Faith Matters Podcast

#489 - Called To Create; Day 4 - J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. TolkienEven once we’ve made the choice to view our work as a sacrificial response to the call of our Caller, we still live in a world that constantly wars against our decision. If we are to effectively create for the glory of God and the good of others, rather than primarily for our own fame and fortune, we must, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our minds]." But how, practically, do we do this? As J.R.R. Tolkien shows us, a community of fellow Christian creators is an essential ingredient.Any Tolkien fan knows that the author had a thing for trees. One morning, Tolkien woke up to find that a beloved tree just outside his home had been inexplicably chopped down by a neighbor. Tolkien was grieved because, for him, the fate the tree experienced represented what Tolkien feared for his “internal tree,” The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien had spent decades working on what he hoped would be the crowning achievement of his career; but as World War II crescendoed across Europe, Tolkien’s progress on the project had slowed considerably. With invasion of Britain seemingly imminent, Tolkien began to despair that, like the tree, his life might be suddenly chopped down, his life’s work with it.Fortunately for Tolkien, he had surrounded himself with a community of other Christians to help renew his mind and maintain his eternal perspective. This group of friends, known as “the Inklings,” was comprised of men who shared Tolkien’s love of the Lord and literature, most notably among them, C.S. Lewis. For two decades, the group met with varying regularity at an Oxford pub called The Eagle and Child (which you can still visit today). At one of these get-togethers, we know that Tolkien brought up the slain tree and his fear that The Lord of the Rings might suffer the same fate. It was the Inklings that encouraged Tolkien to persevere in his work, while also reminding him that, even if his magnum opus was never completed, the simple act of being faithful to God’s call to create had eternal significance. We all know the rest of the story: Tolkien pressed on with this eternal perspective and The Lord of the Rings became one of the best-selling novels of all time.Without regular communion with other believers to refresh their eternal perspectives, Tolkien may have never completed The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis may have never finished The Chronicles of Narnia. As we create in this world, it takes regular communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ to renew our minds and continually “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

#488 - Called To Create; Day 3 - C.S. Lewis

C.S. LewisViewing our work as a calling from God changes our motivations for creating, how we create, and even the products we choose to create. As we submit to the agenda of our Caller, we will be on the lookout for ways in which we can glorify God and love others through the things we create. As the life of C.S. Lewis shows us, when we are abiding in Christ (John 15:4), His Spirit will open our eyes to see where He is moving in the world and what He is calling us to create.By the time C.S. Lewis committed his life to Jesus Christ at the age of 32, he was already on the path to a successful career as an academic and author. But while Lewis’s newfound Christian faith didn’t cause him to change his chosen work, his conversion clearly caused him to change his relation to his work, reimagining his creating as a means of glorifying God and serving others. This undoubtedly influenced the products Lewis chose to create.Through works such as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Four Loves, Lewis used words to reveal the character of God. The best example of this is found in The Chronicles of Narnia, the children’s fiction series which centers on the character of Aslan, the Christ-like lion who creates Narnia and redeems it through His sacrificial death. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, Lewis, like most culture-creators, did not lock himself in a room until he came up with an idea for a product that would reveal the redemptive character of God. As Lewis once explained, “Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology;...then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way. All my seven Narnian books began with seeing pictures in my head. [The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe] began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood...Then one day...I said to myself: ‘Let's try to make a story about it.’ At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it...once He was there He pulled the whole story together.”Like Lewis, our product ideas will likely not come from brainstorming sessions where we focus intensely on how we can create a product that reveals God’s character. But as we begin to create, and we “let the Word of Christ dwell in [us] richly,” (Colossians 3:16) we will undoubtedly see how we can use our creations to reveal the character of our Creator and Caller. If our work is to feel like a calling, we, like Lewis, must be willing to allow the True Aslan to come “bounding into” every aspect of our lives, including our work.

#487 - Called To Create; Day 2 - Casper ten Boom

Casper ten BoomEver since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, work has been arduous and difficult (Genesis 3). But as we saw yesterday in Genesis 2, work is not inherently bad—it was designed by God to be an act of worship and a meaningful way for humans to glorify God and serve others.In a fallen world, it can be difficult to see the goodness, meaning, and eternal significance of our work. I doubt many of Casper ten Boom’s neighbors saw his work as particularly meaningful. As his daughter Corrie remembers in her book, The Hiding Place, for more than sixty years, ten Boom went to work every day as a thoroughly ordinary watchmaker and shopkeeper. But while ten Boom’s work may have appeared as monotonous as a ticking timepiece, he was a man who loved his work and saw it as a calling from God, using his watch shop as a means of serving his neighbors and discipling his employees. While ten Boom was faithful in using his work to serve the Lord in these “little things,” God had plans to entrust him with much more responsibility as Europe headed into World War II.After the Germans invaded the ten Booms’ hometown of Haarlem in the Netherlands, the family began leading a clandestine effort to hide Jews and others at risk of extermination by the Nazis. Ten Boom’s unassuming watch shop quickly became the front door for the anti-Nazi underground network in town, used to smuggle food and other supplies to the Jews hiding in the ten Boom’s home behind the watch shop. The ten Booms even used encoded messages about “watches” as a means of communicating critical information across telephone lines undoubtedly tapped by the Nazis.On February 28, 1944, German soldiers caught the ten Booms and sent Casper and Corrie to prison. At the time, the ten Booms were hiding four Jews and two members of the underground network. When the ten Booms were taken away, they didn’t know if these six people were dead or alive. Weeks later, while detained at Scheveningen concentration camp, Corrie received an encoded message informing her that “All the watches in your closet are safe.” Corrie knew that the six had made it out alive. Ten days after his arrest, Casper ten Boom died at the age of eighty-four, not knowing that his work as an entrepreneur and watchmaker had been used in this dramatic way to accomplish God’s will one more time. I recently had a chance to visit ten Boom’s watch shop, which is still in operation today. As I approached the front door, I was startled by how ordinary and unassuming the shop is. Most people walked by without giving the shop a second look. I’m sure many of Haarlem’s residents looked at Casper ten Boom’s work as a watchmaker the same way, wondering what meaning there was in tinkering with timepieces for sixty years. But ten Boom leveraged his work in some incredibly meaningful ways. And while our stories will almost certainly not be as dramatic as ten Boom’s, the fact is that as we embrace God’s call to create on our lives, He will use our work in ways we can’t even imagine to accomplish His will.

#486 - Called To Create; Day 1

Creator God“In the beginning, God created.” You’ve heard that a thousand times, but let this truth sink in for just a moment. The first thing God reveals about Himself in Scripture is not that He is loving, holy, omnipotent, gracious, or just. No, the first thing God shows us at the genesis of time is that He is the Creator God! For the first six days, God revealed His creative spirit by speaking stars, animals, and oceans into existence. Then, on the sixth day, He created man “in His own image” and commanded him to “fill the earth and subdue it.” This is more than just a call to reproduction. This is an explicit call to create, an invitation for humankind to reflect the image of the Creator God to the world!A 2013 study by the Barna Group found that only one-third of American Christians “feel called to the work they currently do.” While few of us feel called to the jobs we’ve been given, almost all of us desire for our work to feel like a vocation. But how does that happen? How does our work become more than just a job—a true calling on our lives?It starts with careful study of God’s Word. Many Christians don’t feel called to their work because they’ve bought into the centuries-old myth that there is some sort of hierarchy of callings in which the work of a pastor or “full-time missionary” is somehow more eternally significant than that of the entrepreneur, artist, janitor, or salesperson. The Bible could not debunk this myth more clearly. In perfect Eden, we see God calling Adam to do the work of a gardener and branding agent, two jobs we might be tempted to view as “secular” today. But this is God-ordained work and is thus inherently good and meaningful. We worship a God who creates and who calls us to create as a means of glorifying Him.But even once we accept what the Bible has to say about the goodness and meaning of work, the fact remains that our work can only be a calling if Someone calls us to it and we work for their agenda rather than our own. What is our Caller’s agenda? Jesus summarized it so eloquently in Mark 12: Love God and love others. For the past couple of years, I’ve been on a quest to discover stories of Christian entrepreneurs and creatives who have loved God and others well through their work, studying how viewing their creating as a calling from God changed their relation to their work. It’s the stories of these 40+ men and women that make up my book, Called to Create. Over the next few days, you will read stories from four of these creators: Casper ten Boom, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Arthur Guinness. I pray their stories, combined with the daily Scripture readings, will inspire you to embrace God’s call to create and encourage you on the path to creating for the glory of God and the good of others.

#482 - Faith Matters; New World Order

The New World Order isn’t coming to America. It’s here. From the day Satan was kicked out of heaven, he has attempted to create the New World Order, in total rebellion against God. The anarchists in America are trying to destroy our democracy. They are not patriots. We cannot function without the rule of law. Historically, every attempt to establish the New World Order began with rebellion. Evil can have a religious face and kill you. What is the deep state church, and how is totalitarianism creeping in? Wake up, America!Pastor John Hagee delivered this sermon last spring based on his book Earth’s Last Empire.The New World Order is not a new concept. It’s objective from Genesis to today is to rebel against the authority of God. It all began with Nimrod, who’s name means revolt, when he proposed to build the tower Babel. Known as a murderer of men and a rebel against God, Nimrod was Satan’s disciple.Babel means confusion and God is not the author of confusion.Nimrod gradually changed the government into tyranny, to turn men from the fear of God and to bring them into constant dependence on his power.JosepheusSounds familiar, right? Nimrod’s compulsion for absolute control set the foundation for The New World Order. Nimrod intended to become the dictator of both the government and the counterfeit religion that he and his wife put together. He declared himself King and his bride, Samiramus, as the Queen and high priestess of idolatry. Here at Babel is the first organized idolatrous religious system and is survives today.Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.Genesis 11:1-9Samiramus knew enough about the revelation of God to know that God had promised the seed of the woman would bring blessings to the world (Gen. 3:15). She had a son and named him Tammuz. She claimed that he was the divine fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. She made herself and her son the symbols of worship, called the mother child cult, with the mother holding the child in her arms. This cult spread to Phoenicia and then to Pergamum and on to Rome.And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.Revelation 2:12-13We are on this Earth to be salt and light. Salt stops corruption; it irritates. Light destroys darkness. Satan is the prince of darkness. Socialism is darkness, but we are the source of the truth to a nation that’s now stumbling in deception because of our national leadership. We are the source of hope, we are built on the solid rock Jesus Christ who is hope to the hopeless. God is with us! We will press on because God is with us and everything is going to be alright.Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?2 Corinthians 6:14Therefore go out from their midst,and be separate from them, says the Lord,and touch no unclean thing;then I will welcome you,2 Corinthians 6:17Samiramus set herself up as the only approach to God. She adopted the title of The Queen Of Heaven. She taught that salvation came through her by the means of sprinkling of water and ceremonial cleansing. There was a pergetorial cleansing after death. She created temple virgins, now known as nuns, to pray for her son, who was killed by a wild beast. They were to fast for 40 days, which is now called lent. At the end of those 40 days, they would celebrate Isthar, which we now call Easter. They gave colored eggs to each other to celebrate eternal life. We are still doing it today.We, the body of Christ, celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and nothing else! We celebrate His victory over death, hell and the grave. Because He lives, we shall live also!This mother child cult spread to Israel, when Ahab, the King of Israel, married Jezzabel, who was raised in the mother child cult. She immediately began to put the prophets of God into prison. Why? Because a socialist dictatorship cannot stand a bible preaching ministry. Soon after, Israel started worshiping Baal and God sent severe judgement upon Israel.Abraham was called out Ur and out of a home that worshiped the mother child cult. His father kept his idols until the day he died.And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.Joshua 24:2Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.Genesis 12:1There must be separation between light and darkness. What you are willing to walk away from will determine what God can bring you to. You must walk away from darkness before you can embrace the light.Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?2 Corinthians 6:14Therefore go out from their midst,and be separate from them, says the Lord,and touch no unclean thing;then I will welcome you,2 Corinthians 6:17We are not trying to be like the world. We are the light of the world. Turn on the light!But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. Therefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day. Jeremiah 44:5-6God tells us why he’s coming to send the children of Israel into captivity. It’s because they worshiped the mother child cult.You shall have no other gods before me.Exodus 20:3That’s not a request, that’s a command!In Ezekiel 8 we see the Jewish people in the temple of God who are worshiping idols to the Queen of Heaven. God sent Ezekiel to the temple to peek through a hole in the wall to see what the people in the temple were doing. They were praying to the Queen of Heaven. This is the Babylonian cult of Nimrod and Samiramus. The people continued to worship the mother child cult, which remains a global and powerful religion that will clash with the antichrist for global control in the near future.Why? Because they both want the same thing. The antichrist wants to control the world and the false religion that’s coming is going to want to dominate the world.Rejoice over her, O heaven,and you saints and apostles and prophets,for God has given judgment for you against her!”Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,and will be found no more;Revelation 18:20-21The bible clearly teaches that Rome will be completely demolished as the antichrist destroys the mother child cult and becomes an instant global dictator.Listen closely! There is one mediator between God and man. It is not the Queen of Heaven. It is not a man. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Who was crucified for you and I.Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every namePhilippians 2:9and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Philippians 2:11We celebrate Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us at the cross. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.Jesus, who washed us whiter than snow,Jesus, who took our poverty at the cross and gave us the wealth of Abraham,Jesus, the great physician who heals our body,Jesus, who gives us peace in the midst of the storm,Jesus, who bears our burdens when we can't go forward,Jesus, who hears us personally when we pray,Jesus, who gives us confidence in the storms of life.There is no Queen of Heaven. There is only God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.The second appearance of the New World Order, Satan came to Jesus and said:And

#472 - Faith Matters - The Most Offensive Truth

TRUE COLORS: The Most Offensive Truth Pastor Bob McCartney gave a sermon series on current social issues this fall highlighting the truth found in the Bible. Here are my notes from this eighth and final sermon in his series, True Colors.Your citizenship in the kingdom of God makes all the difference in your salvation. There is only ONE way to go to Heaven and it is by totally trusting in Jesus.1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way where I am going.”5 Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.John 14:1-6 NASB1995That is a pretty exclusive statement. When Jesus made that statement you could say one of three things about Him, He’s delusional, He’s a liar or He’s telling the truth.If He’s delusional or a liar, then He’s not worthy to be followed. But if that statement is true, you’d best stake your life and eternity on who Jesus Christ is.1. Jesus alone can restore our broken relationship with God.Jesus is the Way to GodOur sin has made a separation between us and God. And Jesus says I am THE WAY, I alone can restore the broken relationship with God. No other religious leader, no other prophet can do that and you certainly can’t do it on your own.For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,1 Timothy 2:5 NASB1995And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”Acts 4:12 NASB1995He gave us only ONE way to heaven, but we deserve NO way. Your citizenship in the kingdom of God is your salvation. There is one way to spell salvation and it is J E S U S!2. Jesus alone can reveal the truth about God.Jesus is the TruthAnd the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.John 1:14 NASB1995Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?John 14:9 NASB1995What about those who have never heard the Gospel? Our natural light is not enough to save you, but it is enough to condemn you.A. The revelation factor: All people have some light1. through the witness of Creation2. through the witness of conscienceRomans 2:14-15B. The refusal factor: Light refused increases darknessYou can’t stay morally neutral toward God. You either refuse or accept.Romans 1:21C. The reception factor: Light obeyed increases lightAnyone who wants to hear the Gospel, will hear it because God will make it happen. He will move Heaven and Earth to get to you. He does it through His church. It’s our responsibility to pray, give and go!Romans 1:16Every other religion is a false religion. Biblical Christianity is the only true faith and it is the only way to know God and to go to His heaven. Full stop. Period.3. Jesus alone can give you the life you are longing for.Jesus is the Life in GodMost people who seek God feel that something is missing. There’s guilt, shame a sense of loneliness and isolation.The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.John 10:10 NASB1995I came to give you the abundant life. This promise is not about abundance of THINGS. It’s about the abundance of Jesus in your life that helps you cope with problems. We are not promised a life with no problems. It’s the abundance of His power, His presence and His peace in the midst of all that’s going on in a world that’s gone nuts!I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.Galatians 2:20 NASB2020The abundant life is a life of confidence in God knowing that no matter how this world goes, you’re going to heaven. And Jesus offers it to you.