand that mixture of people that can make up a “church”. The seeds on the path are non-Christians, the seeds on the rocky soil are Cultural Christians but not saved, the seeds in thorns are defeated but saved Cultural Christians, and then the good soil are Christians who are real Christians, not defeated, and growing.
A term that has been popular from time to time is “carnal Christian” and I really don’t care for it. I think the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith is good on these points. Speaking of professing Christians the London Baptist Confession says:
And though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves, yet shall they renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. - LBC:Chapter 17:Section 3
(Matthew 26:70, 72, 74; Isaiah 64:5, 9; Ephesians 4:30; Psalms 51:10, 12; Psalms 32:3, 4; 2 Samuel 12:14; Luke 22:32, 61, 62)
http://www.vor.org/truth/1689/1689bc17.html
Although the Confession calls this the “perseverance of the saints” as a title I think that it is best to use the phrase the “preservation of the saints” and they also use the word preservation in the text since it is God who does the preserving and not we who do the persevering except in His strength.
The key question is, do you, as a Christian, live like the rest of the world or do you live life differently. If you live like the world then, as the London Baptist Confession says, you’ll be subject to God’s displeasure, you’ll grieve the Holy Spirit, you’ll have blessings in your life impaired, your heart hardened, your conscience wounded, hurt others, and bring temporal judgments on yourself. It isn’t worth it.
We are not to be lukewarm. We are told to run with patience the race that is set before us. I’ve seen people who claimed to be Christians do what the world does and live like the world does. I know some are not really Children of God but I also know that some of them are. We can’t find the fruits of the Spirit when we live as Cultural Christians seeking personal peace and affluence. It is a position in which the enemy of your soul will attempt to lull us to sleep but, if we are Children of God, our heavenly Father will not leave us there because He knows the plans He has for your life. Plans to give us a future and a hope that causes us to call on Him and pray to Him. Like Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”
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