So here we are ending 2008, ready to start a new year, with a new president, an economy in recession and a nation that seems 'hell-bent' on continuing to throw away the very faith and values that created her and inspired a governmental structure unlike any other on the face of this planet. No, I'm not getting political or disregarding the 'too many to count' horrible things that have been done in the 'name of Christ' as so many like to point out. We all know these things to be true and are reminded of them continually by people whose motives most likely are suspect. So I'm not trying to put lemon juice on a paper cut, but I do think there's a hidden truth that seems to get overlooked by too many Christians feed up and tired of being brow-beaten with the actions of people that none of us knew, and wouldn't have been able to control had we been alive during their times, or present during their sinful actions.
Trying to 'fix' that perception we spend our time trying to change it, but only make it worse. Too many liberal Christians are consumed by the social aspects of the faith (anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-establishment), and too many conservative Christians are way too concerned by the legal aspects of the faith - the rights and the wrongs of everyone's actions. Sadducees and Pharisees, respectively. I would love to say a lot more about these two opposing and all too often counter-productive perspectives, but I don't want to side tract the point I'm wanting to make in this blog.
Just as I believe it to be wrong to be a hyphenated American (Jewish-American, African-American, Italian-American, etc), I believe its wrong to be a hyphenated Christian (liberal, conservative, black, white, etc). Extolling our 'diversity' does not unite us. Celebrating how we are different only makes it harder for us to work together. Instead of seeing the areas where the other side is right, all we do is focus on the other's wrong - the log in our brother's eye. These labels only serve to divide us, and anything that divides us should be rejected - by both sides! As Christians we are called to be Christ followers, not people followers, or cause followers, or racial or gender followers. Is it any wonder we have no clue how to be followers of Christ?
Whether on the left or the right - a Sadducee and a Pharisee, we are all wrapped up in the things that we should be doing. Well, then what is our calling? Anyone? We only have one:
Now understand, I don't blame people for looking for help on how to 'walk the walk', especially when too many churches don't even try to provide good discipleship for new believers. We all want to know HOW to live the Christian life, but our problem is that our motive is really impure - we want it yesterday, we don't want to work for it, or to have to contend for the faith. What we're looking for is the 'quick fix' to get our 'sanctification' (the theological term for our growing and maturing in Christ) the fastest way possible. None of us really want to learn anything the hard way. But the fact is, just because something worked for someone else, doesn't mean that it it will work for you. That's the dirty little secret of the 'Christian living' book empire.
What we're really looking for is a 'formula'. A formula is so much easier to deal with isn't it? I mean, all I have to do is implement the formula, follow the steps, the guidelines and I'm there, right? But have you ever stopped to consider what a formula really is? Isn't it just a form of legalism? I have to follow the rules laid out by the formula, no deviations allowed or the formula fails, right? So what do I do when the formula doesn't work for me? Well, that's easy - I head off to the local Christian bookstore again and find a new formula, right? Unfortunately, we think its much easier to just try to emulate someone else's life experiences by following what they did in their life and making the assumption that it is just as applicable to our own. This is the fatal flaw in all of the 'self-help' Christian living books sold world-wide. And book publishers promote that flaw and we buy into it, lock, stock and barrel.
So, why do we do that? Because down deep inside, we really don't want to do the hard work required to grow in Christ. The people that wrote their books did the hard work required, and we snap it up because we want to take the 'path of least resistance', the easy way out. We just want to apply the book's concepts to our life and magically everything in our life becomes ordered. But it doesn't work that way, does it? We run from book to book, from guru to guru looking for the rules that will finally bring that needed order to our chaos. We want 'legalism' because its easier to handle than meeting with a Holy and loving God who wants to help us deal with the trash in our lives. He shines a bright light on it, and we want it left in the dark.
You see, our growth in Christ - our sanctification - is a slow and life-long process, and the longer you delay the start, the longer you will be in that frustrated spot of wondering why everyone else is growing and you are not. Please, do NOT go buy the latest self-help book; you're wasting your time and your money. Instead, make time for Christ. Sit down with Him, get to know Him, talk to Him and then listen to what He says. The book of Psalms is a great example of doing just that. We will hear His voice when we know how He speaks, and we will know how He speaks by reading His Word (Rom 10:17). And if you are reading it so you can judge some one else - you know, reading the Word to solve everyone else's problems, then you are not really reading the Word at all. Read it for YOU. You cannot control the actions or behaviors of others, so stop trying. Worry about yourself. Make time for God in your life, read your Bible everyday, not because you HAVE to, but because you want to, because you want to learn how to hear His voice and learn about who He is and what He wants for your life. As I've said in previous blogs, all we know about Jesus is contained in Scripture. If you want to find out who God is, then look where He's contained - in the Bible. The Holy Spirit resides inside of you, He will enlighten you, if you will take the time to listen. Don't look in the so-called Gnostic gospels, don't try to find Him in other people's books, go to the source! If you are looking for a formula to apply in your life, don't bother dropping your cash, it most likely won't work and you're out $10.
