Daddy Issues

A Notification?  This early?

“I’m praying for you.” 

Huh?  Certainly, I appreciate as much prayer as I can get, but generally I can pinpoint a purpose for it.  I wasn’t sick.  I wasn’t having any major crisis. 

I reply “Thanks.  I appreciate it.”

“I know this day is hard for you.” 

This day?  It’s Sunday?  What could be the….

Oh.  It’s Father’s Day.

Father’s Day has always carried with it a variety of feelings.  Typically, it is not until someone else points out the elephant in the room that the weight comes crashing down.  I have no one to celebrate today.

But I have stop letting it be a day of mourning.  Father's Day is a day of remembrance.

Whether your father was completely absent or was less than a model example, I would encourage you to not make today a day of mourning, but a day to remember.

Father's Day is a reminder to three realities: identity, forgiveness, and the strength to forge ahead.

Reminder 1: Fatherlessness is not my identity.

Friend, the accuser will look at you on this day and declare many lies.  "You are not loved."  "You will never not hurt."  "If he could leave, so could God."

Satan's method is always to make us identify by something other than the Word of God.  When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, he went after Jesus identity by saying, "If you are the Son of God..."  Satan would tempt us by having us question all we are in Christ.

Don't believe his accusations.

Satan's song is loud.  But our Savior's song is louder.

The people of God overcome the accuser by embracing their blood-bought identity.

"And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." - Revelation 12:11

Our value, our worth, our identity, is not grounded in the love of an earthly father, but in the love of our Heavenly Father.  God loves you!  The Son of God displayed it in his blood and by our testimony we declare it.  In the gospel, we find new life no longer defined by fatherlessness, but new life founded upon faithfulness.

God loves you, whether your father did or not.  God is healing your broken heart, no matter how real the pain is.  God will never leave you or forsake you, regardless of how far they fled.

God loved you before the foundation of the world, He sought you out by entering into this world in flesh.  He lived the perfect life none of us could not.  He willingly faced separation from the Father through his death on the cross that we might be adopted by God the Father.  He cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" But, He did not stay dead- God raised Him from the dead!  By trusting in His death on the cross and Resurrection from the dead we have the promise that we will never be forsaken.  Over believers God sings,

"The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;he will exult over you with loud singing." - Zeph. 3:16

This new identity transform how we relate to our past.

Reminder 2: Forgiveness is today's theme song.

As fully forgiven people, we can forgive.  In fact, as fully forgive people, we have no option but to forgive.

"How could I forgive a monster like him!"

But that is where the gospel becomes so much sweeter.  No one has offended you more than we have offended the Father by our sin.  Sin is not simply a mistake, sin is divine treason against our God and King.  Sin is less the son's misunderstanding and rather the son who stole his Father's wealth and wasted it on wild women.  Sin is dishonor to ourselves and to God who created us to reflect Him.  When we sin we are saying, whether we recognize it full or not, "This is what God is like."

But, God is willing and able to fully forgive.  But, not without pain.  He bore divine wrath and separation in order to bring divine forgiveness and reconciliation.

As the parable goes, the Father pursued the prodigal, even when far off and ran to him.  He did not wait to get the money back, he did not wait to even get an apology or explanation.  He responded in forgiveness at the return of the son.

If God can forgive you, you can forgive your father today.

I know he hurt you.  It may take time.  It may take your whole life.  But we must let go of our bitterness and place it on the cross of Christ, where it already is.  We need to recognize that our pasts no longer have a hold on us.  Bitterness is caused by the strain of a disappointed hopes continuing to be hoped in.

Yes, he let you down.  He broke your heart.  But, holding onto it is simply destroying you.

Forgiveness means freedom.  Forgive today.

Reminder 3: Forge ahead knowing all the wrong things to do.

With a new identity and the fruit of forgiveness, we can now forge ahead.

We may not know what being a father, or living with a father, is in experience.  But, we do know what it is not.  We have the opportunity to offer something better.   From darkness can come light.

But where the ideal is lacking, grace abounds.  God will help you to forge ahead.  This does not mean all your questions will be answered.  They won't.  It doesn't mean you don't have a long journey ahead of you.  You do.  It doesn't mean you are alone though- because you are not.

