Current Events

God Issues
By Dr. James C. Denison
President, The Center for Informed Faith, Dallas, Texas
June 3, 2010
Topic: justice and grace

Umpires and atheists

Did you hear about the perfect game that wasn't?

Armando Galarraga lost his spot in the Detroit Tigers' pitching rotation after a poor spring training. He was recalled from the minors on May 16. The 28-year-old Venezuela native had been successful two years ago, but nothing predicted baseball immortality. Then he pitched a perfect game yesterday against the Cleveland Indians. Twenty-seven hitters up, twenty-seven out. Except that they weren't.

First-base umpire Jim Joyce now shares Galarraga's immortality. He's the umpire who blew the call on the last out of the game. Indians hitter Jason Donald grounded to the first baseman, who fielded the ball and threw to the pitcher covering the base. Donald was clearly out, according to eyewitnesses and replays shown during evening news sports coverage across the nation. Everyone knew it except Joyce, whose opinion was the only one which counted. He called the runner safe. The next batter was out, the game was over, and the perfect game that wasn't, was done.

Baseball isn't fair, but that's a good thing. If it were fair, Galarraga's perfect game would be intact—or would it? If there were no luck or human error in the sport, no umpire would ever miss a call. But no pitcher would throw a ball which a batter could turn into a base hit, while no batter would miss a ball thrown in the strike zone. Would we have all outs, or none?

Oscar Wilde was convinced that "life imitates art far more than art imitates life." If he had been a baseball fan, he would have said the same of the sport. At one time or another, we all want God to be more fair than he seems to be. Atheists such as Sam Harris claim that the existence of a suffering child anywhere in the universe calls into question the existence of an all-loving, omnipotent God. Christians who endure unfair suffering often struggle to keep the faith. Even Jesus could cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

At the same time, imagine your life today if you and everyone else were treated fairly. If you speed on your way to work, you'll get a ticket. If you speak anything but the absolute truth at every moment of the day, your deceit will be exposed. Every immoral attitude or thought will be known to the rest of us. If God were fair, how could he forgive a single sin or grant a single soul eternity in his perfect paradise? Which do you need more today, his justice or his grace?

C. S. Lewis divided humanity into two groups. The first says to God, "your will be done." To the second God must say, "your will be done." Which group do you choose this morning?

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God Issues
By Dr. James C. Denison
President, The Center for Informed Faith, Dallas, Texas
March 19, 2010
Topic: Climbing down to God

How to buy a Porsche

Let's explore that truism today.  During these last weeks of Lent we're learning to climb down to God by living a life he can bless.  Jesus has called us to be "poor in spirit," admitting our need of God; to "mourn" for our sins that we might be comforted; to be "meek,' surrendered to God, so we might "inherit the earth"; and to "hunger and thirst for righteousness," that we might be "filled."  Today we explore his fifth step: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (Matthew 5:7)

What is "mercy"?  Here's the short answer: grace is getting what you don't deserve-mercy is not getting what you do deserve.  It's mercy to be forgiven.  It's mercy to forgive.  So, what is forgiveness?

Lewis Smedes, in his classic Forgive and Forget, tells us that forgiving is not forgetting.  When God forgives our sins he "remembers them no more" (Isaiah 43:25), but humans do not usually have this ability.  Forgiving is not excusing behavior, pretending we're not hurt, or tolerating hurtful behavior.

To forgive is to pardon.  It is to refuse to punish, even though you have every right to do so.  It is the governor pardoning a criminal--he doesn't forget about the crime, or excuse it, or pretend it didn't occur, or tolerate the behavior.  He simply chooses not to punish, though he could.

So who needs your pardon this morning?  Why give it?  Why be "merciful"?

First, to stop your personal cycle of pain.  If you refuse to pardon the person who hurt you, he hurts you still.  Every time you plot your revenge you feel again your pain.  Every time you nurse your pain you increase it.  But you can stop today.

Second, extend mercy to receive mercy.  Jesus promises the merciful that "they will be shown mercy."  When you offer mercy, you put yourself in position to receive mercy from God and others.  If I won't show mercy to you, I won't receive it myself.

