Blog - tangible theology

The Chemotherapy of the Cross

November 2, 2016 by Chris Sicks Leave a Comment

In light of Sara’s passing on October 29, 2016, I’m re-posting a few pertinent items—including this one from March 2014.

Did you know Jesus died to cure your cancer? It’s true.

Check out this picture. This is the label on one of my wife’s chemotherapy drugs. It’s toxic. It’s poison. Why would she put poison in her body? Because she needs it to kill a deadly disease.

As Easter approaches and we ponder the death of Jesus, I am thinking again about why such a drastic measure had to be taken. Why did the Son of God have to become a human being, suffer, and die?

Because of cancer. Not the breast cancer that my wife has, which has moved to her brain. Not the cancer of her friends who meet in a cancer support group.

No, you and I belong to a different cancer support group. We all have soul cancer. It’s a deadly disease, with only one cure.

Cancer patients are barraged with advice from family and friends. They are told to start drinking açai berry juice, exercise more, brew funky tea concoctions, eat raw foods, etc.

Tragically, many people die of cancer when they take treatment into their own hands. Trying to avoid the painful side effects of chemotherapy, they experiment with less drastic options.

We seek alternative cures for soul cancer, too. Pleasure, escapism, work, success, obedience, popularity, intellectualism—none of them will do the job.

Other paths of redemption seem attractive, because we want to control our cancer battle. These alternate cures put us in the driver’s seat, and don’t require us to acknowledge this hard truth: Soul cancer is our own fault.

The painful reality is that the deadly disease inside is a result of our sin, our desire to live independent of God. It’s a terminal illness with only one, very drastic, cure: The death of the only perfect person who has ever lived. Only Jesus can win this cancer battle. There’s no other cure for soul cancer.

Here’s the good news: Because Jesus was willing to pay such a high price, because He loved you enough to endure the chemotherapy of the cross, there’s nothing more you can do. It is finished!

Jesus paid for our sin in full. He cures soul cancer! You can do nothing to kill the death in your soul. You cannot add to His treatment. Just receive the life He brings, and celebrate!

Now, maybe you feel tricked by the first sentence. Did you think I was talking about a cure for physical cancer?

Jesus actually cures that, too. Perhaps not here on earth. Maybe cancer will be the very thing that kills your body. You will die of something. But if you embrace Him as the cure for your soul cancer, then you will live eternally—in a body with no disease, no pain, no tears.

It’s not my promise, it’s His. (Rev 21:4; 2 Cor 4:16-17)

Cling to the Christ who died on the Cross for your cancer. There’s no other cure.

Psalm 30 Immersion on a Sad Day

October 31, 2016 by Chris Sicks 3 Comments

My wife has only been gone for 36 hours, and I already miss Sunroom Psalms with her. But, the Lord was still there to meet with me this morning, to speak to me through Psalm 30. I invite you to invite him into your heart and mind, too.

Play the song below, and read the text as you listen. Read the text repeatedly. Don’t be distracted that the song doesn’t follow the psalm word-for-word. Absorb the emotion and message. Make it your own prayer to the Lord. Enjoy, and before you begin, ask the Lord to give you what your heart needs today.

Psalm 30, by The Sons of Korah. Album: Shelter. Buy here.

Psalm 30—

¹I will exalt you, Lord,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.

²Lord my God, I called to you for help,
and you healed me.

³You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
you spared me from going down to the pit.

⁴Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
praise his holy name.

⁵For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.

⁶When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

⁷Lord, when you favored me,
you made my royal mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
I was dismayed.

⁸To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:

⁹“What is gained if I am silenced,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

¹⁰Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.”

¹¹You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹²that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

Questions:
1. What stood out to you?
2. How would you summarize these verses in your own words?

Learn more about the Psalms, the Sons of Korah, and order their music at: sonsofkorah.com

Psalm 13 Immersion

October 28, 2016 by Chris Sicks 2 Comments

This was the Psalm my heart needed to marinate in this morning, set to music by Shane & Shane. I know it will be good for you, too. You’ll just need 10 minutes. Play the song below, and read the text as you listen. Before you begin, ask the Lord to give you what your heart needs today.

Psalm 13, by Shane & Shane. Album: Upstairs. Buy here.

Psalm 13—How Long, O Lord?—To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹ How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³ Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

⁴ lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵ But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Questions:
1. What stood out to you?
2. How would you summarize the message of these 6 verses in your own words?

Other artists who have blessed us with their interpretations of the Psalms are Sons of Korah, Sherri Youngward, Indelible Grace, Sandra McCracken, The Corner Room, and Wendell Kimbrough. If you know of others, please mention in the comments below.

Psalm 19 Immersion

October 26, 2016 by Chris Sicks 1 Comment

One of the best things about this year has been “Sunroom Psalms” in the morning with Sara. We would sit in our little sunroom, and immerse ourselves in a psalm. Written as songs, the Psalms offer much more than theology, or quotable inspiration. The Psalms capture what our hearts need to say to God, and what He says to us.

Many musicians have set psalms to music. Sons of Korah is one of the best. Want to try a little immersion yourself? You’ll just need 10-15 minutes. Play the song below, and read the text as you listen. Read the text repeatedly. Don’t be distracted that the song doesn’t follow the psalm word-for-word. Absorb the emotion and message.

After you meditate on the first six verses, the rest of psalm is below. Enjoy, and before you begin, ask the Lord to give you what your heart needs today, through His Word.

Psalm 19a, by The Sons of Korah. Album: Wait. Buy here.

Psalm 19:1-6 — For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
²Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
³They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
⁴Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

⁵ It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
⁶It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Questions:
1. What stood out to you?
2. How would you summarize the message of these 6 verses in your own words?
3. What is spoken of, and proclaimed, in these verses?

Now continue with the second half of Psalm 19…

Psalm 19b, by The Sons of Korah. Album: Wait. Buy here.

Psalm 19:7-14

⁷The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
⁸The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
⁹The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
¹⁰They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
¹¹By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
¹²But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
¹³Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
¹⁴May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Questions:
1. What stood out to you?
2. How would you summarize these verses in your own words?
3. There was a lot about speech in verses 1-4. Who speaks now in verses 7-9?
4. Finally, how should all this speaking by others affect you, according to verse 14?

Learn more about the Psalms, the Sons of Korah, and order their music at: sonsofkorah.com Here’s a video of them performing Psalm 19a:

How Pro-Life Are You?

August 10, 2015 by Chris Sicks 2 Comments

My atheist aunt once told me: “If you Christians are going to be against abortion you better be willing to adopt those children!”

She’s absolutely right.

It is far easier to speak against something than to labor for something. We have shared stuff on Facebook about Planned Parenthood. We have talked about how awful the videos are. We have prayed for the lives of the unborn.

However, people who believe in the sanctity of life should be just as concerned about the children who are six-years-old, and sixteen-years-old, as those who are six-weeks in the womb.

We cannot be against abortion and Planned Parenthood without being for adoption and foster care. If abortion is further limited or even ended, as I pray it will be, the church will have a big opportunity to put our love where our lips are. (And our money where our mouth is, too. Adoption costs a lot of money.)

If Christians argue that all children have a right to life, then Christians have a duty
to give them a good life after birth. In homes, where they are loved.

Thankfully, millions of believers have adopted. A 2013 Barna survey found that 5% of practicing Christians have adopted a child, compared to only 2% of other Americans.

Still, that means 95% of Christians have not adopted a child, though we were adopted by God’s grace (Gal 4:5). If abortion ended today, at least 250,000 additional children would be born between now and Christmas. Are we ready to adopt those children?

Perhaps not you specifically—but together, the Body of Christ must fight for the lives of children inside and outside of the womb.

We don’t have to wait for abortion to end for us to act. Today there are 102,000 American children in foster care waiting to be adopted. The fate of those who are never adopted is painful to read about.

Imagine an 8- or 10-year-old girl in foster care, who has seen many other children adopted by families. (Especially the younger ones.) But she gets passed over, so many times. It’s like never being picked for a kickball team, for years. Most of us would think, “Maybe something is wrong with me. I must not be worth anything or someone would choose me.”

Every year, 20,000 children age out of the foster care system without ever being adopted. By age 26, less than half will be employed. Just 8% will finish a two- or four-year college degree. Two-thirds of the young men will get someone pregnant, and 71% of young women will be pregnant by age 21. Never feeling loved or wanted has tragic results.

Are we as the Body of Christ going to do more to help these children, even before a wave of additional children rescued from abortion becomes available for adoption?

Who might God be calling to adopt a child? Perhaps some who struggle to conceive? In 2012, 68,000 babies were born through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). One IVF treatment costs more than $12,000, and more than 170,000 attempts are made each year.

According to some quick math, that’s over $2 billion dollars spent, at an average cost per live birth of $30,000. Instead of IVF, perhaps more couples should consider adopting the children God has already brought into the world?

This will include more children with Down’s Syndrome and other illnesses, if abortion ends. Are we ready to adopt them?

I’m not trying to twist any individual arms into pursuing adoption. But if we believe abortion is not a legitimate “reproductive choice,” then Christians should choose to adopt many of those children. The Body of Christ must be pro-life before and after birth.

Our Father in heaven adopted us by His mercy and grace. His love for us motivates us to love orphans with the same love we received. Please join me in praying for a deeper appreciation of His radical love for us, and what He might call us to do in response.

More Info:

See the Children—Even if you don’t plan to adopt yourself, you should visit http://adoptuskids.org and click on Meet the Children at the top right. Enter a little information, and see the faces of children waiting right now for God’s people to show the kind of love we ourselves have received from our Father.
Here is a sermon I delivered about adoption, on Galatians 3:23-4:7.
Read this challenging blog post about all the church will need to do if abortion is curtailed or ended.
Read Galatians 3:23-4:7. Notice that God is saying:

You did not choose me but I chose you.
Not because you are better than other people, but because of My proactive love.
Now that you are My child, adopted irrevocably and entitled to all My blessings and resources, I want you to live like a child of God!
That includes loving radically and generously, knowing you are an heir of all I possess.

You can find abortion Statistics from CDC are here. Note that California is not included in this data, so total annual abortions is closer to 1 million.

How Pro-Life Are You?

I Want to Punch Mother Teresa in the Face

July 17, 2015 by Chris Sicks Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by my friend Kimberly, one of the Grace and Peace Gals, who live and work in in Cambodia serving women and children who have been sexually exploited. They courageously, and tangibly, bring hope and help into very hard places. I love her honesty about how hard ministry can be.

Mother Teresa

It was a quote, typed over Mother Teresa’s face, posted on Facebook that tugged at my heart one day. Her deeply wrinkled face stared serenely at me, her head tilted with a bit of a knowing smile. The quote was something to the effect of “People will [dump] on you. Love them anyway.” That’s a paraphrase. The real quote was much more poetic. I felt the good feelings, smiled back at her, and then kept scrolling down the page.

As I sit here now, with tears falling off my cheeks and my nose blocked by snot from crying, I want to (figuratively) punch Mother Teresa in the face. Her little smile? That was her saying: “You have NO idea how hard this is—to love them anyway. Just wait until you find out, then you will curse the day you felt warm and fuzzy about this quote. Just you wait, oh naïve one.”

I am finding it really hard—to love anyway. This deep ache in my heart seems to tell me Mother Teresa is full of it. Why would I choose to live in the pain of messy people who do messy, stupid things, and who hurt others because of their broken messed-up-ness? I could be living somewhere else right now. Surely it would be better than this?

I feel like I’m an insane person who is choosing to stay in a bad relationship because I keep hoping my influence will change the other person. That would be considered foolish in most places, but for missionaries, isn’t that normal? Isn’t it in our job description to try and affect change on some level?

When broken people (whom you love) hurt the other people you love… Love anyway. (What?)

When people hurt you, deeply and personally, and when it triggers all of your own wounded places… Love anyway. (Are you kidding me?)

When years of work seems to be of no use—not moving the line forward an inch… Stay and love anyway.

When you feel deeply misunderstood, with no hope of ever being understood… Love anyway.

When you’re so, so tired of drama and crisis because of poor choices… Love anyway.

When you hear scripture twisted in a way that excuses hate and gossip… Love anyway.

When the honeymoon of living the exotic overseas life ends and the depth of the brokenness that you are fighting looms over you like a giant… Love anyway.

When broken people cause all sort of havoc, and you realize it is your job to keep showing up and loving those people—and you don’t know if you have anything left to give… Love anyway.

When you realize that your own brokenness is ‘same same’ in God’s eyes as those around you and you realize that God loves you anyway. And when you get a sense of the profound mystery of loving people; and that it’s a dim reflection of a greater love (Romans 5:8); and you weep because it’s beyond comprehension, this mystery…

That’s when you realize His love for you is the only way there is even a chance that you could show up one more day… To love anyway.

[And when you find out Mother Teresa did not originally say these things, but took it from some guy name Keith Kent….love her anyway!]

Kimberly, Becki, and Rachel met while teaching in East Asia. After volunteering with an organization that worked with exploited women, they felt drawn to do this work full time, and moved to Cambodia in January 2011 to begin an adventure of learning and serving in the field of anti-trafficking. Learn more on their Facebook page.

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Psalm 30—

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Now continue with the second half of Psalm 19…

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