In which we take a short break from James
I am not finished with James. James is not finished with me! But, last night John and I finished the book of Joshua. Why does that matter to you? Well, admittedly, it probably doesn’t. That’s not the point. The point is, when I first came up with the idea for this site, Choose Each Day, it was Joshua 24 that inspired the name.
Choosing this day, instead of each day
While the quest I am on began only ~ 2 weeks ago, I started this site more like 2 years ago. Those were simple times. I had a cushy job, owned a couple houses, ran a lot, drank a lot of beer, grilled meant almost nightly, read quite a bit, and generally lived like an Epicurean besotted with scripture and olde time books. My idea was to create a website where I could write out my thoughts on scripture, or whatever I was reading at the time. I produced two articles and a sort of half another article. That’s it.
I have mentioned my penchant (please read the last word again in your best French accent!) for inconsistency in the past, haven’t I?
The key verse
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:14-15
I love this verse. This is the verse I tell my kids is true of our own house. I love Joshua. Joshua followed Moses, and Joshua followed God, but that guy followed no one else. The whole assembly of elders, judges, heads of clans and tribes of Israel could have said, We will follow Moloch. Joshua would have drawn his sword and slain as many fools as he could before he was stopped. Joshua was immovable in his devotion to God.
So, why not name the site Choose This Day? Well, my impertinent friend, if you must know, read on!
For starters, that url was taken. But, then it occurred to me that I am forever choosing this day to do something, and then choosing the next day to do something else entirely. The consequence of which is that I never accomplish anything much. Did I mention I paid for this site and then proceeded to produce two and a half articles, then went some other direction? I honestly don’t even know what I started doing instead. Netflix and Prime had a spate of pretty good crime documentaries, I remember – not the kind with reenactments, but the kind with legit old footage and newspaper clippings and interviews with witnesses and the cops who solved the mysteries, etc. Maybe that’s what I started doing? (Not committing crimes! What do you think of me? I meant watching the documentaries!)
Aiming for each day
All that to say, I needed something to encourage me to be steady. I needed a rhythm. Even two years ago, living in a different state, and in a completely different situation, I longed to be the sort of person you could set your watch to. I suppose I thought, if I call it Choose Each Day, perhaps I will actually devote myself to study the scriptures and the Church fathers, and to write about what I study each day.
It didn’t take.
A problem observed
There is also a curious issue I was hoping to address. No. Let me go further. There is a curious problem in the Evangelical world today, I hoped to address. I believe it has actually been a problem since the founding of the Church by the Apostles, but I didn’t live back then, and the problem back then is not ours to address. Also, I had some uncomfortable up close and personal experience with this issue in a church in which we were once members.
The problem is basically people choosing this day to serve the Lord. Let me rephrase that. Choosing this day to serve the Lord is not a problem. But, choosing only this day to serve the Lord, then choosing each day after to serve ourselves and our myriad idols is a problem.
Again, let me rephrase what I just wrote.
The problem I witnessed 3-4 years ago at a church where we once were members didn’t actually even start with serving the Lord – not this day or any day. How these things were managed by that institution was more like this: You find out that Jesus loves you so much and wants to be your BFF, and that all you need to do is say some magic words, and then you are good to go for all of time. BUT, you must raise your hand when preachy McPreacher tells you to. Otherwise, how can he keep his stats on conversion? Never mind that there was no discipleship thereafter, no instruction, admonition, exhortation. Every Lord’s day began to repeat the same formula.
How to brew Christianity Lite, now with fewer calories!
The Preamble
Preacher: “I know you are so (fill in the blank) *Note: the best options here are:
- broken (extremely popular right now. Broken, brokenness, brokenhearted, broken-world, broken relationships, broken homes. These are some go-to crowd-pleasers!)
- hurting (somewhat dated, but to the point. Plus, if you used broken last week, you’re going to want to change things up. Hurting is a solid choice.)
- lost and confused and not sure what will happen next (descriptive, and also true of most non-prophets and people who aren’t Madame Cleo)
- desperate to be freed from bondage. (Now, bondage is the older word they used when I was a kid, along with the King James Version. I personally love both. I mean the word bondage, not…You really have to get your head out of the gutter. Do I look like I’m running Biden’s nuclear waste disposal?! What?! I’ll have you know I thought this luggage was mine! Anyway, since you are using the same formula week in and week out, you can create the sense of novelty by changing bondage to any of the following:
- addiction to drugs – maybe not so popular in the church;
- addiction to pornography (Since the secular community started figuring out that addiction to pornography has many negative secular results and have begun to speak openly about it, the popular church seems to have decided it’s okay to bring this up;
- gluttony (Who am I kidding? Gluttony, while a legit abomination, has resulted in net zero church discipline in America since 1808 when Brother Hezekiah Longbottom of Plymouth was dragged before the elders for consuming Goody Broadtoes’ entire hackberry cobbler at Sabbath dinner.
