April is the month that focuses on two inevitable things: death (defeated by Christ at Easter!) and taxes (due today!). May I share with you a recent experience with a third inevitable thing: Generative artificial intelligence in the form of conversational chat bots like ChatGPT.
A presentation at a recent pastors’ conference offered sage advice regarding this tool. It can be useful to research information and for quickly putting together PowerPoint slides. I agree. But, let’s be careful to do our own work when it comes to preparing sermons and Bible studies. Again, I agree.
With a busy week on my calendar the week after Easter (usually it’s the week leading up to Easter), I decided to have a little fun. I hosted our pastors’ monthly circuit meeting at Trinity on 4/7 (National Beer Day, if you will recall) and it’s up to the host pastor to provide an opening devotion.
For the first time ever, I called up ChatGPT on my laptop and entered: “Write a brief Easter devotion in the style of a TV preacher who is a living advertisement for teeth whitening.” OK, I actually used the guy’s name; his initials are J.O.
Here’s what ChatGPT produced: This Easter, remember God is in the business of rolling stones away. That same power that rolled the stone away is working in your life right now. What looked permanent, what seemed sealed, what felt too heavy to move—God has already gone ahead of you.
You may be facing something today that feels like it’s never going to change. But don’t lose heart. God is a God of resurrection. He specializes in bringing dead things back to life—dreams, relationships, purpose.
Not a word about Christ rising from the dead. Later, there would be a mention of an empty tomb, but no explanation as to what that means in terms of Christ conquering sin, death, Satan, and hell!
So, to amp up the fun, I entered the same prompt as above and then asked ChatGPT to blend in some Rolling Stones lyrics (look again at the very first line in the “fake” devotion”). What the AI tool generated was pretty lame, so I dressed it up. Below is the rest of the mashup that ChatGPT and I put together in the style of J.O. combined with Rolling Stones lyrics:
Maybe life’s been throwing you some curveballs, and you’re thinking, “Man, I tried, but I still can’t get no satisfaction.” I mean, it’s really bad - I can't get no satisfaction. I can't get no satisfaction. 'Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I try I can't get no, I can't get no. But here’s the good news: God is saying, “Get up. This is your resurrection season.” You might not have gotten what you wanted the way you expected—but trust this: you just might find, you get what you need.
Lurking in the shadows of work like this is another character. “Please allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste I've been around for a long, long year Stole many a man's soul an faith…Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name, oh yeah But what's confusin' you Is just the nature of my game…Just call me Lucifer 'Cause I'm in need of some restraint.”
Enough of that! So, for safety let’s just go back to the sugar and saccharine of the tooth-whitened TV preacher. Or not. Perhaps Dylan? Bob Dylan – “How does it feel? How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home A complete unknown Like a rolling stone?”
Thank God for the simple, powerful, unchanging, uneditable truth of the resurrection! It is impossible to improve upon this greatest news of all. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to over five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6) (More appearances are listed)
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then it also follows that those who fell asleep in Christ perished. If our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20)
“Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:54b-57)
He lives!
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
A presentation at a recent pastors’ conference offered sage advice regarding this tool. It can be useful to research information and for quickly putting together PowerPoint slides. I agree. But, let’s be careful to do our own work when it comes to preparing sermons and Bible studies. Again, I agree.
With a busy week on my calendar the week after Easter (usually it’s the week leading up to Easter), I decided to have a little fun. I hosted our pastors’ monthly circuit meeting at Trinity on 4/7 (National Beer Day, if you will recall) and it’s up to the host pastor to provide an opening devotion.
For the first time ever, I called up ChatGPT on my laptop and entered: “Write a brief Easter devotion in the style of a TV preacher who is a living advertisement for teeth whitening.” OK, I actually used the guy’s name; his initials are J.O.
Here’s what ChatGPT produced: This Easter, remember God is in the business of rolling stones away. That same power that rolled the stone away is working in your life right now. What looked permanent, what seemed sealed, what felt too heavy to move—God has already gone ahead of you.
You may be facing something today that feels like it’s never going to change. But don’t lose heart. God is a God of resurrection. He specializes in bringing dead things back to life—dreams, relationships, purpose.
Not a word about Christ rising from the dead. Later, there would be a mention of an empty tomb, but no explanation as to what that means in terms of Christ conquering sin, death, Satan, and hell!
So, to amp up the fun, I entered the same prompt as above and then asked ChatGPT to blend in some Rolling Stones lyrics (look again at the very first line in the “fake” devotion”). What the AI tool generated was pretty lame, so I dressed it up. Below is the rest of the mashup that ChatGPT and I put together in the style of J.O. combined with Rolling Stones lyrics:
Maybe life’s been throwing you some curveballs, and you’re thinking, “Man, I tried, but I still can’t get no satisfaction.” I mean, it’s really bad - I can't get no satisfaction. I can't get no satisfaction. 'Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I try I can't get no, I can't get no. But here’s the good news: God is saying, “Get up. This is your resurrection season.” You might not have gotten what you wanted the way you expected—but trust this: you just might find, you get what you need.
Lurking in the shadows of work like this is another character. “Please allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste I've been around for a long, long year Stole many a man's soul an faith…Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name, oh yeah But what's confusin' you Is just the nature of my game…Just call me Lucifer 'Cause I'm in need of some restraint.”
Enough of that! So, for safety let’s just go back to the sugar and saccharine of the tooth-whitened TV preacher. Or not. Perhaps Dylan? Bob Dylan – “How does it feel? How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home A complete unknown Like a rolling stone?”
Thank God for the simple, powerful, unchanging, uneditable truth of the resurrection! It is impossible to improve upon this greatest news of all. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to over five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6) (More appearances are listed)
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then it also follows that those who fell asleep in Christ perished. If our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20)
“Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:54b-57)
He lives!
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
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