Return from Malawi

Dear friends, April 19, 2011

We are back from Malawi and settled into life in Melbourne. Honestly, we left a portion of our hearts in south eastern Africa. Our two weeks were filled with experiences of God’s grace as we each had opportunities to invest in others with the hope of the gospel.
Michael was able to serve in the clinic at African Bible College and found a renewed passion to be a medical doctor serving in Africa. He shadowed the medical staff and worked in the lab learning how to diagnose malaria. He saw Doctor Young unite the spiritual with the physical as she prayed with every patient she saw. Michael also used this time to draw near to Jesus. During this time, Michael was able to consecrate himself anew to Jesus and experience great confidence in God’s call. Even when he faced adversity, he responded in a humble trusting fashion. He also became convinced that the best school for his future call is Covenant College in Chattanooga, TN.
Michael spent a lot of time with Shea Dehnert. (Michael’s brother is married to Shea’s sister.) Michael and Shea knew each other before but on this trip they began to build a closer bond. It was good to watch their friendship grow. One day, they chose to watch a basketball game on campus. African Bible College Christian Academy, where Shea attends school, was playing their cross town rival. Only one referee was available. It was soon discovered that Michael is a certified referee in Florida and he was asked to officiate. So he is now an internationally experienced referee. He loved serving in this capacity.
Robin’s task was to help Julia, the teenage girl from our church who came with us on the trip. Robin and Julia served at the Academy each morning. They helped in a first grade class and the preschool. Robin also joined Julia on our trips to the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery where they played with and fed orphaned infants. It was beautiful to watch Robin exemplify Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves: do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Robin cared for Julia, encouraged our team members, spent time helping Connie Dehnert, and found every opportunity available to serve those around her.
Vince mostly just preached. He preached fourteen sermons from Monday morning through Friday morning. He spoke on the topic of being “Set Free to Love.” We know that God calls us to love but we do not always love. Vince is convinced that our own desire to be loved and valued prevents us from giving ourselves in love to others. He discussed this dilemma and provided a call to live out Psalm 23:5, “my cup overflows.” God has given us more love than we need so that we can love others for Him. He also preached at Maula Prison from Matthew 11:28-30, inviting the inmates to find rest in Jesus.
On our first Sunday in Malawi we visited a Presbyterian Church in the city where a student from African Bible College was being installed as the new pastor. Pastor (Abusa) Tembo had served for nine years in the villages before receiving this call. Pastors from all over the central region of Malawi gathered for this celebration along with many of their members. Twenty or more pastors gathered around Abusa Tembo to bless him and offer him words of encouragement. He was challenged to keep the focus of his ministry on the gospel of Jesus. Choirs from each of the visiting congregations sang, several men preached, and every congregation was individually welcomed. The building was filled to capacity and several hundred gathered outside, sitting in the grass or peeking in through the windows to rejoice for Kafita Church and Abusa Tembo. The service lasted over five hours. Vince had more occasions that week to spend with Abusa Tembo. He is a very humble and dignified man who loves Jesus and the flock he has been called to serve. Please pray for pastor Tembo.
God blessed our trip. Now we are seeking to minister at Cornerstone Fellowship. The struggles of ministry continue to face us. The power of the gospel is still revealed as people trust God. We are grateful that God has honored us by calling us into service. There is a possibility that Vince could return to Malawi for two weeks in January to teach a block course at the college and maybe provide some counseling. Please pray about this opportunity.
How can we say thank you enough. You invested in a culture in desperate need of hope. Throughout Malawi you see ministries with hope in the name, Ministry of Hope, Hope of the Nations, Partners in Hope, etc. Malawi needs hope. By your support of us, we were able to enflame the hope of the future leaders in Malawi. Through the work of African Bible College men and women are prepared to lead this impoverished nation. We saw graduates of ABC who are now serving as leaders of the church, leaders of NGOs, and even in the government. God is using African Bible College to change Malawi. Your prayers and financial gifts helped to affect that change. Thank you!
In Jesus’ love,



Vince, Robin and Michael

The Heart (an excerpt from Napkin Chats: Counsleing over Coffee)

