Month: February 2017

The doctor looked up from the printed test results, and with a somber but kindly visage spoke those dreaded words: “I’m sorry to have to tell you, but it is cancer. I would suggest getting your affairs in order, just in case.”

As I sat in the doctor’s waiting room, those were the words I was afraid I might be hearing when I finally got in to see him. Those were the words that had been playing in my head over the entire previous week, ever since I had made the appointment to see him about The Lump.

It had all begun about two weeks earlier when a feral kitten showed up at our porch’s sliding door. It was soooo cute, but it wanted nothing to do with us. Not to be deterred, I began to “chum” the cat with offerings of food, which I placed closer and closer to the door as the kitten got bolder and bolder. Exulting in my cleverness (over a cat) I opened the sliding door and laid a food trail into the house. It took a few tries, but finally my plan worked: the kitten was in the house! I quickly slid the door shut to trap it, but it freaked out and after slamming itself against the glass slider two or three times, it tore off through the house and into the attached garage.

I went into the garage and searched for where the kitten had hidden itself. I finally found it in a large, upright and open-topped cardboard box which held a few tools and sticks. Now I had it! At which point I did the second most stupid thing I have ever done, which was to reach down into the box and pick up the little cutie (i.e., a feral carnivore with razor-sharp teeth and claws) with my bare left hand. The feral carnivore latched onto my hand and proceeded to shred everything below my wrist that was capable of bleeding. Within seconds, I had thirty wounds dripping blood as the little beast continued to bite and claw. That was when I did the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

That was when I did the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

Even though I now knew what the little feral carnivore could do, I grabbed it with my unprotected, bare right hand to pull it off my bleeding left hand. Of course, now the cute little kitten latched onto my right hand and did the same to it (though you think it would have been full after feasting on the first hand!). Now I had two bleeding hands. Showing great moral restraint I restrained from “euthenizing” either the kitten (or myself) and tossed it back into the cardboard box.

A few minutes later, Animal Control arrived. The officer saw my hands and smiled (yes, she smiled!), put on heavy leather gloves, and pulled the feral monster out of the box without further incident.

Within a week of that traumatic event, I noticed I had a Lump in my left arm, above the elbow and fairly deep. The Lump grew some, and after several days of ignoring it and hoping it would just go away (which are good, manly things to do) I began to get worried. I called the doctor, but the earliest time he had free was a full week later. I made the appointment and went about my normal schedule.

Only, I couldn’t stop thinking, or worrying, about The Lump. I convinced myself it must be cancer. (I grew up watching TV ads from the American Cancer Society – “The Seven Warning Signs of Cancer” – and had just about memorized the list: difficulty in swallowing – right now, just try to swallow three times without any food or drink! – , a sore that does not heal, a persistent cough, a Lump or thickening in the breast or elsewhere, etc.) Notice the Lump. I imagined the doctor telling me I had only so long to live, and thought through what that would mean in the time I had left.

What would I have to give up right away? What would I do as long as I could? What would they have to pry my cold dead fingers from? In my last blog post, I talked about giving up books and other physical stuff; but as I considered my mortality, I began to prioritize my activities.

You see, at that time I had a lot less stuff and a lot more activities. Besides my work as executive director of a youth-serving multi-agency which required monthly meetings with four boards of directors, I worked with the local United Way which funded our organization, was an active member of a local service club, was president of a statewide mineral chapter, served as Sunday school superintendent, led group discussions for Bible Study Fellowship, represented work at community events, and was taking seminary courses part-time in extension. Oh yeah, and I was (and am still) married. There was more, but you get the idea. I was swamped with things I wanted to do, and with things I was obligated to do for work. What would I do if I got the death sentence?

What would I do if I got the death sentence?

I took out a sheet (a large sheet) of paper and made several columns with headings like, “Give up in a heartbeat”,”Phase out soon”,”Do as long as I can”, and “Pry my dead fingers from.” (Okay, maybe the words were a little different, but you get the idea.) Then, down the side I listed all the things I was doing or was involved in – everything that was part of my life including daily work, church attendance, sports (tennis and swimming), and even my marriage. Then I proceeded to make a check mark in the appropriate column for each activity or involvement. The result was a prioritized list of what I would give up should I get a bad diagnosis, and what would be the last things to go, and then only at my death.

