Broken Cisterns

Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns* for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. -- Jeremiah 2:12-13

As we make our way through Scripture, we will continue to meet various people. Last week we met Nicodemus, and this week we meet a Samaritan woman at Jacobs Well. She is never named, we only know her as the Woman at the Well, but we learn a lot about her back-story.  She had been married and (presumably) divorced five times, and now she was living with a man that she was not married to.

As we meet people in Scripture, one thing should start becoming abundantly clear, they suffer from common human maladies. In other words, they are very much like us. In Nicodemus, we saw the best of the best, a  highly respected religious leader with great influence. And in the Woman at the Well, we see what society counted as the lowest of the low, a social outcast with a checkered past. Nicodemus was a somebody, and the Woman at the Well was a nobody. This is a study in contrasts and it tells us something; whether we are counted as the best of the best, the worst of the worst, or somewhere in between, we are all laid bare before Christ. When Jesus confronts Nicodemus or the woman at the well, He is confronting the full range of humanity, and that includes you and me.

It is fitting that Jesus first encountered this woman at Jacob's Well as she was working to quench her physical thirst. Because for many years, she had been working hard trying to quench her spiritual thirst with men. She had gone to the well of relationships, time and time again, only to pull up empty buckets. She was trying to find in men that which can only be found in God. Her meeting with Jesus was not just a chance encounter, she had an appointment with Divine Providence.

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." -- John 4:13-14

Biblically speaking, this woman was guilty of adultery and fornication, but there was yet another sin underneath her sexual sin -- the sin of idolatry. What is Idolatry you might ask? To put it simply, idolatry is anything we put in God's rightful place; and we humans have a long history of committing the sin of idolatry.

As modern people, we tend to ridicule our ancient counterparts for their primitive forms of idolatry. How could they fashion idols from things like gold, wood and stone and bow to them as gods? Not only did they have personal idols for their households, they also built elaborate temples for their idols. So we look around our land today and think, no temples, no household idols, we're good --better than our ancestors. Well, not so fast. We are no less guilty of idolatry, the only difference is that our modern idols are often idols of the heart. But rest assured, idolatry is alive and well.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. -- 1 John 5:21 

Tim Keller has done a yeoman's work in exploring modern idolatry in his book Counterfeit Gods, as well as preaching many sermons on the subject. What follows is my summary of Keller's observations:
An idol will hold a supreme place in our affections, passions, and thoughts. At base, we believe that our idols will save us. We believe that they will save us from meaninglessness, hopelessness, a lack of respect… the list could go on and on. An idol is also our attempt at self-salvation and self-justification. For example, we might say, if I can only do this, or accomplish that, then my life will have meaning. My place in this world is justified because of what I have accomplished. We look to our idols for ultimate meaning and purpose. To one person it might be a successful career, to another it might be the pursuit of a dream, to another person it might be sex and romance, or even marriage and family. These things are not inherently bad in themselves; but even a good thing can become an idol if we make it our god and our reason for living. And know this, idols are harsh taskmasters and they will always fail us.

For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? 

-- Mark 8:36

Furthermore, an idol will also shrivel the soul, because we will ultimately become what we worship:

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. -- Psalms 115:4-8

In short, idols will leave us spiritually deaf, dumb, and blind. Ancient Israel abandoned God, the fountain of living waters, and replaced Him with idols that were merely broken cisterns. When we commit idolatry, we do the same. Essentially, we fail to give God the rightful place in the heart.

To use another analogy, idolatry is like drinking salt water to quench your thirst. In the end, it creates a vicious cycle of thirst and dehydration that will ultimately end in death. It is like a cycle of addiction, in that you crave more and more of the very thing that is killing you. To paraphrase Pascal, only an infinite God can fill the human soul.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" -- John 7:37-38

We foolishly believe that our idols will give us life, meaning, and joy. But in reality, our idols are heavy burdens and harsh task masters that will destroy us in the end. In contrast, Christ offers us a light burden and rest for our souls:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -- Matthew 11:28-30 

Jesus confronts our idols. He said that you cannot serve two masters, you will hate one and love the other (Luke 16:13). A Christian is someone who, by God's grace, has turned away from his sin and idolatry and has come to treasure Christ above all other pursuits, pleasures and ambitions. In short, we renounce all other masters, including self, to follow Christ.

"Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all in Jesus." - Charles Spurgeon 

As God takes His rightful place on the throne of the heart, something wonderful begins to happen, we begin to be transformed into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). Although we will never be perfect on this side of heaven, the Christian is already being transformed into the image of Christ as we gaze upon his face in the written Word. (Remember, we become what we worship.)

The grace of Christ frees us. We no longer need to be slaves to our idols, and we will no longer try to get from others that which only comes from God. We begin to understand that not even the best of circumstances, the best spouse, the best children, the best job, none of these things can carry the burden of being our God. And that frees us to love people and have joy and contentment through the trials and tribulations of life, because we have already found our greatest treasure in Christ.

By God's grace, the Christian grows to understand that, in light of all that Christ has done, we no longer need our idols because He is our salvation, our justification, and our joy. We rest in Him. God is the fount of living water that quenches our dry and thirsty souls. For the Christian, God is the fountainhead of all true and lasting joy. He is not a means to an end, He is the end.

In closing, I leave you with the words of this wonderful old hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

__________

* Cisterns: ...Jerusalem depends mainly for water upon its cisterns, of which almost every private house possesses one or more, excavated in the rock on which the city is built. The cisterns have usually a round opening at the top, sometimes built up with stonework above and furnished with a curb and a wheel for a bucket. ( Ecclesiastes 12:6 ) Empty cisterns were sometimes used as prisons and places of confinement. Joseph was cast into a "pit," ( Genesis 37:22 ) as was Jeremiah. ( Jeremiah 38:6 ) - Smith's Bible Dictionary

Setting Your Affections Above

The true cure for a dull memory in religion, is to get deeper love toward Christ, and affections more thoroughly set on things above. We do not readily forget the things we love, and the objects which we keep continually under our eyes. The names of our parents and children are always remembered. The face of the husband or wife we love is engraved on the tablets of our hearts. The more our affections are engaged in Christ’s service, the more easy shall we find it to remember Christ’s words. The words of the apostle ought to be carefully pondered: “We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” (Heb. 2:1)

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 2 , [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 494.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

"We never hear the Gospel until we've been made uneasy by it"

-- Ravi Zacharias

This week we are going to look at one of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture, John chapter 3. I say that because so many people, Christian and unbeliever alike, can probably quote John 3:16 from heart:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Because this passage is so familiar, I'm guessing that there is a good chance you didn't read the entire verse above, or give it serious thought. Which brings us to the old saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt". Although contempt might be too strong a word, at the very least, familiarity does breed a level of apathy. I believe John 3:16 is too often dismissed by unbelievers as well as Christians. It is dismissed by unbelievers as foolishness, and it is often dismissed by Christians as mere milk, or a starting point from which we should quickly move beyond. But in reality, there is so much theological richness in this verse, we will be mining its treasure into eternity. In this verse we see the nature of the Triune God and His many attributes such as wrath, righteousness, mercy, grace, love, and holiness, working in perfect harmony to redeem fallen humanity.

In fact, because we live in a culture that has a church on every corner, and because a lot of silliness is done in the name of Christ, we tend to view the entire Bible with a kind of "been there, done that" complacency. That being the case, sometimes it can be a challenge to come to the Bible (especially familiar passages like John 3) with a fresh set of eyes, and a heart of anticipation that is ready to receive from God's Word. It is my hope and prayer that, as we read this familiar passage of Scripture, we will be able to see it with new eyes and grow in our understanding of the person and work of Christ.

In John 3, we are introduced to a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews, and we are more like him than we realize. When Jesus began teaching Him about salvation and the Kingdom of God, Nicodemus did not understand. The teachings of Christ were shocking and unsettling to Nicodemus. Jesus replied, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" (John 3:10).

There is a gentle rebuke from Jesus in those words to Nicodemus, and by extension, there is a rebuke to you and me as well. How is it that Nicodemus could be a highly esteemed teacher in Israel who spent his life studying the Scriptures, and yet, he did not understand what Christ was saying to him? It was because his heart was dull and glazed over with sin, self-righteousness, and a poor understanding of Scripture. But I won't be too hard on Nicodemus, because we will soon discover that the disciples of Christ had similar problems. And guess what, we do as well. It is the human condition.

