24/6 by Matthew Sleeth, MD

What would it be like if we all took a day off each week to enjoy quiet time, relaxing, fellowship, and time with the Lord?

I know, sounds insane and impossible, right?  After all, Mom and Dad both have full time jobs, and when they aren’t at work, they have to be sure that the kids get off to school on time, that there is food in the fridge when they get home, that Timmy gets to soccer practice, that Emily doesn’t miss ballet, that the house gets cleaned, and more.  Often, if you’re a Christian family, there’s even more to do!  You also have to be sure that the family isn’t late for church, that kids get to the proper Sunday school classes, that Mom gets the event for Women’s Ministry planned, that Dad’s at Deacons’ meeting, and that everyone remembers to read their Bible and pray each day.

All of this is on our plates, and you want us to drop everything and take a day – just - OFF?

Yep, that’s the general idea.  Silly, isn’t it?  Yet that is a very major part of the theme in Dr. Matthew Sleeth’s newest book, 24/6 (interestingly enough, when I just typed the book title, spell check underlined the number 6 with it’s angry red perforations.  Even computers seem to know these days that we are supposed to be going 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no room for rest in between!)

All in all, I loved this book.  I first became acquainted with Dr. Sleeth a couple years ago when I became convicted that I, as a Christian, should learn to appreciate and care for God’s creation.  As I stumbled across liberal blog after liberal blog about being a good treehugger, I started to become discouraged.  Are there no Christians out there who appreciate the creation God has given us? I thought.  It was at that time that I stumbled across the website of Blessed Earth (www.blessedearth.org) and felt encouraged.  After discovering this Bible based organization that helps Christians learn about and live creation care, I read Matthew’s first book, Serve God, Save the Planet.  My initial thought was that the title sounded cliche, and –  you guessed it – liberal.  Still, I liked what I had learned so far about Blessed Earth, so I gave the book a shot, and I have loved Dr. Sleeth’s writing ever since.

The premise of his latest installment is that Christians are called by God to observe the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is to be a day of rest, a day of pursuing one’s relationship with God (and if you feel those two ideas are mutually exclusive, you really don’t understand the concept of having a relationship with the Jesus I know), a day of fellowship with family and friends, and a day of holiness.  Is work a bad thing?  Of course not.  The Bible commands us to work and condemns laziness and idleness, but the God who created us also understands our need for time away from those things.  He created the Sabbath for man because He created man with a need for a relationship with Him, as well as a need for rest.  The biblical concept of the Sabbath is God’s acknowledgement of both.  When we remember the fourth commandment and live it the way God intended, the good that this will do for us and our relationships with the Lord will be a tremendous blessing.

I can already hear the objections:  This is the legalism of the Pharisees!  We are no longer under the Mosaic Law!  We’re now under grace!  We don’t have to keep those commandments anymore!

Let me state simply that it is not.  One cannot get many pages into this book without discovering that Sleeth is careful to point out that he believes in following the spirit of the Law, not the letter of the Law.  If the Pharisees could label something as work, it was not allowed on the Sabbath.  In the teachings of Jesus, He is quick to point out that the Pharisees missed the whole point of the Law that was given in the first place.  They constantly accused those who would help others on the Sabbath, but if one is in need, how are they to enjoy the Sabbath?  How can they rest when they are going hungry, maybe even can’t feed their children?  What if they are sick?  What if they just lost their home?  Are we as Christians to say:  That can wait until Monday?  Of course not.  If the idea behind the Sabbath is to focus on the first and greatest commandment, and the second which is like unto it, how can we sit back and watch a brother suffer and still enjoy fellowship with the Lord?  We can’t.  It simply doesn’t work that way.

We can, however, have a day where we skip sports practices and games, refuse to go to the office, put school work aside, and instead really rest and relax.  Do minimal work around the house, read the Bible or other books, take naps when the urge hits us, watch that favorite movie or TV show, go to church and fellowship with friends and family, or go for a walk, sometimes just with the Lord, and sometimes with others as well.

I have to admit, I was an easy sell for this book.  It has long bothered me to see Christians completely ignore this commandment and act as if Sunday (or whatever day they choose to observe as the Sabbath) is no different from any other day of the week.  When I was in college, I began a regular practice of taking Sunday off from school work, cleaning my dorm, and other similar activities.  At first this was difficult.  I found myself bored on Sundays.  It was also sometimes problematic because I started finding that taking a day off demanded preparation beforehand.  This meant doing my studying and cleaning on Saturday, when others wanted to go out and play until it was time to cram at the last minute.  The boredom would occasionally get to me, I would finally cave and start cleaning or studying.  After a while, I finally found myself giving up, and just treating my Sundays like I always had before:  any other day of the week.

