Monthly Archives: August 2011

"God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." 1 Cor. 1:27

I collect stories of how reluctant people come to believe in the existence of God, or at least acknowledge the tremendous value of faith. Let me share four with you.

First, Dr. Anthony Flew (d. 2010) was a philosophy professor at Reading University in England, author of numerous works and also the world's leading atheist. As recently as 2001 he reiterated that position in a paper entitled, "Sorry to Disappoint, but I'm Still an Atheist."

In 2004, however, Flew went where the evidence took him and concluded that some sort of intelligence is behind the complex order of the universe and life. What changed his mind? The mounting evidence of molecular biology "has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved." This intelligence, Flew concluded, is God. He wrote a book entitled, There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

Second, in an article in the Guardian, Roy Hattersley, a noted atheist, lamented "that it ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian." He had observed the outpouring of care by Christian organizations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Salvation Army particularly impressed him.

"Notable by their absence," he continued, were "teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers' clubs, and atheists' associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion's intellectual absurdity." According to Hattersley, it is an unavoidable conclusion that Christians "are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others." His conclusion? "The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me."

Third, from a few years ago is the story of Charles Templeton who in the late 1940's was a close friend and preaching associate of Billy Graham. However, he began to doubt the truth of what he preached. His intellectual misgivings eventually led him to deny the very faith he once embraced. He became a novelist, news commentator, and wrote a book entitled, Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith.

In the mid-1990's Lee Strobel, a former atheist who became a Christian, began working on a book that would be entitled, The Case for Faith. He decided it would be very interesting to interview the old atheist. Templeton was then 83 years old.

Strobel asked him about Jesus and was surprised at his response. Templeton said, "He was the greatest person who ever lived. He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I've ever encountered in my life or in my readings. He's the most important thing in my life. I know it may sound strange, but I have to say I adore him. Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I learned from Jesus. He is the most important human being who has ever existed. And if I may put it this way, I miss him." His eyes filled with tears and he wept freely. He refused to say more.

And finally, comes a story from Matthew Parris in The Times (London, 12/27/08). Parris, an atheist, has worked many years in Africa bringing relief aid to the many troubled areas of that continent. He would like to believe that the aid, without faith, is all that is necessary to eradicating problems, but after years of living and working there has come to see that, "far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them."

He continues, "travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

"Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good."

What intrigues me about these stories is that they make a case for unbelievers genuinely questioning the validity of their unbelief. Many times faith is presented as an intellectual absurdity, and unbelievers can sound thoroughly patronizing and condescending when it comes to speaking or writing about believers. But the case against Christianity is not so clear as some people make it out to be. In fact, given a few minutes of serious thought, an unbeliever is likely to see the intellectual and practical validity of Christian faith. Many atheists do, and some embrace faith.

God loves both surprise and irony. He cloaks the mysteries of grace in the apparently foolish weakness of the cross, but His plan also has something intuitively right about it. And occasionally, even the most hard-shell atheist notices. Sometimes you will feel foolish and hopelessly obsolete. Rejoice. You know the secret that evades so many: the foolishness, without question, is the wisdom of God, and God is personally present in you.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

August 28, 2011

"Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." 1 Samuel 18:7

Saul was Israel's first king. David would succeed him, but only in God's timing. David served Saul faithfully, and never sought glory for himself. The verse above is a song or cheer from a group of women after David returned from an especially successful military encounter. David did not instigate it, but when Saul heard it, envy stirred in his heart. He soon tried to kill David, more than once. His reign ended in ignominy.

You don't have to be a king to compare yourself with others, but you risk the same futility. Using others as a measuring stick leads to fault-finding, a disabling sense of superiority, or an unnecessary depression over your own perceived inadequacies. All of these are the fruit of envy, a deadly sin.

The antidote to envy, in part, is gratitude. You are grateful for who you are and the blessings with which God has surrounded you.

One of the richest people I have ever known lived in southwest Mississippi. Her name was Dot Robertson. Dot was a teacher for many years and was especially proud to have been able to work in the public school system, help her school navigate the transition to integration, and especially, in her words, to give students a chance to learn when they did not have much of a chance before. In her retirement years she tended a large garden at her rural home, worked in her church, and enjoyed deep relationships with family and friends. I will always remember with fondness sitting in her kitchen, eating cornbread, and drinking a Mountain Dew that she bought just for me.

