Where your treasure is

Mega Millions logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This shocked me the other day. Remember that Mega Millions prize a couple of weeks ago for hundreds of millions of dollars? Well, this article over at the International Business Times sheds a dark light (ooh, oxymoron) on the situation. And here’s the sentence that made me stop in my tracks:

…poor people in the U.S. – those earning $13,000 or less – spend an astounding 9 percent of their income on lottery tickets.

Hang on, 9 percent?! That’s ridiculous! You don’t have to work for an accounting firm to know that at least 99.9% of those people would be far better off just by cutting out the lottery from their budget, so why, how does that even happen?

Well, it’s called addiction, or more often in Scripture slavery, and John Piper over at Desiring God has responded to the situation in his typical way. There’s really good stuff there, but the final sentence probably sums it up in a good, hard-hitting way:

So, if you win, don’t tithe your lottery winnings to our church. Christ does not build his church on the backs of the poor. Pray that Christ’s people will be so satisfied in him that they will be freed from the greed that makes us crave to get rich.

Which son am I?

Español: Regreso del hijo pródigo, Louvre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m sure most readers of this blog are familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In case you’re not familiar with it (or to briefly remind those who are) here is Jesus’ story from Luke 15:

There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’

Here’s the contrast between the sons:

Son 1, the younger son, was separated from his father because of his own pride, selfish ambition, and disrespect. Pretty much anyone in the world could tell you he’d been a bad boy, and the results of his actions show karma at work – who wants to long for pig food?

Son 2, in contrast, had always been a good boy. He’d served his father, he’d been obedient, and yet he’s the one who at the end is separated from his father. Wow.

It doesn’t make sense, does it?! The bad guy gets a party in his honour while the good guy sits outside in the darkness on his own? But it does when you realise that this story isn’t really a story about ‘the prodigal son’, it’s about the father! The father goes out to meet both sons; he runs out and hugs his repentant Son 1, and leaves the party to entreat Son 2…do you see that the distinguishing factor here isn’t their works, it’s their response to their Dad?

An atheist I was chatting to recently said that she didn’t believe in God because there are so many different versions of God (Muslim, Jew, etc) that they must all be wrong. Ridiculous logic, but there you go. But she is wrong. There are not different versions of God, there is one true God and a whole bunch of false gods (one of which is the false god of atheism – discuss).  The question really is: how do you tell which god is the real one?

I’ll tell you which one: the God who guarantees your eternal destiny right now by grace through your faith in the completed work of his Son’s life, death, resurrection and ascension. Anyone trusting in some form of their own good works is excluding themselves from the party!

Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
(Psalm 2:12)

1,600 of the best sermons you’ll have ever heard

A bit ago I was told off for just posting a link without much explanation as to what I thought about it. Well, sorry, I’m going to do it again.

The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust is offering 1,600 of the Dr’s sermons for free at their website. That sounds incredibly exciting to me, so please head over and help yourself. You’re welcome.

Please let me know what you think!

Talking reason at Easter

Holy Week at Santhome Basilica, Chennai (HDR) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Sunday Christians around the world celebrated in remembrance that Jesus of Nazareth came back to life after having died.

And of course, a whole bunch of non-Christians either had no idea of what Easter actually is, or they thought something along the lines of ‘Christians can believe what they want to believe but I refuse to.’ And that must be true, because if they actually believed that Jesus came back to life then they’d be Christians. I rest my case.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out to any non-Christians that have an ear to hear (or an eye to read) that Christians don’t simply believe that Jesus rose again, but that it’s the only logical conclusion to draw based on the mountain of evidence for it.

Over here there’s a transcript of a debate between a Christian and a non-Christian. The Christian basically says ‘here’s the evidence, the only logical conclusion is that Jesus rose again’. The non-Christian has a bit of an odd way of responding: ‘miracles don’t happen, therefore the evidence must be false.’ Clear circular reasoning.

And the non-Christian admits it – here’s his explanation as to why no-one has ever walked on water:

Suppose from the 1850s, we have an account of a pastor of a church in Kansas who walked across this pond during the fourth of July on a celebration, and there were twelve people who saw him do it. The historian will have to evaluate this testimony and have to ask, did he probably do it or not? Now these eyewitnesses might have said that he did it. But there are other possibilities that one could imagine. There might be stones in the pond, for example. He might have been at a distance, and they didn’t see him. There were other things that you could think of. If you were trying to ask for probabilities, what is the probability that a human being can walk on a pond of water unless it’s frozen? The probability is virtually zero because in fact humans can’t do that.

Right…in other words, miracles don’t happen, and I would rather assume that I must be right than properly evaluate evidence that could suggest otherwise. If Jesus Christ was really God, then something as easy as walking on water is easily explainable…

Non-Christian! If you’re still reading, and your mind is thinking that your approach is genuinely logical, allow me to agree with you! But let’s agree together on one more thing: you and I both use reason in light of our equal levels of ‘blind faith’, it’s just that my blind faith is faith that the mountain of evidence is true, whereas yours is blind faith that any evidence that disagrees with your own beliefs must be false. That’s quite impressive faith!

Peeling potatoes perfectly with your bare hands

If you want something that does exactly what it says on the tin, have a watch of this video. I’m trying this one later.