Soon after I went back to my old way of doing things, however, I found myself more worn out than ever, and as if I was truly missing something.  My brain felt like it was on overload, and I had trouble finding peace and quiet which my mind and body needed desperately.  I was also missing those wonderful quiet moments with the Lord.  After I started taking one day a week, I noticed that some of my most special moments of fellowship with Him, or some of my most profound insights into scripture, came on or soon after Sunday.

With scripture, as well as personal experience in mind, this book simply rang true with me.  I also appreciate Dr. Sleeth’s writing style:  easy to read, packed with scripture, and filled with personal anecdotes that are sometimes humorous, sometimes convicting, sometimes causing a variety of other feelings and emotions.  After finishing this book, I would not hesitate to recommend 24/6 to anyone who wishes to learn about a biblical perspective on keeping the Sabbath.

The World Cup

The World Cup is now over, and what an exciting time it was!  In my opinion, the wrong team won, but that’s another matter for another time…and let’s face it.  I’m just plain biased.

A few weeks ago, my dad, my nephews, and I were watching the USA vs. Ghana game.  My dad, ever the typical American, asked me, “What exactly is the attraction in this game?  One goal has been scored in the last hour!  Nothing is happening!”  All I could say at the moment was, “It’s just exciting!”  I had no real response.  The Cup is now over, however, and I’ve had more time to ponder this question.

I had never liked soccer before the year 2000.  That was the year I visited Germany for the first time and saw the passion and love Europeans have for the sport.  Suddenly I saw an exciting new world that grabbed the attention of many and I could see why.  With all of this in mind, however, I went back home and thought nothing more about the game for a while.

In 2008, I arrived in Berlin on the night Russia played the Netherlands in the Euro Cup.  When Russia won, my brother, his wife, and I were waiting for our bus on the Kurfürstendamm.  We watched as cars suddenly flooded the streets, honking their horns, people hanging out windows and flying the flag of Russia.  The noise was suddenly so loud that when my dad called to ask if my brother and his wife had arrived in Germany safely, we couldn’t speak over the din.  It was amazing.

For the final match of the Cup in 2008, we were in Salzburg, Austria, and gathered with thousands of others at a public viewing in the city center to watch Spain take on Germany.  People came, cheered, drank, talked to friends, and had a great time.

Fast forward another year-and-a-half, and I’m back in the United States.  For the most part, I have never bothered to turn the TV on to any sport in the history of my life, soccer included.  I suddenly decide one day, however, to tune into a game.  What soccer should I watch?  Something about Great Britain seems to be synonymous with the sport, so I decide on Premier League Football.  I get somewhat into it and watch a few matches.  Life gets busy again, however, and soccer takes another seat in the background.

Then the World Cup came along…

I have no idea what happened, but I decided I was going to follow Germany.  After all…I might be American, but the USA really has no claim to fame when it comes to the sport.  I’ll watch their games when I get the chance, but I won’t plan my schedule around it.  Technically, they were my top team, but I also knew they weren’t going far, so I held to Germany as my only hope.

Then, Landon Donovan scored the winning goal against Algeria in overtime.  I wasn’t watching, and I was kicking myself for it.  I saw as an entire nation, MY nation, united for the first time in years, and before I knew it I was promising my friends on Facebook that my firstborn would be named for this epic player.  Americans have become so disconnected over the topics of politics and heated issues of how to deal with the economy, healthcare, terror, and more, that we didn’t see eye to eye on almost anything.  One group of us disliked President Bush and one group of us dislikes President Obama so passionately that we have become almost two countries forced to live under the policies of one.  Mr. Landon Donovan, however, united a divided nation, and I suddenly started seeing things like this.

The USA went on to lose in the next round, but I was excited to be American once again.  Once we were out of the game, I still had Germany to fall back on and continued to follow them all the way to Third Place.  I laughed and cheered with them all the way there, and then I pouted just a little too much when they finally lost.

So in retrospect, what is it about this sport that’s so great?  Why do we love soccer so much?  I think it’s a simple matter of the passion and emotion of the game, backed by its fans.  As I cried and cheered, watching Germany in the final stages, I felt a unity with others.  I experienced an excitement and passion in those around me like never before…

…and I became one of them.

So yes, the World Cup is indeed over.  Neither of my teams won, but the USA and Germany have won a fan who will be true until the end.  So it is with a continued excitement and a tinge of sadness that I now say:  Congratulations Spain…but don’t get used to it.

Latter-day Cipher

“I have administered the mercy of the atonement of blood.  The price has been paid.” (p. 76)

“Cumorah must be opened, purified by fire.” (p. 336)

Such are the words of a madman in Latayne C. Scott’s new novel Latter-day Cipher.  The premise of the book:  What if someone chose to live the original teachings of Mormonism today?