Her wealth had nothing to do with her income or estate, neither of which I have any knowledge. It came from a consistent gratitude to God for her life, her family, and the stream of young ministers that came to that little country church to learn something about being a pastor. She was remarkably present, and her sense of presence came from gratitude to God.

This blessing of presence through gratitude can be yours also, but you must take your eyes off of everyone else's accomplishments and be grateful for your own. Thanksgiving is a chief theme in the psalms, and the author of most of them is David. I believe we could trace gratitude throughout his life. He was grateful when he tended sheep or slew a giant. Grateful when he reigned over Israel from Hebron or Jerusalem. Grateful when God blessed and grateful when God corrected.

Relentless gratitude to God opens the spiritual paths to greater understanding of who God is and what He longs to bring you. In gratitude, you realize that He truly does create you for joy, and therefore you can trust God to bring into your life precisely what you need in order to construct of life of real happiness. That kind of blessing has nothing to do with all the things the world counts as valuable. It has everything to do with trusting God and being grateful for what you have instead of feeling sorry for what you do not have.

Are you grateful for where you are in life? We waste a great deal of time pining for something other than who we are or what we have. When I was a teenager, trying to define or understand my identity, I wanted to be someone else. I wanted to be tall enough to play basketball for Kentucky. I wanted to be good looking enough to be popular. I didn't like my hair, my teeth, my frame. It's a fairly common adolescent experience, the problem is some people never outgrow it.

I can remember vividly what helped me out of that cycle. During my junior year in high school I realized I could be kind and that was better than being cool. I could live the way God wanted me to live, enjoy the fruit of the Spirit and trust God would honor that way of living. I don't remember who exactly helped me to see that, but God led me through some good teaching to realize that pleasing Him was far more important than pleasing other people.

I have had to re-learn this lesson many times. But I am at my best when I realize God created me to be Terry Ellis, and that I can trust Him to make of me precisely what is best. My reigning ambition in life is to be the best Christian I can be. That basic, daily commitment brings me a great sense of freedom in Christ.

You can have that freedom too, but you must take careful note of how you look at other people. If you sense you are evaluating and judging then you are in for a rough time, for envy will suck out the joy of each day. Let gratitude become your theme, and rejoice in being present with God.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

August 21, 2011

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son." John 3:16

"Nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:39

These three verses summarize clearly and powerfully the uniqueness, attraction, and promise of your faith. Let's look at each one individually, and then note how different this theology would have been to people in the first century.

"In the beginning God created." The Genesis creation story has nothing about wars among competing gods as in the Enuma Elish. The first book of the Bible simply states that God created everything with a spoken command, with one important exception. He created man and woman, with His hands, forming them and breathing into them His breath. This story is intensely personal.

"For God so loved." The natural extension of God's personal creation is His love for all people. Interpreters argue whether John 3:16 is Jesus' words or John's reflection on what he had witnessed. I believe the latter. John had spent three years in Jesus' personal presence, and a lifetime (perhaps more than 50 years at the writing of the gospel) as His follower. John 3:16 represents his conviction that God loves all of us deeply.

"Nothing will separate you from the love of God." Paul knew the greatest challenge to persevering faith was the difficulties we all face. Romans 8 is one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible. The highpoint for some Christians is vv. 35-39 where Paul considered a wide array of troubles. The struggles do not prove God's lack of care, but become a means for Him to demonstrate His love and faithfulness to you. Wherever you walk and whatever you face, you are not alone.

Now, I want to transport you back to the first century A.D. in, say, Rome. You are a Roman citizen and follow the traditional religion of the day. Here are two important features of the gods you follow: they are distant and capricious.

You have no confidence that Zeus or Hera or Apollo will intervene for you. In fact, the myths you have learned from a child teach you that the gods are reluctant to listen to you and probably will never take notice of you. Your superstitious beliefs have also convinced you that every calamity in life, a storm, an earthquake, a fire, etc. is the result of the gods being angry with you or your city or your empire. Most of your sacrifices and prayers are simply designed to appease the gods and to keep them from squashing you. You fear getting caught up as collateral damage in their schemes and fits of temper. The temples are little more than eating clubs.

Then you hear the Christian gospel, the "good news." It is good news. You learn about one God who created the heavens and the earth and people. You learn His great love for you drove Him to become flesh and die for your transgressions. He offers to come into your life, to dwell there, to guide and care for you. He offers forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Is it any wonder that the gospel ended up taking over the empire?

Now back to today. We have lost the freshness of the three verses above, but your ability to faithfully navigate today's challenges depends on your recapturing the wonder of these three great truths. Your Father in heaven is different. He is close, loving, concerned, and constant. Nothing that happens to you today or this week will affect His love for you and the promise of His gifts to you.

Walk joyfully and confidently.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

August 14, 2011

Jesus said to him a third time, "Do you love me?' And Peter said to Him, "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." John 21:19

The scene for the verse is a stretch of shoreline on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus had prepared breakfast for the disciples. The time is several days to several weeks after Jesus' resurrection, and after He had given them the gift of the Holy Spirit (20:22) to go out and share His story.

We are also several days to several weeks after Peter denied knowing Jesus. That failure on Peter's part probably explains his suggestion at the opening of John 21 to go fishing. Instead of catching men, Peter had decided to just stick with catching fish.

Though speculative, I believe Peter simply could not get over the fact that after he had boasted so loudly about his faith and commitment, he had caved in. The voices of self-condemnation were loud and drowned out the words of grace, and one of those voices was his own. The problem was so serious Jesus made another appearance just to give Peter an opportunity to affirm his love for the Lord (three times, one for each denial), and to tell Peter to get back to the business Jesus had called him to in the first place.

Peter needed to hear the words again from Jesus, and I think he needed to say the words of grace to himself.

All of us have an internal recording that plays again and again. These are the words, images, and evaluations we have of ourselves. Whether you realize it or not you are continually telling yourself what you think of you!

Having questioned a great number of people about their internal recordings for many years, I have discovered that a great majority of those recordings are negative. People are constantly down on themselves. A failure in some area (relationships, work, religion) has led these folks to make themselves judge, jury, and jailer. Self-condemnation has imprisoned them.

Are you in that kind of prison this morning? Peter was, but Jesus helped him to be free. He can help you also.

One step out of this prison is to stop accepting the unfair criticism of the least godly around you. Without doubt, a godly critic can provide for some needed correction in your life, but you are probably listening to the wrong people. If your critics are not Christ-like, they did not come from God. Remember, you will not be liked by some people. If someone feels compelled to tell you, or tell others, how much they dislike you, that is not a "you-problem!" Stop listening to your un-Christ-like critics.

A second step involves dealing with your own real failures. Peter should not have denied Jesus,. but once he did, and once he realized his mistake, he needed to receive forgiveness, learn, and move on. A part of moving on means forgiving yourself.

That phrase is so overused that it has lost some of its necessary meaning. To forgive yourself sounds like you're making excuses and setting up yourself for the next stumble, and often that is the case. But Peter's story does alert us to a real need for self-forgiveness.

Your reluctance to forgive yourself arises either from striving for perfection or from striving to please everyone around you. Both motives are plainly unrealistic and deadly. Entering into this negative input loop of constant nit-picking and self-doubt ensures only that you will never be able to punish yourself enough and that you will always remain imprisoned.

Accepting the fact you're faulty is not an invitation for failure, it is a common-sense approach to allowing God's grace more deeply into your life. When you fall, do not keep kicking yourself. You confess. You receive. You move on. Failure to do this keeps you in prison. Trust me, God is not the one holding the key. You are, and the door is already open!

Think about this carefully: had Jesus already forgiven Peter before their encounter on the shore? Of course. So why the encounter? I believe Jesus was inviting Peter to join Him in the grace of forgiveness. "Step on out of prison, Peter. The door is unlocked. It always has been." He is saying the same thing to you.

It's time for you to step out of prison too and get on with the life God has given you. Speak the words of forgiveness to yourself. God spoke them to you long ago.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

August 6, 2011