A Battle of Wills (September 2012)

Last month we looked at how we can show God as a heartless judge, not because He is but because we sometimes overstep our bounds by putting words in His mouth, or very weakly understanding His purposes in this life. Now we'll turn the magnifying glass on ourselves and think about how our desire to be judges ourselves leads to less-than-impartial behavior.

Christening Culture

The will of God for humankind is not like the will we possess. Because of this, we also find that our human wills within the body of Christ are at war with the wills of others and God, and we strive to come out on top. This battle of wills can cause much damage within the world in general and within the body of Christ specifically.

Many times we push for our opinions or agendas -- our wills -- to be accepted and slap a proverbial "Jesus Sticker" on it. We christen our thoughts as "godly" which leaves those that disagree left with the rather unflattering alternative. We tell others that we're on the side of God, which (if even subconsciously) means that anyone else is, well... not. A popular Christian worship song could mistakenly give rise to this kind of attitude:

"And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us. And if our God is with is, then what could stand against?"

Now, I enjoy Chris Tomlin's music and believe God has used him to draw people to worship God. I also know that his lyrics come from scripture (this particular verse from Romans 8:31) and am thankful for that. But I also know how trickily false beliefs and destructive heresies can creep in when the people of God are away from the altar of God.

In context, Tomlin's song references the truth that our nature once in Christ is that of a conqueror in Christ, one that no power in heaven or on earth can pull us away from the Christ we choose to cling to. The victory is in Christ, the greatness is in almighty God, not in us! God is greater, God is stronger and higher, God is the healer, God is awesome in power -- the focus is there, and we cannot misplace this truth in our minds or hearts.

It is our relationship with Christ that allows us to say "God is for us," not something in and of ourselves. This passage in Romans, and Tomlin's song, is not a catch-all for anything that a follower of Jesus happens to claim, believe, or teach from the pulpit. We are not permitted to say what we will, claim our relationship with Christ gives us that authority, and ignore the scriptures' authority. Nothing can stand against the authority of the Word made flesh. Especially not us.

Sometimes the world rightly stands against the thinly-veiled hatred that we "sanctify" with Jesus' name. It's those times when God's voice sometimes speaks through unbelievers and tells us -- the ones who have endeavored to follow Jesus -- that maybe we're confusing God's will with our own. I'm not talking about the times when followers of Jesus and those who don't follow Him try to excuse sinful behavior and get away with it (though even there, it's not our job to convict until the end of that behavior or remove fellowship). We are to stand for the truth and faithfully proclaim what following Jesus looks like, but not to the extent that we no longer look like Jesus when we do it. Remember, Jesus hung out with the sinners and lambasted the religious elite.

A Will Submitted

What does your will look like? Is it a will submitted to the lordship of Jesus, or something you use to bully scripture and others into a useful form? Sometimes we appear to the watching world like rams angrily butting heads, locking horns and fighting for the preeminent position in the "herd." There is a survival of the fittest mentality that pushes many of us to find our worth and value in being right or stronger or better than someone else.

When the world sees us playing this "game," is it any wonder that they question why God is so confrontational, hateful, and the like? We're nearing the end of the year and I'm hoping that the main theme is starting to latch on now -- people will view God in the same way they view us. And truthfully, this is how it should be since we are called to be Christ's ambassadors! Read what Paul says when instructing us to wake from our sleep and act wisely in these evil times:

Ephesians 5:17-21

 ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

But the only way this will be good for us or for God is if we continue to practice wills that are submitted to Christ. When we are faithful to submit our personal wills to Christ, we will avoid these struggles for superiority that can be so destructive. We will then be able to submit to each other in love, be known for our love as Jesus instructed, and live lives of humility and reverence for Christ.

Judging God (August 2012)

Painting by William Blake: God judging Adam.

The Judge

We are a judgmental people. Not just some of us, but all of us. We are judgmental.

In today's culture, this phrase is often aimed at the "other" among us, those we consider to be different from us (read: wrong). We are right, another is wrong; we are justified, others are condemned; we are forgiven, others damned. This is so intrinsic to our natures that we often do not see the problem as coming from ourselves. We consider ourselves to be the objective ones, the unbiased ones, the fair ones.

And so we consider ourselves to be the judge. We can look at others and make judgement without fear of reprisal because we're doing so from our high ground (moral or otherwise).

The problem is, we can all spot the fakes. We know when someone's trying to hoodwink us, and we developed a high ground of our own. A quaint little patch of earth that leaves us untouched and unsullied by the hypocrites and hateful among us. We are not like them, we are above that behavior, and so we speak authoritatively the trump card of reactive judges: "Don't judge me."

We are all judges of our fellows, every one. We judge which foods we should eat, what friends our children should have, which home and neighborhood it's best to live in, what information is true or false, who builds up and adds something to our life, and what course our life will take. We judge where we think we're headed in life, and (even subconsciously) where others are too. But what does the authoritative word of God say to this?

No one from the east or the west

or from the desert can exalt a man.

But it is God who judges:

He brings one down, he exalts another. (Psalm 75:6-7)

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12)

Why not also judge the One who says in His word that He alone is judge?

The Jury

Unfortunately, we already do judge God. Our history is ripe with it.

What kind of God would let this kind of thing happen?

If God could stop this, why doesn't He? Doesn't this make Him evil or uncaring?

If God is aware of, but can't stop this evil, then He's not worthy of my worship, right?

Why should I worship God if I'm more compassionate than Him? I wouldn't let these things happen!

We sit as the jury, looking at the work of God, and pass judgment on the righteousness or love or justice of God. We ask questions that assume a greater knowledge of actions and outcomes than the Creator who claims to know more than we do (Isaiah 55:9). 

But only one of us can be right. Our statements are mutually exclusive understandings, so we need to admit to ourselves that we have placed ourselves on the jury to judge the sovereign will of Almighty God.

The book of Job in the Hebrew Bible recounts an amazing dialog between Job and his "friends," Job and God, and even the celestial scene of heaven that we are given a glimpse of through the power of the Holy Spirit. There are not many answers that comfort us in this book, but there are more than enough questions that should make us all uneasy about going to God with a view to what He's doing in this life. Listen to these words from God to Job after he has lamented his sufferings and desires to know why:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:

“Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand...

Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this. (Job 38:1-4, 17-18)

The Verdict

Before moving on, take a moment to read those words of God again, and ponder them. Who are we as men and women to question this great God when we are surprised by the actions of others, the "Murphy's Law" moments that throw us for a loop, and even how our own words and behaviors seem to bring consequences we were unaware of before?

Who are we to shake our fists at God and say, "How dare you?!"

Just like Job, the understanding we have of evil and pain in the world isn’t so much objective and all-seeing as it is circumstantial and limited. We call God uncaring for the things we see as wrong, and judge Him because they happen.

We cast a verdict in favor of what little we know without much concern for the much larger field of things we do not know. When we see God in this way, we claim the superior high ground, as God Himself says, "without knowledge."

So here's my assertion, my theory, for this article: if others view God the way we, as Christians, portray Him to others, we cannot overstep our bounds when answering questions about God's justice in this world. When we are asked difficult questions by hurting, angry, apathetic, or curious people, we do more harm than good by speaking for God when God has not spoken. When we claim the ideological high ground that stifles conversation, we do not draw people to Jesus so much as delineate (at least in our own minds) who is "in" or "out," a service we are supremely unqualified to provide in the first place.

Do not compromise the authority of God's word. Do not compromise the truth of Jesus Christ. Do not deny the power of the Holy Spirit. And do not mistakenly believe that we must feign the right answers to all of life's questions before we have them.

The Standard (July 2012)

I have a confession to make, and I would appreciate you stifling your laughter or judgment until you've heard me out... (deep breath)

I kinda dig 80's hair bands. As you can tell - even if you've never heard that term or their music - it's not just a clever name. If you can get past the crazy get-ups and hair that single-handedly upheld the perming products industry in the 70's and 80's, some of the stuff they put out, musically-speaking, isn't half bad. Not all of them, mind you, and certainly not all of their songs, but some of them really jazz me up, you know?

In fact, I'd be willing to wager that some of you would be willing to say the same thing, even though your minds have likely suppressed what it means to "like" an 80's hair band (after all, what if your friends found out?!?). If you know what livin' on the edge is like, if you've ever been hot for teacher, or thought that - for lack of something else better to do - you might as well just jump, then you might be into at least some classic hair band jams. Let's run a simple test in the vein of Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck" jokes, okay?

You Might Be Into Hair Band Music If...

... you've ever gotten ready for a date while blasting some "Pour some sugar on me" (Def Leppard);
... you can't hear someone say just two words - Paradise City - without busting into your personal homage to Guns N' Roses;
... you've ever walked into a public bathroom, smelled smoke, and sung "smokin' in the boys room" (to yourself or [bonus points if] out loud) by Motley Crue;
... you consider "every rose has it's thorn" to be a deep and poignant philosophical statement, and you might have even forgotten it was first sung by Poison;
... if you know the immediate response to "I wanna rock and roll all night;"
... if you've ever started something new in life by singing, "here I go again on my own - going down the only road I've ever known;"

Now, I put that not just for a stroll down memory lane, or to start a debate on whether rock music can, or cannot, be sanctified, but to set up this month's topic of standards. Some rock is certainly not profitable or edifying in any sense, just as some Christian-labeled music can be more about the artist singing than the God they're asking to pour out blessings.