I first heard about this story when Latayne wrote a guest post on a blog I frequent, Mormon Coffee, which is kept up by Mormonism Research Ministry.  As someone who has enjoyed reading and learning more over the years about Mormonism and comparing it to true biblical Christianity, this was a book that immediately grabbed my interest.  It contained several elements that I enjoy very much:  Mormonism vs. Christianity, murder mystery, and suspense.  I was not disappointed.

In the book we follow newspaper reporter Selonnah Zee from her home in Tennessee to a vacation in Salt Lake City, where she visits her cousin, Roger, his wife, Eliza, and their daughter, Maria.  Roger had converted to Mormonism after moving to Utah and had just been hired as a spokesman for the Church.  Just before leaving for her trip, however, Selonnah’s boss calls with some interesting news:  the Mormons are building a temple nearby, and it would be nice if Selonnah could find as much information as possible about Mormon temples during her trip for a story when she returns.

Around the time Selonnah goes to Utah, a series of unusual crimes begins taking place.  First a young woman who has turned her back on Mormonism is found brutally murdered in Provo Canyon.  Next the body of a Salt Lake City prostitute is discovered naked downtown, and the state in which she is found is disturbingly poetic in light of the clues left behind.  As additional crimes continue, the bizarre nature of all of them seems to raise several questions that can only be answered in Utah:  What is the meaning behind these unusual breaches of the law?  What is the point behind the notes that are being left at the site of each crime in a strange alphabet?  Most importantly, do Mormon history and doctrine hold the answers?

In the midst of everything, Roger’s wife Eliza is starting to question the Church in which she grew up.  Many of the doctrines in which Eliza has believed her whole life now seem to be crumbling around her.  Are the American Indians really descendants of Ancient Israel?  Is the Book of Abraham an accurate translation of the Egyptian papyri bought by Joseph Smith?  Is God really just an exalted man with a body like ours?

Selonnah finds herself discovering the same information as Eliza through a local Christian and fellow news reporter, Anne, and the help of two Salt Lake City police officers, Lt. Luke Taylor and Police Chief Helaman Peterson.  As Selonnah goes beyond the façade created by the LDS Church’s public relations department, she is increasingly disturbed by what she finds.  Only a search into the depths of a religion in which 13 million people have placed their faith will reveal the answers.

I feel that Latayne presented LDS doctrine and history especially well in Latter-day Cipher, all while putting it into an exciting story for those who prefer a novel over non-fiction.  There are many quotes throughout the book that define the message of the story, but I think one that sums it all up for me is made by Eliza when explaining her reservations about Mormonism to Roger:

I want the great I AM who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush.  Not the Getting There Ahead of You on the Road.  Maybe I want to believe in a swashbuckling God….  I want a Rescuer who’s always been a Rescuer.  A God who’s always been a God.  I don’t want to depend on a fabrication of a johnny-come-lately wannabe.  I don’t want the human in a fantasy witness protection program who has an invented history—a representation, if you will—that happens to intersect at a few places across the Bible with that fierce-eyebrowed, no-nonsense, Love Incarnate God.  The One who’s always been around.  Like eternally around. (p. 272)

In this quote, Eliza perfectly describes the God that I want to know as well.  Do I want to know a god who’s simply a super-human?  Not at all!

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
-Romans 1:22-23, KJV

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
-Psalm 90:2

Like Eliza, this is the God I’ll take…not one who’s just on the road of progression ahead of me, but the One who’s always been the Destination, who teaches and guides me because He already knows all and loves me.  In the wonderful words of Joshua 24:15, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Shooting at Scientology Celebrity Centre

Yesterday, there was a shooting at the Church of Scientology’s Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, California.  It sounds as if the guard was acting in self-defense, which I fully believe.  It seems to me, however, that the Church of Scientology finds itself in more than a few incidents of wrongful death that have a strange story and background behind them.  According to the article linked to in this post, the man who came at the guard with two swords had a history with the Church, and while I have no clue what that history is, apparently he felt driven to act out against it.  Let’s pray for people all through the world who have been affected by Scientology.  My prayer for them is that they will come to know the true love of Jesus and leave behind the apparently damaging and harmful teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.  We as Christians take no joy in seeing the difficulty and suffering either of these men (the guard or the man with the sword) have gone through, and we should pray for those we come into contact with and share the Gospel of Jesus with them so that they can find true peace, which cannot be found anywhere other than in a personal relationship with Christ (see Psalm 4.8).

