This will be a blog which is not derived from a sermon, but may very well one day become something I preach. Consider it more of a soap box.
Recent events have helped me to realize why many people reject Jeuss because of what has become of the message of many churches. We have taken the simple doctrine of Christ and gone all Pharisee on it.
In more intelligent terms: The past few centuries we have devoted our efforts to finding the "perfect" doctrine. In the place of disciple and the true ministry of bringing the love of Christ to the masses we have taken to arguing over who is more "right."
But wait: the ripple effect gets worse.
Not only have we wasted a great deal of time which could have used loving people squabbling over low priority items, we have taken it another step too far. We now call shaming people "evangelism." We think we can scare them into the arms of God. We use every verse we can to twist our message to make it sound like truth.
The fact of the matter is that we find it more important to point out the wrongs of people than to tell them that God loves them. We are afraid to admit the truth that God loves them so deeply that His love is unaffected by our actions.
When I first became a Christian, the kind of doctrine which I was initially introduced to was very conservative and dogmatic. Please do not misunderstand me, these were beautiful, loving people. To this day I adore them. As a result of this being the circumstance I found myself in as a young Christian, I held to these doctrines.
As I grew closer to God however questions began to rise that I did not dare voice to anyone except God in prayer. (Even then they were often never spoken, only thought in passing.)
Does God really hate gay people? If so, is that ok?
How does God feel about guns? (I live in the south.)
The cuss words today were not the cuss words of Christ's time, so what makes them so bad? I mean you call someone a cookie in the right tone of voice and it can sound like a curse.
To be clear: this is NOT an us and them issue. Every single one of us is guilty of getting our rocks off by pointing out the wrong in others. After all, so long as they are more wrong than us we are justified and right.
The sad truth is that this heresy most certainly began because someone felt the need to be righteous and holy so deeply that they made it their personal campaign to spread that message. So now it is more important to "seem" righteous than to actually be righteous. It is more valued to be justified that to actually be free from the bondage of sin. Righteousness has trumped love.
We have forgotten that if we do not have love, then we have nothing.
To bring all of this down to a more personal space.
During college I worked at a local sports bar called Buffalo Wild Wings. At this place I found so many people I fell in love with. Beautiful souls. Many of them did not hold to my beliefs. But I loved them regardless.
Some were gay, all drank (many to excess), some did drugs and I loved them dearly.
Before being saved I was bisexual. To this day I cuss. I drink regularly. My bread cabinet is full of prescription drugs.
For the first time all these questions I had came to have faces. I found my answers in those faces. It's very simple:
Regardless of your social status, opinion on drinking/drugs, and sexuality: God love us. Nothing we ever do will change that. He will always love us as much as He ever has. We are the apple of His eye and His treasure.
It's not up to the Church to decide what anyone's sexuality/amount they drink/if pot is ok, or not. The Church is meant to let everyone know that Gof loves them and Christ came to prove it and changed the world for it.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
God Speaks From Storms
"If you think you're going through hell, keep going." -Winston Churchill
On a cork board in our office at home, we have this quote tacked so that every time we walk in we will see it. It is the constant reminder that all of us, regardless of background, will at some point feel as though we are experiencing "hell on earth." It is also a reminder that regardless of how hellish it may get, we have to keep moving.
Never become stagnant.
The mission Christ has given us as his followers mandates that we keep moving. Even if we stay in one place, we are meant to bloom. We are meant to affect the world around us with the glory of the Lord.
That's the beauty of the Gospel of Christ. That's why I love Him.
God takes broken, messy, damaged people and heals them so that He can use them as a testimony, a showcase of you will, of how good and beautiful our God truly is.
If we look at Job, we see a man who at the beginning and the end of the story is righteous before God. We see, if we only read the first and last of the story, that Job was a man who God blessed plentifully and used to show his goodness through. But what do we miss with the skewed perspective?
We miss the storm. We miss the picture of a man, just like us, who loses everything he holds dear. He lost everything that we today would use to identity him. He loses so much, that now that loss of everything and the following conversation he had with God become his identifiers.
It's shocking at moments to read Job's words when he is in the center of the storm: "“May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it." (Job 3:3-4 NIV)
Talk about depression in the storm! But we sound exactly the same at moments. Let me modernize this for you:
"I wish I'd never been born. I wish I could die. Things couldn't get any worse. My life is over."
Sound familiar?
Then, a real physical storm comes (after over 30 chapters of Job and his friends going back and forth) and God sets the record straight. In short, God takes Job back to size, helping him realize that God is so much greater than the trouble Job had faced. Once Job gets his perspective back, God blesses him and after the storm Job's life is better than it was before.