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
For years I have been afraid to work on an engine. Whether the engine is in my car or a lawn mower, I am nervous. I have discovered that my reticence is tied to my ignorance. I simply do not know how a combustion engine works. I do not know what its parts are or what they do. My ignorance leaves me unwilling to try to repair my engines.
In my years of pastoral ministry, I have found that a similar ignorance leaves God’s people in a state of disrepair. Many Christians, and even ministers, do not really understand how God has designed the human heart. We cannot articulate its parts and we do not really grasp how each part works. Therefore when faced with a significant struggle in our own life or the life of a friend, we do not know how to bring real change in their lives. Those who are aware of their ignorance refer the struggling friend to a ‘professional’ who may or may not know how to help.
As I think of my fear of working on an engine, I suppose it is good that I let someone else work on my engines. I could do some real damage if I tried to repair an engine while remaining ignorant of its proper working. In the same way, some Christians try to help people when they themselves do not know how the heart works. They offer counsel to hurting people but their counsel is based on an inadequate understanding of How God has made us. With this errant perspective, their counsel is doomed to failure. This leaves many Christians with the conclusion that counseling is of no use. They continue in their struggles, never finding the relief that God provides.
Ephesians 4:14-16 tells us:
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
When God’s gifted leaders speak the truth in love, Christian individuals are empowered to stand firm and affect the world as salt and light. I am convinced by the scripture and my experience of seeing many Christians transformed, that we need to understand how God has made us. As we understand what the Bible says about the heart, we will be better able to impact this world.

The Heart:
Proverbs 4:23 says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." Notice how important the heart is to God. He says, from it flow “springs of life”, literally the issues of life. The word translated as “springs” comes from a root meaning “to go out.” The idea of a spring is that the spring is where the water goes out of the earth. The heart is the spring from which life flows out of us. Thus, it is of great importance to guard our heart. The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament says, “before all that one has to guard…guard it [the heart] as the most precious of possessions committed to thy trust.”
The Scripture refers to the heart as man's mind, will, and emotions. It may refer to any one of these individually or any combination of the three.
In John 16:22, Jesus says to His disciples, “Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.” Jesus says that the emotion of joy occurs in the heart. In Psalm 19:8 we read, “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart…” Again it is the heart that experiences joy. Because the Lord is with him, David's heart is glad in Psalm 16:9. The king noticed Nehemiah's sadness of heart in Nehemiah 2:2. In Romans 9:2 Paul describes the grief in his heart concerning the lostness of his countrymen. The Bible places the emotions firmly in the arena of the heart.
The heart is also the place where the will resides. The Bible, somewhat frequently uses the phrase “hardened heart.” 1 Samuel 6:6 says, “Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed?” Pharaoh hardened his heart when he refused to allow Israel to leave Egypt. Pharaoh saw the signs demonstrating God’s power and yet he chose to resist God. This purposeful choice is called a hardened heart. Look at Psalm 119:112, “I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes forever, even to the end.” David inclines his heart to obedience. He makes the choice to obey God. That choice is an act of his heart. The heart involves both the emotions and the will.
The heart also refers to the mind. Luke 9:47 says, “But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart…” God brought the flood upon the world because He saw that in man, “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” Genesis 6:5. In Psalm 119:10, David hides God's word in his heart so that he will not sin against God.
From these passages we can see that the Bible places the mind, the will, and the emotions in the realm of the heart. The greatest commandment, which is found in Deuteronomy 6:5, says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Mind, will, and emotions united in exclusive love for our God is the greatest objective of our existence. This is the whole-hearted love that we will learn to express during this study.