One of my favorite bands - ever since I started listening to Christian music (some of which is still WAY below my standard of quality, but that's a-whole-nother post) as a kid - is Petra. To this day, when we sing "Salvation Belongs To Our God" in my smaller, rural church, I want to tenor-scream and rock that tremulous vibrato like John Schlitt did at the first Christian rock concert I ever attended in Houston, Texas. Just to be clear, I know the whole congregation is thankful that I don't. For right now, though, I want to focus on their song, "The Battle Belongs To The Lord," and the following lyrics in particular:

The power of darkness comes in like a flood.
The battle belongs to the Lord.
Let's raise up the standard, the power of His blood.
The battle belongs to the Lord.

We sing glory and honor, power and strength to the Lord (2x)

 

What Is Our Standard?

If the standard we are to live by is the power of Christ's blood, then what are we saying about God when we claim to regulate the style, timeline, and manner by which another moves from a worldly life to a life of God-honoring holiness? Said another way, what are we trying to do when we put time frames and stipulations on another's process of sanctification? Do we believe it to be a process at all? And what does our action or speech say to others about the ways of God in another's sanctification? Think about Paul's words here:

1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. ... 7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’" 12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. ... 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Paul is clearly talking about eating and drinking here, the distinction between the sacred and profane, but we must ask where we put the focus in this passage. Is Paul primarily focusing on the prohibition of something, or on the preeminence of Christ in one's life? Is it on prohibition of sin, or progression of faith? What is the goal, for Paul? It might be easier to ask a question - where every word is important - to then draw out our conclusions from: did Jesus die primarily to keep us from sinning? Think about that for a minute, then read on...

Raise Up The Right Standard

My assertion here is that we've actually changed the standard for those coming "behind" us. Whether purposefully or inadvertently, Christians can sometimes convey that God's standard for progress is remarkably similar to our own. Others should progress on the road of sanctification at our rate of progression (if not faster) or we need to coax them along so they don't derail. Those of us born in the church have acquired much head knowledge about the progress and we still stumble. What does that tell us? Sometimes a quick and zealous conversion/change experience can leave little room for others whose response to the Spirit of God is slower, resistant, or just unsure. For such people, Christians can graciously respond with patience and love or convey messages those new to faith in Jesus may find hard to take...

• you need to do ______ or you're not really saved.
• since I got this from the Bible, if you don't agree with me on this, you're wrong.
• the starting point is you've got to believe everything in your Bible, the way I believe everything in my Bible, to be saved.
• these political stances prove whether or not you're actually a follower of Jesus.
• you've had enough time to get your sin of ________ under control, so now I've got to step in and handle things.
• if you really loved God you wouldn't be doing ________ anymore.
• I'm not judging, just inspecting your fruit, so if you know the Bible says _________ and you're still _________, then I've got to call you out on this.

... and this is wrong.

We are all involved in the same "game," if you will, and with different levels of skill sets, experience, and motivation. Did you ever play team sports? You know that guy who was so gung-ho he practically sweated Gatorade? Or the girl with such a competitive edge she blew her nose and Wheaties came out? Then there were people who were the backbone of the team, who served as go-betweens for the play-makers, and who simply wanted something to do with their free time? We knew these things clearly as we played. Some rose as leaders, some just wanted to be leaders but weren't equipped, some had the ability to lead but didn't want to, and the list goes on...

The Church is much the same way. The Body is composed of people, just like a team, and everyone has a role. Paul tells us they're all important, and yet we still try to tell eyes to be a better ear, or knees to stop being so flexible and be a femur, for Pete's sake! Do you get the analogy?

We can know the Word (as much as the Spirit's enabled us to know at this stage in our faith, at least), we can know Jesus personally, and we can know all the struggles, temptations, heartaches, and life circumstances that have brought us to where we are now, but we can't know those things about others unless we are let into their world. With different levels of intimacy with another, there are different levels of confrontation.

Let us not confuse the levels and overstep our bounds. When we set ourselves up as the arbiters of another’s struggle between [Point A] life without God and [Point B] life in God we're not doing anyone any favors - least of all, God. Treat others graciously, run after Jesus faithfully, and let love keep us in the boundaries of right relationship with each other. For all else, we must trust that the Holy Spirit knows what He's doing... even if it's unclear to us!