God has given you His presence but also His people.  God has given us His church to help us along our journey.  The church will help "bear our burdens" and "weep" and "rejoice" along with us (Galatians 6:1, Romans 12:15)

You've got a Father to guide you.  You've got a Father to mold you.  This Father's Day, you've got hope that will sustain you.  You are no longer defined by what happened to you.  You are not a victim.

Through Christ, all suffering that inflicts us is a means for our good (Romans 8:28-39).  The Fatherless are not victims, in Christ, they are victors!

If you have not come home to your Heavenly Father, you can turn and trust Him today.  You can find out more about having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ by watching this video.

If you have a relationship with God today, you must choose today how we must live.  Don't put off another day in anger and bitterness.  Will you forgive and forge ahead into all the good works which "God has prepared for you?" (Eph. 2:8-9)

Anthony Hoekema on the Optimism of Amillenialism

"Yet, since we know that the victory of Christ over evil was decisive and that Christ is now on the throne, the dominant mood of amillennial eschatology is optimism — Christian optimism. This means that we view no world crisis as totally beyond help and no social trend as absolutely irreversible. It means that we live in hope — a hope that is built on faith and that expresses itself in love.

Amillennial eschatology, therefore, gives us a realistic, yet basically optimistic world-and-life view. It is an eschatology which is exciting, exhilarating and challenging. It is an eschatology which gives us an inspiring vision of the lordship of Christ over history and of the ultimate triumph of his kingdom."

You can read the whole piece, much of which I would endorse fully, here and read his whole book entitled "Amillenialism" here

The Longing we Share

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A study from the National LQBT Task Force on transgender discrimination is very telling. Though published in 2011, these stats give us key insights into the transgender experience.

First, as I read the stats, I am heart broken.  The rates of homelessness, poverty, and the 41% suicide rate among transgender (and “non-gender conforming”) individuals lead me to mourn.  These statistics should not hit us cold, as statistics often do.  I hurt for those who are undergoing depression.  Those who are transgender who are living on the streets: the church should do more for you.  The system has let you down.  I am sorry and I feel deeply for you.  Caring for the homeless, the destitute, and the outcast are Christian virtues.  It was a passion of Jesus; therefore, it should be a passion of His followers.

A second reality stood out as I glanced at this survey.  One even more striking to those who affirm the Christian worldview.  On page 79 of the survey, in the middle of the section about “Health”, we discover what the transgender individuals polled think about surgery.  These are stats we have seen before.  The media is rather partial to them.  “Only 21% of Male-to-female transitions have undergone breast augmentation surgery.”  A similar stat is also given for female-to-male hysterectomies.  But, this study reveals that there is a lot more than meets the eye.

For Male-to-Female transitions: 53% “Want Someday” to have breast augmentation surgery, while over 60% “Want Someday” to have orchiectomy and vaginoplasty.  On the female-to-male side 50% “want someday” to have chest surgery, whereas 58% desire a hysterectomy.  The question of desire is an important one.  But, desire is always limited in what it is willing to do.  To be family friendly, the aforementioned operations are mainly about removing what is already there, whereas the remaining two operations have substantial “Don’t want” rating.  When it comes to creating what females do not already have, one operations has a nearly ¾ who would prefer to leave well enough alone.

What do these stats tell us?  From a Christian worldview perspective it confirms what we have been saying along: our genders cannot be separated from our biology.  While only around 20% of men asked about each surgery have had them, up to 86% of male-to-female transitions want or have had orchiectomy surgery.  Even the lowest amount, nearly ¾ of those polled want augmentation surgery.  The implications are clear: transgender individuals overwhelmingly desire for their biology to match their gender orientation.  Even Richard Friedman, professor of clinical psychiatry at Wells Cornell Medical College asked recently in his opinion piece in the New York Times, “But if gender were nothing more than a social convention, why was it necessary for Caitlyn Jenner to undergo facial surgeries, take hormones and remove her body hair?  The fact that some transgender individuals use hormone treatment and surgery to switch gender speaks to the inescapable biology at the heart of gender identity.”

