Drunken Mystic

Recently finished reading the book of Lamentations from the scriptures.

Lamentations isn’t necessarily a book that people love to read.  There are a couple neat and feel good quotes to take from it, but it is not a feel good book (the title should be a hint).

Jeremiah writes this poetic lament as Jerusalem and the nation of Judah falls to Babylon because of their gross sin.  And Judah was involved in some bad stuff … yes, idolatry, but also all the things that went along with it for that time: sexual immorality and sacrificing their own children to those idols.  At the same time, they were guilty of greed (which Paul says IS idolatry) and forgetting the mercy and compassion they were to have on the poor and the needy.

God’s response was to send prophets to get them to repent, which they rejected, and then He decides to judge them by handing them over to subjugation to another nation.  Sometimes God’s judgment is handing people over fully to the things they have chosen.  It isn’t pretty.

Jeremiah sees the God he loves judge the chosen nation he loves and the famine, disease, and violence heaped upon Judah … and starvation to the point where women were cooking and eating their own children.

Like I said, not a feel good message.

But what amazes me is that in the midst of his lament, Jeremiah looks ahead and chooses in faith to rest on the compassion and goodness of God:

“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him.’  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.”

While some still lived, Jeremiah knew his nation had hope because the Lord’s compassion will not fail.

Things happen in life that seem to be direct evidence against the idea that God is good, that only God is good and will work it all out in goodness.  But faith is looking past the present circumstance to the promise that the end will bring joy and glory despite the sorrows of today.

This isn’t to suggest we will understand all that transpires.  Nor do we deny the pain and the grief in the present.  Jeremiah didn’t.  But neither should we give up hope in the eternal promise of God’s goodness.

Peace.

I have a feeling I’ve shared this before …

But I’m too lazy to go through my old posts to see … so here it goes again since its been on my mind a lot lately.

Our society has done one of the most damaging things in the history of the world.  We’ve created adolescence.

For most cultures throughout history, you were a child, then an adult.  Of course there was a growing into an adult, but to separate out a different stage called “adolescence” has been a foreign concept.  What is the problem with adolescence? you might ask.

It is giving rights, power, and privilege to a group without responsibility.

It is amazing to see how much “adolescents” have had an impact.  A large degree of entertainment has been geared towards that group, a group that has a large amount of spending power but little comes from money that they’ve actually earned.  This overwhelming entertainment culture then affects body image and ideas of everything from family to what is success and the important context of history.

And this stage holds quite the attraction.  Why not?  Who wouldn’t love to have rights and privileges without responsibility?  Because of the appeal, the age range of people acting like this has grown.  You have a generation that sees college and their twenties as an extension of that stage … and you have six-year-olds with cel phones and ipods tuning their parents out at dinner with ear buds.

The result is that our culture is losing a real sense of childhood innocence as well as a notion of being an adult and being a responsible contributing member of society – and that those are the only two real choices available.  It has caused, coupled with the material abundance in our country, a very skewed perspective of reality completely foreign to the rest of the world.

And there is no real movement to stop the growth of this thing.  In fact, we have elected officials telling unemployed people not to try and get a job but to just play music and rock out.  It is being further encouraged.

And per the usual, the problems of the society we live in affects (or infects) the Church.

We have a growing number of people who seriously believe they can have the rights and privileges of a Christian without the responsibility of living like one.

And just like adolescence in our culture is celebrated and lauded far more than it is seriously questioned, the same has happened in the Church.  We have come up with more and more doctrines and theology that justify this state rather than clearly pointing to the scriptures that challenge it or the fruit of such a life that proves its danger.

Spiritual adolescence is worse than pure spiritual immaturity.  There is a very real state of being “little children” in the Lord and it is a precious time in the life of any believer.  In many ways it is a necessary time.

But spiritual adolescence is self-centered and short-sighted and yet catered to by much of what we call Christianity today (which isn’t really, but that’s another post) and the supposed “spiritual leadership” that should be way more mature than they are.  When we allow people to become “a man” and yet don’t require them to put away childish things, we shouldn’t be so surprised that we have the problems and corruption that we do within politics and the church.

I’ll leave it there for now.  May be more later.

Peace.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says a couple things that, on the surface, seem contradictory.  It happens sometimes.

First, in talking about His disciples being the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”, Jesus says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works …”

Then, a chapter later in the same sermon, He says, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.”

While some like to point out how the Bible contradicts itself, it really doesn’t and there are some interesting observations to be made here.

The first observation is the motivation of the heart.  When you do your good works, or “charitable deeds”, are you doing them to be seen or out of a true heart that seeks to do what is right and be compassionate?  The former cares that it is properly recognized (which sets up while the latter is satisfied within the obedience itself.

Well, I’ve heard that teaching before, and most would stop there; but there’s more to it that I find interesting.

Both teachings assume you are doing good works and charitable deeds.  It is an assumption by Jesus that those that follow Him will have good works and charitable deeds.

Funny to me that the modern assumption is quite the opposite.

The other interesting observation I’ll make is that Jesus is concerned with who is getting the glory from your good deeds.  Obviously the motivation of your heart has much to do with it, but the focus of both teachings is who gets the glory.  In the first teaching on salt and light, Jesus wants your light to shine so that God may be glorified through the good works that you do.

A chapter later, Jesus says, “when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”

Jesus often placed reward in heaven as motivation for why we would do our good works.  But here, if we get the recognition our heart seeks in pride, that is the only reward we will ever get.

But Jesus goes on, “But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

This is how your good deeds glorify God.  Your focus is only on the good and the compassion, satisfied that God alone knows what you have done, and that is enough.  God Himself reveals openly, revealing by His Spirit what He wants seen and through that process will by nature draw men to Himself.

Peace.

Reading through the scripture, we consistently see, even through to the New Testament, King David called righteous and a man after God’s own heart.  So righteous, in fact, that God promised that the Messiah of the world would come through David’s line.

Now, maybe you don’t know some things that David did.

David was something of a hot-head.  Sweet Abigail kept him from overreacting with her fool husband and he married her once Nabal actually kicked the bucket. The Bible is also clear that he wasn’t the best parent in the world and ended up having lots of issues with his children (one raping another and all that while he did nothing to punish).  He also had plenty of wives, which Moses warns about in Deuteronomy that a good king shouldn’t do.  Later in life, David commits a weird sin in beginning a census and thousands of Israelites die in a plague or something because of HIS sin.

But of course we all know about Bathsheba.  David did a horrible thing.  First, he was basking in luxury in the season when “kings went out to war.”  His army was out fighting and protecting the kingdom while he was kinda hanging out.  Second, he lusted and committed adultery.  Third, he killed the lady’s husband (one of his famed “mighty men”) to try and get away with it when she got pregnant.

That’s a lot.  I mean, I don’t know that I’d call any of that “the heart of God” or righteous at all.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the teaching that, well, he repented, but I’d like to look at that a little more and see how a righteous man repents.

Because righteous men will need to repent from time to time.  I know I talk about righteousness a lot, and I know people hear that word and immediately think of words like judgmental or legalistic or impossible and they’ve got some pat scriptures to throw at those ideas.

But if David could do those things and still be called righteous, even essentially be a standard for righteousness, what does that mean?

Let’s take a step back and look at King Saul for a moment.  King Saul was chosen by God and anointed by Samuel just like David was.  King Saul did some bad stuff, too, disobeying God.

But Saul was never called righteous.  In fact, his punishment was the kingdom taken from him and given to another.  God told Samuel to basically give up on the guy.  Pretty harsh.

When Saul was busted in his sin … he made excuses.

“You weren’t here and then the people were clamoring and …” on and on.

He begged forgiveness but made excuses while doing so.  That’s not repentance.

David, on the other hand, when busted, completely repented and was willing to endure whatever punishment or consequence God deemed appropriate.  Even when it seemed the kingdom was being taken from him, David accepted it as the prophesied consequence for his previous sin years before.

And David never made excuses.  Never once.

Read the whole story of David again to see this trend in his life.  It is amazing.  He continually messes up and never makes an excuse and understands he completely deserves whatever punishment or consequence God decides to give.  Anything.

And he’s called righteous and a man after God’s own heart even through the revelation of the New Covenant.

Of course David did a lot of things right, too.  His repentance wasn’t only a recognition of his sin and the justice he deserved.  When given a chance by God, David would do the right thing, too, take care of his responsibilities and moved forward in doing what was right.

When God killed his son as a consequence for his sin, David didn’t divorce Bathsheba and get mad at God for taking an innocent life.  He realized the blood was on his hands and God was just and right … then he comforted and loved his wife and ran the kingdom.

David was humble and Saul was prideful.  It may not sound that way, but making excuses and seeing a commitment to doing good as impossible is pride.  Saul was full of pride and unstable.  David humbled himself completely and was willing to endure anything that God had for him.

This is righteous repentance.  And if Jesus is the Son of David, then the standards for righteous repentance haven’t changed.

I know.  Your theology might be spinning with that one.  But it’s true.  Lots of things have changed in the New Covenant.  Clearly reading the gospel preached in the New Testament, that has not.

Has the heart of God changed?  He is immutable.  He does not change.  Is not the New Covenant closer to the heart of God, from the Son begotten of Himself and the Spirit emanating from Himself?

What is interesting to me, and part of the point of this post, is that the “repentance” preached in the gospel of many today is closer to the actions and pride of King Saul, forgiveness with excuses and without a commitment to doing right (then somehow claiming righteousness), than the humility of David which God actually calls righteousness.

So let’s learn from David, who garnered great reward for his righteousness, and let us humble ourselves and repent in righteousness.

Peace.

We all know how the story goes.  Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Perfect life.  Given one DO and one DON’T.  The Bible says they didn’t follow either.

The DO is maybe for another post … but the DON’T was a very clear rule.  Don’t eat of that tree right there in the middle of the Garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

But there were two trees in the middle, the second only briefly mentioned.  The second was the Tree of Life.

In choosing the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve lost a lot, most notably for the sake of this post, access to the Tree of Life.  An angel with a flaming sword stood at the entrance of the Garden of Eden to ensure no human entered there again.

Exiled from the Garden, human history plodded along through promises made to Abraham by God, the establishment of the chosen physical nation of Israel, to that ultimate failure, and then to the giving of the ultimate promise, the Son of God Himself.

One of the more phenomenal things about God is that when you screw something up that He gives you, sometimes He gives you something even better if you’re willing to repent and return to Him.

In this case, God restored the Tree of Life to mankind through Jesus Christ.  And that Tree of Life does not exist in a physical garden on the earth somewhere waiting for some archeologist to find.  The Tree of Life now resides within the Body of Christ.

Jesus said that, “Where two or more are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.”  Notice He didn’t say in each individual hearts, but in the midst of those who are gathered in His Name.  I’m not trying to say that God doesn’t also dwell in the hearts of individuals, but we also cannot deny that the Bible clearly shows a residence of the Spirit reserved not for individuals but those “gathered in My Name.”

More than once in the New Testament, in describing the house God now lives in, the place referred to is the Church, not individuals.

If you would like further biblical support for this, I’ve saved the best for last.  In Revelation 21 and 22, John the Apostle describes a vision of the bride of Christ seen as a city coming down from Heaven to reside on a heaven and new earth.

There are lots of cool things about that vision, but at the beginning of chapter 22, we see that in the midst of the city is the Tree of Life, straddling the crystal river flowing from the throne of the Lamb of God.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

Here we have again, the tree of life restored, not in a place of real estate but in a gathered people, a people gathered unto God and the Lamb.

Watchman Nee once wrote that the Western Church needed to repent of its idea of individualism most of all.  Of course there are aspects of the Kingdom that are individual in nature, but that extreme has taken us far away from what was truly designed to give life back to the nations, the Church.  The Body of Christ, the Bride, those who are truly following Jesus, the only Way, are the source of life for the nations, to heal them.

