Let’s see, what do I have to do today?
Cook for next week, ponder the mysteries of the universe, cut my toenails, worship practice, and ah yes – appreciate the bloggers who like my posts consistently!
Author Archives: Brandon Adams
Reflections on “The Case for Christ”
“Stop blaming me, and the church, and God, and do your job!”
That exclamation from a Christian to the character of atheist Lee Strobel in Pure Flix’s The Case for Christ (based on the book of the same name) landed on my soul like an affirming balm. I wanted to fist-pump. Echoing in those words is the frustration and annoyance of Christians worldwide and down through the millennia.
It’s not that getting mocked for our faith surprises us (as long as we’ve read our Bible). What’s frustrating is how lazily it’s done.
Renouncing the “Manipulative Mother” God
Have you ever been convinced that God is deliberately withholding something from you so that you’ll become more satisfied in him?
We want something. Said something delays and proves elusive. We consider the idea that God is behind the delays and start exploring the reasons why he might say no (a long research, as many of us know).
We discover a number of possibilities, each with a basis in Scripture. We learn that we might simply need to persist in prayer. Elijah did – and on something that he not only already knew was God’s will (making it rain) but held the sole responsibility in Israel for making happen, by God’s own decree.
We consider the possibility that our requests might not be as beneficial for us as we think (or that their timing might not be).
We learn that Satan has a role in our lives, and that God provides tools for resisting his ravages.
We examine our own hearts and lives to make sure our own sin is not setting us back.
But stick to your search for long enough and one theory will start cropping up and standing out more than any other: the idea that God is saying no purely to make you more satisfied in him.
If you’re reading the right pastors and authors, this one will find its way into your vocabulary. “Satisfied in him” is probably John Piper’s favorite three words. It was John Eldredge who introduced me to the idea: that God will allow difficulty or delay into our lives and prayers every once in a while, in order to purge us of our distractions and fruitless pursuits.
At first, it’s interesting from an academic point of view. You nod and acknowledge the fact that God alone is worthy of our praise, worthy of our highest value, worthy (and capable) of being the one vessel of satisfaction from which our hearts can draw.
But as time goes on, the idea gets…irritating.
You might already be irritated just having read it in my post.
At some point down the road, in a moment of deep frustration or heartbreak, you get honest: “God, why do you have to be this way?” It strikes us that God appears to be acting like that manipulative mother you see in bad teen movies, the type who sabotages her daughter’s relationships so that she’ll stay at home. “Why are you jealous of my happiness?” we bitterly pray. Perhaps the thought only flashes through our mind instead, and we guiltily stuff it down, but it still happened. It’s a vulnerable moment, as God seems distant and indifferent to our groaning prayers.
But God is not acting out of fear, loneliness, or pettiness, as the manipulative mother might. Such motives are impossible for him.
Instead, he is acting out of his delight for us.
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. – Hebrews 12:6-8
If unanswered prayers are a form of suffering (and they certainly can be, depending on the prayer), then they are also a form of discipline – and a sign of God’s ownership and acceptance of us. I’d rather that than getting everything I want but wondering whether I was really his.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. – C.S. Lewis
That statement is quite alien to our daily thinking. We think we can get it. We really do. Just answer this prayer, give us this thing, and we’ll be good. Many of us don’t know that we can experience peace from God, much less that it’s more real than anything else.
God is not playing spoilsport, holding good things spitefully out of reach until we give him some attention. He is sweeping ugly spikes and pits out of the way until we can receive his greatest gift: himself. The idea that he is the greatest gift requires a total rearrangement of our worldly thinking. But it is a journey worth taking.
To the Mother Who Second-Guesses Herself
Humility requires me to speak respectfully, even in awe, when it comes to motherhood. I have not yet been a parent, and I will never be a mother.
But I have learned this, mothers, thanks to my years in youth ministry: you have regrets. No matter how well your children have turned out, as they cross the stage and flip their tassels, all smiles with relief, you long to have some days back. Even when I’m thinking, amazed, “Are you kidding? I’ve known your kid for years. They’re awesome!”
The longing is greater in some mothers. But the mammoth task of motherhood is bound to leave holes in all of us. A mother can find the tiniest flaw in her own mother-work, as surely as she can spot a speck of dust.
I want to encourage today. Yet I will never been a mother. I speak better than I know.
But I have been a child.
And I can say this with great certainty to many mothers: your children are probably thinking far better of you than you are.
3 Scriptures That Have Nothing to Do with Getting What You Want from God
You all know the telephone game. A bunch of people sit in a circle, whispering a sentence from one person to another, until the last person announces what he or she heard. The results are usually hilarious. 
This can happen to the Bible, with tragedy instead of hilarity. We run the risk of distorting Scripture if we are not cautious stewards.
Unlike players of the telephone game, we get to check with the original source. If we read with open eyes and honest hearts, there’s little risk of deception. But when we operate on memory, things get messy. Occasionally, those messes go viral and become embedded in our churches – churches that are quite happy to win your attendance by telling you that God will grant your requests. Our hearts are tricky. They want to listen to the “taglines” they’re hearing – common distortions of Scripture that seem to guarantee he’ll say yes.
God is good. Bring your requests to him.
But don’t quote these taglines at him if you don’t want spiritual egg on your face. This isn’t the way to go about things.
#1. God won’t give you more than you can handle.
Boasting in My Weaknesses???
I hate my brokenness.
I want it to end.
It’s been a tough week at work. The kind that leaves you feeling like a rusting wreck in the desert. Ever found yourself dreading going to work and finding out what little mistake is coming back to bite you this day? You’re breathing, so yes.
I know my weaknesses well. We’re old acquaintances. Not friends, though. I want them out of my life.
Tonight, though, I have to deal with the fact that they’re not conquered yet, that tomorrow hasn’t come yet, that the next opportunity to win hasn’t come yet. I have to deal with the shame and inadequacy that swarm toward this vulnerable chump like flies toward a carcass.
I’m reminded of a familiar saying.
God does not call the qualified; he qualifies the called.
But…there’s a but in my heart.
Not Excited Enough
A few years ago, I and my friends DJ and Sarah, married for 2.25 years, took a road trip to Seattle. We were visiting our respective families, and as a bonus, DJ and I were going to catch a Seahawks game (during what turned out to be their Super Bowl season).
As we drove along a remote highway with the sun just dawning behind us, I remembered that I needed to check something on our online tickets. I’ve never bothered keeping up with the Joneses, so I had no smartphone. I asked DJ if I could borrow his, and I went to Google to type in my mailbox’s address. Well, as you know, when you use Google, it brings up the user’s Google “search history”. Here’s how DJ’s search history looked:
“what to eat while pregnant”
“how to exercise while pregnant”
“maternity clothes”
My mouth dropped open. I showed the screen to DJ with raised eyebrows and in his classic aw-shucks form, he grinned, “Oh. Yeah.”
They were gonna have a kid!
I was ecstatic. Two of my favorite people in the world and now there would be more of them??? Hot dog!!!! The world could only be improved by this development.
But the cool part was – I was actually the first person to find out besides DJ and Sarah themselves. Their real purpose for their trip (Seahawks, psh) was actually to announce the coming baby to her family; his family hadn’t heard yet. By accident, I, just a friend, intercepted a giant gobsmack of very privileged information. It was humbling, but also quite sneakily cool. Now, of course, that gobsmack is a delightful little girl of almost three, running around the church sanctuary with hands in the air and jumping up and down on the pews during worship.
And as I sat in church this last weekend behind that very family, hearing about the mystery of the Gospel, a question occurred to me.
Why was I more excited about that news than I ever am about my salvation?
Another 5 Tips for Christian WordPress Bloggers
I decided to write another one of these. You can find the first here, though that was shorter than this one. (And now you can find the others here, here, and here.)
6. Use a great title
Believe it or not, a good title is probably 51% of your blogging work.
As I mentioned before, you’re not just writing – you’re competing. With hundreds of posts in everyone’s WordPress Reader. For those users, your title is their only introduction to your work. You have to ensure that it’ll actually grab people, tempt them to click.
Let’s sample some titles currently showing in my Reader:
The “Foolish” Cross
I used to scratch my head wondering why the world would call the gospel of Christ “foolish”.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18)
I could see the world hating God for requiring something of them morally (even though his yoke is easy and his burden is light).
I could see the world hating God for people undergoing eternal punishment
(even though he offers a way out, paid with his Son’s blood).
I could see the world hating God for allowing or seemingly ignoring, in the Bible, things that don’t match up with my 21st century Western worldview (like war or slavery).
I could see all that. I wouldn’t agree with it – he is beyond our accounting – but then again, I hardly expect the world to understand (yet) things that are only revealed by the Spirit they reject. From their limited standpoint, their hatred of God makes sense. I pray for their eyes to be opened.
But why would they think of God, or anything from God, as foolish, as 1 Corinthians 1:18 says? Judgmental, callous, unfair in their eyes, maybe, but foolish?
Then I started thinking, “Well, what does the world want from God?”
This Could Really Be the Last Day You Fail
We all have something dogging us.
And we’ve had so many go-arounds with this particular enemy – some weakness, some vice, some habit seemingly iron-wrought or seemingly genetically hard-coded – that it’s turned the idea of victory into distant foolishness…even though you know that victory is God’s will, and that with his commands comes the power to obey.
Perhaps victory seems attainable during moments when we’re in the clear, when temptation is at bay. Or at church, or after the prayer of repentance, when you’re bowled over by God’s grace and power.
But once the bell rings again, and you’re standing in front of the refrigerator or the computer or that person at work who needs your patience rather than your anger, the optimism fades fast. A deeper layer of doubt is revealed in your heart. I can’t do it. If we succeed for a little while, it switches to, I can’t possibly keep this up forever. Or the urgency fades after a week and our treacherous minds convince us that one surrender won’t hurt and…it ends up being more than one surrender.
Don’t you sometimes just wake up and want to be free of all that? For good?
Brandon J. Adams 