The Mind
Let’s begin with the mind. Ayn Rand was fond of saying that the mind is man's only tool for survival. Man lacks any instinct that would provide for his life. A lion has such a strong predation instinct that it will sometimes kill more than it can eat. Its instinct to hunt and kill is stronger than hunger. This predation instinct helps the lion to survive and thrive in this world. Man has no such instinct. Man is too small and slow to hunt. He can not run down a rabbit, let alone a deer. Even if he could catch the deer, he lacks the physical power to overwhelm and kill it. He can outsmart his prey. He invents ways of killing the deer from a great distance. By his mind he discovers how to find water and safe foods to consume. He learns how to plant and harvest crops by using his mind. God has given man a mind to enable him to survive in this world. Therefore, as we begin our close study of the heart, we begin by discussing the mind.
We have already discussed the fact that each of us is driven by our need for unconditional love and purpose. Abraham Maslow explained that man operates on a hierarchy of needs. Before we can begin to love or care for others, we must first meet our own personal needs. Every time we fly on an airplane we are reminded of the rightness of this apparently selfish tendency. On each flight the flight attendant reminds us that if the cabin pressure drops we must put on the air mask. We must first secure our own mask before helping others. The reason is that if we fail to secure our own, we become useless to others. Maslow saw the basic needs of man to be food, shelter, and clothing. We are trying to look a little deeper than Maslow looked when we see our ultimate needs as love and purpose. Even though we see different ultimate needs, the fact that these needs must be met in ourselves, before we can help others, is still true. Our mind continually analyzes our current situation and strategizes to assure that our needs are met.
We are designed by God to be needy, dependent creatures. Man's first sin was an effort to live independent of God. The devil introduced to Eve the idea that something she needed could be found outside of God and His commands. He even intimated that God was a boundary preventing her from finding fulfillment. When Adam and Eve believed the Devil and sought fulfillment outside of God, they brought sin to the whole human race. One of the effects of this sin is that now we all have a bent toward seeking love and purpose outside of God. Although we know God, we suppress that truth and seek to meet our needs through creation rather than the creator, see Romans 1:18-23.
The mind is where we think. We receive information, analyze that information, process that information in relation to other ideas we possess, and then we strategize about what to do with it. We may reject it as false, store it as potentially helpful, ignore it as irrelevant, or find ways to implement it for our benefit. All of this happens in our mind. Every day we are flooded with information. Some of it is so familiar that we process it instantaneously. We hear a quiet beep and immediately reach out to touch our alarm clock. We step into the kitchen and see our spouse or child and we respond instantly with “Good morning!” Sometimes we face new information. We step into the kitchen and there is a stranger standing at the counter wearing a black mask. This information is shocking and at first we do not know what to do. Quickly, our mind races to process this information. Instead of greeting the newcomer with “Good morning!” we may run away, or attack-whichever option we decide is more likely to provide for our need of safety. Our mind quickly devises a strategy and our body must then implement that strategy.
Every day we receive information that is false. The world around us is committed to personal safety and the accumulation of wealth. These become the counterfeit of being loved and valued. Unless we are ever vigilant we begin to adopt these values. When we do, we find it more difficult to account for God in our world. Surely the wicked succeed and many righteous are in grave need. We find ourselves in the same dilemma as Asaph in Psalm 73:25. Asaph was perplexed when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. The solution came when he entered the house of God and considered the end of the wicked. They would ultimately be destroyed. You see, Asaph was slowly seduced by his society to believe that personal safety and wealth were signs of success. When he took the time to contemplate His God, truth began to overcome the lies. He saw that, “the nearness of God is my good,” verse 28.
Just as Asaph had to fill his mind with truth in order to resolve the apparent injustice around him, we must actively fill our minds with truth. Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” Transformation occurs through our thoughts. Jesus says in John 8:32, “and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” Truth sets us free; truth that we purposefully put into our minds which frees us from failure and destruction.

