Exchange Question: "Why is our world changing so rapidly?"

Here's one reason: Marketers! Let me try to explain...

“It slices! It dices! It will mow your lawn or give your toddler his first haircut! And look…the blade never gets dull!”

You’ve probably seen them on TV; sweaty, loud, energetic salesmen trying hard to convince you that for just 5 payments of $19.99 your wildest dreams can come true. But what are they selling? Oh yeah, that’s right, steak knives! Do you think that you can trust this guy? Is he telling the truth, or is he getting paid to make you think that he is telling the truth?

Did you know that there are people who get paid to convince you that the most important thing about you is whether or not you are a cool person? They are called “marketers.” They work for huge corporations and study you like lab rats in order to see how they can attract you to their products and make money off of you. And many of you actually listen to them.

Think about it. What do you think is cool? I mean, where do you shop for clothes? What kind of music do you listen to? What do you like to do in your free time? What kind of hair style do you prefer? What kind of movies do you like to watch? For you guys, what kind of girl would you like to date? How about you girls, what kind of guy would you love to be seen with in public?

And what do you think of your parents? Do you think they are cool? Do you like to be seen with them in public? Do you like to spend your Friday nights with them? Why not? What do you like to do on a Friday night anyway? How about your teachers; do you like them? Are they cool? Is your school’s dress code cool? Or maybe you attend a school without a dress code; that’s pretty cool, huh?

Who decides what is cool? And who decided that you should care about what is cool in the first place?

I challenge you to think hard about these questions. What is cool in your world? Who is cool to you? More than that though, why do you think certain things are cool and certain things are not? Where did you learn how to sort through all of that? Who tells you what is cool and what isn’t? How do you decide what is actually cool?

I assume that some of you might answer that question by saying that it has to do with who you were made to be. In the same way that I have always preferred pizza over sauerkraut, you prefer buying low rise boot cut jeans at Aeropostale or The Buckle as opposed to wearing your grandmother’s soft cotton denim pants with elastic in the waist and ankles; or as Saturday Night Live forever dubbed them; “Mom Jeans.” Perhaps there is some truth to that, but who told us that Mom Jeans aren’t cool and never were? Where did we get that?

Now, for the record I agree that Mom Jeans are not cool. But why are we in agreement on this? Why are Americans in widespread agreement that soft cotton denim pants with elastic in the waist and ankles are not cool and never were? I want to suggest to you that it has much more to do with MTV than your DNA.

Let me peel back the curtain a little bit for you to see the way that cool is defined and developed here in 21st century America.

They’re called “cool hunters”; grown adults who during their teen years served as the trendsetters of their generation. They know what it’s like to be the cool kids, because at one time they were the cool kids. Big companies hire them to come to your schools and the malls where you hang out and the places you like to go to have fun so that they can study you to find out what you like and don’t like, what you are interested in, what kind of clothes you like, what your dating relationships are like, and a million other things about you.

Actually, that’s not completely true. The only ones they really care about getting to know are those that you consider to be cool.

These cool hunters then go back to their companies to report what they found out about the trendsetters in your groups. But why? Not so that their companies can then develop products that you like and might very well buy, but so that they can know how to influence you through their advertising to buy the products that they have already developed, whether you liked them beforehand or not. And guess what? It works, and they make billions doing it.

They pay large groups of your peers to attend the concerts of bands on their record labels, and then televise the action for you to see. All you see is a big group of people just like you rocking out to a band you’ve only heard of once, but having so much fun that it makes you want to go out and buy the band’s CD. The result: The band and the record company get paid, because they have convinced you that their band is cool.

These same companies take what they’ve learned about the trendsetters in your groups, and then create TV shows with characters that you can relate to, doing things that you would never think about doing and talking about things that you’ve never even heard of. “Why”, you ask? So that you’ll watch the show of course, after all, who wants to watch a TV show about their own life? How boring is that! The result: After watching these people you can relate to do things that at one time you never even thought about doing, you start thinking about doing them, and eventually for many people, those thoughts lead to very similar actions.