Part of the problem with modern "churchianity" is that we have tried to file down the hard edges from Scripture and fashion a god in our own image. We've tried to explain away difficult passages that pierce the heart and shock our sensibilities. We are guilty of wrapping the Gospel in a user-friendly media package that is sure to offend no one. But when that happens, the Bible is no longer being taught.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. -- Proverbs 27:6

Here's the reality, the claims of Christ are shocking and unsettling, regardless of the era and place in which you live. They were shocking in Jesus' day, and they are shocking to our generation as well. Great kingdoms have come and gone, but the Word of Christ remains. His words echo through time, and they continue to confront us to this very minute.

If the words of Christ do not, at times, unsettle us and rattle our shaky foundations, we are not reading them correctly. Christ does something that makes us all uncomfortable; He is the faithful friend that tells the truth about our condition, and wounds our foolish and self-righteous pride. As a result, fallen cultures will tend to deal with the Bible in a few different ways; it will change the message to fit the culture, ridicule the Bible, or ban it all together. But it has proven to be a hard book to ignore.

C.S. Lewis wanted to breakthrough that cultural blindness when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. He wanted to awaken our hearts to awe and wonder so we could better understand the true nature of Christ. In Chronicles, Lewis wrote about a Christ-like figure named Aslan, a mighty lion who sang the world of Narnia into existence. When a little girl named Lucy first heard about Aslan, she was frightened and wanted to know if Aslan was safe. To which Mr. Beaver replied, "Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you."

What we've tried to do is make God "safe" and easy to manage. Or, to put it in the vernacular of Lewis, we've tried to "tame" God. We want a God that we can control. We've tried to change Christ, whom the Bible calls the Lion of Judah, into something as benign and innocuous as Barney the purple dinosaur. But that is not the Christ of Scripture. To truly read Scripture is to encounter Christ, and that is like walking side by side with a lion. We can only do that by the good graces of the Lion, we are not in control.

 

Like Nicodemus, we become unsettled, and begin to discover that everything we thought we knew about God, and even what we thought we knew about ourselves, begins to change when confronted with the person of Christ. (That is not only true before we are Christians, that continues to happen after we are Christians.) 

John 3 is both comforting and unsettling. It is shocking to our sensibilities, because we learn that we are alienated from God by our sin and abide under His wrath (John 3:36). We learn that it is our nature to run from the light of Christ because our deeds are evil (John 3:19-20). We also learn in Romans that we are perishing under a sentence of death, both physical and spiritual (Romans 6:23). It is against this backdrop of despair that we learn about an amazing hope, and the Gospel shines like a brilliant sunrise after a long dark night of the soul. We read, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

In John 3, we see the eternal vistas, ranging from deep chasms of despair and alienation from God, to the mountain peaks of hope we find in the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel means good news, but we can only understand the good news in light of the bad news about our true condition. And with that truth, Jesus brings grace upon grace (John 1:16-17) and love that is beyond comprehension (Romans 5:6-8, Romans 8:38-39).

Setting the Table

"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

-- Psalms 119:103

A good meal takes time.

When I was growing up, my Grandmother would spend days preparing a holiday meal, and she would start by shopping for the best ingredients she could find. As a kid, that drove me nuts. Because she would drive to the farmers market and every roadside produce stand she knew about. I didn't understand why she didn't just shop at the nearest grocery store and call it a day. But now, looking back, I realize that she knew what she was doing. She knew where to find the best quality produce and meats, and it took time.

Once the ingredients were purchased, she would start cooking everything from scratch, and she would spend up to three days, cooking around the clock to prepare a big meal. I'm confident that I speak for the entire family when I say that our Grandmother set the standard by which all later meals would be judged. Why was her cooking so good? Because she cooked with love, and it took time. That's why you can't find food like Grandma's at McDonalds or Taco Bell. It just takes time to set the table for a good meal.

I hate to admit this, growing up, I took it all for granted. If I had those years to live over again, I wouldn't complain about how long the shopping took, and I wouldn't complain when she occasionally asked for help in the kitchen. I would just enjoy my time with Grandma, and be thankful.

What we know about a good meal is also true about God's Word. It takes time to savor the deep truths of Scripture. God has demonstrated His love through Christ and He has given us His Word; and to discover its riches takes time. But let's face it, we live in one of the most impatient societies in the history of mankind. Even the microwave oven seems to take too long these days. An even bigger problem is what modern entertainment and media has done to our attention spans. For example, how can the nightly news claim to cover a story "in depth" in less than three minutes? To truly understand anything takes time. Our modern way of life has taken a toll on us all, and we are more effected by it than we realize.