Please don’t misunderstand me.  I know Christians aren’t perfect either and we make mistakes too, but whenever people I know truly seek and do the will of Jesus as taught in the Bible, I see overwhelming joy and peace shine through in their lives, despite personal difficulties.  Plus, when the burdens become too heavy, that’s why we as Christians are called to “carry each other’s burdens…” (Galatians 6.2, NIV)  Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world in which people sin, and it will just get worse until Jesus comes back and takes us home, but until that time, Christians everywhere are called to seek and pursue peace (see Psalm 34.14).  Let’s do our best to do this by fulfilling the Great Commission, in which Jesus tells us, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.19-20, NASB)

This is my prayer for those who are trapped or otherwise affected by Scientology.

Do Hard Things

I just recently finished reading the book Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris.  I’m not going to lie:  this book challenged me in ways like never before.

The synopsis of the book is pretty much summed up in its title.  The authors are challenging teenagers today to participate in a “rebelution,” or rebellion against low expectations.  It points out that God created youth with the ability to do MUCH more than is expected of them by society today.  Among the many scriptures quoted throughout the book, the one that really got my attention was 1 Timothy 4.12:  ”No one should despise your youth; instead, you should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (HCSB)  Not only is the point behind this book absolutely true, but I think it’s something we all need to hear today, not just teenagers.

Why have teenagers become a bunch of “slackers” for the most part in our current society?  It’s what we expect of them!  Why should they choose to do anything more than rise to the expectations of those they look up to?  Parents, teachers, church leaders, etc. have all been working for the past 30-40 years under the assumption that teenagers don’t do much more than homework (if we’re lucky), go to the mall, talk on the phone, and eat like crazy.  Honestly, teenagers are among the most able-bodied people alive!  How can we lower our expectations to such a degree that we think they’re only capable of wasting our monthly minutes and emptying our cupboards…and occasionally doing tasks as menial as mowing the lawn or filling the dishwasher?  Every great revival for the past several centuries has begun amongst young people!  They are capable of so much more!

Take, for example, Alex and Brett, the authors of this book.  Did I mention they are only 19?  Did I also mention that they have already accomplished a lot more than just writing a book?  They started a blog which has attracted teenagers from around the world, did an internship for the Alabama State Supreme Court, and ran a campaign for an Alabama judge…before they were 18 years old!

While reading this book, I also found a spark of energy I thought I’d lost.  Lately, I’ve simply found myself trudging through my job, just trying to get from one day to the next.  While reading this book, however, I found myself thinking about how much better I could be doing.  I found myself challenged to rise to the hard parts of my job and not just “get by” from day to day.  I found myself wanting to do the best I could, even the difficult, mundane parts of my job, so I could bring glory and honor to God with the temple He’s given me (see 1 Corinthians 3.16-17).

If you haven’t read Do Hard Things yet, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and read it.  If you actually listen to what the authors are saying, you will be amazed at how it will positively impact your life, and ultimately, your relationship with God.

Thoughts From a Sermon

A while back, I was sitting in church listening to the sermon when the pastor made what I felt was an excellent point.  He mentioned the Holocaust in Germany and the slave trade here in the United States, and he pointed out how he feels that the current trend with abortion in the U.S. will eventually be seen the same way.

I don’t know whether or not this trend toward abortion ever will be seen the same way until Jesus returns, but if it isn’t, it should be.  The torture of millions of innocent Jews resulting in the wrongful death of more than 6 million during the Holocaust was one of the most tragic moments in the history of humanity.  The slave trade, whether here in America or elsewhere, was along the same lines.  In both instances, fellow human beings were treated as nothing more than cattle or some other type of animal which could be kept or killed for one’s own personal convenience.  These both were truly awful moments in world history which we must never forget.

In the same way, every year, millions and millions of babies are ruthlessly murdered for the convenience of their mothers or others.  This isn’t only in the U.S., but our nation certainly helps the industry.  I don’t understand when or why the people of the United States decided that the genocide of our own children was okay for one’s personal convenience, but I must say that it saddens me to think we don’t value human life more than Hitler or the plantation owners of the 1800s.  Is this not a shame on the face of our nation?  Certainly it is…and I fear to think how upset the Lord must be at us right now for taking His most precious of all creation so lightly.

For it was You who created my inward parts;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You,
because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful,
and I know this very well.
My bones were not hidden from You
when I was made in secret,
when I was formed in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in Your book and planned
before a single one of them began.
–Psalm 139.13-16 (HCSB)

If God Himself takes such great care in creating us, who are we to destroy that life?

Welcome to My New Blog!

Hi everyone!  I’m Drew, and this blog is going to be an occasional expression of my thoughts and perhaps also a chronology of some of the more significant events in my life.  Read if you like, don’t worry about it if you don’t want to.

I’m going to start this blog by posting some posts I wish to save from old blogs I’m taking offline.  Please feel free to share your thoughts!