The Will:
This freedom is not automatic. To experience it we must exercise our will. The will is the second element of our heart that we need to consider. After we have received information, analyzed it, and processed it in our minds, we strategize about what we should do. Then the will takes over. We choose the strategy that we think will be most successful and we act in faith on that strategy. We never act without our mind. I like to use the illustration that you cannot accidentally stand up. You may stand up when you should have laid down or stayed seated, but standing up requires a decision. In the same way, you cannot accidentally speak a coherent sentence. It may be possible for an accidental word to come out of our mouth. But communication requires the engagement of your mind and the determination of your will. You may speak falsely but you cannot speak accidentally.
Let’s look a little closer at the example of standing up to see the connection between the mind and the will. We may ask someone, “Why did you stand up in the middle of the movie?” “Because I thought it was over.” The mind processed the information based on the movie. It drew the conclusion that the movie was over. The mind established a strategy to leave the theater which required standing up. The will acted. This action was an act of faith that the mind had processed the information accurately and the strategy to leave the theatre was a sound strategy. So the embarrassed movie buff stood up.
The will believed certain propositions which were in error, but it is not the will’s place to analyze, but to believe. It is vital to remember that faith resides in the will-not in the mind. James tells us in 2:26, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” What he is pointing out is that what we really believe, we live out in our life.
If I were to sit in your living room and tell you, “I believe that I am a chicken.” You would not believe me. You would rightly conclude, “Then why are your seated in my living room carrying on a conversation with me? If you really believe that you are a chicken, you should act like a chicken. You should cluck and search for food with your beak, all the while avoiding people.” You see, you would compare my words with my actions. You would base your conclusion on my actions. You know that we live what we believe.
How do you know that? Each of us believes that water comes from the faucet. We demonstrate that faith every time we place a cup under the faucet and turn the handle. We each believe in gravity. We demonstrate our faith by placing our spoon underneath our Cheerios. Faith resides in our will. What we believe directs our life. What we believe is guided by our mind. We do not arbitrarily choose to act. We act in faith on what our mind has concluded is truth. Our mind may be wrong but our action proves our belief.

The Emotions:
The third area of our heart is the emotions. Probably the greatest confusion about our heart revolves around the emotions. For many, emotions are like sensors that discover hidden dangers in the situations around them. Others refer to being led by their emotions. Both of these concepts are inconsistent with the Biblical teaching about emotions. Emotions are not an active element of our heart that can sense problems, discover danger, or drive our thinking. Emotions are always a passive response to our thinking and the success of our volitional strategies.
Imagine placing a rattlesnake next to an infant. Will the newborn experience the emotion of fear? Of course not! Why not? Because the child does not know that the snake is dangerous. I have asked hundreds of people this question. All of them recognize immediately that the mind produces the emotion of fear regarding the rattlesnake. The emotion is a response to the thinking.
Let’s allow the infant to grow up. The infant is now a herpetologist who specializes in rattlesnakes. Will he be afraid? He will be cautious, but his years of experience with snakes will help him to anticipate the snake’s behavior and avoid a painful strike. He will carefully move away, fully aware that if he moves slowly, the snake will not sense danger and will therefore not strike.
On the other hand, if you put the snake next to me, I will be filled with terror. I am convinced that all snakes are malicious creatures that exist to sneak up on people and kill them with either their venomous bite or their creepy touch. My wrong thinking leads me to fear. My snake-loving friends assist me to overcome my fear of snakes by instructing me about snakes. They explain which snakes are venomous and the fact that even venomous snakes do not want to waste their venom on me since I am too big to eat. To the extent that I learn what they are teaching me (the mind) and believe it to be true, putting it into practice (the will), I am freed from the emotion of fear.

Summary:
The greatest commandment is found in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” The heart includes our mind, our will, and our emotions. With our mind we process information and develop strategies to meet our deepest needs to be loved and valued. With our will we implement the strategies. And our emotions respond to our success in meeting our needs. When we remember that God is all that we need, and we choose to rest in Him by demonstrating love to those around us, we find real peace and joy. And that is a good thing!

Religion

Jesus told a story about the final judgment In Matthew 25:31-46.
"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. "And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 'And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' "Then they themselves also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

We are probably familiar with the imagery he gave of sheep and goats. He rewarded the sheep for doing good deeds to Him, while the goats were destroyed for failing in these same deeds. This morning I saw this in a new light.

It is a strong temptation to see the list of things done by the sheep and then engage in those activities. We may even work hard to remember while doing it, “I am serving Jesus.” However, the sheep had no idea at all that they were doing these deeds for Jesus. I wonder if Jesus’ point is that they did these things without the slightest inclination that they were religious activities. The goats seem to be flabbergasted that Jesus points to a religious failure. They ask, “When did we see You, and fail to serve?” The sheep, on the other hand, thought that they had not done anything religiously. They ask, “When did we see You and serve You?”