If we approach God's Word like a microwave oven, we will not discover its riches. It takes time to till the soil, and it takes time for a rose to bloom. If we give God's word prayerful time and thought, it will yield a bountiful crop, and bloom like a fragrant rose. God is the beauty by which all other beauty is measured and He is the ultimate joy that all lesser joys point to; and He has revealed Himself in Scripture. Let us not take that for granted.

Once Upon A Time...

Every great story has a beginning, middle, and end. Even a great piece of music has a beginning, and a middle (where it builds to a crescendo), and an end, when it comes to a resolution.

We see that pattern written on life itself. Life begins at conception, the pregnancy builds for nine months, rising to the crescendo of childbirth; then it finally comes to a resolution, with the mother holding a newborn baby in her arms.

The beat of history will also rise to a crescendo. As history progresses, the drums will beat faster and harder, the horns will blow longer and louder, until finally, history's trumpets will rise to a crescendo with the return of Christ. Then, history will finally come to a resolution with a new heaven and a new earth.

Because God is the author of life, it should not surprise us that the Bible is also a grand story with a beginning, middle, and end. History is not an endless road leading to nowhere; history has a destination and a purpose, and it is centered around the person and work of Christ. Once we understand that, we will be better able to understand the sweeping, awe-inspiring, grand narrative of Scripture.

Hollywood, Worldview and Deicide

CATEGORICAL THINKING & WORLDVIEW
What is categorical thinking? Simply put, we group "like" things together into a single category. Every day we are constantly putting things into predefined categories. For example, when we get home from the grocery store, we automatically unpack our groceries into several categories such as, frozen, refrigerated, pantry, etc. When we see automobiles we think, car, truck, SUV and so forth.

In addition to these fairly mundane product categories, we have moral and philisophical categories as well. And these categories are a product of our worldview. But what separates one worldview from another and what makes for a biblical worldview? In one sense, our worldview is a product of how we categorize things in the world. In other words, worldview is (in part) a product of categorical thinking.

A biblical worldview starts in Genesis with, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…" As we read through Genesis we discover several broad categories such as:

• God: God is our Creator and sustainer. He alone is God and He transcends creation.
• Matter: The physical universe created by God.
• Plant life: Non-conscious life that grows in the soil.
• Animal life: Flesh and blood creatures on a lower plane than man.
• Mankind: Uniquely created in the image of God (mankind divides into two subcategories).
• Male
• Female

These are the broad categories given to us in Genesis, and they comprise the basic structure for a biblical worldview and moral categories. Along with these categories, God has also given us corresponding roles and behaviors for each category. A rejection of a biblical worldview is essentially a rejection of these categories and the God who made them.

What happens when we reject biblical categories? Here are a few examples.

• PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals): PETA rejects the idea that there is a fundamental difference between man and animals. In other words, they believe that man and beast belong in the same moral and ontological category. They regard the deaths of 6,000,000 chickens killed by KFC as morally equivalent to the deaths of 6,000,000 Jews killed during the Holocaust. I'm not making that up. They have rejected the moral categories of Scripture, and they have rejected the notion that man is uniquely made in the image of God.
• The LGBT movement: The homosexual community has rejected the gender categories and roles given in Scripture. They believe that it is evil to categorize the human race into the two genders of male and female. They argue that these are not real categories, but merely artificial social constructs.
• Pantheism: Pantheism teaches that god and creation are one and the same (a single category). If creation dies, the god of pantheism dies with it. In stark contrast, the Bible teaches that God is omnipotent, self existent and above creation.

CULTURAL MILESTONE
This brings me to Hollywood and the movie Cloud Atlas (trailer) which opened last Friday. Cloud Atlas is based on a novel by the same name. It stars Hollywood heavy weights such as Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon among others. It was produced, written and directed by the Wachowski's. The Wachowski's are best known for filming the Matrix Trilogy.

As you can see from the above video, Cloud Atlas appears to be a beautifully made film of epic proportions, and it has been generally praised by critics. But the worldview depicted in this film is flawed to the core. Why? Because, at a fundamental level, it is a complete rejection of biblical categories.

Clout Atlas tells six different stories that span roughly 500 years. Each story is about the same set of people who have been reincarnated six times. And here's the kicker, sometimes they are reincarnated as men, and sometimes as women. The sexuality of the characters range from straight, to gay, to bisexual. The film basically depicts the transmigration of genderless souls. Do you see what they've done here? They've used their art to destroy biblical categories. Lastly, for good measure, Christians are portrayed negatively in this film as well. The negative portrayal of Christians is nothing new for the Wachowski's. Their film V for Vendetta (2005) depicts a totalitarian Christian state that is guilty of several crimes against humanity, including the persecution of Muslims and homosexuals. I think Ted Baehr said it best in his review of Vendetta:

"Are we so far removed from 911 that Americans can be asked to stomach a movie in which the hero is a violent terrorist and the victims are Muslims oppressed by a hyper-fundamentalist Christian government? Do they expect Americans to support a movie in which the Koran is described as “beautiful,” homosexuality is glorified and Christian leaders are depicted as lunatics and pedophiles? Perhaps director James McTeigue and the brothers Wachowski suffer from some sort of mental dyslexia, because they seem to have their villains, heroes and victims miserably reversed."

Right about now you might be thinking, Yeah, Hollywood is liberal and hostile to Christianity, blah, blah, blah. What else is new? Next thing you're going to tell me the sky is blue and water is wet.

The reason I wanted to bring your attention to Cloud Atlas is because I think the production of this movie gives us an especially keen insight into the soul of Hollywood. After all, what institutions do you think have the greatest influence over our culture? The Church, our schools, government or Hollywood? It has been said that politics is downstream of culture, and I agree. But I think the problem runs deeper than that. Culture is also having a profound influence in our homes and our churches. In response, we must be sober-minded about the world of art and media. We cannot afford to be unthinking and indiscriminate consumers of culture. But I digress, more on that later.

Getting back to the Wachowski's (and others like them), it is clear that they have more than just a mild disagreement with Christianity, they have a seething hatred towards it. Why? What motivates them? Please turn your attention to this brief video as the Wachowski's discuss their latest project.

What I failed to mention earlier is that the Wachowski's were once known as the "Wachowski Brothers". That lady in the video with pink hair, that's Lana Wachowski. Lana used to be Larry, but he is currently in the process of "gender reassignment". I think that explains a great deal. Larry is confused about his gender, so they made a movie to help us understand that the idea of male and female genders are false categories forced on us by outdated and bigoted religions (i.e., Christianity).

Why does the Hollywood assembly line constantly produce things like Glee, The New Normal, Modern Family, etc.? Because it is an attempt at self-justification. Just about every film and television script with a gay character is first vetted by GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) before it is approved by a major studio. The LGBT community does not just want acceptance, they want to be celebrated. They don't want to be seen as merely equal, they want to be seen as superior. Once again, I am not making that up or using hyperbole. There are gay academicians who actually believe that the homosexual lifestyle is superior to that of heterosexuals. They have constructed their own worldview with their own moral categories and Hollywood has signed on to their agenda whole-heartedly.

PERCEPTION IS REALITY
The media loves to sight polls, especially when they confirm their presuppositions. But there is one poll they were not very eager to report. In fact, I would be surprised if you've even heard about it. A recent Gallup Poll (10/18/12) surveyed a massive sample of over 120,000 Americans, and it was the largest survey of its kind. (By way of comparison, most election polls sample in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,200 people, give or take). Gallup found that only 3.4% of the population self-identifies as lesbian, gay, transgender, or bisexual.

What's interesting is that another recent Gallup Poll (5/8/11) indicated most Americans believe that about 25% of the country is gay. If that were true, the gay population would be about double that of African Americans. Think about what that means; it means that most Americans are walking around with a grossly distorted perception of reality. How did that happen? How is it that the gay community has amassed so much political and corporate influence? Might I suggest that the media has created this false perception with its music, television, and movies. They have created an imaginary world that most Americans believe to be true. A closer look at the numbers also indicates that younger people have the most distorted view of reality. Furthermore, it appears that a higher percentage of young people now identify as homosexual (6.4% among the college age) when compared to the general population. Is it a coincidence that the key demographic for most media also skews toward the young?