This is the way cool is defined and developed in our day. You live. They observe. They advertise. You change. And you better believe that your changes are being observed and new advertisements will surely come from those observations, which means you will continue to change if you continue to allow corporate America to tell you what is cool. This is why the things that were cool yesterday are not cool today, and the things that are cool today will not be cool tomorrow; one of the big reasons why our world is changing so rapidly.

But please hear me out on this. They do not care about you! They do not care about what you wear or what you say or what you do with your life, and they do not care about the consequences you might face for bowing down to this god called “cool”. They don’t even really care about the things you like and don’t like. The only reason they want to know what you like and what you don’t is so that they can sell you something that you wouldn’t like unless they told you that you should like it, which is exactly what they do.

In other words, they are using you. They are ones who are the most responsible for the idea that you should care about being cool. They are the ones telling you that you should care. But they are not telling you because they genuinely believe it, or because they think you will be better people for it, but because you put dinner on their tables, BMWs in their garages, and Armani suits on their backs.

Will you let them continue to use you to bring about change?

What Happened at the Cross?

Today is Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, the Friday where the calendar stops to remember the death of Jesus. In honor of this day, I want to stop to remember what the Cross put on full display: The love of God.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, chapter 5, these memorable words:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:6-8 – ESV)

Someone has once said, "Jesus didn't die for frogs." The point in this statement is to show how much more valuable to God we are than frogs. It’s a kind of self-esteem perspective dressed up in Christian lingo, which is very common today. But does Jesus’ death tell us about how valuable we are, or does it teach us something else?

In our day, it seems that the common answer given to solve just about any life problem is the same answer that is given in order to help people be successful in just about any life situation. In our day, the answer to all of life's problems is self-esteem, or loving yourself. It’s the answer to depression. It’s the answer to marriage problems. It’s the key to financial success. It’s the pathway to getting promotions at work. It’s the key to getting good grades. It’s the key to good relationships. It’s the answer to just about every problem that many counselors face today. One website says that this thing is “your key to happiness and success” and that having it can lead to success and even a longer life! So-called experts say it is what every child needs from their parent since, as they say, it is the key to making important life decisions. Many say it is the key to avoiding peer pressure and even to making friends.

So, when it comes to the bloody death of the Son of God on the Cross, many Christians take their self-esteem worldview and read it into the sacrifice of Christ, saying that Jesus' death shows us just how valuable we are; how special we are; how great we are.

But does Romans 5:6-8 really teach us about how special we are, or does it teach us about something else?

I want to suggest that the love of God shown in the death of Christ says nothing about how great we are, and everything about how great God is. Clearly, the point of this passage is not in any way to show us how valuable we are, but to remind us what God has done for us, showing how valuable He is and how knowing Him gives a person joy in terrible circumstances. Clearly the passage is about Him, not about us. Looking at the Cross and coming away thinking that we are valuable is no different than for an escaped convict to look at the reward out for his capture and think that he is a good and valuable person. How twisted is that? The reward money says nothing of his value, but everything of his sinfulness and danger to society. That is how it is in this passage. The point is not to show us how great we are, but how great God is. Christ did not die for us because we were good, but because we are sinners and God is good.

The death of Jesus should not lead us to think that we are great, but that we are dirty, sinful, unclean, rebellious misfits who deserve death, but who have been rescued by a gracious and infinitely merciful God.

The Cross is not meant to show us how great we are but how great God is. But why does this matter? Let me ask you: Why is it important to have a high view of God? 2 reasons. First, it gives us joy (happiness rooted in a strong confidence in God) even in hardship. And second, it leads to eternal life.

What Paul is saying in the passage we have looked at, is that God’s love for us (in the Cross – for while we were yet sinners…) enables people to rejoice even when their life goes down the drain. No matter what happens, we can rejoice today because Christ’s death is a constant reminder that Christ will take care of us in the end, if we trust in Him. How could having high self-esteem ever give a person that?

