sober-minded

   When you pray as our Lord taught us to in Matthew 6, do you ever feel a slight cringing within at the ”forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” section?  If  you’re giving much thought to what you’re saying there, you are probably aware that this is a scary way to pray. I’ve even heard people admit that they don’t say that part because they are so aware of the ramifications of what they are actually praying. 

When we pray this, we’re not asking God to ”forgive us our trespasses because we have forgiven those who trespass against us.” Rather, we’re asking Him to ”forgive us our trespasses in the same way we forgive those who trespass against us.” In other words, we’re asking God to use the same standard with us that we use with our brothers and sisters. (Now does it start to seem like a scary way to pray?) To make matters worse, not only did Jesus teach us to pray that way, but whether we pray it or not, it is the standard God will use. He makes that clear when He says a few verses later, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14). 

Wow. I thought that once I became a Christian, all my sins are automatically forgiven. But here I’m told that my refusal to forgive the one who has insulted, snubbed, or otherwise offended me will result in God not forgiving me. Me, the injured party!

But it gets worse. Not only must I forgive, but it must be from the heart.  Matthew 18:35: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” From the heart!! I begin to see what the Lord is getting at. Only one way is this possible–by the genuine, fervent, supernatural love of the Holy Spirit, the love God promises to pour into our hearts for one another if we will seek Him for it. We can’t forgive from the heart if we don’t love each other from the heart. And if we don’t love from the heart, we are told that we don’t belong to Him (1 John 2:10-11). That’s why Jesus says that if we don’t forgive from the heart His Father will not forgive us–only those who are bought by Jesus’ blood can love and forgive each other in this way.

I hear fellow Christians talk about why we should forgive each other and overlook offenses. “Oh, unforgiveness only hurts the one who’s holding the grudge,” they say.  “Unforgiveness makes you bitter. Healthier just to let it go.” But that’s not the reason the Bible gives us for why we should forgive. “If you don’t,” it tells us, “you won’t be forgiven.” This puts everything in its proper perspective. A God who is to be feared and obeyed; a blood-bought family that is to be loved and forgiven for Christ’s sake; and the honor and glory we bring to the One who loved us, forgiving us all our vile offense against His holy character. That is why we forgive. And that is why we need to go ahead and pray that section of the Lord’s Prayer… even though it is, by His design, a scary way to pray.

 If you haven’t heard of, read or thought about reading “The Shack” by William P. Young you might be hopelessly out of the loop of popular American church culture!  The book follows a long line of 20-and-21st-century Christian bestsellers… books like The Prayer of Jabez, Purpose-Driven Life and many others.

I just want to talk about this latest book star, The Shack, for a minute. I haven’t read the whole book. I have read quite a few excerpts from it and trustworthy people’s comments on it.  Several good and thoughtful reviews can be easily accessed online (I’ll provide links to those at the end of this article.) What I want to talk about here, though, is how and why we all come to be so enamored of books like this that fail the test of sound doctrine, and why we ought to choose better things to help us and teach us through this life.

Appeal, interest, warmth, emotion–these are all good qualities in a book, but they do not automatically guarantee a book that will really help us. Only the truth about God makes us free. Truth is found in God’s word. There is a line when we are writing about God that, when crossed, blurs the truth about Him and how He deals with us, about what His purposes are for us in this life. If we say “it’s only fiction for goodness’ sake!” we’re kidding ourselves…reading is akin to eating, in that we become what we take in. We are what we read, only it’s more important than becoming what we merely eat. Because it is through our minds and thoughts that a true… or false… knowledge of God comes.

Because of that, we should use lots of discernment about anything we read. But spiritual discernment is in short supply in the American church today. Why? There are lots of secondary reasons: the American church is often biblically illiterate; we have lost the knowledge of why and how to study the Bible seriously; there is a huge bias against the use of the mind, but toward the trusting of our own intuitions and feelings about the things of God. The bottom line though, I’m convinced, is that we do not fear God or “tremble at His word” as we should. We don’t even know how far gone we are there, or that we’re so lacking in that.

So we’re sitting ducks for every new faddish read that comes along. Publishers make sweeping promises about what this latest book will do for us and how it will change our lives, and we buy into it and buy the book and talk about it for a while before its popularity finally begins to fade. If we are reading a book like The Shack to learn something more about God and life and suffering and ourselves, we will have missed it, I promise you. The truth about suffering and God and us is something very different from what this book portrays. It’s a whole lot better. The real truth about all that will change your life.

Most importantly, God is not glorified and shown as great in The Shack. God is glorified by the truth about Himself; that He is sovereign over all things, including our suffering, and that His purposes will prevail. He is glorified by the fact that He is good in this sovereignty, and all His decisions are right and just and true. The truth about the Trinity glorifies God greatly, increasing our understanding of His majesty, holiness and power, causing us to worship Him and honor Him as God. Sadly, The Shack attempts to diminish, belittle and change these glorious truths. The god of The Shack is certainly not the sovereign Lord of the universe that the Bible reveals Him to be!

The Shack is the current “hot” seller in a long line of popular, best-selling Christian books. What sets this one apart is the fact that so many hurting people are reading it for hope and comfort, and the hope and comfort it offers is just not the real deal. In the long run it’s not helpful, because it is contrary to the unbreakable word of God: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). And not only is it not helpful, it is also potentially damaging, since it distorts the truth and misleads the reader.

There are very helpful books written that are based on the Scriptures; those books can help to bring light and healing to us. There are great fiction works that make use of metaphor (Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan and The Chronicles of Narnia books come to mind) in helpful ways. But The Shack doesn’t use metaphor; rather it makes claims. The characters are called by the very names we know them by, and the setting of the book conveys the fact that this story is meant to teach us, the reader, something about God.  

So what are your thoughts or opinions on The Shack? Please feel free to comment, even if you disagree! Meanwhile, here are two things: a couple of book recommendations for people who may be hurting or grieving, and then the links I mentioned to a couple of helpful reviews of The Shack. Let’s look to the Lord for the wisdom and discernment we need to read all things for His glory, and our good, through these difficult days. It is always through the opening of our eyes to His greatness and sovereignty that we are most helped.

Book recommendations for those who are suffering:

  Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, edited by John Piper/Justin Taylor 

    When God Weeps: Why Our Suffering Matters to God, by Joni Eareckson Tada

Links to helpful reviews of The Shack:

Discerning Reader 

Dr. Scott Kaufman at “Between Sundays”

For all you young mothers out there laboring under never-ending mounds of laundry: read this for a sweet new perspective.

The Flourishing Mother on “Textile Management”

HT: Amy Scott

I feel the need to say a few words about my previous post, which re-read, does seem a bit abrupt and harsh (and not necessarily well-written!)

I just ached and longed for the truth about God to be spoken to those young people. The fact that the youth pastor didn’t was absolutely devastating, but not that great a surprise, which makes it even worse.

Why is the church so ashamed of the gospel? Why so ashamed of the God who is Himself the gospel, the good news? We are afraid to say hard things. We are afraid to be genuine, authentic and vulnerable and cast absolutely on the God who is there. I understand; we are mere people, mere weak humans, who have no strength of our own. All the more reason then to abandon ourselves to His purposes. He is great!

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” Our prayers to Him to send willing laborers out into (His!) harvest is one means He uses to rescue the precious, captive, harassed and helpless ones He is seeking. He told us to pray… let’s pray. He told us to go… let’s go.