In Matthew 8 we see Jesus perform more miracles than we can count. Seriously, the writer actually uses the word "many" instead of listing each one. We're talking healing of leaprosy, sickness, casting out of demons and at least two people who were close to death being brought back to the land of the living. After all this we see the picture of a would be follower: one to whom Christ makes it clear that if he wants to follow Christ he has to leave everything behind.
Finally we get to the storm in this story. After all the miracles and the short conversation with the follower, Christ and His disciples get on a boat. Christ goes to sleep. Such a good sleep that when a storm that makes the disciples think they are going to die, Jesus doesn't even wake up.
As I envision this storm I imagine Jesus not so much as wiping the sleep from His eyes as He stands and rebukes the storm. Everything becomes calm. Jesus made it clear to them that with faith there is no reason to fear any storm.
On a cork board in our office at home, we have this quote tacked so that every time we walk in we will see it. It is the constant reminder that all of us, regardless of background, will at some point feel as though we are experiencing "hell on earth." It is also a reminder that regardless of how hellish it may get, we have to keep moving.
Never become stagnant.
The mission Christ has given us as his followers mandates that we keep moving. Even if we stay in one place, we are meant to bloom. We are meant to affect the world around us with the glory of the Lord.
That's the beauty of the Gospel of Christ. That's why I love Him.
God takes broken, messy, damaged people and heals them so that He can use them as a testimony, a showcase of you will, of how good and beautiful our God truly is.
If we look at Job, we see a man who at the beginning and the end of the story is righteous before God. We see, if we only read the first and last of the story, that Job was a man who God blessed plentifully and used to show his goodness through. But what do we miss with the skewed perspective?
We miss the storm. We miss the picture of a man, just like us, who loses everything he holds dear. He lost everything that we today would use to identity him. He loses so much, that now that loss of everything and the following conversation he had with God become his identifiers.
It's shocking at moments to read Job's words when he is in the center of the storm: "“May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it." (Job 3:3-4 NIV)
Talk about depression in the storm! But we sound exactly the same at moments. Let me modernize this for you:
"I wish I'd never been born. I wish I could die. Things couldn't get any worse. My life is over."
Sound familiar?
Then, a real physical storm comes (after over 30 chapters of Job and his friends going back and forth) and God sets the record straight. In short, God takes Job back to size, helping him realize that God is so much greater than the trouble Job had faced. Once Job gets his perspective back, God blesses him and after the storm Job's life is better than it was before.
In Matthew 8 we see Jesus perform more miracles than we can count. Seriously, the writer actually uses the word "many" instead of listing each one. We're talking healing of leaprosy, sickness, casting out of demons and at least two people who were close to death being brought back to the land of the living. After all this we see the picture of a would be follower: one to whom Christ makes it clear that if he wants to follow Christ he has to leave everything behind.
Finally we get to the storm in this story. After all the miracles and the short conversation with the follower, Christ and His disciples get on a boat. Christ goes to sleep. Such a good sleep that when a storm that makes the disciples think they are going to die, Jesus doesn't even wake up.
As I envision this storm I imagine Jesus not so much as wiping the sleep from His eyes as He stands and rebukes the storm. Everything becomes calm. Jesus made it clear to them that with faith there is no reason to fear any storm.
Remember what Joseph said, "What you meant for evil, God has made it good"?
That's what God does through the storms of our lives.
There is no such thing as a pointless storm.
Every trial that we face is a step toward something.
We may no feel like we're moving intentionally. It may feel as though we are being thrown about by life, but it is to propel us to something. Whether it be to a lesson learned or a place we need to go or even a place we need to get away from.
Every storm has its purpose.
Always know, in every storm that God is a refuge and the One who speaks from the storm.
Blessings.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
To Hell With Expectations: The God Who Came as a Servant
When we consider the idea of a Savior what do we think of?
I'm sure the Hebrew people imagined the Lion of Judah, the Jealous God. They imagined a King of Kings, coming to rescue them from oppression under the Roman Empire. A King coming to bring them into a new era where they would never again have to be subject to a third party system. They imagined no more heavy taxes which took over half of their salary. They saw a Jerusalem rising up to be the capital of the world as this new King took the throne.
They never imagined a child born in a food troth in a barn during tax season. They never would have dreamed that their "King" would be beaten, flogged, mocked and ultimately crucified by the Roman Empire they thought he would destroy.
They never thought their Savior would usher in a Kingdom of God where "the first shall be last." They certainly wouldn't have guessed he would tell them "love your enemy" and teach forgiveness like it was going out of style.
It wouldn't have even crossed their mind that their King would be the image of God come as a servant to save them, not from Rome, but from their sins. It would seem impossible to them that the King of Kings would kneel like a servant to wash His disciples feet and tell them that His body would be broken and His blood spilt for them.