When I finished prioritizing the list, I sat back and examined it. What I realized was that there were only two real priorities: my wife and my Lord, Jesus Christ. The only things I would continue until the end (beside my marriage) were those that had to do with my faith: church, Bible study, and seminary classes. That was it. Everything else would go. This exercise was an eye-opener to me, because most of my time and energy was taken up by all those other things that I would have given up long before what mattered the most.

Those prioritizing results – and the expected news that would start the winnowing process in motion – were going through my head as I sat in the doctor’s waiting room. Finally, they called me into the exam room. When the doctor finally came in, I told him my concern. He looked serious as he felt The Lump. Then he grabbed my left hand and began examining it. I asked why, since The Lump was further up the arm, and he said he was looking for a sore on my hand. I showed him there was one small sore not yet healed from my feral, monster cat death-match. He smiled (yes, he smiled, too) and said that answered what he needed to know. The Lump, he said, was a swollen lymph gland fighting the infection, which since it was caused by the cat, was Cat-Scratch Fever (not the song, but a real disease). He prescribed an antibiotic, and before long, the sore healed and The Lump disappeared.

All that worry for nothing! Well, not for nothing. The infection did have to be treated, but even more than that, God used the incident to help me focus on what was important in my life and therefore what should be important in my living. Because now the question that came to me was, “If I would drop all these items from my life if I were terminal, why am I doing them all now, when I’m not?” Or, more correctly, since we are all terminal, but just don’t know when that date may be, “Why am I doing all those things, knowing my time on earth is finite?”

“Why am I doing all those things, knowing my time on earth is finite?”

Good question. I did begin to back off certain activities and involvements, freeing up time for the more important things and reducing stress from unneeded obligations. And more importantly, God used this crisis to confirm my future path into full-time seminary and ministry. You know,  I never really missed any of the things I gave up, and I can tell you that even today, my priorities remain what they were when I had The Lump, for I know what in my life would be the last things to go.

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be grace to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

 

 

 

 

Back in the early 1970’s when I was doing my undergraduate degree in Applied Behavioral Science, one of the popular approaches to working with people was called “values clarification.” This technique was intended to help people think through what was important to them – in other words, to “clarify their values” – by giving them scenarios which required them to make hard choices. Those decisions would reveal their values, ethics, morals, etc. One example of such a “forced-decision” problem was the lifeboat which would hold only so many people, and there is one person too many needing to be rescued; who has to be left behind, and why? Another less brutal example was which vehicle would you buy: a sports car, a pickup truck, a station wagon (yes, we had station wagons back then), or a cheap gas-miser? And then, explain why you chose what you did.

Well, this past week we saw a forced-choice exercise played out for real here in Northern California, when an overflowing Oroville reservoir began to seriously erode the integrity of the dam’s main and auxiliary spillways. Fearing an imminent and catastrophic failure of the auxiliary spillway – and a resulting 30-foot wall of water – the sheriffs in the threatened downstream counties ordered mandatory evacuations. Suddenly, over 100,000 people had to grab what they could and “get out of Dodge” right away. So what did they grab? What was vital, valuable, or irreplaceable? What could be abandoned to the flood waters or maybe looters? What would they hold onto tightly, and what would they not even miss? But even a tougher question is this: which of two important, valued items would they take if they could only take one? And all those questions had to be answered right now!

In a way, I am going through that same exercise myself, though as far as I know I have a little more time to answer such questions, and far more latitude as far as what I can keep. The situation my wife and I are facing can be summed up in one 3-word phrase:

“too much stuff.”

First, there is the accumulation of the usual things people gather over 42 years of marriage: furniture, appliances, clothes, tools, etc. Then there’s my rock collection which we moved here from the Midwest 22 years ago (Overheard from the people who helped us unload the truck when we arrived: “What do you have in these boxes, rocks?” To which we answered, “Yes.”). There’s camping equipment. There’s my wife’s babysitting toys and Christmas ornament collection. And then, there’s my books.

Ah yes, my books. Hundreds – no, thousands – of books. I own enough books, non-fiction mainly, in enough categories of knowledge that should civilization collapse and the power grid go permanently down, mankind could recreate civilization from my library alone. (I once saw an episode of “Hoarders” where one of the hoarders claimed the same civilization-preserving value for his massive hoard of books. I actually got nervous watching him . . . he sounded a little too much like me!) History, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, zoology, herpetology, math, languages (ancient and modern), religion, and classic literature – you name it, and I probably have a book about it.

Even so, my library might have been manageable in our 13 bookcases and 8′ X 10′ floor-to-ceiling shelves covering an entire wall, except for two significant events: first, my retirement which meant bringing home my theology books and Bible commentaries from my church office (7 bookcases worth) and second, a roof leak which destroyed the wall behind the floor-to-ceiling shelves and required that they be torn out. Suddenly, we are buried in stacks and boxes of books in every room of the house.

About which my wife has been extremely patient (the archaic word for it, “long-suffering,” somehow comes to mind). She long ago gave up any claim on our bookshelves for her books, and switched to reading on her Kindle instead. Love does that.

Love also confronts us with reality,

and so it was that Karen raised the question while watching the Oroville evacuations on TV: “What if the levees protecting our area broke and we had to evacuate immediately? What would we save?” That was a tough question, and a situation I hope we never have to face, but it’s one that we need to answer . . . before the call to evacuate comes.

A full discussion of what to grab could get into issues of “prepping,” go-bags, and zombie apocalypses, all of which are beyond the scope of this article (though I probably have books about them). For me right now, just focusing on the question of which books I would save is enough. What would I do?

I think I would try to save the books that to me are irreplaceable: really old books (some are 150-200 years old), books signed by the authors, gift books from friends, a few special books I really like, and a Bible. Most other books are replaceable, though if I lost them I wouldn’t necessarily spend money to replace them, since I got them for free or almost free.

But as soon as I make that list of books-to-save, the question then arises: “If I am willing to lose the other books in an emergency, then why am I holding on to them now, when there isn’t?”

As I thought about the book-saving dilemma, it occurred to me that it is a metaphor for much of life: we are all holding onto things – material, behavioral, and relational – that take up room, time, energy, and financial resources. Can we really afford the cost? What do we have to give up in order to hold onto them? Why are we holding onto those things? Are they good and helpful things, or do they corrupt and bring us down? Are we only keeping those things out of habit and not out of choice? What would our life be like if we could sit down and plan what we want it to be?

Unlike our values-clarification exercises or my book-choosing dilemma, the life questions of what we would keep and what we would give up are really important, because we all are facing a time-limit on our lives, when all the things we own and do will be swept away in the great spillway break called death. We don’t know when that will come for any of us, but it will come. Before it does,

now is the time to assess how we are spending our time and ask ourselves what we would keep, and what we would give up, if we knew our time here was short.

And so I ask you, are you living as a faithful steward (manager) of what God has given you? Are you using your time, energy, finances, and abilities to help and bless others? Are you working in whatever you do for the Lord, rather than for yourself? Are you praising God and proclaiming Jesus Christ? And is there something you can give up that is standing in your way, keeping you from serving Christ as you know you could? These are questions worth asking, answering, and acting upon!

And as for my books, I need to remember the words of our Lord in Matthew 6:19-21, where he said we are not to lay up treasures on earth where they can be destroyed or stolen, but rather in heaven, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Ecclesiastes 12:12

P.S. Karen just read this and asked, “So, does this mean you’ll actually start getting rid of some of your books now?” We’ll see . . .

 

 

 

Doctrine really does matter.

My only hesitancy to use the word “doctrine” in the title of this article is the fact that the term has fallen out of favor when it comes to describing the Christian faith. To use it in my title may discourage potential readers because the topic of doctrine sounds dry and academic, or even obsolete. (But since you’ve read this far, at least you haven’t been scared off, so stick with me!)

You hear people say things like, “I don’t get hung up on doctrines and creeds; just give me Jesus!” “Doctrines divide but love unites,” and “I have no creed but the Bible.”  Of course, when you ask them who Jesus is, what love is, why being united is a good thing, and what does the Bible teach, their responses are by definition doctrinal. It’s like the postmodern statement that there is no objective truth, which is in itself a statement seeking to proclaim objective truth.

And then there’s the clever but absolutely horrible statement, “My karma ran over your dogma!” a nonsense comment which is meant to put down Western religion (that is, Christianity) which is based on propositional truth (dogma or doctrine) given by a personal God, in favor of eastern religions which are based on feelings and emptiness of self in favor of an impersonal force (karma). I would prefer to say, “My dogma chased your karma!” (Which makes no sense either, but I had to say it.)

So why does doctrine matter? There are several reasons which make doctrine important in our lives (beyond answering for us the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin).

1. Doctrine matters because God has revealed himself to us doctrinally. The Scriptures teach us about God, about ourselves and our need for salvation, and about our Savior, Jesus Christ. There are direct propositional statements such as “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” “God is love,” “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “Jesus came to save sinners,” among many others. The fool says in his heart “There is no God,” (Psalm 53:1) but I think it’s also foolish to believe there is a God but not want to know or believe anything specific  about him.
   

