Posts by Chuck Webster (Page 3)
Unstained
We live in the world, and it’s hard to keep it from rubbing off on us. Sometimes it’s tempting just to escape it, isn’t it? Move to the proverbial deserted island or to a rural mountain in Tibet. Some believers in church history tried that route, retreating to caves, deserts, or monasteries, but it didn’t always work well. Tempting as it might be sometimes, God never called us to retreat from the world. So here we are. We live and…
That makes me uncomfortable
Taking the Bible seriously will absolutely make you uncomfortable. Not all of it, of course. I like the parts about Jesus giving me rest and the abundant life and preparing a beautiful mansion for me. All that sounds nice. I don’t even mind the parts about being a good person, because being reasonably good isn’t that hard most of the time. But you don’t have to look far to see something considerably more difficult than that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right…
Real Religion
One of the scariest things about faith for me is the incredible ability most of us have to deceive ourselves. Occasionally I’ve been appalled at the behavior of someone who called himself a Christian and wondered how he could ever reconcile his behavior with his claim to follow Jesus. “What a hypocrite!”, I’ve self-righteously mumbled. Then it hits me: Where are my blind spots? What sins am I committing but ignoring, or perhaps justifying? Maybe I don’t do what he…
Here we are to worship
There’s stuff to joke about, things to be flippant and casual about, to laugh at. God is not one of those things. I cringe when I hear someone refer to God as “the Man upstairs.” I’m sure most of them don’t mean anything disrespectful, but I think they’re missing something important about God. Several times in the Bible people came into God’s presence in a special, miraculous way. It scared them to death. Here’s one of those times: In the…
The Preacher and Porn
Not long ago I read an all-too-familiar story: another preacher got caught. He was looking at pornography on his computer, then switching to his Bible software program to work on his upcoming sermon, then back to porn . . . all in the span of a few hours. Are you shocked? Unfortunately, you’ve probably seen too many headlines to be too surprised. I don’t know this preacher, and I don’t know any of his circumstances, but I think I can…
Shouldn’t have said that
I’ve rarely regretted keeping my mouth shut, but fairly often I kick myself for saying something I shouldn’t have (and wouldn’t have if I’d stopped to think). You might be the same way. Your child irritates you, and you spit out something that bites. You get in an argument with your spouse, and before you know it you’ve thrown a dart that hurts. (In marriage, we know where all of the tender spots are . . .) Or maybe it…
God is Good
My, how things change. Have you looked at any of your old high school pictures lately? One of the unfortunate consequences of our Facebook world is the ease with which others can post constant reminders of how we used to look. Time changes things, and mostly not for the good. We get older, grayer, and sometimes, well, bigger. There’s often a corresponding decrease in efficiency as well. In other words, some things just don’t work as well as they used…
When we struggle
The more I read the Bible, the more I’m struck by how often it talks about endurance. The longer I live, the more I realize how badly we need it. Life is hard. If it isn’t right now, it will be soon enough. I don’t think that’s overly pessimistic; it’s confirmed almost every day as I hear about things people are facing. A friend finds out he has cancer. A Christian discovers her husband is cheating. Another faces debilitating depression,…
On Level Ground
Things aren’t always fair down here, but they ought to be. The poor don’t get the same treatment as the rich, and minorities are often pushed to the margins. We love a good David-and-Goliath story. We like to see Cinderella make it to the big dance. We love the Rudys of the world, the underdogs, the outmanned, outmatched, and overpowered. Occasionally, we like to see the little guy winning and the big guy begging for mercy. We like to see…
Believe that he’ll answer
Ever prayed a prayer you didn’t really think God would answer? Why do we do that? Maybe it’s because we’ve focused so much on what God doesn’t do that we forget about what he does. Well, we might think, I know God created the world and parted the Red Sea and raised Jesus from the grave, but now . . . I’m not suggesting God is still resurrecting people, but I wonder if perhaps we ought to focus more on…
Idols
It’s easy enough to see idols in other people’s lives. I’ve occasionally scoffed at how someone seemed obsessed with something that is obviously (to me) unworthy of much time, attention, or money. The problem with that is that idols trouble us all, and focusing on how other people’s priorities are misaligned obscures my own struggle with them. Jesus couldn’t have been more in-your-face than he was here: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,…
Ouch
Most of us in church work worry when attendance numbers go down; Jesus seemed to worry when they went up. He had what we might call “Thin ‘em out” sermons—messages he preached, it seems, to push people away. That wasn’t his intent, of course, but his message certainly didn’t fit well within any church growth book I’ve read. We often try to make the gospel more palatable; Jesus gave it to the crowds straight and unmixed. Sometimes, when he finished…