This leads to reason #2 why having a high view of God is important. As Paul goes on to say:

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:9 - ESV)

This is something that the self-esteem idea completely overlooks and denies, and that is, you can have every kind of success that the world has to offer and still miss the most important thing in the world, and be judged by God eternally in hell for not taking Christ seriously. As Jesus made very clear: Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it…For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Matthew 16:26 – ESV)

Loving yourself might make you a successful business man or a better athlete or a better student. It might make you more fun to be around or even get you a few more “friends.” But loving yourself will never make a person right with God, because it makes people think that they don’t need to be right with God. Why would a person appreciate what God has done on the Cross (poured His wrath and love out at the same time – causing Christ’s death while saving people who trust in Him at the same time) if he thinks that he doesn’t need salvation in the first place? That’s where loving yourself leads. Deception and eventually Judgment.

Loving God however, might lead to a more difficult life on earth (explain – new values = new investments = suffering), but in the end, it leads to eternal life. In the end, it deals with our most important need; our need for Christ and to be made right with God.

I challenge you on this Good Friday; will you get serious (if you are not already) about things that truly matter? Will you get serious about Jesus Christ, and pleasing Him and obeying Him? Will you acknowledge the goodness and greatness of God in every area of your life – in your successes (I only succeed because of Him) and in your failures and sufferings (He is good and is making me holy through this); in your relationships (loving people because God loved you) and in your private time (spending time reading and trying to get to know Him through the Bible)? Or will you love yourself, and ignore the most important reality in the world – Jesus Christ was crucified for you? I challenge you to look at the Cross and acknowledge the greatness and value of God in your life, living like He is the most important One in the world and that everything we do is for Him.

Do All Roads Lead to God?

Here is what we talked through at the last Exchange.

There is an old fable (possibly Buddhist) that tells the story of a group of blind men that walked into a king’s courtyard, where they ran into a massive elephant. One of the blind men felt around on the elephant and grabbed hold of a tusk and said that an elephant is like a spear. Another man touched the leg of the elephant and concluded that an elephant is like a tree. Then another of the men rant into the side of the elephant and decided that an elephant is like a wall. On and on the men went; each one coming to a different conclusion about what an elephant is like.

Before long, the king heard the men arguing with one another about their interpretations of the nature of an elephant, and ran out to his balcony and shouted at the men, telling them that each of them were only describing a small part of the elephant, and that the elephant included all of the things that they had discovered.

The point of that story is to say that all religions are simply identifying aspects of ultimate reality, but that all of them are in fact true, and one day we will discover that they all led to the same ultimate truth.

Why do you think this is the attitude of so many people today? What factors have led to making this a widespread attitude? Here are a few...

1. Globalization – In what ways has the world gotten “smaller”? In what ways are people of different cultures able to connect without moving away from their homes? (TV, Internet, Ease of Travel, etc.)

2. Immigration – Take a city like Chicago, for example. In Chicago there are over 100,000 Hindus, 150,000 Buddhists and 250,000 Muslims. In fact, Chicago is the 2nd largest Polish city in the world! People that Americans would once look at as being from strange and exotic cultures are now they’re our next door neighbors. And so, we’ve had to try to learn how to live together in peace.

3. Pragmatism – We live in a society that determines its direction based on whatever works; whatever produces results, whatever feels good, whatever gives us what we are looking for. This attitude completely transfers over to many people’s choice of religion. Many people choose their religion based on what they are looking for in religion. Whatever religion gives them what they are looking for; that’s the religion that many are going to choose.

4. A Re-definition of “tolerance” – Tolerance used to mean that I will treat you with respect and dignity despite the fact that I disagree with you on certain important issues, and will treat you with respect and dignity even when I am expressing my disagreement with you on those issues. Now however, tolerance means that I am never allowed to say anything negative about another religion's beliefs or practices, and that I must never say or do anything that another person or religion would find offensive. What is the problem with that definition?

We could go on and on, and talk about things like our belief that sincerity and authenticity is more important than truth; the work that many critiques of the Bible have done try to disprove its trustworthiness; that growing skepticism over whether or not we can know anything at all; the loss of confidence (for these reasons) in the Bible; the stupidity and sin of professing Christians; the idea that atheism is the greatest enemy of Christianity; the values of many public school systems; our growing discontent with violence and wars; etc.

The reasons that so many people in our day believe that all religions lead to the same God, or that all religions are equally valid (or as some would say invalid and untrue), are endless. But, what I want to say is, “The reasons do not matter!” There are all kinds of reasons so many people believe this way (including many professing “born again Christians” (Barna Survey – 43% of “born again Christians” are pluralistic in their thinking), but the question we need to ask is; “Are all religions compatible with one another?” Are all religions equally valid? Do all religions simply have a piece of the larger pie?