Third, extend mercy to break the circle of revenge.  Calvin Miller was right: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is a rapid way to a sightless, toothless world.  But when you pardon me, the cycle stops.  There's nothing left for me to do but to receive or reject your pardon.  I have no cause to hurt you, and abundant reason to love you and learn to love myself as well.

Finally, show mercy to demonstrate the love of Christ.  Jesus identified one characteristic as a guarantee that others will know we love him: "By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you have love one for another" (John 13:35).  Forgiving, pardoning love proves that God's love in us is real.

In Cairo our tour group visited Manshiyat naser, also called Garbage City, a slum whose residents recycle the city's garbage.  The area often lacks running water, sewage, and electricity.  Its people are among the poorest on earth.  And yet their community is home to the largest Christian church in the Middle East.

The Cave Cathedral, also known as the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Simeon, houses two worship centers.  One amphitheater seats over 20,000; the second was secretly built inside a cave.  Both are packed with worshipers each Sunday.  The members of the church have experienced the mercy of God, so they share it with their community and the world.  And Garbage City, in a nation which is 90% Muslim, is 99% Christian as a result.

During the depths of the Cold War, people in a particular East German town began throwing their trash over the Berlin Wall into the West German town on the other side.  The West Germans responded by tossing food and clothes to the East Germans.  With this note: "Each gives what he has."

Who needs the gift of your mercy today?

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God Issues
By Dr. James C. Denison
President, The Center for Informed Faith, Dallas, Texas
March 16, 2010
Topic: Climbing down to God

Albert Einstein on life

Warren Buffett gave his son "enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing."  Peter Buffett explains in his new book, profiled in this morning's Wall Street Journal.  His father sold a farm and gave the proceeds to him in shares which he proceeded to sell.  Collecting $90,000, he left Stanford University and began working in music.  He is now an Emmy Award-winning musician, composer, and producer.  His title explains his philosophy: Life Is What You Make It.  Yes, and no.

As we conclude our Lenten series, we're learning to climb down to God by living a life he can bless.  The first step is to be "poor in spirit," admitting our desperate need for God's power and guidance in our lives.  Self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide.  We are creatures, each in need of our Creator's help.  Today we consider our second step into an intimate, transforming relationship with him: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matthew 5:4).

In our fallen world, mourning is the common denominator of human experience.  Albert Einstein: "Our situation on this earth seems strange.  Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore."  Philosopher George Santayana added: "What is life, but a form of motion and a journey through a strange world?"  Schopenhauer once remarked, "The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it."  There's your devotional thought for the day.

But not all types of mourning are "comforted" by God.  Some lose a loved one and never recover.  Some fail financially and never make back what they lost.  Some suffer physical disease which is never healed.  What kind of mourning does God promise always to comfort?

1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  Here is the "good news," the "gospel": Jesus died to pay for every sin you have ever committed, to purchase your forgiveness, to offer you God's pardon.  He died in your place, taking your punishment.  If you truly grieve for your sins, and want God to forgive you and restore you, he will.  You "will be comforted."

Confession, repentance, and grace are the only pathway to such peace.  In Egypt we visited the Great Pyramid of Giza, built by Cheops around 2500 B.C.  it remains the largest building by volume on the face of the earth.  It could contain more than 30 Empire State Buildings within its walls.  Equivalent to a modern 50-story building, it is situated more perfectly north-south and east-west than any other structure in history.

There are 203 steps to its summit; the four triangular sides slope at an angle of about 52 degrees.  Less than 1/50 of an inch separates the individual blocks, each made of limestone and averaging 2.5 tons (some weigh as much as 70 tons).  The pyramid encases numerous galleries and chambers, with intricate passages and airshafts.  Alexander the Great and Napoleon spent time in its King's Chamber.  The purpose of such an engineering marvel?  To help the pharaoh make his way to heaven.  He sought to climb up to the gods, never knowing that God would climb down to him.

Don't make his mistake.  In dealing with your sins and failures, don't try harder to do better.  Admit your sins to God, in a spirit of mournful repentance, and ask him to forgive you and restore you.  When you do, Jesus promises that you will be "blessed."  Where do you need his comfort this morning?