C.S. Lewis gave a great analogy once that our lives are like these little cottages that have some problems, and so we think coming to Jesus, He’ll fix the leaky sink and the creaky door.  Then we get upset when He tears down the whole cottage and starts building a castle.

I love the image, but I’m going to adjust it just a little for the sake of this blog article.  God doesn’t tear down your house to build you a new individual one.  He tears down your house to make you a part of a New House, a living stone built side by side with other living stones where God can dwell.

Notice they aren’t bricks, as if every one is the same.  They are stones, each with their own shape and form, fitted by the master builder into a house in which God can dwell.

Life has returned, hope for every nation, not in an organization or bureaucracy or political movement, but in the Church.  Alone.  To place hope for life in another place or earthly institution is folly to the extreme and ignorant of what the Bible truly and clearly says.

If you want to see this truth, very practically, gather with those who desire to follow Christ alone with all their heart and will give it all to do so.  Anything less gives different fruit and so we have a whole generation of “believers” who look for life and hope and truth elsewhere and justify it along the way.

Peace.

Went to Martin Street Church of God yesterday.   Back in the day, as a teen/young adult, I was a part of Happy Hollow First Church of God.  Because there was a separate organization for the African Americans within our “denomination”, we would have these “unity services” to express that we were already one, regardless of color, and that the organizations should get their act together and become one as well.

That happened some time later, but the main fellowship that we had these unity services with was an African American church down off Fulton Street in Atlanta called Martin Street Church of God.  The pastor we knew then is now retiring, Pastor Holston, after 26 years of service there, and so my mom and I wanted to go down and honor him.  And yeah, I took my wife and the yahoos with us.

As the singing began to get started, and the congregation began to really sing, I heard this annoying noise.  It wasn’t really singing, but a droning singular note not quite on key and very loudly coming from within the congregation.

Being somewhat of a musician (loosely defined, I agree), this began to grate on me, and I was distracted and began to rudely look around to see where the heck this was coming from.

Just two or three pews ahead of us was a young woman who had some obvious mental challenges.  I don’t think she could articulate words, and she couldn’t clap in rhythm, but when the Spirit moved her, she stood, clapped and sang with all her might.  And she was weeping as she did.

And as I watched her, God began to show me how beautiful she was.  Not the singing which was off-key or the clapping which was off-time, but her heart to worship Him.  The song was “Here I am to Worship.”

God’s attention in that moment was on her.  Heaven bowed and payed attention.  She sang no words, but He loved it.  What He loved was her heart, the heart that somehow knew that He was worthy of every effort to give him praise, the heart that overlooked (either out of ignorance or choice, I’m not sure) all her challenges and obvious difficulties, the heart that didn’t complain in the midst of all that but chose to sing as loud as she possibly could and without a care for what anyone thought of her.

While God revealed to me how beautiful she was in that moment to Him, I was moved by it as well.  I cried, like a big baby.  In that moment, I didn’t care what she sounded like or that she wasn’t actually saying words or clapping on time; I was jealous of her heart and humbled that I almost missed her beauty by being annoyed by it.

What we say in worship is important.  The words and thoughts and ideas are not interchangeable.  Corporate singing is truly a time of teaching right doctrine and theology in and of itself.

But at its core, the melody of worship begins “in our hearts.”  It begins there.  It is not a purely intellectual exercise.  It places the words of truth on our lips as we choose to turn our hearts to Him in complete adoration and thankfulness.  Praise connects the spirit within us that cries out “Abba, Father”, the spirit of the Son, with our minds that need to be renewed.  And renews them.

This only happens, however, if the melody begins in our hearts, in the core of our being that chooses to bless God, to “be anxious for nothing”, “casting our cares upon Him for He cares for us.”

Do not suppose when I say “in our hearts” that I mean an emotional experience, although surely our emotions are affected by natural consequence.  True praise is not emotional but spiritual.  Those who equate praise with the emotions will quickly find their whole life ruled by their emotions, which causes them to be unstable and focused on themselves in very selfish ways.