What you long for is to have a relationship with the eternal Creator of the universe; no one wants religion. God hates religion. I've repeated this before, and I'll repeat it again, "Religion is man's way of making himself acceptable to God. Christianity is God's way of making man acceptable to Himself." You don't have to do anything to earn God's favor. Its not about following steps, its not about following rules, its not about being moral or ethical, its not about passing laws - its not about what you do for Christ. Its about sitting down with Him and getting to know Him, and understanding what He wants for your life and then letting Him guide you and your actions. Stop thinking about everyone else's problems; stop trying to 'fix' them. When you aren't right yourself, you certainly can't fix anyone else. Start realizing that Jesus wants to meet with you right now! If you are willing to put in the time, you will become the person He created you to be. At that point, there still aren't any rules to follow, you just do the right things because you love Him and you want to please Him. You know, the law of Christ written on your heart? I don't have to practice not murdering, I don't want to because I want to please Him, not myself. I don't have to practice not coveting other people's things, my desire is to be like Christ and focusing on the material things of this world doesn't get me there.
I'm going to offend some of you, but you need to hear this - you don't have any rights anymore, you were bought and paid for, some one owns you (1 Cor 7:23). You are either going to belong to satan or belong to Christ - those are your only two choices. Its not about what you want anymore; its not about you. That is why we fail at the Christian walk; we're too concerned about our rights, how others have wronged us, social injustices, society's lack of morality, whatever. If you are wrapped up in these other things, then quite frankly, you haven't been broken yet, you haven't come to the end of yourself, you're still too selfish to follow Christ the way He has called you to; you are still too wrapped up in you. And while that is still going on, we are either living in the past - the person I could have been, or you're a religious Pharisee - following our man-made laws and judging others by our personal 'godly' standards. Isn't that what Mack was doing in the book, The Shack? He had run down every avenue, every path, and at the end of all of that running he was no closer to God. He was ready to chuck the 'faith' and live only for himself, which he was really already doing.
I want to challenge you. Where is the first place you run when you are feeling down, despondent, angry, discontent? Is it the same place you run when you are happy, when you're content? Most likely not, because we have a bad habit of only running to Jesus when we're in trouble. That actually exposes our heart - If I'm really in love with the God of the universe then I'm thankful in all things. Like David, I take my troubles to Him, but thank Him for always being with me in the midst of my trials. If you don't do that, then at least do what Jacob and Mack did - duke it out with Him. That's part of the process of completely surrendering to His will and abandoning your own. That is the secret to the abundant life: complete surrender to Christ, laying down your 'rights' as well as your wrongs. If you want to walk in Christ and be called a friend of God, then get serious about your Christian walk. Quit running from the only thing that works. Practice the presence of God. Pretend He is right next to you - would you say that? Would you do that? If you want counsel on what to do, ask. But whatever you do, figure out if you really want to be owned by the Creator, and if you really don't, then quit pretending and quit ruining the 'name of Christ' for the rest of us that do. We all have do that enough, and don't need your help ....
Trying to 'fix' that perception we spend our time trying to change it, but only make it worse. Too many liberal Christians are consumed by the social aspects of the faith (anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-establishment), and too many conservative Christians are way too concerned by the legal aspects of the faith - the rights and the wrongs of everyone's actions. Sadducees and Pharisees, respectively. I would love to say a lot more about these two opposing and all too often counter-productive perspectives, but I don't want to side tract the point I'm wanting to make in this blog.
Just as I believe it to be wrong to be a hyphenated American (Jewish-American, African-American, Italian-American, etc), I believe its wrong to be a hyphenated Christian (liberal, conservative, black, white, etc). Extolling our 'diversity' does not unite us. Celebrating how we are different only makes it harder for us to work together. Instead of seeing the areas where the other side is right, all we do is focus on the other's wrong - the log in our brother's eye. These labels only serve to divide us, and anything that divides us should be rejected - by both sides! As Christians we are called to be Christ followers, not people followers, or cause followers, or racial or gender followers. Is it any wonder we have no clue how to be followers of Christ?