And just for fun, here's one of their greats for you to rock along to - be blessed!!

WE ARE WORKS IN PROGRESS

The Role of Doubters (June 2012)

       

Is Doubting Okay...?

No doubt (pun intended) people have come across this dilemma when approaching the Church of Jesus Christ. How many have walked into a local church with honest questions from a place of pain, confusion, or just curiosity and found not a haven for rest and earnest seeking but something more akin to the Spanish Inquisition? 

"Why don't you believe? Don't you know what's on the line? If you're not willing to believe what the Bible says first, then what makes you think I can help you? Do you know without Jesus you're condemned to hell?" 

I shudder to think of it. We might sooner find how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. The message non-followers of Jesus get from arguably well-meaning Christians is that the Church is not a place for doubting. One article asks if "the church welcomes dialogue in the first place," and we would do well to ask this of ourselves. We think of James 1:6-8 - But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. - as a scathing rebuke to all who are unsure. But where does the end of doubting come from, if not at the intersection of faith and doubt (Mark 9:17-24)?

Whether it's the disciple of Jesus named Thomas who became known not for his willingness to die with Jesus (Jn. 11:16) but for his reserved nature toward news of Jesus' resurrection, or a youth named Samuel, class of 2012, who is ostracized in his local church congregation because he doesn't automatically believe everything the Bible says, carte blanche, we know that doubt can have far reaching effects on a person, and on a congregation. It's happened far before the life of Thomas and it'll continue to happen far after Samuel. 

The point is this: doubt isn't going away. And it's not so easy to sweep it under the rug by always throwing a scripture passage at it, or the person who confesses her own. We must be willing to acknowledge what these behaviors do to those who do not understand what we believe (or why) and - on top of this - meet our animosity. Consider the following points as a place to start in practicing compassion for those with doubts:

1. Remember your own questions on faith and God :: A great deterrent from judging another's difficulties in the faith is remembering your own. Far from being a blight on an otherwise righteous record, your journeys through doubt and emerging on the other side stand as a testimony to God's goodness and the process of growth in the faith (i.e. sanctification). 
2. Give others the benefit of a doubt :: Everyone has a story that got them to where they are. Care enough about others to dig deeper, invest in their lives, and find out where their questions are coming from: are they efforts to dismantle your faith or make some sense out of their own life? If we're not willing to hear the story and join with them in solidarity, we have no right to question the heart behind their questions.
3. Separate their doubts from your reactions to their doubt :: We can tend to make another's questions about faith/life/God/etc. more about us if we are uncomfortable with doubt. When someone we're close to has doubts this can raise doubts of our own, which feels like an attack on our beliefs. Being defensive, unfortunately, clouds the problematic issue that caused the doubt in the first place and replaces it with interpersonal conflict.
4. Doubt does not have to equal rejection of our faith :: We must resist the tendency to equate our questions and struggles with turning our back on God. Mustard seeds of faith is all God requires to give increase, and only God can distinguish what in us is faithfully open to learning and antagonistically opposed to it. Ignoring or dismissing doubts can affect swifter falls from the faith than asking the questions in the first place. 
5. Doubt that asks questions fosters growth :: There is a kind of doubt that only seeks to dismantle and destroy by attacking - this is harmful because it's based on a hatred of something else, that which the doubt attacks. But doubt rooted in love seeks truth and to understand, seeks reason, and pushes the seeker to learn and grow as a person. Doubt in faith matters is no different. Faith that cannot stand up to questions is likely not worth having (see Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory A. Boyd).

The Church, above any other "institution," should be known immediately as a place where it's safe to come and ask questions - and not just of the leadership but of the people in the pews (or seats, if the alliteration doesn't describe your meetings). If we do not hold up the light and allow people the opportunity to come to the Light who is Jesus - barring instead the gates to preserve the righteousness of our supposedly hallowed walls - then there is nowhere else for the world to go but back into the darkness. And people will go there, and they will thrive, because people are resilient. But when they look back at the beacons who claim to have the welcoming God who loves all, they might not see the truth of Jesus. They might not see the subtext of our own struggles we don't share. They might not even see the point in wading through the unwelcoming waters of our sanctuaries to our more casual fellowship halls where someone might be able to answer their questions. They'll see the light we've shown them for what it is.

"God's not there. If God is love, and they represent God, then someone overthrew the real leadership. They didn't even want to see me when they learned I had questions."