Rather, praise comes from the Spirit within us, and we must submit our emotions to that Spirit to truly praise and let the purpose of praise have its work, the renewing of our mind and the strengthening of our faith.  We praise God because it is good and He is worthy, regardless of how we “feel”.  Emotions are fickle, and ministries that prey upon and manipulate emotions shouldn’t be surprised at the fruit they produce, although unfortunately many only come up with new doctrines to justify and laud those unstable individuals.

The Spirit is secure and focused, laying a foundation within us for greater heights of faith, grace, and love, drawing us closer to Christ and submitting us to Truth, the Person who is Truth, and then we become free of our emotions and fleshly desires.  For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

What God showed me yesterday was that what He is after is the heart of man, because He knows that from the heart will flow either evil or good, and He desires the kind of heart that might seem naive and ignorant, but is truly spiritual in that the Truth that He is worthy transcends all other thoughts and situations we may encounter.  That is true reality and our minds must be re-educated, brainwashed if you will, upon that Truth.

Peace.

Haven’t posted in a while, and this one was a long way coming anyway, and in light of someone feeling that burning a book is some sort of valid religious statement, thought it might be time to share some thoughts.

These thoughts were somewhat compiled as an answer to a friend some time ago.  This person had a coworker who had a very classic excuse every time my friend brought up Jesus or Christianity.  “I can’t believe in Christianity.  Christians are hypocrites.”

Ah.  A classic.  Here we go.

What further complicated this situation was that my friend and her coworker knew of a man who claimed to be a Christian and yet was doing some shady business stuff (they knew because this man was a client of theirs).  Upon further explanation, I found out this “Christian” man doing some shady things was an elder in my friend’s church!  So good luck inviting that guy to your fellowship.

Let’s deal with some truth and then we’ll get to my ultimate answer.

First of all, the testimony of Christians is a valid concern.  Even Paul had this concern, beating his body into submission so that after preaching the gospel he wouldn’t be seen as a counterfeit.  Paul spent much of his writing addressing what Christianity actually was and what it WAS NOT for a reason.  It mattered to him what people both understood as the message of the gospel and the testimony of those who say they believe.

This is because the “ministry of reconciliation” of man to God has been placed in the hands of the Church.  Just as Jesus was able to say, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father, we should be able to say, if you’ve seen us, you’ve seen Christ.”

On the other hand, this is still not an excuse.  Paul also makes it clear in Romans that “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Plenty of people have followed God and Jesus even though they saw numerous examples of people doing it wrong.  In fact, I would say that most people who truly follow God saw more people who were bad examples than good.  Christ’s disciples are definitely in that category (ever read what Jesus says about the Jews and authorities of His day?  Wow.).  Not to mention the number of people who literally met Jesus face to face, heard His message and rejected Him and killed Him.

It is not amazing to me that people exist who claim Christ and yet do not have the testimony that God requires of those that follow Him.  I’ve come to expect it, actually.  Going back to Paul, he warns us to watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing and false teachers and many that aren’t what they appear.

What is amazing is that there are people who claim to follow Christ … and they do.  Their lives are testimonies of repentance and righteousness and holiness and compassion and humility and following the Spirit of God.

If Christianity wasn’t true or real, then examples of people doing it wrong are easy to explain.  But if Christianity isn’t real, then explain the people who actually do live up to the standard.

Of course the push-back I almost immediately receive, from Christians, is that this is impossible.  “We can’t live righteous lives,” they say.  Then why get so upset when some Christians get it wrong?  Why does Paul seem so concerned with being counted a counterfeit?

Why does Paul tell one of the churches he began that he and those with him lived blameless testimonies while among them and evangelized?

If you mean we can’t be perfect, as if we still make mistakes, then yes, I agree.  I’ll still stub my toe or forget something that I should have done or misspell a word or two that a spell checker doesn’t catch.

It is how I react to these situations that determine my righteousness.  It is the fruit of my life that speaks of a power beyond the flesh.  And I know plenty of people like that.