The difference between the sheep and the goats seems to be found in the fact that the sheep have joined the secular and the spiritual in a simple life. The goats, still trapped in their ritualism, seek to get the religious elements of life right. It may be that the Christian is not the person who smiles at the homeless man as a witness to the love of Christ. Instead, the Christian may be the man who smiles at the homeless man just because he loves people. He isn’t trying to live the Christian life, he is just living. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20-21

Podcast

Hi friends,

Cornerstone Fellowship is trying to podcast our sermons. If you are interested you can subscribe at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=333036720 .

I would love to hear your thoughts.

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

What is Christianity? I mean at the very center of our faith what is there? Maybe I am talking about what C.S. Lewis called, “Mere Christianity” and Chesterton referred to simply as “Orthodoxy”. If we were to compare the faith of Adam, Abraham, Peter, Augustine, Calvin, Sproul, Miquel in Belize, Don Michael in Scotland and Thokosani in Malawi, what would they have in common? The expression of their faiths is vastly different but surely the central characteristics would be the same.

I am firmly convinced of Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology believes that the unifying idea of all of Scripture is the covenant of God. The covenant is, simply put, the terms of man’s relationship with God. We can use lots of words to describe it but the central concept of a covenant is a relationship. I think that relationship with the one true God is the heart of Christianity. God initiated a relationship with His image in creation. That relationship was broken by sin but restored through Jesus. This relationship was at the heart of the Old Testament worship which included sacrifices and feasts. In the New Testament it is central to the sacraments of baptism (in which one enters a relationship with God and His church) and Communion. For this reason Jesus describes the greatest commandments as loving God and loving our neighbor. That is to say, maintaining right relationships.

I am sad that too often relationship with God has been replaced with a reliance on religious rites. The rites are good but not as replacements for knowing Jesus, John 17:3. We read and study our Bibles confident that this is the way to eternal life all the while missing Jesus say to us, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” We list our prayer requests in bulletins and web-pages. We read the list to God expecting Him to heal our diseases and make us prosperous all the while missing that God’s plan for us includes suffering and hardship which enable us to trust Him more tenaciously. Our hope is to be His presence through the difficulties rather than the removal of hardship, Psalm 23:4. And yet we go on in our superstitious religion while God still invites us to more, Isaiah 1:14-18, 29:13; Revelation 2:4, 3:18-20.

A friend recently asked me, “How is Jesus exalted in The Shack?” At first I wanted to write about the truths found in The Shack but I hate being an apologist for men and I do not think he really wanted an answer. Non-the-less, my answer to him is this short observation. Jesus is exalted in The Shack as William Young tries to direct people away for the superstitious elements of Christianity and back to the heart of our faith, a relationship with the one true God.

The Shack: Review of a Review

Recently I had two different people refer me to Tim Challies review of The Shack. I am not a polemicist. Although I loved The Shack, I do not want to defend William P. Young. What i do want to do is encourage God's people to meet the real God who loves us so much that he took on human flesh, died for us, rose again and continues to relate to us through His Spirit. The Shack points us to that goal.

You can access Tim Challies' critique at http://www.challies.com/archives/book-reviews/the-shack-by-william-p-young.php

In the following paragraphs I will respond to some of the comments that Challies makes in his critique. Challies breaks down several flaws he sees in The Shack.

THE TRINITY
“Young teaches that the Trinity exists entirely without hierarchy and that any kind of hierarchy is the result of sin. The Trinity, he says, “are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or ‘great chain of being’… Hierarchy would make no sense among us.” Now it’s possible that he is referring to a kind of dominance or grade or command structure that may well be foreign to the godhead.” That is exactly what William Young says he is referring to. The section quoted above begins on page 121 with a question from Mack, “Isn’t one of you more the boss than the other two?” The issue that Young is addressing in his statements about hierarchy in the Godhead is the issue of “command structure.” It is too bad that Challies missed that part of the story and therefore the point. Apparently he actually agrees with Wiliam Young on this point.

Challies continues, “And the Bible makes it clear that there is some kind of hierarchy even within the Trinity. The Spirit and the Son have submitted themselves to the Father. The task of the Spirit is to lead people to the Son who in turn brings glory to the Father. Never do we find the Father submitting to the Spirit or to the Son.” Does not the Father submit to the Son when the Father answers Jesus prayers, particularly the prayer that He glorify the Son, John 17:1. In this the Father shows the mutuality of submission by giving glory to Jesus. The economic unity of the Godhead as displayed in Ephesians 1:3-14 is clear that the members of the Trinity work in concert with one another, all united in purpose all in absolute agreement with one another mutually submitting to each other in the given arenas of their work in salvation.

Challies writes,“There are other teachings about the Trinity that concerned me. For example, Papa says “I am truly human, in Jesus.” This simply cannot be true. God [the Father—a term that the author avoids] is not fully human in Jesus.” Jesus Himself said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” How is Young’s statement any different? Is it possible that when Papa made the statement he was referring to the unity of the Godhead?

Challies himself stumbles over the concept of the Trinity when he refers to the Father as God and Jesus and the Spirit as distinct from God. “but otherwise God is this woman. Jesus is a young to middle-aged man of Middle-Eastern (i.e. Jewish) descent with a big nose and rather plain looks while the Holy Spirit is played by Sarayu, a small, delicate and eclectic woman of Asian descent. By this point many people will choose to close the book and be done with it. But for the purposes of this review, let’s just assume you are able to get past seeing God and the Holy Spirit portrayed in this way and let’s press on.” Obviously when Challies refers to God here he means the Father. Young avoids this rather common error. He always refers to the members of the Godhead according to their titles, Father, Son and Spirit while together they are God. In fact on page 87 Mack asks, “which one of you is God? I am said all three in unison.”

FORGIVENESS
Challies writes, “Nowhere in Scripture will we find the idea that we can or should forgive an unrepentant person for this kind of crime. Rather, Scripture makes it clear that repentance must precede forgiveness. Without repentance there can be no forgiveness.” Actually the opposite is true. Romans 5:7 indicates that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Ephesians 4:32 calls us to forgive just like God in Christ forgave us. In addition, if repentance precedes forgiveness, have we not made our work a requirement for salvation. Another problem with Challies’ assertion is that it would be possible for someone to be regenerated but not forgiven in that he may not have repented yet. Add to this the difficulty of which sins need repentance before forgiveness? It would be possible, if not probable, that a man has unknown sins that he never repents of doing. By Challies’ statement, he is not forgiven. In fact, no one could be and grace is now removed.

SCRIPTURE AND REVELATION
“’In seminary [Mac] had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects… Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?’” Here we see Young pointing away from Scripture rather than towards it. Through Mack he scoffs at the idea that God has spoken authoritatively and sufficiently through the Bible. The point that Young is making is the exact same point made by Jesus in John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life”. God is not silent. Psalm 19 tells us that He screams through creation. John 13 and 16 both have lengthy sections referring to the work of the Spirit in leading and guiding us. Psalm 37:4 speaks of God subjectively giving us desires. A major point of the Shack is to move believers away from formalism and into a vital relationship with Jesus Christ.

SALVATION
Challies states, “He denies that all roads lead to him (since most roads lead nowhere) but says instead, ‘I will travel any road to find you,’ Whether Young holds to universalism or not, and whether he believes that all faiths can lead a person to God, the book neither affirms nor refutes." The contradiction presented by Challies here is mind-boggling. He asserts that the book neither affirms or refutes whether all faiths lead to God one sentence after he observed that Young “denies that all roads lead to him…but says instead, “I will travel any road to find you.” Young is a little Arminian at best on this point but for Challies to refer to the clear statement that Young makes denying universalism and then assert that Young never affirms or refutes it is intellectually dishonest.

CONCLUSION
Challies frequently opines that Young does not give biblical proof. It seems to me that Challies is asking this novel to be an exegetical work. That is not the point. The book is a novel and is held to different literary standards than a systematic theology textbook.

I think that The Shack is an excellent book. It has weaknesses. Young is fuzzy in some of his theology. The book is also kind of preachy; but most of it is supposed to be God speaking. The Shack challenges the formalistic tradition laden Church to think about her practices. For too long we have treated our faith like a superstitious practice rather than a real relationship with the living God. I for one want to worship a real God; one who is able to be utterl transcendant and yet reach into my life. How about you?