Whether on the left or the right - a Sadducee and a Pharisee, we are all wrapped up in the things that we should be doing. Well, then what is our calling? Anyone? We only have one:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matt 28:18-20 NAS95)The Great Commission, right? So how do we make disciples if we don't know how to be one ourselves? That is a problem that Christians have been dealing with for 2000 yrs. If you make a disciple, what exactly does that involve? Conversion? Yes, but if you stop there you are not doing what we are called to be doing. (btw - the opposite - only concerned with Christian growth but not sharing your faith is just as wrong.) The rest of it is to help that person to become a 'lover of God' that can make other disciples as well, but for us to do that we must be able to be seen 'living' the Christian life first, and that is where we fail miserably. Why? Because too many of us don't have a clue how to do that ourselves, so how on earth can we help others! We hear all of the Christian cliches, like 'read your Bible and pray everyday', but to read through the Bible takes, like, a whole year, right? I can't wait that long! And praying - what am I supposed to say to God, He already knows everything, right? So, where do I run for help? I first try the church and friends that tell me the same thing I already know but am unwilling to do, because I'm just too impatient to do that. Some one tells me about a great book and how much it helped them, and off I run to the local Christian book store, finding a treasure trove of books on every sort of issue and malady imaginable.
Now understand, I don't blame people for looking for help on how to 'walk the walk', especially when too many churches don't even try to provide good discipleship for new believers. We all want to know HOW to live the Christian life, but our problem is that our motive is really impure - we want it yesterday, we don't want to work for it, or to have to contend for the faith. What we're looking for is the 'quick fix' to get our 'sanctification' (the theological term for our growing and maturing in Christ) the fastest way possible. None of us really want to learn anything the hard way. But the fact is, just because something worked for someone else, doesn't mean that it it will work for you. That's the dirty little secret of the 'Christian living' book empire.
What we're really looking for is a 'formula'. A formula is so much easier to deal with isn't it? I mean, all I have to do is implement the formula, follow the steps, the guidelines and I'm there, right? But have you ever stopped to consider what a formula really is? Isn't it just a form of legalism? I have to follow the rules laid out by the formula, no deviations allowed or the formula fails, right? So what do I do when the formula doesn't work for me? Well, that's easy - I head off to the local Christian bookstore again and find a new formula, right? Unfortunately, we think its much easier to just try to emulate someone else's life experiences by following what they did in their life and making the assumption that it is just as applicable to our own. This is the fatal flaw in all of the 'self-help' Christian living books sold world-wide. And book publishers promote that flaw and we buy into it, lock, stock and barrel.
So, why do we do that? Because down deep inside, we really don't want to do the hard work required to grow in Christ. The people that wrote their books did the hard work required, and we snap it up because we want to take the 'path of least resistance', the easy way out. We just want to apply the book's concepts to our life and magically everything in our life becomes ordered. But it doesn't work that way, does it? We run from book to book, from guru to guru looking for the rules that will finally bring that needed order to our chaos. We want 'legalism' because its easier to handle than meeting with a Holy and loving God who wants to help us deal with the trash in our lives. He shines a bright light on it, and we want it left in the dark.
You see, our growth in Christ - our sanctification - is a slow and life-long process, and the longer you delay the start, the longer you will be in that frustrated spot of wondering why everyone else is growing and you are not. Please, do NOT go buy the latest self-help book; you're wasting your time and your money. Instead, make time for Christ. Sit down with Him, get to know Him, talk to Him and then listen to what He says. The book of Psalms is a great example of doing just that. We will hear His voice when we know how He speaks, and we will know how He speaks by reading His Word (Rom 10:17). And if you are reading it so you can judge some one else - you know, reading the Word to solve everyone else's problems, then you are not really reading the Word at all. Read it for YOU. You cannot control the actions or behaviors of others, so stop trying. Worry about yourself. Make time for God in your life, read your Bible everyday, not because you HAVE to, but because you want to, because you want to learn how to hear His voice and learn about who He is and what He wants for your life. As I've said in previous blogs, all we know about Jesus is contained in Scripture. If you want to find out who God is, then look where He's contained - in the Bible. The Holy Spirit resides inside of you, He will enlighten you, if you will take the time to listen. Don't look in the so-called Gnostic gospels, don't try to find Him in other people's books, go to the source! If you are looking for a formula to apply in your life, don't bother dropping your cash, it most likely won't work and you're out $10.
What you long for is to have a relationship with the eternal Creator of the universe; no one wants religion. God hates religion. I've repeated this before, and I'll repeat it again, "Religion is man's way of making himself acceptable to God. Christianity is God's way of making man acceptable to Himself." You don't have to do anything to earn God's favor. Its not about following steps, its not about following rules, its not about being moral or ethical, its not about passing laws - its not about what you do for Christ. Its about sitting down with Him and getting to know Him, and understanding what He wants for your life and then letting Him guide you and your actions. Stop thinking about everyone else's problems; stop trying to 'fix' them. When you aren't right yourself, you certainly can't fix anyone else. Start realizing that Jesus wants to meet with you right now! If you are willing to put in the time, you will become the person He created you to be. At that point, there still aren't any rules to follow, you just do the right things because you love Him and you want to please Him. You know, the law of Christ written on your heart? I don't have to practice not murdering, I don't want to because I want to please Him, not myself. I don't have to practice not coveting other people's things, my desire is to be like Christ and focusing on the material things of this world doesn't get me there.
I'm going to offend some of you, but you need to hear this - you don't have any rights anymore, you were bought and paid for, some one owns you (1 Cor 7:23). You are either going to belong to satan or belong to Christ - those are your only two choices. Its not about what you want anymore; its not about you. That is why we fail at the Christian walk; we're too concerned about our rights, how others have wronged us, social injustices, society's lack of morality, whatever. If you are wrapped up in these other things, then quite frankly, you haven't been broken yet, you haven't come to the end of yourself, you're still too selfish to follow Christ the way He has called you to; you are still too wrapped up in you. And while that is still going on, we are either living in the past - the person I could have been, or you're a religious Pharisee - following our man-made laws and judging others by our personal 'godly' standards. Isn't that what Mack was doing in the book, The Shack? He had run down every avenue, every path, and at the end of all of that running he was no closer to God. He was ready to chuck the 'faith' and live only for himself, which he was really already doing.
I want to challenge you. Where is the first place you run when you are feeling down, despondent, angry, discontent? Is it the same place you run when you are happy, when you're content? Most likely not, because we have a bad habit of only running to Jesus when we're in trouble. That actually exposes our heart - If I'm really in love with the God of the universe then I'm thankful in all things. Like David, I take my troubles to Him, but thank Him for always being with me in the midst of my trials. If you don't do that, then at least do what Jacob and Mack did - duke it out with Him. That's part of the process of completely surrendering to His will and abandoning your own. That is the secret to the abundant life: complete surrender to Christ, laying down your 'rights' as well as your wrongs. If you want to walk in Christ and be called a friend of God, then get serious about your Christian walk. Quit running from the only thing that works. Practice the presence of God. Pretend He is right next to you - would you say that? Would you do that? If you want counsel on what to do, ask. But whatever you do, figure out if you really want to be owned by the Creator, and if you really don't, then quit pretending and quit ruining the 'name of Christ' for the rest of us that do. We all have do that enough, and don't need your help ....
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. (Php 3:7-12 NAS95)
Comments
Thanks for another provoking post.
You paint a picture of a faith that seems elusive: "Look - here it is!"; "No, it's not there"; "Well, this writer's got it right!"; "No, not there either..." until finally you conclude that it's completely beyond your conceivable reach.
And so it is, until somehow – I don't know how – you just look up with an open heart and find that it's right there, in plain sight, within easy reach, because God has reached to you.
I'm still amazed and frustrated by how often it continues to escape me, and how absolutely certain it is when God returns me to rest in Him.
Be assured that the elusiveness is not on the part of the one who came to seek and save the lost, but on my own part, and the thing that Paul calls the "deceitfulness of sin".
Each time I return to see that His grace is again deeper than I have yet conceived, and it is not my latest setback or disobedience but only my failure to trust Him that has kept me from seeing it.
-author unknown (to me)
Wow. You said it so well.
A professor at my college (at least 2 phd's and an enormous list of accomplishments) said that the more he learns about God, the more he realizes how little he knows.
As we all struggle through this life, what a comfort it is to realize it's not up to us.
It is all about God's amazing grace.
echo "Great Blog!";
?
And you said it best right here. It is about a relationship, not about having a spiritual bellhop in the heavenlies.
"Where is the first place you run when you are feeling down, despondent, angry, discontent? Is it the same place you run when you are happy, when you're content?"
This is the story of many folks. We have put God in a box, preached "how crappy was your week sermons?," and expect people to get out there and cast out demons, heal the sick, preach the Gospel and set the captives free-- all without any substantive training or teaching.
"Because down deep inside, we really don't want to do the hard work required to grow in Christ."
I agree and disagree. I thought that for a long time; as evidenced by my own failures. What I did discover was that the church is practically void of fathering individuals who could make a difference in a converts life at any age. True discipleship is fathering the fatherless.
Once we have disciples that are fathered well, then we can train them to do something of value in the kingdom based on the gifting that they receive from on High. True mentoring is training someone to do our job better than we can do it ourselves. Like Elijah and Elisha.