Living in the “In Between”

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Steve Foster

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51)

How do we live in the “in between time,” the time between Christ’s first and second comings?

Regardless of how things turn out in the end, regardless of whether there is a rapture before, during, or at the end of the tribulation, regardless of whether Christ comes back today or 1000 years from now…we are called to be faithful and wise servants for Christ.

Servants. We are accountable to Christ. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Our desire should be to please and honor the One who died for us. I should wake up each day asking the Lord, “How can I serve You today? How can I please You?”

Faithful. Paul says that as servants and stewards of Christ, we are called first and foremost to be faithful (1 Cor. 4:1-2). To walk with Christ consistently, day by day, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. And we are called to faithfully give food to Christ’s other servants at the proper time. I love that picture. Our simple responsibility is to give other people food to eat at the right time and in the right measure. I don’t think he is talking about physical food…though compassion for the poor is certainly a part of it. He is talking about giving people the word of God, the truth of God, the good news of Christ…at the right time…and in the right measure. A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver (Proverbs 25:11).

Wise. How do we give people the right food in the right measure at the right time? By being wise. By having our eyes opened by the Spirit to see as Christ sees. By training our minds to be discerning through active meditation and application of the word of God. Wisdom only comes through the daily practice of walking in the Spirit in line with the Word of God.

Such a faithful, wise servant is given charge of all of Christ’s possessions when He returns.

What is the opposite of a faithful, wise servant?

A servant who says in his heart, “I am not accountable. God will never see what I am doing. And if He does see it, then He doesn’t care.”

A servant who harms others in his relationships, who uses his words recklessly, who manipulates and uses others for his own advantage.

A servant who takes what God has given him (his time, resources, money, talents) and uses them solely for his own pleasure, who gets drunk on God’s time with other people who can care less about Him. “It’s all about me and gratifying my lusts while I can with whom I can.”

It is two separate ways of thinking, living, and relating. And the dividing line is my attitude toward Christ and His return. Do I believe Him? Do I trust Him? Do I long for His return? Do I desire to please Him so that I can look into His face with joy and satisfaction and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”?

Lord, capture my heart today. May I live this day for Your glory. May my words feed Your servants at the right time.

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The Civil Christian in a Cantakerous Society

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Steve Foster

With the political season starting to heat up, it seems good to remember these words from the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:13-17.

13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Realize that when Peter was writing this letter, Nero was the emperor of Rome and Christians were facing increasing persecution around the world. If you were part of the church “scattered” around the Roman empire at that time (1:1), you probably would not have expected these words. And you may have been slightly annoyed at Peter for writing them.

Submit to Roman law and to the emperor and to any local governors. Why, Peter? Not because they are necessarily just and deserving of honor but because you are doing it for the Lord’s sake. This is the will of God. Does that mean that we never go against the rules or rulers of an unjust society? No. There are exceptions when we must obey God rather than man (Acts 4:19, 5:29). But these are to be rare exceptions not regular occurrences. Our default position as Christians is to submit and honor authority. Peter says that when we live with this kind of consistent, submissive behavior then by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. In other words we are more effective at transforming society and silencing our enemies when we seek to be respectful, honoring citizens rather than rebellious, obnoxious ones.

Now, in America, with a representative government, I believe that we as believers are called to be involved in the political process as salt and light. We are to do all we can to preserve liberty and seek justice. But we must still guard our attitude and our behavior as we participate. Respect. Honor. Submission. Civility. Grace. These must still be the guardrails and guidelines for our participation in society and our voicing of biblical truth.

1 Peter 2:17 sums up our duty as believers. It is a great verse to memorize and live out!

Honor all people. No exceptions. Democrat or Republican. Liberal or conservative. No matter what label a person has, we are called to honor them…not because of their viewpoints or actions but because they are made in the image of God. James reminds us that we can’t say we honor God when we regularly blast those who are made in His image. With our tongue we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so (James 3:9-10). Show honor to those you meet today. Everyone of them is created by God, loved by Him, and in need of Jesus Christ.

Love the brotherhood. We are to honor all people and to love those who are fellow believers in Jesus. In Christ, we have a family. We don’t always like our family members but we are called to love them. We are called to be patient…bearing with personality traits that irk us. We are called to be kind…using our words and actions to encourage our brothers and sisters and stir up love and good works in the body of Christ.

Fear God. And then don’t fear anything else! God is the sovereign King of the universe. He is in control. He is the giver of life and the taker of it. He is the judge and the evaluator of hearts. He is the good Shepherd and the loving Father. Trust Him. Follow Him. Worship Him. And put the rest of your fears in His hands.

Honor the king. Even a crazed lunatic like Nero. Whoa. You can’t be serious, Peter? C’mon, aren’t you the same guy who tried to chop the head off a Roman soldier when Jesus was arrested? Yep, but if you fear God and honor all people, then you are also called to honor and respect the king. God knows who he is. He can knock him off his chair of authority any time He wants. He can send him out into the fields to act like a cow for a few years if He wants (just ask Nebuchadnezzar!). So even if you don’t like the leader of the land, honor him for the office he possesses. And pray to God that He works in the leader’s heart to humble it if necessary and then to steer it onto the right path.

Lord, I can’t seem to obey any of these commands on a consistent basis. But help me to grow each day. May I show honor today to those I meet. May I show love to a brother or sister that crosses my path. May I fear You and not the anxieties of this world. May I honor Barack Obama and other political leaders even though I do not necessarily trust them or agree with their policies. Most of all, may I please You.

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Can We Trust the New Testament?

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Steve Foster

On October 1, 2011, Dr. Daniel Wallace, professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, and Dr. Bart Ehrman, professor of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, had a debate over the trustworthiness of the New Testament. I watched the debate on DVD.

Both scholars agreed that the New Testament is the best attested historical document from ancient times. There are 5600 Greek manuscripts of the NT, 10,000+ copies in other languages, and enough NT quotes from the early “church fathers” to reconstruct the entire NT from their works alone. No other ancient book or writing comes close…nothing is even in the same ballpark.

But Dr. Ehrman has made a career out of attacking the historical reliability of the NT. Some of his books have even become NY Times best-sellers…for instance, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why and Forged: Writing in the Name of God – Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. Dr. Ehrman’s skepticism and scholarly sarcasm toward God and the Bible plays well in our current culture.

Dr. Ehrman’s argument against the reliability of the NT stands on two grounds: 1) all we have is copies of copies of copies of the NT and 2) there are countless variations between the Greek manuscripts that we do have.

Dr. Wallace’s response answered both issues. 1) Yes, we have copies of copies but the evidence of the reliability of these copies is overwhelming. There are copies from the early centuries after Christ, copies from various places in the ancient world, and so many copies that all the readings of the NT can be compared and analyzed to find the most accurate reading. No other ancient manuscript can even come close to this much data. 2) There are so many variations between the manuscripts quite simply because we have so many manuscripts to compare. And almost all Bible scholars agree (even Ehrman) that the overwhelming majority of these variations (~99%) are either spelling errors, word order differences (which is common in Greek), or mistakes like missing letters or duplicated words. Only ~1% could be classified as significant and none of these affect one essential belief in Christianity.

That evidence wasn’t enough in Ehrman’s opinion. When asked by an audience member what amount of evidence he would need to convince him that the NT manuscripts were reliable, Ehrman replied, “If someone found 12 manuscripts dated from within a week of the writing of the NT then I would say that was strong evidence.”

But even if such a treasure house of NT manuscripts were found, I am sure the skeptic in Ehrman would still find something conspiratorial or doubtful about them.

Ehrman demanded absolute certainty. Wallace provided compelling evidence. And Ehrman was not impressed.

Ehrman would say things like “Dr. Wallace still has not provided absolute proof that we can trust the New Testament. How do we know that someone didn’t make major changes in the earliest manuscripts? Quite simply, we don’t.”

Wallace would respond along these lines. “If that is Dr. Ehrman’s criteria, then we have to throw out all that we think we know of the ancient world…everything. All of it must go. When we are dealing with history, we have to deal in the area of evidence not absolute proof.”

In Ehrman’s closing statement, he used an analogy that summed up his argument. He said something like this:

When it comes to the issue of trust, the burden of proof lies on the one who says that you can trust something. If a train full of people approaches a bridge across a great chasm, the person who says that the bridge can hold the train is the one who has to prove it. If there isn’t absolute certainty, then the train shouldn’t cross the bridge.

It was a good analogy…and Dr. Wallace chose not to address it in his closing statement.

But I kept thinking about it later.

There was one key missing element in Ehrman’s analogy…the reason why the train was going to cross the bridge. If the people on the train were simply on a leisurely trip, then, yes, crossing a bridge with only say 95% certainty of the bridge’s reliability would be foolish. But if the train was filled with people who were dying or in great jeopardy and the bridge was the only means to a hospital or to safety, then actually the burden of proof would lie on the skeptic who was shouting by the side of the tracks, “Don’t cross that bridge! It is too unsafe!” And if, upon questioning, that person could only offer, “Well, no one knows with absolute certainty that that bridge will hold you,” then it would actually be foolish to not cross the bridge.

In other words, Ehrman assumes that trusting the New Testament is the dangerous proposition and that staying a skeptic and having no belief in the reliability of the Bible–and hence, no belief in God, Jesus, or the resurrection from the dead–is the only safe place to be.

I would see it the other way around.

If there is no real God, no reliable Bible, no Savior named Jesus or no resurrection from the dead, then who cares whether we cross the bridge or not. All of us are going to perish anyway. Might as well go out with one last hurrah trying to cross a bridge that looks like it might lead to safety.

BUT if there is evidence that Scripture is reliable…that God does exist…that there was a man named Jesus who walked this earth and rose from the dead….then continuously critiquing the bridge and mocking the people on the train trusting it for salvation is the work of a scoffer not a scholar.

Especially when you die by the edge of the tracks.

Posted in Tough Questions of Faith | 2 Comments

Humility & the Tax Office

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Steve Foster

I was convinced they were wrong. I was also convinced that they were incompetent.

In the past year, I have called the city tax office five or six times. Everything made sense to me. I moved to Baton Rouge in May 2010. Thus, I paid taxes in 2010 for a partial year. In 2011, I refinanced. My mortgage company paid a portion of my taxes at the loan closing. Thus at the end of 2011 I paid the difference. I had my HUD statements and even a cancelled check from my mortgage company to prove all of this.

But the city tax office kept telling me that I owed $800. No matter how many times and how many people I explained things to, the answer was the same, “Mr. Foster, your property tax balance is $800.”

I was irritated. Frustrated. Opinionated. “Can’t they hire anyone with half a brain down there? This is pathetic.”

But to their credit, even though those city workers were downright inept, they were still friendly.

“Mr. Steve, I will have Ms. Louanna look at it. She is the best at figuring out all these things.”

“Great,” I thought, “My best chances for resolution lie in the lap of some woman named after a cooking oil.”

But I didn’t say that. In fact, for the most part, I kept my composure. I am a pastor after all. And I believe that, in the end, persistence pays more dividends than rudeness. So I kept calling and collecting data to support my cause.

But then it hit me. While I was on hold with some obscure company in PA that handles loan closings, a dimmed out light in my brain suddenly flickered on.

“Wait a second. When I bought the house in 2010, the seller did not pay a partial portion of my 2010 taxes, they credited me that amount so that I could pay the full amount. And when I refinanced my loan, the mortgage company didn’t pay a portion of my 2011 taxes, they paid the taxes I still owed from 2010!”

I hung up the phone.

Those inept city workers were actually the ones who understood. I was the clueless one.

At first I laughed. Then I cried. I really did owe $800. And it would be more if I didn’t pay it by the end of the week.

The next day I took a trip downtown to make sure my taxes were paid before any additional penalties kicked in. After standing in line for twenty minutes…and fighting back the temptation to complain about the lack of quick service…I finally got to the counter with the worker who seemed to be taking the longest with her customers. She was the friendliest one…but she wasn’t Louanna.

As I paid my bill, I explained my story and apologized if she happened to be one of the workers that I talked to on the phone at some point in the past year. She understood my confusion and laughed with me as I talked about my boneheadedness.  Then she began to look more in-depth at my tax bill.

“Mr. Foster, you do owe the $800 but it doesn’t look like you have claimed the homestead exemption the past two years.”

“The what?”

“The homestead exemption.”

“How do you qualify for that?”

“Do you live in the home?”

“Yes.”

“Then  you qualify.”

She proceeded to explain how the homestead exemption works and how it would save me roughly $800 per year. Then she explained the process for applying for it.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”

“Well usually your mortgage company explains this but sometimes they don’t know or simply fail to let the buyer know.”

I guess mine was one of those companies.

By the end of the day I had applied for the homestead exemption and was assured that I would receive a refund not only for 2011 but also for 2010. What looked like an $800 bill turned out to be an $800 blessing.

I praised God.

And I appraised myself.

It is so easy to convince ourselves that we have it all figured out, that we have a handle on the facts and everyone else who disagrees with us is either stupid or incompetent. It is hard to be humble, teachable, willing to be corrected, ready to acknowledge our mistakes.

But we must.

One of the most repeated truths in the Bible is a simple one: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5, Ps 138:6, Prov 3:34, 29:23, Matt 23:12, Luke 14:11, 18:14).

And sometimes with the grace comes a homestead exemption.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 7 Comments

Density and Sovereignty

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Steve Foster

17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matthew 20:17-19)

Jesus continues his final trek to Jerusalem. Along the way, He senses the need to pull His disciples aside and again remind them about what is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem. This is His third crucifixion/resurrection prediction in Matthew (16:21, 17:22-23).

Mark’s gospel tells us that the disciples were both amazed and fearful as they approached Jerusalem (Mark 10:32). Jesus apparently told them these words to remind them that everything was under control. Yes, He would be betrayed and crucified but He would rise again. But Luke tells us that even after hearing these words, the disciples had no idea what Jesus meant (Luke 18:34). They probably assumed that Jesus was speaking figuratively. They just couldn’t process how the Messiah could be rejected and killed…and the concept of physical resurrection was not at the forefront of their thinking (cf. Mark 9:10).

Part of me wonders why the disciples just couldn’t get it. Jesus’ words seem so self-explanatory. So clear. But the disciples are like the rest of us. When you think a certain way, it is hard to hear anything contrary to your thinking. You fight it. Or you explain it away. A rejected, crucified Messiah was not in the disciples’ theology. They couldn’t process it. They couldn’t accept it. So they missed it. And by missing the concept of a crucified Messiah, they missed the hope and glory of a resurrected One as well.

It is a reminder to me that I have to keep my ears and heart open to the Word of the Lord. I am to be firm in my beliefs, established in the core truths of Scripture…but I am also to be teachable, moldable, always humble in my own limited perspective and hungry for God to expand my understanding. May I never get to the point where I think I have it all figured out. May I never get to the point that inwardly I take Jesus aside like Peter and say, “Lord, let me tell You how it should be.”

The other thought that strikes me from this passage is that God is in control. He is sovereign. While the chief priests and scribes will act on their own accord and the Roman soldiers and rulers will make their own decisions, they will ultimately act in accordance with God’s foreordained, foreseen plan.

For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered together, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done (Acts 4:27-28).

I can’t really fathom that. It is beyond my comprehension. But in the mind of God both work together seamlessly, without contradiction, for His glory.

That should give me comfort. Whatever happens in this world, it is all within the plan of God. Nothing is beyond His control. And even when things look dark, look dire, look disastrous, God can somehow bring victory and glory out of it. Without the tragedy, there is no triumph. Without the fire, there is no refinement. Without the cross, there is no resurrection.

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