- the sin of not loving yourself enough (While I’m pretty sure this isn’t really a sin, this one does go down really well with American people looking to think about and love themselves more.)
- sick and tired of the same old cycle (This is one the preacher never seems to consider turning round on himself. Break the chain!)
- desperate for change (Useful, as it can be meant in the metaphysical sense, as well as in the monetary sense.)
- desperate to have a loving father (If you mean to preach this one, you should be able to gauge your audience. If you feel safe using it, why not try the term daddy?)
That tantalizing but
Preacher: “But, what if I told you (fill in the blank)
- Jesus loves you so much, he wants to take that away from you! (Now, this one is almost cheating because it goes with everything from brokenness to not loving me enough. But, I have seen it used “successfully” many, many times. It has the added bonus of containing real truth.)
- There was a way to be healed! (Again, this has truth in it. Jesus is, after all the way to spiritual life. So, points to the preacher for this middle section. But we’ll see where he goes with it in the end.)
- You have a father in heaven who loves you and wants to be with you. (Again, built on truth. Although I am not sure about the wants to be with you in your current state. God will not permit sin in His presence, so without Christ I am iffy on this one. I think in a general sense it is well meant, if not well said.)
- You can have everything you ask for. (Now we come to the snake oil. This is patently false. It’s true that Christ says whatever we ask in his name we will receive, but that is only when what we ask for will lead to our being conformed to the image of Christ. It’s only after our desires become his desires.)
- You can be free and never tempted again. (While I believe this is possible, and can be true, it is a bit of a monkeyshine when you see what is comes next.)
- Jesus loves you exactly how you are. (RED FLAG WARNING. God did love us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. But, do not think you can come to Christ and remain the same self-centered, debauched sinner that you are. Real conversion will change you.)
The magic prayer
Preacher: “All you have to do is repeat after me…
Not sure if this needs any explanation. This is the asking Jesus into your heart bit. NOW, I will admit I believe there are regenerated and justified folks out there whose Christian walk started with a moment like this. I don’t doubt it. God can use all things for His purposes. I just think it is often a cheap trick to make folks feel good. There is no denying oneself, picking up the cross, or following. There’s just repeating some words, and then the most important ingredient of all…
Sealing the deal
Preacher: “With everyone’s heads bowed and eyes closed, if you prayed that prayer, will you simply raise your hand? No one is looking, I know it’s so difficult, but if you just repeated after me, please raise your hand.”
That’s how you get the count of how successful the formula worked this morning. You have the deacons count the raised hands. If the hand count is small, you really need to go in a new direction next week. If the hand count was high, just change a few words, get a different key verse, and let’s repeat this bad boy till the hand count dips again!
I have witnessed first hand people raising their hand who raised their hand only a few months previous. However, the preacher doesn’t know that because, since there is no discipleship and no one taking these hand-raisers under their wing to walk them from where they are to anywhere else, he doesn’t know who they are, or even bother to find out. The lights are in his eyes, and he scans the room, not looking at faces, but simply trying to take a mental Polaroid of uplifted hands. A lot of times with this formula you get serial hand-raising. People like to feel involved and responsive and appreciated, after all, and raising your hand is the only point of every sermon.
Optional: The people down front
While I disagree with the magic prayer and the hand raising, I have seen some congregations which use the formula, then follow it up with this:
Preacher: “Now if you just raised your hand, will you do me a favor? We have some people down front who would really like to pray with you, get to know you, and help you on your next steps on your journey with Christ.”
Now, THESE people I like better. They may subscribe to the prayer + hand in the air = salvation formula, but they mean to back it up with something real. Not content with meeting and praying one time with these hand raisers, they are going to get phone numbers and emails, and encourage them each day to get involved in Bible studies, Sunday school, home groups, missions, etc. I think I will spare any mockery of these types and give them a thumbs up for pushing congregational involvement, spiritual growth, service, etc.
The importance of each day
So, I wanted to create a site that focused on each day. My goal was to write something everyday. It didn’t have to be perfected that day. I could spend some afternoons and weekends editing what I wrote, fleshing things out, citing sources, and adding quotes. The point was that I was going to write each day. Then, six months or a year later I would publish the site like a fully formed Athena springing from Zeus’ monumental forehead.
Since that was two years ago, and I only wrote 2.5 articles, you can see that I failed to choose each day, and after choosing two days, I chose beer and TV.
But, now, dear brothers and sisters, I am on a quest. And, happily, I have written every day (each day, if you prefer) for the duration. I do hope and pray I can continue.
My dream is to someday publish this site publicly. My goal is to offer people like me (and like you, if you have read this far!) – laymen who love the Lord, love the scriptures, have a family and responsibilities, but also have goals – some inspiration, some laughs, and lots of scripture. If I can inspire just one person to seek out the word daily and to do the difficult work of self-discipline it will all be worth it.
Who knows?
Maybe I will never make it public, and just keep it here as a reminder to myself of the many long days between now and 50 weeks + one day from now that lie between today and my 45th birthday. Time will tell.
