“And [Jesus] said to him, ^‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”

Matthew 23:37 (ESV)

In this famous verse, Jesus provides the ‘greatest’ commandment in the Law. Rather than choosing a single Old Testament directive, He quotes from Deuteronomy 6 condensing the heart of the Law in one sentence. This series focuses on the final aspect of this command. Namely, loving God. . . .  with all your mind.

My growing suspicion is that few Christians in our culture make any discernible effort to love God with their minds. We care a great deal about stirring our emotive faculties toward God, but we often ignore our mental faculties at the point our education or vocation allows it. We use our brains if we have to, but we are more than willing to set them aside whenever we can.

Yet, we all want to ‘feel’ love for God. We devour worship songs and devotional booklets largely because of the emotional reaction they solicit.

[Before you misunderstand, this aspect of the faith is important. Emotions play an enormous role in our lives, but they are not alone.]

Meanwhile the church is plagued with a growing disregard for the role of critical thinking in the life of the believer. Few Christians devote any significant time to careful reading and even fewer practice any concentrated mental discipline whatsoever. The church is failing, in many ways, to love the Lord our God with our minds.

As we begin this series, consider the following…

• How many hours (yes, measure it in terms of hours) did you spend studying (not just casually reading) God’s word this past week?
• How many Bible verses have you committed to memory this month?
• What resources (outside the Bible) are you studying to cultivate your relationship with God?
• Based on your first three answers, are you loving God with your mind?

By J. I. Packer

So I read this book while on vacation. It’s one of many books that someone recommended to me years ago and I put on the shelf. I certainly regret that decision.

Now I realize I’m a nerd and I recommend books to everyone. It’s annoying and I know it. I’m just that guy and, well, I’ve accepted and embraced it. So I know many of you will read this post and be tempted to shrug and say, “There he goes again.” And you’ll be right, sort of, but this time is different.

While I understand that my proclivity (big word inserted to confuse you and weaken your defenses) for this type of behavior makes me something like ‘the boy who cried wolf,’ please believe me when I say this time is different. Oh I know, you’ve heard it all before, but I mean it more this time. Seriously, please listen to me.

BUY THIS BOOK!

And after purchasing it, read it carefully and thoughtfully. Grab a pen, sit in a quiet place, and read. Read it slowly. Read a little each day. Underline as you read. Think as you read. Meditate on what you read. Make notes as you read. Ask questions as you read. Digest as you read. Learn as you read.

Why do I care so much? Because I agree with the conviction that led Packer to write.

“The conviction behind this book is that ignorance of God – ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him – lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today” (12).

I would apply his introductory comments even more directly adding that this ‘ignorance’ is at the root of most Christians’ weakness today. We don’t know God. Therefore, we don’t walk with God. Therefore, we don’t live for God. Therefore, we don’t glorify God.

I’ll let Packer make his own case for this work (the emphasis added through the italics is mine).

“Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives. . . . Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul” (19).

“Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. . . . Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. . . . God help us, then, to put our knowledge about God to this use, that we may all in truth ‘know the Lord’” (23).

On September 8, I presented part one of this series in which I introduced a surprising form of idolatry that is often encouraged and normalized in our churches.

Well-meaning believers, many of whom would never consider bowing to a statue or praying through another human, idolize the human body. The obsession with physical appearance and the pursuit of conformity to an earthly standard of health and beauty dominate our cultural landscape and consume the thoughts and/or lives of many followers of Christ.

Furthermore, I indicated my disdain for one blatant but amazingly accepted expression of this idolatry: cosmetic surgery. I return to the subject today to present two final reasons to abstain from consenting to, encouraging, or normalizing these procedures.

Cosmetic surgery leads young boys toward sexual promiscuity. This cosmetic industry preys mostly on women by inviting them to conform to culture’s definition of beauty, but it is driven by the sexual appetites of men. Even the mention of a more attractive body on the radio is temptation for a man, and especially a young boy, to fixate on a woman’s sexuality.

Cosmetic procedures and the promotion of them lead boys toward sexual promiscuity by feeding their appetite to lust for a woman’s physical appearance. If you consent to, encourage, or normalize cosmetic surgery you are leading boys (and men) toward sexual promiscuity.

Cosmetic surgery misuses financial resources. For a believer to take thousands of dollars that could support missions or plant a church or feed an orphan and spend it on a physical alteration to his/her body is unbelievably poor stewardship. The fact that believers today even try to justify it financially proves the separation between the masses of modern Christendom and the New Testament Church.

I will stop at six reasons even though more than a dozen come to mind. With the sincerest love in Christ, I ask you to please stop consenting to, encouraging, and normalizing cosmetic surgery as it promotes a blatant rejection of God by leading people into idolatry and sexual promiscuity.

On September 8, I presented part one of this series in which I introduced a surprising form of idolatry that is often encouraged and normalized in our churches.

