November 21, 2008 · 5:06 am

The God I don’t understand 1: Introduction


I’ll be blogging through Christopher Wright’s book by the above title (subtitle: Reflections on tought questions of faith) published by Zondervan, 2008. John Stott writes the forward. Unlike his “Mission of God” book, this is personal, and just over 200 pages. I am finding it a treasure to read. He tackles the problem of suffering and evil and the mystery/unanswered questions we have with great faith and trust–and does so looking at Ecclesiastes. He avoids easy answers but you also sense his basic trust and worship of God on every page.

In 4 sections he considers the problem of evil and suffering, the problem of the Canaanites (violence in the OT), the mystery of the Cross, and the mystery surrounding the end of the world. To whet your appetite, here’s some of his thoughts in the preface and introduction.

Right off on the first page he reiterates his joy of knowing and trusting God. “But knowing and trusting God does not necessarily add up to understanding.” He goes on to talk about the common experience of thinking that some suffering “just isn’t fair.” And he admits that his lack of suffering sometimes seems unfair too. “There seems to be no rhyme or reason to explain such unevenness of experience, when all of us are believers. None of us is any better as a saint. None of us is any worse as a sinner. Yet God has permitted great suffering for some and spared it for others” (p. 15).

Again, he clarifies his position: “It seems to me that the older I get the less I think I really understand GOd. Which is not to say that I don’t love and trust him.”

But still, “why Lord?” and “How long Lord?” are frequently part of his conversations with God.

He goes on to say that those who claim to have answers to the deep problems of life on earth are fooling themselves, “living in some kind of delusion.”

he finishes the introduction by exploring 5 different kinds of “not understanding.”
1. Things I don’t understand that leave me angry or grieved. He says here that the “very essence of evil is the negation of all goodness–and ‘sense’ is a good thing. In the end, evil does not and cannot ‘make sense’.”
2. Things I don’t understand about God that leave me morally disturbed. Such as the violent way God gives Israel their land.
3. Things I don’t understand about God that leave me puzzled. (ex: how Christians have so abused parts of the Bible and why God allows it.)
4. Things that I don’t understand about God but that flood me with gratitude (ex: the cross)
5. Things I don’t understand about God but they fill me with hope (ex: heaven)

Finally, he ends with reminding us that our questions have good company. Abraham, Sarah, Hagar (he mentions that Hagar was the first to give God a name in the OT), Moses, Naomi, David, Elijah, Job, Habakkuk, etc. all question God with WHY, HOW LONG, and WHEN.Even Jesus asks WHY on the cross.

Here are some last choice quotes:

“…faith seeks understanding, and faith builds on understanding where it is granted, but faith does not finally depend on understanding. (p. 22)

And he says something I say in my suffering lectures, that Psalm 73 brings our lack of understanding into faithful worship. It is in the context of worship that the Psalmist, who had been struggling with understanding God’s goodness when seeing life around him, has his perspective changed. His perspective, “does not change the realities of the present.” …the author does not go back and erase all that he has written in the first half [of the Psalm]. He lets us hear both his struggling lack of understanding and his restored, worshiping faith.” (p. 23)

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November 19, 2008 · 3:04 pm

Scripture and Counseling at ETS, Providence, RI


Just finished my paper presentation at the Counseling, Psychology, and Pastoral Care section meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society–meeting in frigid Providence, RI. Had the pleasure of hearing David Powlison talk about the various errors of evangelical biblical counselors and professional counselors shortchange scripture (e.g., treat it atomistically or ignore its richness altogether). He gave several case studies trying to put words to what many counselors intuitively know about the best uses of Scripture in counseling. I followed him and talked about two major problems: treating the text as a compilation of timeless truthes and missing the varied ways God is writing us into his story and the problem of either treating Scripture as a tool or a diagnostic manual–which both lead to some dangers.

I then presented one case study of what I call a narratival approach, using Scripture to meet and validate the present experience of the counselee and so make room for two things (that meeting God and seeing self may or may not change our current mental state AND that we can begin to see how God is writing a different story that we tend to imagine in our fallen states).