On the “Female-to-Male” transition side, 93% had desired or had had chest surgery.    Almost 80% for a hysterectomy.  But, the remaining two surgeries, those which seek to “add” what is not already there are only met with 29% and 57% desiring/have had rate.  Why so low?  If we can be frank, humans do not create as well as we think.  Give flight for an example.  We can try to build wings, but even in this scientific age, the best we seen to do is strap card board on our arms and flap until we reach Europe.  We have to use exterior means to fly.  As good as planes are, they are a screaming admission that we limited in what science and technology have been able to change, at least about the human anatomy.

We must recognize the Creator/creation distinction.  God has created man and woman, gender and all, in His image.  All of our attempts to forsake that image have proven unsuccessful and expensive.  We can destroy and take away, but we are left empty handed when it comes to creating.  As Hebrews 11:3 tells us, only God can make something come nothing.  We are left longing for something that we can never be.  In fact, that is not a transgender only experience.  That is the story of all of us.  We have all forsaken God’s image and purpose.  We have all sought out ways of creating a new reality where we set the terms.  From the Garden of Eden until today the question remains the same, “Did God really say?” (Gen. 3:1).  Sometimes this questions takes several forms, but each equally rebellious.  Fundamentally we have all sought to set ourselves up as the creator and definer.  We have sought to take God from His throne.  We have committed treason against an absolutely Holy King.  We need divine pardon.  But not just a pardon, we need power to help leave behind our rebellion and find satisfaction under the Kingship of God.  We need power to pursue the image we have shattered, and we need transformation to complete process.  We have a problem.

But, we have the solution.  The King descended from the palace, took upon Himself the penalty for our treason.  The Creator descended to creation and He offers power today to overcome our broken image, and the promise of future restoration.  This King is Jesus Christ- the God Man, and by the cross we are forgiven, set free, and being transformed- one day He will conform us to the image we have broken and are longing to restore.  His Kingship is kind.  When we turn from the life we are living and submit to His Lordship, and regardless of our past, we find redemption, forgiveness and newness of life.  He not only cancels the penaltly of sin, but also empties sin of its power over us, so we can freely fight sin and pursue holiness.

The study LQBT task forces shows us that transgender people long to be something they are not, but the Bible says the same for all of us.  None of us are satisfied with the way we were born.  Jesus’ words ring true, “You must be born again” (John 3:3).  An exterior surgery will not do the trick, it is but an empty promise.  We need heart surgery- transformation, redemption, healing- this is found only through the work of Jesus Christ, the Great Surgeon for the broken, lost and the outcast (Luke 5:31-32).

"How Shall we Sing the LORD’s Song in a Foreign Land?" Psalm 137 and Exiles of Religious Conviction

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Psalm 137 is based on a true story.  Not the kind of “based on true story” accounts that needs to be rewritten by Hollywood.  Psalm 137 has all the elements of a good plot- suffering, antagonists, shock-and-awe, and a central theme meant to impact the readers in the present, and empower them for the future.  What makes it even better is that this Psalm, like all of them, are set to music.

In Psalm 137 we find the people of God in exile.  Long had the prophets- Isaiah, Jeremiah and the like- warned of the outcome of Israel’s sin.  In their rebellion they hardened their hearts and as punishment they had been attacked and taken out of the land by Babylon.  As the Psalmist (and presumably the people of God as a whole) set down and reflected on the land God had promised, that they had seem to lose, verse 1 says they wept.  God gave them exactly want they wanted, and as sin always does, it leaves run and misery in its path (Romans 3:16).

“On the willows there we hung up our lyres.” (137:2).  The people had put up their instruments.  This was not a time to sing and celebrate, nor for entertainment, as instruments were often used for.  This was a time for mourning.  Not only were they in a foreign land, but they captors, called “tormentors” were openly mocking the people of God.  They would profane the sacred songs of the Lord!  With mirth (laughter), they would ask them to sing songs about the Promised Land they were taken from (v.3-4).  Mockery of God’s people is not a new invention.  Enemies of God have done it for ages.