LIES

LIES

I was watching August Rush tonight and was deeply moved by the wonder of innocence. It was not the innocence of never sinning but the innocence of believing the truth. I wept as I thought of my own efforts to make my sons strong by teaching them the lie that pain is natural. Somehow during my life I gave up on hoping that happiness is my natural state. And I have worked to kill that innocence in my own sons. God forgive me and overcome the lies.

We are fed lies throughout our lives. These lies lead us to settle for mediocrity instead of the godish existence that we were designed to experience. I want to consider some of these.

We are told that this is all there is. The idea of heaven is an escape from reality. It is a convenient delusion that makes the pain of our existence bearable. We hear people talk about recently deceased people by saying, "They are better off...” even when these people were truly mean and nasty in their lives. Honest people begin to wonder if all this talk about it being better later is just a smokescreen to hide the pain.

The truth is that there is more than we see. Reality includes things that we simply cannot experience with our five senses. Every child knows it. He expects a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and a loving God. The failure of the first two brings doubt as to the third. But God is real. Look at the stars, consider a blade of grass, a butterfly and your ability to consider them and then try to doubt. Romans says that God has written in our hearts, the child says, "Well duh!"

The alternate lie occurs shortly after a person believes. When we return to childlike faith in the existence of a loving God we are told that is all that matters. The body is just a prison for the soul. We must endure our sentence on Earth and wait for the day when we will be released to our 'spiritual' existence.

And yet when I look into my wife's eyes and see her loving smile at me I know better. When I hold my child in my arms and feel them release themselves completely to my protection, I know that moment is important. When I listen to a woman explain how she was raped by her step-father every day for eight years, and yet she wants to be a good mother to her daughters, I am convinced that the actions we take in this life matter intensely. Life is now not just later.

Every child knows it. They do not dream of survival but of thriving, succeeding and changing this world. Why would a child ever endure 12 years of school if the future here had no value?

Life is wonderful. It really fills me with wonder. We can see green. We can smell cookies baking; hear music and the waves rolling onto the beach. We can touch skin; that warm soft smooth wonder that covers every one of us. We can think, imagine and dream. We can create wonderful things for our pleasure and use. We have friends and family who show us that we are important. We can love so deeply that we would die to bring good to our loved one's life. In this we can feel as God feels. And that matters.

We have heard that we are small, insignificant and even evil creatures who are repulsive to a transcendent God. When we say the wrong thing as children our parents yell at us. "What is wrong with you?, they ask when we act out in public. We are not sure what the answer is but eventually we assume there must be something wrong with us or why would we make people mad.

We go to church and sing, "Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I." and "that saved a wretch like me." The Church buildings are designed to make me feel small. When we do something very well and feel a sense of pride at our accomplishment, well meaning people tell us to be humble and say, "It wasn't me."

A child is born at ease with the world revolving around him. He expects to be cared for. It is right to the new-born that others should meet his needs without question or thanks. As she grows the child thinks that looking at her twirl will give other people joy. She expects others to delight in her because she knows that she is a wonder to behold. And she is right.

I read in the Bible that every human being is the image of God. God says that He loves men and is not ashamed to call them his brethren or children. He takes joy in us. He bragged about Moses' humility and Job's integrity. He was proud of Abraham's faith, David's heart and Daniel's purity. I think that He may be right. There is no question that we sin in heinous ways but that is not the whole story of who we are.

I really love me. I look in the mirror and see a man that I can trust. He will look out for my well being. He is kind and gentle, sometimes impatient but that isn't his heart. He really loves people and wants them to know Jesus. I see people around me who can calculate pi, create from nothing a useful tool, solve an enormous problem or explain to me ideas about God that fill my heart with joy.

No man can take my choice to live and my choice to love life. I can choose, regardless of the punishment, to enjoy this magnificent life that God has given me. Therefore I will not be afraid. If God is for me, who can be against me?

I think that I am tired of these lies. I am not going to believe them anymore. I am going to tell everyone I meet the truth. I hope that some will believe it.