John Franke then gave a good talk on how a plural way of looking at Revelation supports an inerrantist model of Scripture but avoids the ONE way of articulating doctrines. He said that this way of thinking would impact counselors by: Continuing to anchor christian care in the normative foundation of Scripture, that we would resist absolutizing THE christian counseling model but find unity amongst diversity, that counseling then must be driven by wisdom and the Spirit, that counseling must be engaged in a constructive and critical dialog with secular psychology. He wants us to avoid seeing our diversity of christian counseling models as bad but facets of God’s guidance.

Well, intellectually stimulating to say the least. Now, I’m done and off to be a spectator. I’ve run into several old friends and am making some new ones as I write.

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November 18, 2008 · 5:43 am

CCEF recap: David Powlison’s “Escape to Reality”


Sunday morning, David Powlison gave a plenary talk entitled, “Escape to Reality.” He used 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 as his launch text. It was vintage David, chalk full of many examples of both soft and hard addictions. One could easily take his 10 points (which I don’t have exactly because I was sitting with my son who was lounging across me) and turn them into a 10 week bible study or SS class. As I remember them, he made the following points about the path back to reality:

1. Wake up (to see God, self, and other)
2. Own up (without excuse)
3. Stop the Death spiral (sin, guilt, and shame all tempt us inward. But we see in Christ, someone who is able to stay connected to God and other on the Cross even with the pain)
4. Connect to others (We need others to talk to so that we hear ourselves and get good feedback) SO, ask for help!
5. Ask for forgiveness (and none of that, “If I hurt you…” kind of half hearted repentance)
6. Forgive those who have hurt you
7. Rethink the problem of pain (pain shouldn’t be ignored or used as excuse)
8. Rethink the problem of pleasure (we vacillate between workaholism and overindulging in pleasure. We are made for pleasure but within bounds)
9. Re-evaluate the struggle. When someone shows signs of stopping addictive behaviors. Maybe they only go into a rage 3 times in a week instead of 12. That’s something to celebrate. But of course the struggle continues and there’s more to repent.

Um, I’m missing the tenth. Someone there remember what it was?

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November 17, 2008 · 7:19 am

CCEF Conference slides now up


Check on my “Slides, Articles, etc.” page for slides of my talk, “Counseling Strategies for Individuals Struggling with Addictions.” The slides are in PPT format and are the last entry (#10) on the page.

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November 14, 2008 · 10:47 pm

CCEF Addictions Conference Update


The first day of the conference is now over. It was good to see many old friends, students, alumni, and to make some new friends as well. Ed Welch opened the conference by talking about the normalcy of even the most severe addictions (he used the illustration of a man who drank Aqua Velva while in the psych. ward and needed to go detox (from one hospital ward to another). He talked about how Scripture would still speak to some of “Mr. Gray’s life and situation.”

Best line from Ed, “God sends us individuals to challenge the clarity of our [little] minds.”

Soon after Mark Driscoll, pastor of the Mega Church Mars Hills in Seattle, talked about some of the facets of atonement can help addicts. Several interesting takeaways

1. He did a quick summary of 1 Corinthians. ch 1-4 is about false gods and doctrines. Ch 5-7 is about various perversions of sex; ch 6 is about division; ch 8-11 is about addictions, abuse of food, alcohol abuse, gluttony; ch 11 discusses gender issues; ch 12-14 is about spiritual gifts and that those the Corinthian church is rich with gifts but lacks love; and finally ch. 15 which is about the necessity of the Cross.  Driscoll made the point that all this was happening in the church of about 50 people! And yet Paul (in the first chapter) has hope for this misfit bunch.

2. Conviction of sin from God? Leads to repentance and joy. Conviction of sin from Satan? Leads to discouragement and being crushed.

There were several breakouts but I was busy with my own presentation.

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November 13, 2008 · 10:03 am

Why I don’t like group projects


Group projects are common in grad studies–and they should be. Learning and work needs to happen in community, not silos. But, there are good groups and then there are groups from hell.