I knew people like that in my church as a young kid in Montgomery, Alabama (even though the pastor himself was eventually caught having multiple affairs).  I knew people like that growing up in Happy Hollow First Church of God.  I knew people like that in Korea.  I know and fellowship with people like that now.

Oh, they’re not done.  God is still working on all of us, growing us up and maturing us.  But we live according to the Spirit and compassion and are eager to do what is good, and careful to not be weary of it.  And just because we haven’t fully “attained” in maturity yet doesn’t mean we are unrighteous now.

To give you a glimpse of the difference between heaven and this world: these people make the news in heaven.  There are millions of these people in the world today, but they rarely, if ever, make the news on this earth, even though to God (and angels) they are the most beautiful and interesting thing in the world.

You don’t have to look very far or wait very long to find some person who says they are a Christian and doesn’t live like it.  Some church somewhere might even give them positions of power and prestige.

But there are people following a narrow way, living as the new creation, surrendered to the Holy Spirit and living life and more abundantly.  There are local churches teaching what is true and making disciples.  There are people who are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and they haven’t hidden their light and they haven’t lost their flavor.  Isn’t that amazing to you?  It is to me.  I desire to be counted among them.

Peace.

There is this young man in our fellowship, and he gets frustrated with the organic nature of discipleship within our group.  (I grudgingly use the term “organic” because it has become a buzz word and beginning to lose its effectiveness … but there it is.)  We were having lunch one day, and he began to tell me that he didn’t think our group was doing much discipleship.  His idea of discipleship included classes and direct teaching that he felt wasn’t being done.  My question was, “How do you know you’re not being discipled right now?”

Of course that further frustrated him (people get frustrated with me a lot … I know), and continues to as we have further discussed it as time goes on.  But I’ve thought of a good example of how discipleship should work, and does, within the life of the Body, and thought I would share.

My son Micah is a great example of what discipleship should look like.  A week ago, we were at my in-laws and Micah begins to do a “show” and sing a song.  The song he sang?  “When I get to heaven, I’m gonna get a new body.”  He sang that phrase over and over again.

He’s four.

Last night, we went over the story of Adam and Eve, and how death was (and is) the penalty for sin.  But I explained that if we follow Jesus, we will go to heaven when we die.  “Yeah!” he says.  “And be with God forever!”  I agreed.  Then Micah said, “You know, I’m really excited to be with God forever.”

I never sat Micah down to specifically teach him these truths or to have this perspective.  He got it from spending lots of time with me and the people in our fellowship.  I can’t even tell you the specific instance when we talked about 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul’s teaching on the new spiritual body we will have, but obviously at some time we did.  And Micah remembered.

Micah is taking on my traits because he lives with me and spends lots of time with me … and looks up to me as his father, of course.  He gets the idea to sing a song he made up and do a show because he’s seen me share songs I’ve written with others.  He’s watching and listening even when I don’t think he is.  And just as a funny aside, Micah also thanked God in his prayers last night that he had a poster with superheroes on it.  His daddy still reads comic books.

Jesus discipled people by living with them.  They heard his teachings, yes, but every moment watching Him live was a teaching moment, and that made His teachings even that much more real.  The early apostles and Barnabas and Paul discipled the same way.

I am the man of God I am today because of the intimate relationships I’ve had with other men and women of God who have fathered and mothered me in the Spirit, people that not only spoke deep truths to me … but I saw them live it, too.  John Taggart, Isaac Williams, Rose Palmer, my own mother and Larry Trammell, among others.  And I may not have as may fathers as I once did, the Body still disciples me.  I learn how to better pastor from Ben and serve from Eric.  I learn how to have a better heart for evangelism from Larry V.  And the whole Body loves me and teaches me as they follow God and exhibit their gifts in the Body.  I have been – and will continue to be – the beneficiary of their spiritual depth.

