Perception Is Key (December 2012)

The Problem
Watch this brief "street-interview" style video to see what some are saying about God and Jesus:




There are a couple problems with this video. One, people have these views of God/Jesus (nothing new) that are largely based on personal study, personal experience, or personal opinion. The obvious issue is how we, as believers, can deal with entire lifetimes of such barriers to belief. Two, people can continue on in such beliefs if their time spent with believers are largely confirmations of their doubts and hurts.

The video shares three or four verses that - in and of themselves - offer very little in the way of being confronted with the living God. In other words, it's either not evangelistic in aim or does a poor job in the execution. But I don't think that was the purpose of the video in the first place. I think this video is for believers.

We are being called to recognize the reality of people of various minds, talents, and life situations who are still in desperate need of Jesus! And what others perceive in us is - fairly or unfairly - attributed to God as well. The problem is that God judges and loves completely at all times, while our judgments can seem remarkably devoid of the love we were told to be known by.

The Work 
God has given us the work of lovingly bringing the truth of salvation through Jesus (which is different from 'saving people' as though it's us doing anything) to a hurting and desperately broken world. Where God's people do not act, Satan laughs and celebrates the ease of his own work. All he has to do, then, is let them live life their own way, in the way that seems most natural to them, and his work succeeds. Jesus doesn't describe himself as a shepherd for nothing. Sheep (singular) are not a flock if they are alone. And when they are alone they are vulnerable and prone to go their own direction. How often do we hear the prize of individuality touted as a great trait? Well, for sheep it's an invitation to be a predator's prey.

The truth - God's truth - is that individuality's unforeseen end, for those who walk in it, is closer to amputation. We should be a body, and anybody who loves their own body is seeking to improve it with the help and encouragement of others. This is God's design. For us to be united (one, as God the Son and God the Father and God the Spirit are one) and grow up into the head of our body, even Jesus.

Think about when you first applied for your job. Were you required to learn the in's and out's of the work you were to do before they set you loose to do the work? Were you hired and then you only returned to your place of work on payday? These questions are obviously ridiculous - as they should be - because when we applied for work, we knew we would be required to work. And our knowledge about the work we're paid to do when we were hired is less than what we will possess ten years down the road. If it were less ten years later, we'd be out looking for another job. We can be thankful God does not treat us as any employer would!

How, then, have we so divorced our responsibilities as believers from the gracious gift of salvation?

America's couches, I'm sure, are full of bodies that purchased exercise equipment for their home with great plans to work out. But possessing the cures to laziness are not the same as using them. A chin up bar that stays in the box won't fight a flabby bicep. In the same way, having a Bible in your house (most American homes have an average of three Bibles) does not imbue you with holiness or affect the work of sanctification. And neither does simply going to church once a week, or month, or year.

We are called to pursue maturity, not sit back and hope that maturity happens naturally. Yes, God calls and guides us in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. But we cannot cherry-pick scripture out of context to remove all responsibility from us. Saying that God does not need us to pursue righteousness is at best a hyper-religious (sounding) platitude and at worst an ignoring of the fuller testimony of scripture. Our effort here isn't about earning God's love or approval, but responding to them. We are held accountable for our chosen direction.

Thankfully, our failures in this regard are not the end of us. 

The Solution 
Ultimately, the solution to these problems is not us - our reasoning, our persuasion, our presentation - at all. The solution is the historically missional move of God through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit!

That's the good news!

God's heaven (and, conversely, the sobering population of hell) does not rest with us at all but with the sovereignty of our gracious God. The also-good news is that God most often accomplishes this work through us, His people, who are called by His name and so-named for His glory (not our own).

This good news, this gospel, is not cheap or ineffective in our salvation. If we are truly saved by God, we are in a process of change, of transformation, of regeneration and sanctification.

What I'm getting at is this: sleeping with your head on your Bible is more likely to make the book oily and give you a crick in the neck than it is to make you holy or knowledgeable about God through Christ. We cannot confront the myths about God and about Jesus if we do not know God and Jesus ourselves.

We have a responsibility to learn about the God we claim to follow and the Jesus whose name we wear. Just as we should not act like we can "save" anyone (and we should remove such phrases from our Christian vocabularies, since words spoken eventually steer opinions), we would do well to admit that we have fallen from the bus of spiritual growth. Or walked off.

This is not about 'legalism,' so do not be scared into a corner of apathy or inaction by those who cleverly aim such words at you.

This is not about earning your salvation, which we would all know if we knew our Bibles as much as we could.

This is about signing up for Christianity with wisdom, and knowing what we're getting into.

Use this next year to bathe in God's word and do the work. Become the person God sees in you and designed you to be. You have work to do. Don't be apathetic or lazy with your faith. The way others see God depends on it!

The Sight & Blindness of Maturity (March 2013)

Marshall mentioned on Sunday that there are passages of scripture he knows now that he can’t recall ever having learned. He’s just always known them. I’m sure we could all say this in some area of our lives. What did you think of passages like the genealogies of Genesis 5--specifically, the ages of everyone in it--when you were younger (in age or in the faith)? Since these people had “other sons and daughters,” we can assume they were living for a long time as well. That means that a lot of people back then were living a lot longer than even the really old people we know of today.

Such lifespans read like mythology to us today, don’t they? The only reason these ages were difficult for me, though, was because the ages are so far afield of my experience. People just don’t live that long now. I think of how people look now when they’re in their nineties, and for a 900 year old there is an image of the Nazi general in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade after he drinks from the wrong “holy grail.” He withers, becomes skin and bones, and then dust. We would have to think something like that, if things were still the same. Ultimately, that’s why we find such things difficult to take today. We know that doesn’t happen today so we assume it didn’t happen back then either. There is no one around from back then to prove us wrong, or to prove that people did live that long. Why should we believe God allowed something different back then, just because He says so, when we can believe things have always been the same as now? 

Mainly because they’re not, and as a more mature believer I’ve come to realize that. God has never changed, but His creation has, and the way He has governed all that exists has also changed (most markedly in Genesis). The full testimony of scripture describes for us the way things were, where God’s truth was put down based on a specific situation (that nevertheless applies in numerous others). Cultural situations not explicitly mentioned in scripture (like doing drugs, internet bullying, or how believers should drive) do not get a Mulligan in terms of following the clear teaching of scripture on our behavior. But it does take time to come to those realizations. It takes time to transfer our head knowledge to heart and soul knowledge, from subjective opinion to objective truth. There are no shortcuts.

The same is true of parenting. Since I work outside the home I don’t get to experience a full day of taking care of the children often. When I do, some things are effortless while others make me consider the going rate for giving a kid up for adoption in SoCal. I also notice the further a parent gets from that experience with their own kids, the less likely they are to be compassionate with mothers who are in the trenches right then. They know you get through it, they know you grow, they know the bad memories fade, and so they try to rush a new parent past the difficulty rather than join her in the midst of it. That would be messy, and it could be uncomfortable, but it’s what Jesus would have done. 

I recently watched the kids all day so Rebeca could get away. I found myself running the gamut of emotions: the joy of playing with Jace, of watching Charis smile and coo, the frustration of telling Jace ‘no’ to the same thing for the 1,000th time, or that Charis’ crying isn’t helping her get to sleep. I don’t remember these times in my life and my patience as I watch my own children go through them is disappointing. I’m selfish. I want them to hurry up, I want more freedom, and I want... well, I want to enjoy these stages when I want to, and ignore them when I don’t. How’s that for honesty? But when I catch myself--when I interact with my kids, or the neighborhood kids, and see their childish way of relating and bragging and playing--I know all they experience is part of their journey of growing up. We want to rush it, but we can’t. And we also can’t make all their decisions for them. At some point we have to realize--with the heart and soul, not just the head--they’re different and allow them the choices that come with that. Even if they don’t chose what we would.

The life of faith in Jesus, like parenting, is not for the faint of heart. Jesus tells us as much in Luke 14:25-35. He tells us to count the cost, consider if we’re willing to follow through before we commit. We will continue to learn and be transformed as we go, but we should not jump in foolishly without first determining our resolve. In fact, it is this process of being sanctified that is an indispensable part of God’s proving Himself to those that trust in Him. It’s personal and it’s real and it’s not for everyone else’s minds or hearts. God’s just that cool, and I believe He does much of what He does solely for the ones prepped to watch Him in awe and give Him glory because of it. If it makes us smile in wonder, and give Him praise as a result, I suspect He’s fine with showing off. But it takes time to get to the place where you’re ready and willing to see it, and that process looks different for every one of us.

Do you remember what it was like to be a child? Do you remember what it was like to be a new Christian? In both cases, do you remember the things you thought about and the way you reasoned in your mind? Provided you’ve been a follower of Jesus now for more than two years (a number arbitrarily arrived at, based on the assumption we need time for our views to mature), how has your understanding of what it means to be a Christian changed? How has your practice as a believer grown or matured? But more importantly: are you willing to allow others the chance and opportunity to grow and mature naturally like you did? This month, strive to be the kind of person that does not force the Spirit’s hand, but is available to be used by Him instead.

