Torpor illustrated

It is only natural that a pastor as passionate as Allen Cooney would lead us to understand the deadliness of spiritual torpor. A typical definition for torpor would be "a state of mental and motor inactivity with partial or total insensibility," but in the animal world, it also refers to hibernation.

In a spiritual sense, it is the indifference that Elie Weizel was railing against in Night (see yesterday's quotes). It is also (which is why it was in the sermon) the state of mind out of which Old Testament prophets such as Micah were constantly calling the people of Israel.

Surely no one would argue that we don't need prophets today. Thank God for Pastor Allen calling us out of our torpor! The Lenten season is a great time to reflect on the areas of indifference in our lives...and to repent! Practicing those spiritual disciplines that Elder Dave Bowen preached about four weeks ago will help keep both out minds and spiritual sensitivities awake and alert!

And thanks, as always, to Steve Johnson for his lively illustrations, as pictured above. I always say that the children's message is really for us as adults - we need those visual lessons as much as the children!

N.B. If the photo is not easily comprehensible to those who were not there, Steve is wrapping sweet Jenna Van Stelle in plastic refrigerator wrap to represent the way a state of torpor shields us from penetration by the Holy Spirit (represented by a squeezed water bottle). I think you can picture the results.

Quotes from Night

Yesterday was not the first time Pastor Allen has mentioned Elie Weisel's Night. If you have ever had a Sunday School Class in Room 4 (David Towne's room), there is a long passage on the wall from this book, in which Weisel points out that the Germans who perpetrated the Holocaust were educated, but not humane. It serves as a sober warning to those of us in the field of education that we must have higher priorities than merely pumping our students full of head knowledge (as opposed to the education of the heart).

Weisel wrote this book as a response to the myth that the Holocaust never took place. It is largely autobiographical, recounting his family's experience of being transported from their home in Hungary to Auschwitz, where Weisel's mother, father, and youngest sister died. Elie and two brothers survived until the allies invaded.

Here are some memorable quotes from Weisel, from Night, as well as other works:

"We cannot indefinitely avoid depressing subject matter, particularly it it is true, and in the subsequent quarter century the world has had to hear a story it would have preferred not to hear - the story of how a cultured people turned to genocide, and how the rest of the world, also composed of cultured people, remained silent in the face of genocide."

"Never be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

Think you're good without God? Define "good"!

Last Sunday Pastor Allen held up the front page of the Arizona Daily Star on which this photo appeared. A group of skeptics purchased this bulletin board to tout their unbelief. Ironically, it replaced a bulletin board previously sponsored by a Christian group. For the whole story, you can go here.

One of the problems with such assertions (we can be good without God) is that when one denies the existence of a transcedent, over-arching authority, there is no means left by which to define that which is "good." Philosophers have struggled with this over the ages. Epicurus, Hobbes, Rousseau, Mill, and others who hated the notion of God, usually defined good as that which is "pleasurable, desirable, natural, expedient," and so on. The two problems with this are: (1) this is personal and subjective, not universal and objective; (2) what happens when my notion of "desirable" conflicts with someone else's?

C. S. Lewis dealt with this in the first chapter of Mere Christianity, when he pointed out that everyone seems to have this inbred notion of what is "fair," but non-theists want to pretend that they made this up by themselves. What they can't answer is the question, "Does good exist at all?" And if so, then by what standard is it determined? And (most importantly) where did this notion even come from?

Atheists such a Christopher Hitchins try to dodge this question by referring to "commonly held societal defintions" of good and evil. But this neither accounts for differences between what some cultures accept and others don't, or for why there are some notions that are abhorrent to all cultures. As for understanding the latter, we as Christians may refer to Romans 1:

17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
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"Without excuse" is a scary place to be if one thinks one can be good without God, and then falls short in even the slightest degree.

Happy Rodeo Days!

One of those unique Tucson oddities that is so hard to explain to outsiders is Rodeo Week. And God has blessed us with another Rodeo Week of great weather this year! I did something I've never done before yesterday. I actually watched the Rodeo Parade on TV!

But Wednesday was even better. I happened to be at one of Tucson's "hidden treasure" Christian Schools, Chapel in the Hills, in Southwest Tucson (Mission Road and Irvington area). This delightful preschool through fifth grade campus is eighteen years old and is under the capable leadership of Michelle Morales. Like many Tucson schools, they celebrated Rodeo Week with outdoor games of their own. Pictured above is a young man getting set to rope a "steer." An experienced cowboy (a grandpa) was on hand to show young cowboys and cowgirls "the ropes" of calf roping.

Like many Christian schools, Chapel in the Hills attracts families with little or no church affiliation. After the outdoor games, I was able to speak briefly to the parents about how to use the tax credit scholarships to keep their children in Christian schooling. They were attentive, asked good questions, and took all my literature! Besides the nuts and bolts of how thr tax credit works, my basic message was: "You have made a thoughtful and self-initiated choice of where to send your child to school. Keep making those choices actively, because they're your kids, not the government's. And the advantage of schools like Chapel in the Hills? They are safe, high-achieving, and inspiring!

God's Providential Care

You have probably already noted that I am a fan of Ravi Zacharias. I always like finding the sources of the illustrations Pastor Allen uses in his sermons. It makes for a great reading list! I found that the story he told Sunday comes from the book, Walking from East to West, one I have't read yet.

For those who may have missed it here is the story:

"I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971, and one of my interpreters was Hien Pham, an energetic young Christian. He had worked as a translator with the American forces, and was of immense help both to them and to missionaries such as myself. Hien and I traveled the length of the country and became very close friends before I returned home. We did not know if our paths would ever cross again. Seventeen years later, I received a telephone call. "Brother Ravi?" the man asked. Immediately, I recognized Hien’s voice, and he soon told me his story.

Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was forced to read only communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of Marx and Engels began to take its toll. "Maybe," he thought, "I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me." So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would not pray anymore or think of his faith.

The next morning, he was assigned the dreaded chore of cleaning the prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, "Romans, Chapter 8." Trembling, he began to read, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. … For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:28,38,39).

Hien wept. He knew his Bible, and he knew that there was not a more relevant passage for one on the verge of surrender. He cried out to God, asking forgiveness. This was to have been the first day that he would not pray; evidently God had other plans.

As it were, there was an official in the camp who was using a Bible as toilet paper. So Hien asked the commander if he could clean the latrines regularly. Each day he picked up a portion of Scripture, cleaned it off, and added it to his collection of nightly reading.

Then the day came when, through an equally providential set of circumstances, Hien was released from prison. He promptly began to make plans to leave the country and to construct a boat for the escape of him and 53 others. All was going according to plan until days before their departure. Four Vietcong knocked on Hien’s door and said they had heard of his escape. He denied it and they left. Hien felt relieved, but at the same time disappointed with himself. He made a promise to God—fervently hoping that God would not take him up on it—that if the Vietcong returned, he would tell them the truth. He was thoroughly shaken when only a few hours before they were to set sail, the four men returned. When questioned again, he confessed the truth. To Hien’s astonishment, the men leaned forward and, in hushed tones, asked if they could go with him!

In an utterly incredible escape plan, all 58 of them found themselves on the high seas, suddenly engulfed by a violent storm. Hien cried out to God, "Did you bring us here to die?" But then he said to me, "Brother Ravi, if it were not for the sailing ability of those four Vietcong, we would not have made it." They arrived safely in Thailand, and years later Hien arrived on American soil where today he is a businessman."

Meet Kelly Clark

I hope you are enjoying the Winter Olympics as much as I am!

In his sermon last Sunday, Pastor Allen told the story of U.S. snowboarder Kelly Clark. Here is her comment about the difference knowing Christ has made in her sport:

"That kind of freed up my snowboarding. All of a sudden I was enjoying myself and having more fun than I had before. I was free to do it part from having to do it."

In the photo you can see her "Jesus" snowboard. She also has a sticker on her snowboard that says "Jesus, I can not hide my love."

More from Tertullian

In his message Sunday, Pastor Allen mentioned this quotation by third century theologian Tertullian: "See how (these Christians) love one another."

Tertullian was a prolific writer, so I thought you might enjoy reading a few of his other most quotable statements here.

First, the actual context of the quotation above was that Tertullian was contrasting Christians with their critics. Here is the full quote:

"Look," they say, "how they love one another" (for they themselves hate one another); "and how they are ready to die for each other" (for they themselves are readier to kill each other)."

The blood of the martyrs is the seed [of the Church].

For reason is a property of God's, since there is nothing which God, the creator of all things, has not foreseen, arranged and determined by reason; moreover, there is nothing He does not wish to be investigated and understood by reason.

Indeed for us murder is forbidden once and for all, so it is not permitted even to destroy what is conceived in the womb. To prohibit the birth of a child is only a faster way to murder; it makes little difference whether one destroys a life already born or prevents it from coming to birth. It is a human being, who is to be a human being, for the whole fruit is already present in the seed.

If I give you a rose you will not disdain its creator.

The truth is, the human race has always deserved ill at God's hand. First of all, as undutiful to Him, because when it knew Him in part, it not only did not seek after Him, but even invented other gods of its own to worship; and further, because, as the result of their willing ignorance of the Teacher of righteousness, the Judge and Avenger of sin, all vices and crimes grew and flourished.