And Micah not only lives with me.  He exercises with Jesse and takes long walks with Saji and bakes cookies with Amber and rough houses with Jason.  It is in these moments that life happens and righteousness is revealed, the fruit of the Spirit can be seen.  And that is far better to me than any class could ever teach him  Or me.

Peace.

There are a lot of people, most of them Christians, who are struggling, to put it mildly, with the image they feel Christians have.  Most notably, that Christians are “against things.”  They criticize some of these notions, even so far as to call it “hate” or “ignorance” or other name calling, distancing and therefore dividing themselves from these people who they feel aren’t representing Christ in a good way.

First of all, there is a certain flawed logic, philosophical tension if you will, about being against people who are against things.  It’s not okay to be against things but it is okay to be against the people who are against things, to call the name callers names.  Ah.  I see.  Kind of the “there are no absolutes” argument … which seems like a fairly absolute statement.

Second, there is a level to which we are allowing those already predisposed to hate Christianity the right to define Christianity or what it should be.  The Bible is clear that there will be people who hate those that follow Christ.  The same message will be life to some and death to others.  Jesus would preach and out of a crowd that heard the same words and tone of voice and saw the same body language from the Son of God, some would follow and believe and others would begin to conspire to kill Him.

So I don’t put much stock in the ire of the world.  In fact, Jesus says plainly that we should beware when the world loves us.  Not an actual measure of success.

Third, it makes the Church reactionary and subject to the world and worldly principles when we are citizens of Heaven.  True disciples of Christ aren’t meant to take their cues from external sources but be proactive from following the Spirit of God.  Jesus rarely answered the question asked but gave what people really needed to hear, even if it was that they were “children of the Devil.”  We are ultimately responsible to God through the leading of liberty by the Holy Spirit, not another’s view of us.

So let’s look at some things biblically that can give us some balance.  In following Jesus with all our heart, we will by nature be against things.  It will happen.  The Holy Spirit says “no” to me a lot.  Says “yes” to me, as well.  If we truly are seeking the will of God, then part of that will is to be against things.  To be for righteousness we will by nature be against sin.  To be for Jesus and following Christ, we will by nature be against all religions that deny Him.

Look at all the things through the New Testament that were spoken AGAINST.  Sexual sin, idolatry, greed (which is idolatry), lying, wounding another’s conscience, being divisive, false teaching (especially teaching that grace gives any place to sin), and others.  It’s a big list.  Jude is especially harsh.  Paul says in Galatians that if anyone preaches a different gospel, “let him be accursed!”

That is love by the way.

But here’s the thing.  Being citizens of heaven, people who will one day “judge angels,” we have authority for to judge the things in the church.  Not the world.

Go ahead, read that again.

In every case, when these men wrote against things, they were cleaning out the church, not judging or condemning the world.

Let’s look quickly at I Corinthians 5.  Paul has heard that some dude who sinned really bad was still a part of their fellowship.  He rebukes the church, even giving a list of sins, that if someone participates in these things and claims to be a believer, then have nothing to do with him.  Don’t even eat with them.

But you don’t shun or judge the world in the same way.  “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore ‘put away from yourselves the evil person.’”

To be clear, the only people Christians are supposed to judge or condemn are those that have claimed to be disciples of Christ.  We don’t have the authority or the directive to judge the world.  That is God’s job.

Even though we will by nature be against things, that isn’t what the world is meant to see from us.  What will convince them we are who we say we are is loving one another as Christ loved us.

This is so opposite of the way most Christians behave that I don’t even know where to begin.

Well, I do … kinda.  I know that it begins with finding a group of believers who truly want to follow God with all of their heart, that seek to love God and love His disciples with daily encouragement, service, leadership, and correction, who live it and broach no compromise in themselves or others who claim the same.  Judgment must begin at the house of God, but we’re usually too busy judging the world to realize we need to start kicking more people out of our churches.

I know, to our modern progressive conscience, it seems like these two ideas are in conflict: to kick people out of churches and to love one another as Christ loved us.  But one won’t really happen without the other.  And if we say we believe the Bible (do we?), maybe its our modern progressive conscience that needs redeemed.

Peace.