Well-meaning believers, many of whom would never consider bowing to a statue or praying through another human, idolize the human body. The obsession with physical appearance and the pursuit of conformity to an earthly standard of health and beauty dominate our cultural landscape and consume the thoughts and/or lives of many followers of Christ.

Furthermore, I indicated my disdain for one blatant but amazingly accepted expression of this idolatry: cosmetic surgery. I return to the subject today to present two additional reasons to abstain from consenting to, encouraging, or normalizing these procedures.

Cosmetic surgery fuels a growing obsession with appearance that is absent in the Bible. Our culture is obsessed with appearance. Every contour of the human body has been examined and analyzed. We are told by advertisers and media outlets constantly which curves and shapes are desirable and which are undesirable. However, throughout the Bible God communicates His concern for inward condition over outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7).

Cosmetic surgery promotes this obsession with physical appearance by allowing people the opportunity to fit a culturally-determined mold for beauty. If you consent to, encourage, or normalize cosmetic surgery you are fueling this obsession.

Cosmetic surgery leads young girls to a perverted image of themselves as sexual objects. Most pre-teen and teenage girls battle insecurity related to their bodies. Through images exalted by our culture many girls are taught their value to society is directly related to the conformity of their bodies to a worldly standard. If their bodies don’t meet the culture’s standard of sexuality, they are less-valuable.

Cosmetic surgery promises conformity to this standard and leads young girls to see themselves as physical creatures who were meant primarily for sexuality. If you consent to, encourage, or normalize cosmetic surgery you are leading young girls toward a perverted, overly-sexual self-image.

One particular strain of idol worship has inundated our culture leading to a multitude of sins. Well-meaning believers, many of whom would never consider bowing to a statue or praying through another human, have ignored the plain teaching of Scripture. Worse still, this idolatry is often encouraged and normalized among believers.

The obsession with physical appearance and the pursuit of conformity to an earthly standard of health and beauty dominate our cultural landscape. The desire for flatter abs and a beach body consume the thoughts and/or lives of many Americans and even followers of Christ. In doing so, they overturn the truth of Psalm 139 and elevate the created over the Creator.

¹³For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:13-14 (ESV)

The Church must recognize this rebellion and call her members to faithfulness in this area. As such, I am burdened to call attention to one blatant but amazingly accepted expression of this idolatry: cosmetic surgery. These procedures illustrate and fuel this form of idol worship.

Today I introduce a three-part series explaining five reasons to abstain from consenting to, encouraging, or normalizing these procedures.

Cosmetic surgery promotes worship of physical human beauty. Cosmetic surgery is an attempt to correct or change a part of the body for the purpose of improving physical appearance. Aside from surgeries to correct malformations resulting from injuries or deformity, the purpose of these procedures is vainglory or the praise of humans. These procedures reveal a person’s worship of the human body by altering it to conform to a worldly standard. In other words, the purpose of cosmetic surgery is glory for an individual. The Bible is clear that glory is reserved for God alone (Isaiah 48:11). If you consent to, encourage, or normalize cosmetic surgery you are promoting idol worship.

Cosmetic surgery attacks God and His creating ability. Numerous biblical passages (including Psalm 139:13 and Jeremiah 1:5) reveal God’s work to create each person with precision and detail. Again with the exception of surgeries to correct malformations that allow for normal development, procedures that enhance body parts are assaults on the precise creation of God. If you consent to, encourage, or normalize cosmetic surgery you are denouncing God’s ability to create with perfection and precision.

by Neil Postman

First published in 1985 Amusing Ourselves to Death still presents remarkably relevant and helpful social commentary. Nearly 25 years after he wrote, Postman’s words seem more like prophecies than observations.

His work centers on the shift from print to television as the primary medium for receiving public information. He then investigates the effects of this shift, which happened during the last half of the 20^th century, on American culture.

Ultimately, he argues that because of this shift “the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense.” In fact, public conversation about topics like “politics, religion, news, athletics, education, and commerce” has descended to foolishness and drivel.

When the printing press delivered the primary content of cultural communication to the people, these “conversations” were driven by coherent, serious, and rational thought. Now that television has replaced printed words as the primary deliverer of this information, “all public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment.” Thus, amusement and triviality replace the coherent, serious, and rational.

Please don’t dismiss this word as just another caution about the enormous amount of junk on television. While that is much needed, this warning is far more. Postman warned, and I believe rightfully so, that television as a deliverer of information will turn all serious matters into junk.

This issue is important to Christians for at least two reasons. First, many of us make decisions about topics of great cultural significance (i.e. our vote in an election, our support for a particular public policy, our idea of quality education, our definition of justice, etc.) on the basis of what we hear and see on television. In other words, we are formulating our worldview using information that is designed and delivered for one purpose: entertainment.

Second, this shift is driving many churches and Christians toward a television-style, entertainment-driven mindset concerning their religion. Our thirst for amusement knows no boundaries and we certainly don’t limit them at the point of our faith.

Think carefully for a moment about whether your faith (or the dominant expressions of it) is defined more by coherent, serious thoughts or entertainment.

“Christians in a gluttonous, denial-less, self-indulgent society may struggle to accept and to begin the practice of fasting. Few Disciplines go so radically against the flesh and the mainstream of culture as this one. But we cannot overlook its biblical significance.”[1]

Fasting is an important component of biblical Christianity and one we must not ignore. The Bible introduces and encourages it as an instrument for individuals and groups to align themselves more closely with God’s will and purposes. In fact, Jesus assumed fasting as part of life for his disciples (Matthew 6:16) and certainly for those of us who would follow him after his ascension into heaven (Matthew 9:15).

The Bible describes several specific purposes for entering a time of fasting. Men and women in the Bible fasted to strengthen their prayer (Ezra 8), to seek God’s guidance (Judges 20), to express repentance (Jonah 3), to express concern for the work of God (Nehemiah 1), to overcome temptation (Matthew 4), and to express love and worship to God (Luke 2) to name only a few. Without exception in the Bible, fasting is an instrument used for a specific purpose related to intimate fellowship with God.

As some have pointed out, fasting in the Bible is not exclusively about food. Although the term is not used in 1 Corinthians 7, for example, the abstinence from sexual intimacy with your spouse can be called a fast. Thus, fasting from other things that might distract us from intimacy with God like television or hobbies can benefit us.

With this in mind, however, the overwhelming majority of texts about fasting in the Bible are related to food. At the most basic level, fasting is a physical expression of our dependence on God and his word for sustenance (Matthew 4). Therefore, abstinence from food and the resulting physical “hunger” for food captures the heart of fasting and demonstrates our reliance on God most effectively.

So I invite you to swim against the flow of our indulgent culture and seek God’s guidance concerning fasting. Consider prayerfully substituting a time of intense prayer for eating during a regular meal time.[2]

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[1] Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1991), 160.

[2] Obviously, if you are pregnant, nursing, or have significant health issues, please consult a physician before fasting.

William Carey was born in England in 1761 and left as a missionary to India in 1793. Although he was poor and almost completely uneducated, Carey translated the Bible into dozens of languages and established schools and missions all over India. What he lacked in terms of education and skill he made up with surrender to God’s call.

He simply could not understand how Christians could read this text and “sit at ease” while most of the world is “lost in ignorance and idolatry.” So Carey left the comforts of life in England for the trials of missionary life.

And he would face more than his share of trials. He faced unimaginable grief in burying two wives and three children. He faced physical suffering in losing most of his hair in his 20′s due to illness and fighting back diarrhea and malaria. He faced exhaustion by serving in India for 41 years without ever taking a vacation. He faced discouragement in serving 7 years before baptizing his first convert.

Yet Carey remained and through his work thousands have been changed. They have been changed because the Bible is in their language. They have been changed because the gospel is now preached in their communities. They have been changed because one man was willing to abandon his life to surrender to God’s call to make disciples.

Will you obey the call to make disciples?

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*The factual information for this blog entry comes from two terrific books. Daniel Akin’s Five Who Changed the World and Timothy George’s Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey.

The following paragraphs are pieced together from the opening pages of an amazing book.

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. . . . [Cheap] [g]race is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. . . .

“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as a Christian ‘conception’ of God. . . . [Cheap grace] amounts to justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. . . .

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. . . .

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. . . .

“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son. . . . Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. . . .

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1995, 3-5.

Cheap grace is wildly prevalent IN the Church today. Costly grace is wildly prevalent IN the Bible. Which grace is prevalent in your life?

by Timothy Keller

Any person interested in spiritual matters will benefit from reading this book. Skeptics will be forced to consider the consistency of their worldview and defenders of the faith will be motivated and encouraged by Keller’s pastoral, yet intelligent approach to these subjects.

Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, draws on more than twenty years of pastoral ministry in an environment of skepticism to present common doubts and provide succinct, biblical responses.

First, Keller dismantles the seven most common “doubts” voiced by skeptics during his ministry. Among others, he addresses topics like “How can a good God allow suffering?” and “Hasn’t science disproved Christianity?” His carefully crafted logic and pastoral approach effectively identify logical inconsistencies behind these and other popular objections to faith in God.

Second, his presentation provides a credible, intelligent foundation for believers to defend their faith as coherent and rational. Not only does he defend belief in a god, he argues well for belief in the God of the Bible. In fact, he reveals why faith in the Christian God does not require a person to jettison intellectual integrity.

Whether you are struggling to believe or feeling overwhelmed by the questions of unbelieving friends, this book (which is now available in paperback) is an excellent resource.