And after all that, there's no way He would resurrect Himself and usher in a new covenant of love, forgiveness and the freedom from sin.
So when He came in such fashion, John 1, tells us that they didn't even know Him. In fact, they did not want the sort of King He was.
But God never intended to place the borders of His Kingdom around one specific nation. Instead He opens it to everyone. He welcomes the reject, the broken, the oppressed, the angry, the depressed, the sick, the lame, the poor and every other kind of undesirable this world has ever seen and despised. But why? Why would God make a place at the table of salvation and grace for the "worst of the worst"?
The answer is simple: Love.
The work of Christ (his crucifixion, death and resurrection) opened the door so that when God looks at us He sees what we were always meant to be. The salvation and grace that Christ bestows on us makes us not only the best versions of ourselves, but the best representation of Christ and the very image of God which we were made to reflect.
But wait! He didn't stop there.
The work of Christ was the definitive "God wins" on every principality, spirit of darkness, evil power, etc. So that the "war" we imagine is going on, has already had its' day of bloody ravaging of the innocent. The blood which wins this battle which we live in has already been won.
Now we are left, in partnership with the Holy Spirit, to spread the Gospel of Christ. The gospel that the One and Only King has come, conquered and rallied. So we embark, not on a mission hell-bent on spilling more blood, but on a mission of reconciliation. A mission of bringing the people around us to the altar of God. The altar where the spirits of oppression and injustice are futile. The altar where we leave having laid down burdens and picked up grace.
The moral of the story?
Don't spend so much time planning and building expectations.
Whatever it may be: your calling, ministry, a job or a trial you're going through we must be ready to set aside our own expectations. Because when the Real King came, He was missed due to foolish expectations. While we are busy building up our own expectations, God has already set His plan in motion. This is why I firmly believe that God often times smiles gently and whispers: "To Hell with Expectations" when we try to plan for Him.
I'm sure the Hebrew people imagined the Lion of Judah, the Jealous God. They imagined a King of Kings, coming to rescue them from oppression under the Roman Empire. A King coming to bring them into a new era where they would never again have to be subject to a third party system. They imagined no more heavy taxes which took over half of their salary. They saw a Jerusalem rising up to be the capital of the world as this new King took the throne.
They never imagined a child born in a food troth in a barn during tax season. They never would have dreamed that their "King" would be beaten, flogged, mocked and ultimately crucified by the Roman Empire they thought he would destroy.
They never thought their Savior would usher in a Kingdom of God where "the first shall be last." They certainly wouldn't have guessed he would tell them "love your enemy" and teach forgiveness like it was going out of style.
It wouldn't have even crossed their mind that their King would be the image of God come as a servant to save them, not from Rome, but from their sins. It would seem impossible to them that the King of Kings would kneel like a servant to wash His disciples feet and tell them that His body would be broken and His blood spilt for them.
And after all that, there's no way He would resurrect Himself and usher in a new covenant of love, forgiveness and the freedom from sin.
So when He came in such fashion, John 1, tells us that they didn't even know Him. In fact, they did not want the sort of King He was.
But God never intended to place the borders of His Kingdom around one specific nation. Instead He opens it to everyone. He welcomes the reject, the broken, the oppressed, the angry, the depressed, the sick, the lame, the poor and every other kind of undesirable this world has ever seen and despised. But why? Why would God make a place at the table of salvation and grace for the "worst of the worst"?
The answer is simple: Love.
The work of Christ (his crucifixion, death and resurrection) opened the door so that when God looks at us He sees what we were always meant to be. The salvation and grace that Christ bestows on us makes us not only the best versions of ourselves, but the best representation of Christ and the very image of God which we were made to reflect.
But wait! He didn't stop there.
The work of Christ was the definitive "God wins" on every principality, spirit of darkness, evil power, etc. So that the "war" we imagine is going on, has already had its' day of bloody ravaging of the innocent. The blood which wins this battle which we live in has already been won.
Now we are left, in partnership with the Holy Spirit, to spread the Gospel of Christ. The gospel that the One and Only King has come, conquered and rallied. So we embark, not on a mission hell-bent on spilling more blood, but on a mission of reconciliation. A mission of bringing the people around us to the altar of God. The altar where the spirits of oppression and injustice are futile. The altar where we leave having laid down burdens and picked up grace.
The moral of the story?
Don't spend so much time planning and building expectations.
Whatever it may be: your calling, ministry, a job or a trial you're going through we must be ready to set aside our own expectations. Because when the Real King came, He was missed due to foolish expectations. While we are busy building up our own expectations, God has already set His plan in motion. This is why I firmly believe that God often times smiles gently and whispers: "To Hell with Expectations" when we try to plan for Him.
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