This leads the Psalmist to ask a very simple question, “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” (v. 4).   They were taken out of the land of promise.  They were being pressured to allow men to defame and mock their God.  These songs were Holy and not meant to be sang in this foreign land by rebellious people.  People were forcing these men to disobey their conscience and what they knew to be right.  No doubt the mockers said, “It is just a song!  It won’t hurt anyone.”  “It’s the law, you must obey.”  “You can hold to your convictions in your houses, but not in the public square.”  For the Psalmist, to sing songs in mockery to the Lord was to “forget” the city.  To forget His promise.  The Psalmist is clear in verses 5-6, it would be better not to play any music at all than too do it in a way that doesn't acknowledge God and His Word.  For the Psalmist, obedience to conscience is worth suffering for.

Notice the end of verse 6, “Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth…if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”  To sing these songs would blaspheme God and thus show Him to be small.  To sing these songs in this context was disobedience to God.  If they cave to the pressure and obey the commands of their captors, they are showing what they value more: the safety and security that men provide more than God and His promises.  Jesus would speak of sin in a similar way, it is better to faithfully suffer and enter into the presence of God than to succumb to the world’s pressure to sin.  “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell” - Mark 9:47.  The kingdom is greater than the fleeting promises of sin.  Jesus would say in the beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)  Future grace of perfection empower purity in the present.  The people of God in persecution have always set their hopes on the promises of God.

The Psalmist continues with his hope set on the future promises of God as he finishes the Psalm.  Just as he set his hope on the perfect joy of Jerusalem, he sets his hope on God’s justice.  When God purifies, part of that means He destroys impurity.  The Psalmist cries out for God to remember against His enemies, the Edomites who had laid bare the foundations of Jerusalem and that the one who repays Babylon for what they had done would be blessed (v. 7-8).  Notice the Psalmist’s hope, even as it seems His enemies are winning, Babylon remains “doomed to be destroyed.”  God is a redeemer and rids His people of all enemies.  Notice the severity of the judgement God would give to the enemies of God: “Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” (v. 9).  At first glance that verse should take us a back.  Why would God consider the man blessed who dashed babies against rocks?  That sounds cruel.  What was ever done to deserve that?  

We recognize that Babylon had dashed the Israelite babies to pieces (Isaiah 13:16).  Babylon was an instrument of judgement against Israel for their sin, but they had gone too far.  They have done what was wicked in God's sight.  What the Psalmist desires is that, as verse 8 says, they be repaid according to what has been done to them.   In other words, He desires that standard Jesus teaches- that measure that they use shall be used back against them (Matthew 7:1-2).  God promises to judge in accordance with the deeds done- how He does it is up to Him.  That was the Psalmist’s confidence

Christians- we face a similar pressure to those of the people of God in Psalm 137.  Not from an enemy nation, but from our own nation.  We facing pressure to cave on God and His Word.  The culture trivializes it, just as I’m sure the Babylonians did- “It’s just a cake.  It’s just a marriage license.”  I’m sure the Israelites were being pressured under the “rule of law.”  But we must stand as they did.  We must place the God and His Word above our highest joys.  We must trust that a new and better country awaits us.  We must not cave on our convictions, but work hard to obey God, even when it is unpopular.

We must trust in God’s justice.  The 21st century church seems to emphasis “mercy” while minimizing “justice”, but in the shadow of the cross those two are intrinsically wed.  We trust and know that Judgement Day is a reality.  2 Thessalonians 1 describes that day as a day of relief because God will destroy those who have sought to destroy us (v. 7-8).  The long awaited promise land is ushered in, and along with it are God’s enemies tossed out.  But, as New Testament people we know God is pleased to judge sin in the death of Another.  We were all once enemies, but God has sought out His enemies in love and mercy.  Christ has come, He has died to reconcile us to Himself, by satisfying God’s wrath, and rising again to stand as our Advocate.  By faith, we die when He died, and we rise as He rose. The only hope for us has never been in obedience to Babylon, for one day all will look and see her judgement (Revelation 18:15-18).  Godless culture cannot keep its promises.  Our hope is in a new and better city, which no unclean will enter (Revelation 21:27).  We must endure in the present, for the promise of the future is greater than the present promises of sin- we will see His face (Rev. 22:4).

Merry Christmas!!

I shall be taking the rest of the week off from the blog to rejoice in the season.  Along with enjoying family and friends.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Don't forget it's about more then the gifts, but about the ultimate gift we received 2,000 years ago.

"Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth"