Drunken Mystic

Some of us were goofy young men who would have these crushes on a pretty girl.  Okay, more specifically, I was a young man who would have these crushes on a pretty girl.  Proving my own goofiness and courage or stupidity, I would, every now and again, express my feelings for a pretty girl.

Most of the time I got a very sweet, “Let’s just be friends.”

This was just as wounding as a resounding “no.”  I understand that it was meant to be a softened rejection, but it was a rejection nonetheless.

And upon further review, the rejection hurts because what is said in the “let’s just be friends” is that “I value one aspect of our relationship but do not desire to have all of you.”

Unfortunately we do the same to Jesus.

The difference is this.  This pretty girl is well within her rights to define her relationship with me.  In fact, I never actually blamed a pretty girl for realizing she was way out of my league … until I found one that didn’t seem to realize it so I married her.

But with God, it is different.  There is no other God.  It’s not like the other choices are better or could be.  The omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, uncreated God has chosen to shower His love upon us through His Son Jesus Christ and says, “Accept all of me.  In return I ask for all of you.”

And our answer sometimes is, essentially, “Oh … that’s sweet.  But let’s just be friends.”

God is inseparable.  Therefore, to reject even a part of Him is to reject all of Him.  To have the opportunity to give your all to have His all in return, and to spurn that in any way is a rejection complete and total.

The greatest commandments?  “Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus says, “You will find me if you seek me with your whole heart.”

There is not custom download on the Holy Spirit software.  It is all or nothing with God.  He makes this clear from Genesis through Revelation and through His Son and His Spirit.

You don’t get to piecemeal your relationship with God.  It is the failing of the Church in this age and this culture that we don’t make this clear enough.  “Just friend”-ing God separates you from Him just as surely as if you said, “No, I don’t believe in you at all.”

Peace.

Went to a meeting today, a good group called Unite (uniteus.org), which is attempting to get resources and info out to churches to make a difference in the community.

The topic today was adoption and fostering.

There are roughly a hundred thousand orphans for adoption in America.  There are more than half a million kids in the foster system in America.  So let’s assume 600,000 kids that need stable homes.

Could we also assume a few hundred thousand churches in America?  So, easily, every single church could have two families that adopt or foster and take care of every one of those kids.  That is both exciting and frustrating.

For evangelicals who say they believe the Bible, and the Bible says our pure religion is to take care of the orphans and widows and to keep oneself pure from the world, this seems like a no-brainer.  It is exciting because it is practically achievable.  Frustrating because kids still go without homes while the Church alone could solve this problem with very little help from the gubmint.

Why isn’t it happening?  Well, the encouraging thing is that the awareness and the conviction is growing among Christians in our country to foster or adopt.  But some factors get in the way.

First, unfortunately, many Christians are too busy with “the cares of this life” to do more than get a little weepy when they watch Blindside and root for Sandra Bullock to win an Oscar.  It takes a certain amount of sacrifice and courage that many Christians just don’t seem to have.  Seems harsh to say, but many are more concerned with careers and hobbies than being greatly inconvenienced by an orphan.  But like I said, that is improving and more and more are getting personally involved by being a home for a kid who needs one.

Second, a lot of churches don’t communicate with one another.  They’re more concerned with hyping up why they’re better than the church next door with their cool new video Sunday School or their dogmatic theology than reaching out to that same neighboring church to spread the vision or be willing to have the vision spread to them.  This is why groups like Unite exist, to spread that vision and give resources to those churches, but the isolated nature of most fellowships still inhibits this.

Third, it is cost prohibitive.  One of the tragedies is that it costs up to 30 grand to adopt a kid.  This is because all of the bureaucracy and legalities involved, among other things, but it is sad to me that many good, stable families in our country would take in a kid in a heartbeat but don’t have 30 grand sitting around.  There are resources for those that would have trouble coming up with that money, even ministries that will help you raise that money, which is cool.

I long to see the Church, in the expression of local churches, grab a hold of this vision and do something that the Bible clearly teaches and the world could practically see.  What a different testimony Christianity in America would have if we could fix this problem.  Call it compassion or social justice or whatever name you want … it’s just the right thing to do.

Peace.

My son’s middle name is Patrick, and that was for a reason.  Growing up, St. Patrick’s day held a simple meaning to me … wear green or get pinched.  As I got older and actually learned about the patron saint of Ireland, I discovered a man worthy of honor and deep respect.

Over the years, legends were attached to him, but here is what we’re pretty sure of, mostly from the few writings we have of his:

Patrick was raised in Christian Britain as part of a wealthy family.  He wasn’t much of a believer at the time.  As a young man, barbarians from Ireland came by and raided his town and took him captive to be sold as a slave.

He languished in slavery for six years, learning their language and tending sheep.  He began praying to God every day and believed in Christ.  Ultimately, God began to talk back (He does that, you know), telling him to take a trip across Ireland to his freedom, which seemed an impossible thing (no one ever returned from slavery in Ireland), but like most people who actually believe in God, when you hear that voice, well, you just obey even if it seems impossible.  Something in His voice makes you believe in the impossible.

As he made it to the coast, Patrick found a boat going back to Britain.  The sailors were hesitant (it was a crime, punishable by death, to help a slave), but Patrick prayed and they took him with them.

Back in Britain, Patrick received a vision from God that called him to go preach the gospel to those pagans who had enslaved him.  Over the years, he was educated as a priest and then ordained.

Believe it or not, the Catholic Church at the time didn’t really believe in trying to convert pagans, but they gave him permission eventually.

So he began to preach and convert many and start churches.  Of course he faced persecution and violence often, but he endured and overcame.  Patrick even overcame the persecution of the Catholic Church after he severely rebuked a British Christian king who had killed some Irish believers in a raid.

Patrick also converted the Emerald Isle, a violent people, by completely peaceable means.  If you know your history at all, that was unique in and of itself for the time.

The heart to go back to the very people who did violence to you, enslaved you, and would have killed you had they caught you escaping; to go back and preach Christ to them, armed only with your faith and love, is true compassion, the compassion even of Christ Himself who died for us.

So I gave Micah that middle name, Patrick, not because of my Irish heritage but because of Patrick’s spiritual heritage, to teach us the heart of God.  And I hope my son has that heart of compassion for others, even in the face of persecution and rejection.

And the fact that the holiday has become an excuse to drink and wear green and tell what few leprechaun jokes we know seems tragic to me.  Not that any of those things are inherently wrong, only they don’t really seem to honor the man the holiday is named after.  But it seems the American way, unfortunately.

So I say Happy St. Patrick’s day.  I hope we all learn true compassion and take opportunity to give to those in need, to spread love even to those don’t deserve it, to not only forgive, but to seek to redeem and restore where darkness has had its way.

Peace.

Had a good discussion the other day with a brother, and his question was: “Why can’t I just read the Bible and do what it says?  Why do I have to follow the Spirit?”

Putting aside the many biblical commands to follow the Spirit, the question is a valid one.   The Bible says I should do something.  Do I need to hear from God to obey that or can’t I just do it?

Well, you can, but there is a dangerous assumption within the question, which is that if I follow the Spirit, I might not do what the Bible says.

I will never condone doing something other than what the Bible says, nor will I condone finding something righteous that the Bible calls sin.

But the mature and safe perspective is to realize that the Spirit inspired the scriptures.  The Spirit, therefore, will confirm the scriptures and will never contradict them.  Also, the Spirit Himself will understand more clearly and distinctly how to fulfill those commands.

Left to our own devices of “reading and following”, dangerous things like legalism and placing heavy, undue burdens upon the Body happen.  And you may find yourself not actually fulfilling the scripture at all if you “lean on your own understanding.”

I’ll give an example.  In Joshua chapter 9, we have a very important story about the nation of Israel and the Gibeonites.  I’ll try to quickly summarize.

Joshua and the nation of Israel were told, unequivocally, that they were to completely wipe out every nation and individual within those nations in the Promised Land.  They were not allowed to make peace with any one of those nations.

Well, Joshua is in the midst of kicking butt and taking names – Jericho and Ai go down easily enough – and the men of Gibeon say, “Hey, we’re next.  What are we gonna do?”

They dressed in tattered clothes, supplied themselves with old and moldy bread, and traveled to see Joshua at Gilgal.  When they got there, the Gibeonites told Joshua and Israel that they were from this far away land and wanted to make peace with Israel.

Fine, Joshua says, no problem, and the elders of Israel all swear an oath of peace.

Of course the truth comes out and the Israelites were deceived, but they swore to peace and therefore honored it, although they made the Gibeonites slaves – woodcutters and water carriers (showed you!).

But there is a really important verse that hinges the whole thing.  Joshua 9:14 says “… but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.”

The Law from Moses had been written down by that point.  They knew what it said and could read it.  Based on the evidence in front of them, they were not going against the written word.

But God also gave them the method by which to ask His counsel, through the High Priest and also a very mysterious Umin and Thummin.  The point is His personal counsel was available to them in every situation and they did not go to it.  They ended up actually disobeying the written commands from God instead of obeying them.

Believe it or not, even though we have the Bible in our hands, God still knows more than we do.  You’re safer asking and hearing from and getting your revelation straight from the source, the Spirit who inspired the scripture and wants us to obey and do what is right more than we understand.

Peace.