"Pastor, I love coming to church on Sunday because it's the only day of the week I don't have to stretch. I can just relax, soak it all in, and enjoy the service." So said a Christian businessman in San Diego.

The pastor didn't take it as a compliment, but as a condemnation. The man was saying, "I check my intellect with the usher; not needed. Just like a Swartzennagger movie without the popcorn, I can sit for an hour of mindless escapism."

Is that the essence of church? Is it so much intellectual chewing gum? Theological popcorn for the mind? Recently Joan Rivers, obsessed, and wanting us to be, tried to nail America's short attention span to who was wearing (and almost wearing) what at the Emmy ceremony. Is tabloid Christianity consumed with dressing for success and being "successful" while it tries to build its self-esteem and find a comfortable niche in the world?

Or does Christianity engage the mind with the eternal issues it presents? Paul walks into a nest of Thessalonican non-Christians and "reasons with them out of the Scriptures." Peter writes that Paul's epistles take all the brainpower the reader has and more when he says, "Some things are hard to understand." Jesus talks about searching the Scriptures," while Proverbs says the reader is to dig for its treasures." Paul grabs Pastor Tim(othy) by the lapels and tells him to study.

If the Bible challenges our intellect, shouldn't its presentation do the same? This would involve a systematic, in-depth presentation of the Bible as it is, not dumbed-down to something we wish it were. Flannery O'Conner said, "The truth doesn't change with our ability to stomach it."

Who can forget the time Jesus challenged His disciples so strongly that "many" quit saying (about following Jesus) "This is too hard." (John 6)

If the Bible stretches the intellect, even more so does it stretch the body. Like the bed of Procrustes for a shorter person, it engages the Christian to "present your body a living sacrifice." Romans 12:2

It takes a great amount of confidence to trust someone with your body before you go under the surgeon's scalpel. You sign papers indicating your confidence in the physician to take care of you even when you're unconscious. It's confidence that moves your pen to sign on the dotted line.

The Bible makes its no-non-sense presentation to the non-Christian: will you place your confidence in the resurrected Christ's finished work for forgiveness of sin and eternal life? Such a grace-oriented question challenges our works-oriented bodies (which always want to try to do something, anything to "get right" with God) and challenges the pride of our intellects (which want a method, any method, that allows us to figure out a system of salvation) by saying that our bodies can neither work us into forgiveness nor can our intellects figure out our own way to eternal life (Titus 3:5 and Matt. 16:16-17). The way has to be revealed by God. The way of salvation allows neither man's physical nor intellectual oars to pollute its waters of grace.

The Bible challenges the believer's confidence in God to make the presentation of his body in discipleship. God's will now engages both body and mind (Rom. 12:1 and Col. 3:1). The believer is called to live a life of pure flame, fired by and enabled by the Holy Spirit to both show and tell the world what it's like to know God on an ever deepening level.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor