Brave New World vs 1984

 

Two defining books - masterpieces and bestsellers at the time and ever since: Aldous Huxley’s "Brave New World" and George Orwell’s "1984". Are you familiar with these books? They used to be part of the high-school curriculum. Two different lenses portraying the future for them, which is our present, today:

- Orwell feared that books would be banned; Huxley feared that there would be no reason to ban books because no one would want to read them anyway.

- Orwell feared those who want to ban the access to information; Huxley feared those who give us access to so much information that we became passive, bored and tired because of it.

- Orwell feared that the truth would be hidden from us, and Huxley of the fact that the truth would be drowned in an ocean of irrelevance.

- Orwell feared that people would be controlled through the threat of increasing pain (physical and mental); Huxley that people will be controlled by the temptation of a increasing and addictive emotional pleasure (see also Neil Postman's essay "Amusing Ourselves to Death")

Concluding. Orwell feared that what we hate the most would lead us to doom, but Huxley was rightly afraid that what would cripple us as society and individuals is what we love the most.

I realized that we’ve got people around who are looking up seeing the reality through the lenses of either George Orwell or Aldous Huxley. Are you one of them?

Mark 4:9 - “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Different Kinds of Lies = 3

 

1. First kind: “I Swear to tell the truth” – Lies of Commission

If someone tells you something that is not a fact then we call this a lie of commission. This type of lie is telling someone something that is simply not true. You’re twisting the truth to create a (usually more favorable) version of something that happened.

Suppose I knew it was raining outside and you asked me about the weather. “Oh no problem, it’s perfectly sunny outside!” You would now be making a decision to dress for sunny weather based on the wrong information you were given.

2. Second kind: “The whole truth” – Lies of Omission

Another type of lie is one where you leave out an important part of information, hence the name lie of omission. In this lies, someone omits an important detail from a statement. These are nasty lies because they’re harder to spot and take less effort from the person who is lying.

Suppose you are buying a used car. You ask the car salesman about the state of the car you’re currently considering. “Oh, don’t worry about that! This car has had all of its scheduled maintenance done!” He fails to tell you, however, about the bottomless pit became in replacing parts and still not reliable. So yes, the car has had all of the scheduled maintenance done, but to sell the car to you, the salesman leaves out some crucial elements… 

3. Third kind: “And nothing but the truth” – Lies of Character

Sometimes people will tell you something completely unrelated to the truth to cover up a lie. This is what we call a character lie or a lie of influence. These lies are meant to make you believe the liar or to make the liar seem like such a great person that they are unlikely to be suspected of lying.

For example - you work at the local store and a colleague has been taking money from the cash registers. It’s your job to find out who it is. You interview Mary and ask her if she took the money. Her response is, “I’ve worked here for 15 years!” This is a typical character lie. By telling you how long she’s worked at this store, Mary is trying to make it seem highly unlikely that she took the money.

Different kinds of TRUTHS: just one kind - truth period.

But But

 

The word “but” is a coordinating conjunction used to connect ideas that contrast. We differentiate between genuine faith and dissimulated doubt, between winning and losing ground in everyday battles, by how we routinely use this tricky "but."

We tend to think and say:

- "The Lord is my Shepherd, but... I can't pay my bills."

- "The Lord is my Shepherd, but... I am not feeling well."

- "The Lord is my Shepherd, but... I am worried about this/that issue."

Instead, we should think and say:

- “Currently I cannot pay my bills, but the Lord is my Shepherd."

- “Right now I don’t feel well, but the Lord is my Shepherd."

- “I am really worried about this/that issue, but the Lord is my Shepherd."

“You prepare a table before me…

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life.”

 

Is He still your Shepherd?

He Is Alive, Talk to Him

 

A few weeks ago around Easter time, a joyful fellow Christian told me something I’ve heard many, many times: “Even if the gospel were not true, I would still want to be a Christian because this is the best life to live.” I get what he means. I just completely disagree.

The apostle Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 15 is that if Christ is not raised, “our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (v. 14). As a matter of fact, Paul wrote, if Christ is not raised, “we are of all people most to be pitied” (v. 19). Why?

First of all, people undergoing persecution for the faith cannot claim that the Christian life, even if the gospel is not true, is the happiest life possible. If Christ is not raised, a first-century woman who lost her husband, her extended family, her social safety net, and all her friends was not living her best life. She was doing so only if she looked beyond the momentary affliction toward something real.

If Jesus’ bones are somewhere in the ground in Jerusalem, then the Chinese believer in danger of arrest or the Sudanese believer in danger of execution are wasting the happiness that can come with the little securities and pleasures of this one short life.

Even those of us with strong community ties, rooted in faith, should see that Christianity simply isn’t worth it if salvation through Jesus isn’t true. After all this would mean that the “Matthew 28:1-8 women” were lying. The apostolic faith would be a fraud, and our community would be merely the bonds of natural affection, dissolved by the inevitabilities of biology and history.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20). He actually is alive! The Gospel story is true. I talk to Him and He answers back to me! 

Amen. The Christian life is worth it. Because of Him. And this is just the beginning of eternity with Him.

It's Not Just About You

 

We wonder why God keeps letting us go through challenges, trials, and obstacles. Sometimes it even seems like He's got something out for us.

But occasionally, I wonder if he allows us to struggle because He knows other people are watching.

My/your challenges aren't always about me/you - sometimes they're about a viewing audience. That audience might be friends, family, co-workers, boss, your kids... Could be anyone.

Especially if you're known as a Christian Bible believer, you can be absolutely sure people are watching. The bottom line is that the way you handle every difficulty, obstacle, or frustration, your experience is being watched by someone else.

Like it or not, they may be learning from your example. Your response to problems can be incredibly helpful or hurtful to the people around you. Remember that next time.

We joke that pregnant women are "eating for two." The truth is, your challenges in life are the same way. It's not just about you. It's about others as well (Matthew 5:16). And most of the times is about others. Period.

Asking Jesus the Right Question

 Mark chapter 11- it was the last week of his earthly life and Jesus spent time on social media of his day. He’s teaching in the temple but rather than authentic interaction he ends up getting a ton of silly questions that aren’t real questions - they are just meant to trap him. Tweets about authority, taxes, marriage, etc.

I saw these words in Mark 12:6 and I was gripped: “They will respect my son” It’s heartbreaking. It’s words in the parable of the tenants of the father sending his son to the people. But they say, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”

The religious leaders knew exactly what this parable meant. They were rejecting God’s plan A. That’s why they wanted to see Jesus thrown in prison and eventually dead. They wanted him done with, because they understood he was talking about them. He’s the son that they aren’t listening to - they’d rather kill him than listen.

How do you get to that spot? Especially if you are a religious leader of some sort. You’ve given your whole life to studying God’s Word, to being pleasing to God and then you end up saying, “here’s the son - let’s kill him.” How does that happen?

They recognize the Son. They see that he comes from God but they don’t like him and so they want to have him done away with. What is happening is that their foolish hearts are being darkened. They actually think they can trap Jesus because they’ve convinced themselves that they are more “in the know” than the Son of God. Their quest isn’t about finding truth - it’s about escaping God’s ownership of them. It is unbelieving-doubt.

Barney Piper says this:

“When unbelieving-doubt poses a question, it is not interested in the answer for any reason other than to disprove it. Unbelieving-doubt is on the attack. It is much more interested in the devastating effect of the question itself to erode the asker’s belief and hope in what is being questioned. The asker is not asking to learn; she is asking in order to devastate. She does not want to progress to an answer. She wants to show that there is no answer. Unbelieving-doubt is not working toward anything but merely against belief.”

And this is the kind of thing we see played out on social media, in the news, in a Senate commission etc. on a daily basis. Truth doesn’t matter as much as “gotcha” questions.

Jesus’ last week as the Man from Nazareth is consumed with unraveling all these “gotcha” questions. Jesus masterfully navigates the questions and pulls believers back to the kingdom of God. This too is part of His mission of making all things new.

The Good Question in the Midst of Noise. I think there is one more person that Mark wants us to notice in this narrative. In the midst of all these dumb “gotcha” questions is a scribe who actually asks the important question. “What is most important, the greatest commandment?”

Jesus answers by combining Deut. 6:4-5 (the Shema) with Leviticus 19:18 and essentially says the Law comes down to loving God perfectly and loving others totally. His answer puts him in a unique camp because there is no evidence that before Jesus these two commandments were combined. Jesus, as usual, is in his own camp.

The scribe affirms what Jesus says and even adds a bit of his own flavor saying that Jesus is correct that love is more important than sacrifice and burnt offerings. Which is essentially saying that relationship matters more than the religious practices and rituals of his people. And Jesus tells this guy that he is not far from the kingdom. He’s not saved yet. He doesn’t fully understand that to love God means to embrace Jesus. But he is at least walking down the correct road.

This special season, are you walking down the correct trail or the unbelieving-doubt highway?

Transactional Love

 

When I was a kid, it seemed the adults in my life - my teachers, church people, and, sadly, sometimes my parents - liked me more when I was good. I get it. Who wants bad behavior? I learned that if I could bring myself to sit still, stay quiet, and wait to pass notes when my teacher was at the chalkboard, everything went more smoothly.

We didn’t learn better behavior, just better tactics. When I hit the mark, I didn’t feel like such a nuisance. I felt like I was wanted. And I wanted to feel wanted. Who doesn’t?

That pressure to perform… It wasn’t intended this way, but these things confirm our biggest fears:

In this world that we are not loved for who we are but for what we do, how we act, how things appear.

We’re loved if we make life easier for the people around us. We are loved as long as we hide our mistakes. We are loved as long as we’re not an inconvenience. This is transactional love: we secure it as long as we hold up our end of the deal.

Here’s the thing: God said we are loved and belong because we were born. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

God says it doesn’t matter whether we lose the game with a strikeout or hit it out of the park for the win - we are loved. He’s not keeping score in the game because in Christ He already secured the win for eternity.

God doesn’t want us to just behave better. He wants us to be transformed into His likeness. Now go and sin no more.

Question: What would change if you believed what God said about you?