Last night I was working on a paper at a cafe. Next to me was a group of loud adult women who I think were working on an MBA project. The tangents, the fighting over who would do what, the level of foolish banter reminded me why I always feared being in a group that couldn’t get out of its own way.

Best part last night? The 15 minute rabbit trail after someone spouted, “You are straining the gnats and swallowing the camel.” Apparently some had never heard this saying and so they debated its meaning, the right words for the saying and then who, in the group, was straining and who was swallowing.

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November 12, 2008 · 5:06 am

Ideas don’t change people…


Trying to find intellectual ways of saying something I believe is rather simple (for an academic paper I am to deliver):

Ideas don’t change you, stories do.

Was reading an unpublished OT theology paper and the author mentioned the shift in approach to truth, from the Hebraic story to the Platonic “idea” or concept. Truth is best embodied in experience and yet we idolize systematizing truth.

How many of you turned to Christianity because of its great concepts or because someone convinced you of a truth by force of logic? How many because you had an experience that changed your perspective?

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November 11, 2008 · 5:29 am

The addict in us all


Later this week, CCEF will hold their annual teaching conference in Valley Forge, PA. The theme this year is addictions. I have the pleasure of teaching on Friday along with their faculty/staff. Also teaching are Diane Langberg, John Freeman, Leslie Vernick and guest appearances by Mark Driscoll and music by the Gettys. Will have my slides up here after the conference. I will be outlining two main techniques useful in the early stages of counseling those struggling with addictions.

Should be a fun time. If you come, stop by the Biblical Seminary table to chat…

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November 10, 2008 · 10:24 am

God’s response to a people addicted to evil


Later this week I’ll be speaking at CCEF’s Annual Conference about addiction (more to come on that tomorrow) and so lately I’ve been thinking about sin and addiction.

It is common for Christian folk stuck in repetitive sin to move away from God. Why? There are a variety of reasons but often they include overwhelming feelings of guilt, shame, and a desire to fix the problem through some sort of penance. But when individuals suffer from being sinned against, they are much more likely to go to God and talk to him about it.

With that in mind, I went to church yesterday and heard a sermon by our pastor on Judges 4-5 (The Deborah/Barak/Sisera story). And Pastor Traylor made this point,

Israel brought their oppression on themselves by their own idolatry. Yes, the king of Caanan was the oppressor but the cause was their own foolishness and evil inclination. What do they do? It seems that after 20 years of oppression, they cry to the Lord and he provides, yet again, a rescuer. This pattern is evident throughout Scripture but nowhere clearer than in the book of Judges. Sinners return to God, cry out for mercy and rescue, and God hears and delivers.

What if we were to cry out for deliverance much quicker? When we are righteously suffering it seems easy to do. But when we know we have fallen away, we find it much harder.

Do you suffer from the consequences of repetitive sin? Turn to God the second after to seek his deliverance. Continue that pattern (in an honest fashion) and you will discover that God provides the way of escape BEFORE you give in to that temptation.

We need to beat it into our heads that God wants us to turn to him even when we sin. The illustrations are numerous that we are loved by a pursuing God. Unfortunately, we also see that we are very committed to covering up our brokenness. Let us remember it is a losing battle. We will not be able to cover up for ever…

May God have mercy and deliver us from evil.

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November 7, 2008 · 5:06 am

Domestic Violence No-Nos


Staff meeting today was run by two colleagues presenting information from a recent PASCH conference (aka Peace and Safety in the Christian Home). They brought goodies such as a 2 page document entitled, “Guidelines for pastors responding to domestic violence” and a number of small books. During the presentation they listed two common but problematic responses by well-meaning people (not even considering the “just submit…” mistake) :

1. Pressuring the victim to leave the home…without a careful plan.

It may be important for someone who is in danger to leave. But without a plan, the victim may be in greater danger from a rageful spouse or have no access to money or other family resources.

2. Encouraging a person to go to marital counseling.

Its not possible to do marital counseling when one person is battering (physically or with words) another. Marital counseling presupposes two people working toward the same goal.

The two also mentioned a good website. Check out www.theraveproject.org.

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