To Those Who Would Answer, “Yes”:

Which “god” do all religions lead to? Do they lead to the god of the Jews? Allah? Brahman? The Christian God? It is impossible for god to be everything these religions claim, because much of what they teach about god contradicts one another. So if all religions lead to god, what is this god like? Which god do these religions lead to? And how do you know? How do you know that the god these religions are supposed to lead to is actually okay with people who believe him to be different than what he really is? How do you know that this god is going to accept billions of people who thought seriously wrong thoughts about him? How do you know that this god doesn’t care that people think of him rightly? How do you know this god is going to be so lenient with people who totally got him wrong? The reality is, you don’t know. And neither does anyone else who says that all roads lead to God. But if that is the case, how do you know for certain that all religions lead to the truth? You can’t.

What do you do with conflicting views between religions? If one religion says that god was once a very holy man who lived such a holy life that he was given a universe of his own to rule over (Mormonism), and another religion says that everything is god (Hinduism), and another religion says that there is no god (Theravadan Buddhism), while other religions say that there are many gods (Hinduism, Mahayan Buddhism, Epicureanism), and still other religions claim that there is one god who is self-existent and creator of all things (Judaism, Islam, Christianity), then which one is right?

If you go on to say that “A” is right, then how can you be so confident that all religions lead to god? But if you say “we don’t know which one is right” then how do you know that anyone who disagrees with you on that point is wrong?

Or, you could go on to say that these only seem to be contradictions between religions. But if that’s the case, you have just created a world for yourself that makes absolutely no sense. Imagine, if our world tried to operate on the idea that contradictions are not really contradictions… The reality is, it could not function that way.

Remember the law of non-contradiction! The law of non-contradiction says, “Nothing can be and not be in the same way at the same time.” An apple can be red or green, or it can be a little red and a little green, but it cannot be completely red and completely green at the same time, according to the law of non-contradiction. Remember the law of non-contradiction, because if you don't, you end up in absurdity.

Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned. (Avicenna, Medieval Philosopher)

Or perhaps you’ll like this poem:

We believe there's something in horoscopes,
UFO's and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha
Mohammed and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher although we think
his good morals were bad..

We believe that all religions are basically the same…
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.
(“Creed” by Steve Turner – British Poet)

Those statements show in a funny way, just how impossible it really is to live consistently and to defend the idea that all roads lead to the same place, if in fact that’s what you think.

Does God Spoil the Party???

Here's another question that was asked at The Exchange a few weeks ago.

Why does God consider enjoyable things sins?

I am sure that this is a question many of us have had at one point or another, especially when we want to do something that we see God forbidding in the Bible. The reality is, there are certain things we like to do, that God tells us we should not do. What are we to make of that. If we enjoy doing them, why would God not want for us to do them?

First of all, it should be said that God is by no means the big cosmic party pooper. God is not trying to prevent you from having fun. He is not trying to make sure that you do not enjoy your life, in fact His desire for you is that you enjoy life to the fullest. Don't believe me? Read through the Gospel of John sometime. Here's what you'll find.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life... (John 3:36)

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst..." (John 6:35)

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

...these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

Please hear these words. God wants you to have life! He wants you to experience real joy! He is not in the business of spoiling your fun. He wants to maximize your pleasure and joy, but there is only one place where true joy and pleasure is found; in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Read those passages in John again. Where is it that abundant life is found?

So, if there are things you enjoy doing that God forbids in the Bible, it is only because those things do not lead to life. There are certain kinds of pleasures that lead directly to eternal punishment and death, and if they do, we should not play around with them, because God certainly doesn't.

I don't think the question here is, "Why does God consider certain things we enjoy to be sin?" but "Why do we enjoy sin in the first place?" C.S. Lewis nailed it with this answer:

We are half-hearted creatures...like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses")

The truth is, we have no idea what fun really is.

The Exchange!

Just a reminder that The Exchange is this Saturday, from 6-8:30pm. See you there!