The first five people to approach me on Sunday and say they read the article will get a prize. 

Stumbling Block: The Command (January 2013)

Being a part of the Christian subculture comes with it's own stock collection of terms and language that can be confusing to those who are not involved in our cultural group. One such phrase is "do not be a stumbling block" to another person. This year we will look at this idea and how we can grow in Christ, and toward holiness, by taking its full teaching to heart (and to hand).

For January, we will be looking at just one aspect of 1 Corinthians 8:9, where Paul addresses the specific problem of Corinthian believers who are divided on the "rightness" of eating meat that has been using in idol worship. In context, some believers do not have a problem with it because they're not gods at all. In fact, Paul says they are nothing at all (8:4). Other believers, on the other hand, believe that eating that meat is wrong because of its use in pagan worship (maybe this has you thinking of the division surrounding Christian holidays with roots in pagan festivities). With this in mind, Paul says...

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

For January, I want us to all focus on the very general practice of not being a stumbling block to someone else. This could mean different things to different people. Maybe as a student it means doing what your parents or teachers or elders to you to do when they ask you to, without complaining (or at least acknowledge that you heard them and intend to presently, if you're unable to stop what you're doing right away), so they don't feel you're ignoring them. As a parent, maybe it involves being more attentive and understanding toward your children so they don't act out. As an employee or boss, maybe it means treating your coworkers fairly, with wisdom, and (when necessary) being judicious when consequences, and growth-inspiring lessons, are needed. In our random interactions with others, maybe it means being gracious and humble with others -- YES, even when we think they don't deserve it! -- and even allowing ourselves to be wronged rather than add sin to sin.

Whatever the event, I am sure that if you take up this challenge, you will find it more difficult than you thought. You will likely recognize the opportunities to avoid being a stumbling block AFTER the fact! Remember these times. Remember how hard it was. Remember what you thought about different circumstances, and why that mattered to you in the moment. Over the next year we will discuss being a stumbling block from numerous angles and hopefully, in the process, avoid the excesses and guilt-laden living that we've been freed from.

Perception Is Key (December 2012)

"And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

1 John 5:11-13

This month we're finishing our series of looking at how our approach to God affects the way others see God as well. The way we see God affects the way we come to God. The way we come to God affects the way others see God and, therefore, come to Him also. 

I'm featuring a couple of videos this month, by the comedic troupe OneTimeBlind, that deal with approaches to God we can sometimes take.

The first one, to the left, deals with our tendency to give God what we think He might want, without getting to know--from the Source--what He actually wants. Getting to know anyone, even God, takes relationship and work on our part. We, as Christians, must get past our tendency to mold a God after our sentiments and reconnect with the God of scripture, the God that stretches and challenges and molds us.

This next video, to the right, deals with the all-too-common tendency followers of Jesus have to become stagnant and comfortable in our walks. We may say all the right words, play the game with (what we imagine to be) amazing skill, but we don't fool God. Our relationship with Jesus, or lack thereof, speaks for itself. 

If perception is key, then it stands to reason that our perception of God is of the utmost importance. Our mission, as followers of Christ, is to continually submit our thoughts and opinions to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), who is the Word (Jn. 1:14), and be transformed by Him through it (Rom. 12:2).

Dave Swanson, Lakeside Christian Church's worship leader, speaks in his newsletter blog for this month about how worship without love is just noise. Not only that, but this "noise" is actually damaging to our interpersonal relationships and our relationship with God. 

Do people perceive through us a God that loves them? Do they see a God that redeems from the the messes we've made of the lives we've been given?

Our worship of God does not begin when we step through the doors of a church, or a home fellowship meetings, but when we wake up. Each moment we breath is worship because it is time spent in the presence of Almighty God! Is this noticeable to others? Does anyone outside our own head--including God--notice that we are lovers of God and lovers of others? 

If they don't, maybe the problem isn't with them but with us. 

And the question deserves asking: if Jesus really is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, what right do we have to run others off by giving others false perceptions of God? 

If people watch us run after everything else in this world, are we inadvertently obstructing their understanding of the Way? If they watch us dissect the Word to fit our opinions, do we inadvertently distort the Truth and encourage them to do the same? And if we act as though we're dead inside, instead of being enlivened by Love, are we inadvertently blocking the transformative power of real Life?

Or it could be worse. Maybe real Life is not in us.