   We cannot read God’s Word without encountering and depending on doctrinal statements to understand what he has said about himself and our salvation.

2. Doctrine matters because it has defined the Church and is the expression of the Church’s faith and beliefs. Without doctrine there is no Church, and conversely, the Church has developed and affirmed doctrines based on what God has spoken through Scripture. The very term “Trinity” and the doctrines around it, for example, were created by the Church to explain and better understand what the Bible teaches about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and their unity as one God. That testimony of believers who have faithfully studied and interpreted the Bible has produced the key doctrines which have been taught by the Church throughout the world.
   

   Without doctrine there is no true Church united in faith – just social groups of friends holding potlucks and weekly sing-a-longs.

3. Doctrine matters because we are saved by grace through faith. Faith plays a huge part in our salvation; what we believe is greater than what we do when it comes to being forgiven and inheriting eternal life. In fact, Christian doctrine affirms what the Scriptures teach, that we are justified before God by our faith and not by our works. Romans 3:28 says, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” The faith referred to includes belief in a certain person, Jesus Christ, but also in certain doctrines about who Jesus is and what he has done for us. True saving faith has content: it believes something, specifically that Jesus has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2), that he is Lord and was raised from the dead (Romans 10:9-10), that he and the Father are one (John 10:30), that he was crucified to save us from our sins (Galatians 2:20), and that he is the Christ and the Son of God (Matthew 16:15-18).
   

   Believing that there was a man named Jesus who was a good, moral teacher is not enough. Our doctrine about him matters eternally!

4. Doctrine matters because it affects how we live. Years ago one of my relatives married a man that she had reservations about because she believed that Christ’s return was imminent and that the Lord wanted her (and him) to be married before that happened. Her doctrines of the end times and of marriage led her to make a decision and do something she later regretted: their marriage ended before too many years, and twenty years later Christ has still not returned. There are other examples from history, current events, and our own lives that we can give of doctrine shaping behavior:
   • The Pilgrims sailed to America (even losing almost half their number within a few months of landing) because their doctrines were different from those of the Church of England, which persecuted them for having different doctrines.
   • Today, there are many Islamists who are committing acts of terror because of their doctrines about religious law, life after death, and the Koran. There are also Christians who are suffering persecution and even martyrdom because they believe Jesus is Lord and will not renounce him even at the threat of death.
   • And then there’s us: how we live and the decisions we make are guided or at least influenced by what we believe. Do we believe God condemns cheating on our taxes, messing with the neighbor’s spouse, and gossiping and therefore avoid doing those things? What do we spend our money on, and how much do we give to the Lord’s work in our local church? Do we volunteer to help the poor or the homeless? Do we really believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one goes to the Father except through him (John 14:6) – and does that doctrine move us to tell others about him for their sake? And do we look forward to Christ’s return and heaven because of his atoning death and resurrection? How we answer those and many other similar questions, and how we behave reveal the doctrines we actually hold to be true.

What are your doctrines? What do you believe to be true about God, yourself, and life? Why are you here (I mean on earth, not on my blog site)? What does eternity hold for you, and why? I encourage you to set aside some time to examine your beliefs – your doctrines – to know what you believe and assess whether your actions are consistent with what you say is true.

James (2:18) said, “I will show you my faith by my works.” So what doctrines are you showing by your actions?

Study your Bible and the great creeds and confessions of the Church which explain the Scriptures. Worship where those truths are rigorously upheld and taught. And then live accordingly, knowing that doctrine really matters, for you and for everyone you impact. And may the Holy Spirit enlighten and strengthen you in the true faith through God’s own Word, because . . .

Doctrine really matters!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: John 20:30-31

 

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, which got me thinking about the part that superstitions play in our “modern” and “enlightened” times. Even though we use the term “superstitious” in a derogatory sense, we still have many superstitions today.

In Part One of my musings on that topic, I wrote that there are, generally speaking, two kinds of superstitions. The first, which I called “omens,” are those things we believe will give us special knowledge that is otherwise unknowable; such methods seem to inform us through some occult or supernatural activity. I suggested that believing a groundhog (especially one in Punxatawney, Pennsylvania) can forecast the next six weeks of weather for us is a mild example of an “omen.” I also wrote that seeking hidden knowledge through Ouija boards and seances is a much more dangerous – and biblically forbidden – activity. (The Ouija board was popular during World War I, as families sought to learn how their soldier sons and husbands were doing in far-away France. The name was invented by combining the French and German words for “yes” – oui and ja. It was believed that spirits would relay the information – definitely forbidden by God!)

But besides the superstitions that people have which purport to give them information which they can then use in some normal manner, there are also those superstitions which claim to control or exert some influence upon reality. It is this second category of superstition to which we will now turn our attention.

2. The second  type of superstition  is what I would call, the “magic” type. Of course, by “magic” I don’t mean the amazing illusions or tricks you see “magicians” perform. I mean more like the, “If you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back” kind of superstition my grade-school friends and I repeated aloud while we stepped from one sidewalk section to the next. Somehow, we were afraid that our action would actually cause our moms some harm; or at least, we weren’t taking any chances!

Magic superstitions can be intended to protect someone, such as by avoiding stepping on cracks, or intended to cause harm,  such as by sticking pins in voodoo dolls. But mostly, people follow them in order to gain some benefit or advantage for themselves. Gamblers blow on their dice and recite a certain “good luck” phrase before casting them, believing it will cause the right number to come up; a high school friend of mine swore you could get rid of warts by cutting a potato in half and burying it during a full moon; and even I sometimes think I can keep it from raining by carrying my umbrella with me (though there may be some truth to this last example . . .)

But the “Super Bowl” of people following magic superstitions can be found surrounding, well, the Super Bowl. By this Sunday, I predict great numbers of Americans will have pulled out all the stops when it comes to acting superstitiously. They will: wear special victory clothing such as team shirts and caps; they will sit in their favorite chair for reasons other than comfort or handy cup-holders; they will invite over certain good luck friends and avoid the others; they will eat certain foods and drinks in a certain order; they will try to avoid jinxing their team by saying things like, “We’ve got this won!”; and they will either clutch their Tom Brady bobble-head to their bosom, or rip its head off. All done to somehow actually influence the course of the game. As I asked yesterday, do opposing superstitions cancel each other out? If the fans of both teams do or avoid the same things, then who wins?

Logical paradoxes are not the worst thing about magic superstitions. The worst thing is that they are attempts to play God, or to force God to do what we want him to do. This was the religion of the Baal worshipers in ancient Israel (and actually of all pagans). They sought to influence the “gods” of nature by their actions, doing things like what they wanted to make happen, as if by doing them their gods would have to use their powers to effect a good outcome. Fertility cults existed to increase crops, livestock, and children; war gods like Mars were worshiped by purifying soldiers’ weapons and trumpets; and children were offered in sacrifices as “seeds” for Molech to give more children in return. In magic, people sought – and still seek – to be God, giving in again to the first temptation made by the devil to our first ancestors in the Garden.

The biblical faith, the faith which the true God desires from us, is a submission to him and to his will. It is about trusting God alone for all our provision and for all good things. While he does invite us to pray to him and bring our needs to him, we recognize that he is not some genie in a lamp that we can command to obey us, but rather the all- powerful and sovereign God of the universe who has all authority. He is not bound by our superstitious actions, nor by the eloquence of our prayers. He does not have to grant our wishes because we make the sign of the cross when we ask him. He gives us good things because he loves us and desires good for us. Jesus himself taught us about our heavenly Father, saying,

“Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11)

Martin Luther addressed this in his Large Catechism when he explained the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Luther wrote that we must recognize that all good things come from God, and that to attribute them to anyone or anything else is to break that commandment. This accords with James 1:7, which says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Ultimately, the greatest gift which God has given us is his own Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we receive forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.

What does this all mean for a Christian? It means we look to God alone for what we need to know. He has given us the mental abilities to understand and appreciate much of the world he created, and in his Word he has revealed to us many precious things about himself and his plan for our salvation. But some things are hidden, mostly for our own good. In those areas, such as the future, we must just trust God and not seek to supplement what he has revealed by seeking other forbidden sources for answers. It also means that we recognize that he is God and we are not. We are not to play God by trying to manipulate reality by magical means. Instead, we pray to God repeatedly in every circumstance, but then we have to trust him and say, as our Lord said in Gethsemane,

“Not my will, but yours be done.” (Matthew 26:39)

So when it comes to Sunday’s Super Bowl, will I go through some magical ritual to help one team win? No. Will I pray about the game? Yes – but only that no one is injured. (After all, my team didn’t make it!)

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Matthew 7:1-11

Happy Groundhog Day . . . or not . . . depending on how much credence you give to Punxatawney Phil, the famous groundhog who did indeed see his shadow this morning. As happens every year, crowds gather on Gobbler’s Knob in the town of Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, to watch the rodent come out of his burrow. And, as the tradition goes, if he sees his shadow on February 2nd, it means we’re in for another six weeks of winter. Or at least, Punxatawney, Pennsylvania is. How accurate is he? According to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (seriously?) he’s been right only 21% of the time. Not that good for an enduring superstition, considering the odds are 50/50.

But Phil is not the only superstition that people are dealing with right now; it is after all, Super Bowl week. Talk about superstitions! It seems everyone has a certain ritual to perform, a certain shirt or outfit to wear, certain foods to eat or a special chair to sit upon to ensure their team wins. They’re afraid to say certain things that might “jinx” their team. And that’s just the players we’re talking about! When it comes to fans watching the game (or not, if watching might jinx your team) the rituals and traditions are all over the place. Of course, I always wonder how it works: if all the superstitions are true, who wins, given that fans and players on both sides are doing them?

I’m glad to say I’m above such things (though I may have jinxed the Packers by loaning my cheesehead to a fellow Packers fan at church just before the NFC playoff).

In some cases, such superstitions are harmless fun. In Punxatawney, for example, it’s a tourist draw and a matter of civic pride for which the leaders play dress-up with top hats and long coats. I think hardly anyone actually believes the groundhog is a real prognosticator. But, unfortunately, many people are caught up in other superstitions which affect their lives, their decision-making, their finances, their families, and even their relationship with God.

This is especially surprising to see in today’s Western world, which supposedly left its superstitious beliefs back in the Dark Ages. People refuse to believe in God because “it isn’t scientific” to put faith in what we cannot see, yet they buy lottery tickets or read horoscopes or give offerings to “earth spirits.”

Superstitions come in two broad categories.

1. First, there is what I call, the “omen” type. This includes attempts to discern knowledge in ways beyond our senses and reason, such as with horoscopes, Ouija boards, I Ching sticks, Tarot cards, fortune tellers, seances, and yes, even groundhogs. It’s not that wanting to know things is bad; after all, we study the Bible to learn about God and science to learn about what he has created. The former is commanded by Scripture itself: (Psalm 111:12, Acts 17:11) and the latter reveals God’s power and divine nature through what he has made (Romans 1:20). The problem comes when we seek knowledge in ways which God has forbidden us to use. And God has clearly commanded us to avoid such occult sources: “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

While the things which God forbids sound extreme compared with something seemingly harmless like reading a daily horoscope, the two are actually of a similar nature. In either case, a person is seeking answers and directions for life decisions by putting some other authority above God. He wants us instead to look to him in prayer. Notice that it doesn’t matter if the forbidden source happens to yield information that is true; we are still to avoid seeking knowledge in that way. In fact, it can be especially dangerous when a forbidden source comes through with accurate answers, because then we trust it even more and can put ourselves into its bondage.

There is a classic episode of the Twilight Zone called “Nick of Time” in which a young couple’s car breaks down in a small town. While they wait for it to be repaired, they hang out in the local diner where the booth has a penny-operated “fortune-telling” machine that spits out cards with answers to the couple’s questions. The fact that there was a devil’s head on the machine should have been their first clue not to get involved! But they do, at first for entertainment, but then in growing fear and dependency on the machine as the answers it gives prove to be true, one right after another. Finally they realize the machine was coming to control them and they break away from its bondage and escape the town. On their way out, they pass an elderly couple who are coming into the diner with a handful of pennies, obviously still in such bondage.

Isaiah 8:19 says, “And when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?”

It’s not that God cannot use various means to make his will known for us. The Bible does tell us that he has done so, such as when the apostles selected a replacement for the deceased Judas Iscariot: they cast lots and prayed for God to reveal his choice between two qualified candidates. We believe God did answer their prayer. But that was before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and before the writing of the New Testament Scriptures; now we seek answers in God’s Word through the guidance of his Spirit.

The second type of superstition is what I would call the “magic” type. It includes all attempts to influence or control the outcome of events and things by rituals that we do. This is the kind of superstition which will be rampant around the Super Bowl, and it is the kind of superstition which I will address tomorrow in my next post, “Of Groundhogs and Other Superstitions: Part Two”.

Until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Deuteronomy 13:1-3