TO BECOME A GOD, YOU MUST FIRST KILL GOD
Whenever we attempt to construct our own worldview with our own moral categories, we are basically playing God; and that takes us right back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden, where we first tried to play God. When we try to take God's place, we are essentially wishing for the death of God because we do not want Him to reign over us. The end result is this: either we kill God in our hearts by pretending that He doesn't exist, or we create a god in our own image, thus creating an idol. As fallen creatures, we do not just have a mild disagreement with God, we have a seething hatred towards Him that is usually masked beneath a thin veneer of civility.

How do I know this? Just ask yourself, what would mankind do if he could get his hands on God? We need look no further than the Incarnation. When God became a man, we did not bow before Him as Lord and King; we screamed for His death and killed Him in the most violent and bloody fashion imaginable. We crucified Him. At the cross we see man's hatred of God and love of sin on full display. But thankfully, at the cross, we also see God's love for man and His hatred of sin on full display as well. It all intersects and collides at the cross of Christ.

How could it be that man, in all of his pride and grasping, tries to become a god; but God, in perfect love and humility, condescended to become a man.

ONE LAST CAUTION
I've spoken here a great deal about the LGBT activists agenda, but of course, the influence of culture goes far beyond that particular sin. Ultimately it is an issue of what the culture holds up as valuable and worthy of praise. And what the world values is summed up in Scripture; the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). We will go to any length to reject Biblical truth and devise our own moral categories. But my purpose here is not to just rant about the culture; my hope is that, as Christians, we would think more soberly about the media we consume, how it impacts us, and how it impacts those we love. After all, can a man hold fire to his chest without getting burned (Proverbs 6:27)?

I especially hope that we would take the time to help young people see through this cultural mirage and think more biblically as they navigate the bright and shiny objects of this world. But at the end of day, a list of rules won't work. Unless the heart has been truly captivated by the person and work of Christ, the culture will always eclipse the Son. But remember, a solar eclipse is caused by the shadow of the moon -- an object that is infinitely smaller than the sun. And so it is with us when we allow the world to eclipse Christ. We become fascinated by the tiny dark speck of culture, and fail to see the radiant glory of Christ.

I will end on this note: When I see the corrupting influences in our world, it makes me angry; and there is a proper place for righteous indignation (Ephesians 4:26). But I must never forget that those who are in the world are not my enemies, they are the mission field. I must never forget that the Larry Wachowskis of the world desperately need Christ. Because I too was once blind, and were it not for His unmerited grace, I would still be lost and loving my sin. As one man said, "I'm just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." If I fail to remember that, I've become just another self-righteous Pharisee.

J.C. Ryle: Repent to the Gate of Heaven

Luke 13:1-5 ESV

(1)  There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

(2)  And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?

(3)  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

(4)  Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?

(5)  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

THE murder of the Galileans, mentioned in the first verse of this passage, is an event of which we know nothing certain. The motives of those who told our Lord of the event, we are left to conjecture. At any rate, they gave Him an opportunity of speaking to them about their own souls, which He did not fail to employ. He seized the event, as His manner was, and made a practical use of it. He bade His informants look within, and think of their own state before God. He seems to say, "What though these Galileans did die a sudden death? What is that to you? Consider your own ways. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

The state of our own souls should always be our first concern. It is eminently true that real Christianity will always begin at home. The converted man will always think first of his own heart, his own life, his own deserts, and his own sins. Does he hear of a sudden death? He will say to himself, "Should I have been found ready, if this had happened to me?"—Does he hear of some awful crime, or deed of wickedness? He will say to himself, "Are my sins forgiven? and have I really repented of my own transgressions?"—Does he hear of worldly men running into every excess of sin? He will say to himself, "Who has made me to differ? What has kept me from walking in the same road, except the free grace of God?" May we ever seek to be men of this frame of mind! Let us take a kind interest in all around us. Let us feel tender pity and compassion for all who suffer violence, or are removed by sudden death. But let us never forget to look at home, and to learn wisdom for ourselves from all that happens to others...

If we have already repented in time past, let us go on repenting to the end of our lives. There will always be sins to confess and infirmities to deplore, so long as we are in the body. Let us repent more deeply, and humble ourselves more thoroughly, every year. Let every returning birthday find us hating sin more, and loving Christ more. He was a wise old saint who said, "I hope to carry my repentance to the very gate of heaven."
- J.C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels