Stories That Feed Your Soul

© 2010 Tony Campolo

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Baker Books edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-2376-0

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

KJV—King James Version. Authorized King James Version.

NIV—Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

NKJV—Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NLT—Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Dedicated to Joel Kent Holland: a man of integrity, and a brother-in-law who loves God and loves his family.

CONTENTS

Introduction

PART 1: FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION

1. Somebody Stole Jesus

2. Sin Forgiven and Forgotten

3. Grace Versus Karma

4. A Father’s Forgiveness

5. Grace Is Like Donuts

6. Jesus Understands

7. It Was Meant for You

8. A Father’s Blind Love

9. Anybody Can Be a Christian

PART 2: THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

1. Sacrificial Love

2. Believing Is Not Enough

3. Spontaneous Grace

4. Responding to Terrorism

5. Only Others Can Answer

6. Not Blaming Satan

7. The Need for Passion

8. Living in a Joyless World

9. Church Critics

10. Living Life to the Fullest

11. God’s Jester

12. Having Eyes to See

13. Grace Rather than Law

14. Grace for Our Enemies

15. Pass On the Kindness

16. The Cost of the Cross

17. Taking a Comedian Seriously

18. Prideful Preaching

19. When Self Gets in the Way

20. Godly Courtesy

21. Different Agendas, Shared Compassion

22. Acting Like Christians

23. Forever Young

24. Lost in Construction

25. Make a Joyful Noise—Really!

PART 3: INTIMACY WITH GOD

1. Is This the Same God?

2. God Is Not the Author of Evil

3. Giving Yourself to Jesus

4. Being Alone with Jesus

5. Adoption with No Strings Attached

6. Things Versus Intimacy

7. Trivial Pursuits

8. The Wonder of the Ordinary

PART 4: THE CALL TO RESCUE CREATION

1. When Born Again Doesn’t Do It

2. Rescuing the Soul of a Nation

3. Real Obscenity

4. Wasted Resources and Wasted Time

5. A Voice for the Poor

6. Too Busy to Help

7. Standing Up for Justice

8. Salvation for Animals

9. Politics as Love in Action

10. What to Do Until He Returns

11. Fruits of Revival

12. Changed Individuals Change Society

13. Living the Life Is Not Enough

14. All They Ever Talk About

15. Getting the Big Picture

16. Father Zossima’s Advice

17. Doing What They Had to Do

18. A Shocking Prayer

19. Pulling Down the Shades

20. What Goes Around Comes Around

21. The Need for Love

22. Tenderhearted Prophet

23. Charity and Justice

PART 5: LIVING WITH HOPE

1. The King Has One More Move

2. Anyone for Calvary?

3. The Prodigal’s Father

4. Godly Mothers Never Lose Hope

5. Faithful Prayers

6. God Can Put Me Together Again

7. Other Worlds in Which to Sing

8. Jesus Is More Gracious

9. Knowing Where You Are Going

10. A Very Sad Verdict

11. Philosophers Are Kings

PART 6: PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

1. God Listens

2. A Challenge from a Taoist

3. Santa Claus Prayer

4. Praying People to Church

5. Prayer Is Personal

6. On Answered Prayer

7. Prayer for the City

8. Prayer Really Does Change Things

9. Healing of the Soul

10. Healing Through Forgiveness

11. Why Doesn’t God Deliver Us?

PART 7: GOD’S PLAN FOR US

1. You Were Once a Sperm

2. Waking Up the Church

3. Old Age and Money

4. Up to a Point

5. Singing in Auschwitz

6. The Tragedy in the ’Hood

7. Seeking What Is Real

8. Testimonies

9. The Cost of Following Jesus

10. Losing Your Calling

11. There’s More to Life than Money

12. Find Your Own Calcutta

13. Being a Catcher in the Rye

14. Become Indispensable

15. Abundant Grace

16. Choices Are in Our Hands

17. Always a Choice

18. Handicaps as Assets

PART 8: THE ASSURANCE WE NEED

1. Faith Without Doubts Is Dead

2. Meeting Jesus Unawares

3. A Father’s Acceptance

4. A Mother’s Love

5. Humor in the Face of Death

6. Can a Buddhist Monk Be Saved?

7. Fish Symbol

8. The Battle Has Already Been Won

9. Calling Balls and Strikes

10. Only One Church

11. Enduring Until the End

12. Getting the Wrong Message

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Index

INTRODUCTION

The gospel is seldom heard. It is overheard, said Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish existentialist philosopher and theologian.

Kierkegaard compared reading the Bible to the way in which you might overhear a conversation. He asks you to imagine standing behind two men on a street corner, while waiting for a break in the traffic so you can cross the street. The men are talking about someone—and then, suddenly, you realize they are talking about you. You listen intently, because what they are saying is both critical and revealing about who you are. So it is with the reading of Scripture. As you read the stories and conversations recorded in the Bible thousands of years ago, you are likely to become aware that what is being said has been written about you. While you are not being addressed directly, the words, nevertheless, seem to deal with your struggles, your needs, your questions, and your hopes. Sometimes, what is overheard can be quite disturbing.

Within the Bible itself, we find stories of people who overhear things that at first seem to be about others, only to realize that they themselves are being described. As a case in point, this is what happened to David, Israel’s most notable king. Through a story, told to him by Nathan the prophet, David is forced to face up to a dark side of himself and the horrible evil he had done to a beautiful woman and her innocent husband (see 2 Sam. 12:1-7).

One day, King David looked down from the roof of his palace and saw a woman named Bathsheba washing herself. David lusted after her and decided to translate his lusts into action and to have Bathsheba for himself. Bathsheba was already married, and her husband, Uriah, one of Israel’s generals, was away with the army, at war. To make a long story very short, David slept with Bathsheba and, when the king knew she had become pregnant, he arranged to have Uriah placed at the front of the battle so that he was certain to be killed. Once Uriah was out of the way, David made Bathsheba his own wife.

To Nathan, God’s prophet, fell the task of forcing David to face up to the enormity of his evil. Nathan did not condemn the king directly, but chose instead the indirect method of telling David a story that would force him to condemn himself. This is the story:

A certain rich man owned a large herd of sheep and possessed all the good things that a wealthy man might enjoy. Nevertheless, when this rich man had a visitor for dinner, he took the beloved lamb of a poor neighbor—a lamb that was loved like a child. He killed the lamb and served it for dinner, leaving the poor farmer heartbroken.

King David was outraged by the story Nathan told him and demanded that the greedy rich man be brought to justice and severely punished. Only then, when Nathan pointed his finger at the king and said, Thou art the man! (KJV), did David realize that the story was really about himself, and end up judging and condemning himself. Nathan’s story was, as Kierkegaard would say, the indirect method by which David overheard the horror of the kind of person he had become.

Overhearing the Whole Gospel

Most of us realize that there is both an objective and a subjective side to becoming a Christian. On the one hand, we accept a need for sound doctrine. We recognize that our faith must be built on solid propositional truths. On the other hand, however, we sense that there is a need for a personal (subjective) and transforming encounter with the resurrected and ever-present Christ.

When it comes to propositional truth, I believe there is no better statement of the doctrines that are essential for a Christian to believe than the Apostles’ Creed. In this creed, we find a brief, but comprehensive, survey of the teachings that have historically defined the Christian faith. The Apostles’ Creed goes back more than 1,500 years.

Sound doctrine, most of us realize, is not enough. Becoming a Christian involves something more than simply saying yes to a list of biblically prescribed propositional truths. If giving intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins would provide believers with salvation, then Satan would be saved. James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe—and tremble! (NKJV). That something more that is necessary for salvation comes from subjectively surrendering to God. It requires a yielding to the changes that God wants to effect in our lives. It involves becoming emotionally, psychologically and spiritually open to the transformations that the eighth chapter of Romans describes as the work of the Holy Spirit (NLT).

Evangelicals believe that Jesus waits at the door of the innermost recesses of our being, saying, Behold, I stand at the door, and knock (Rev. 3:20, KJV) and that He longs for each of us to make the existential decision to open ourselves up to what He wants to do in our lives.

Jesus the Story teller

Two thousand years ago, Jesus told stories in order to help His disciples and other listeners more fully understand His teachings. The parables of Jesus were used to make clear many of the theological truths He wanted His disciples to grasp. For instance, when seeking to convey what He wanted them to know about the future of the world, Jesus told His disciples the parable of the wheat and the tares:

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from? He answered, An enemy has done this. The slaves said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? But he replied, No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’ (Matt. 13:24-30).

Many Bible teachers believe that wheat, which Jesus talked about in this story, symbolizes the kingdom of God, and that the tares represent the kingdom of evil. In this parable, Jesus made it clear that the future would be marked both