Keep The Christ In Christians - 7 of 12

CHRIST WAS FILLED WITH HOPE & JOY IN THE MIDST OF A TOXIC CULTURE THAT REJECTED & DISCARDED HIM - HOW?

Faith.

But I think it had a different definition for Him than it does for us. Faith, to Jesus, would have been synonymous with absolute trust & certainty in His Father to the extent that it shaped everything else about Him and brought heaven to earth.  He said crazy things like “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there’ and it will move” (Matthew 17:20)….and “Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.  He will do even greater things…” (John 14:12).  Verses like these have been pulled out of context and used to legitimize all kinds of crazy stuff ever since, but He did indeed say them...and impossible miracles have happened in His Name all throughout history and to this day.  So what did He mean, and what exactly is faith?

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." (Hebrews 11:1-2)

"You were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue in your faith and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News...This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory."  (Colossians 1:21-27 excerpts)

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Faith is complete & unreserved trust that God is 100% real, and that your temporary life on this broken planet is 100% His.  This results in patterning your priorities, language, budget, relationships, associations, future, legacy, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g after Christ’s example...because this world is not your home.  THAT is what a Christian is…literally a “Little Christ.”  Now, God certainly understands that we are imperfect, corrupted beings who make mistakes (aka "sin")...that's basically the whole reason Jesus came in the first place!  But if your definition of what it means to be a Christian is anything less than this type of understanding & commitment to Christ, then I would guess that you may not be one.  I believe that this is why the church-as-we-know-it is dying in America...because collectively we do not have faith.  You may go to church every Sunday & give offerings & try to be a good person & even say you believe in the altruistic nature of Jesus' teachings...but that's just religion, and it doesn't glue you to Jesus in faith.  Belief, REAL belief, always produces compliance.  Check your soul on this, friend.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Yesterday I wrote about persevering through pain & persecution….today I want to talk about the prize.  Not the one that waits for us later, in heaven…which in our timetable hasn’t started yet.  I'm talking about the other one, the Kingdom of Heaven, which started with Jesus and has been rolling along ever since.  The Prize is Him inside of us, like a stream of living water, changing us and the world around us according to His plan.  The confusing, troubling thing about faith, and prize that it activates, is that they are ALWAYS shrouded by crisis...and that throws us off:

"Following God’s voice will always include the element of crisis…because He calls us to walk by faith.  “How you respond to His invitation reveals what you truly believe about God, regardless of what you say.  This major turning point is where many people miss out on experiencing God’s mighty power working through them. If they cannot understand exactly how everything is going to happen, they won’t proceed.  They want to walk with God by sight, not faith…God does not want you merely to believe what He says.  He wants you to obey what He commands…To get from where you are to where God is…requires significant adjustments in your life. To move from your way of thinking or acting to God’s way of thinking or acting will require fundamental adjustments.  You can’t stay where you are and go with God at the same time.” (Henry Blackaby, in 'Experiencing God').  

If we decide that walking-by-faith in this way is simply too difficult and let it go, we also release the prize of the Kingdom that's available to us in this life.  so don't let go...or, rather, let go of other stuff so you can grasp onto The Lord in faith!

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith." (1 John 5:1-4)

Keep The Christ In Christians - 6 of 12

CHRIST PERSEVERED THROUGH SUFFERING, RATHER THAN EXCHANGING IT FOR COMFORT & PLEASURE

I have a love-hate relationship with exercise.  This is one of those areas in which my wife & I are completely different.  She LOVES everything about exercise...thinking about it, doing it, preparing for it, reading about it, teaching it, etc.  It's like her love language.  For me, exercise is a means to another end.  I just want to stay in decent shape...and since I've been in the field of construction, this has taken on an even more important dimension.  This year has been difficult for me physically.  I've gotten hurt a lot, and as a result am having my first bout with atrophy...first of many, I suppose!  

Atrophy is what happens to your muscles when you don't use them enough to maintain their current level of size & strength...your body decides that you must not need all that muscle tissue anymore, so it starts cannibalizing the valuable resources there and diverts them to other areas that need more...or stores it as fat :)  It sucks, doesn't it?  Fighting your way back from atrophy into fitness sucks too!  It's hard, it steals time from my day, takes months to accomplish, and it HURTS!  So why do it?  Because what we gain by being faithful to the process far outweighs the pain of getting there!

There's a lesson in there for us...reminds me of this scripture:

"We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:14-18)

Could it be that the lack of vitality & influence of Jesus' Church in America may be due to the Spiritual Atrophy of His people?

What would spiritual atrophy look like, and what would cause it?  Essentially, if a whole generation of individuals & churches started saying "no" to the ways of Jesus and "yes" to the ways of the world,   in a persistent and self-justifying cycle, this could cause a crisis of spiritual atrophy that would effect His witness in an entire nation.  The good news is that we're the most wealthy & technologically advanced nation in the world...the bad news is that these types of blessing are not meant to be hoarded & treasured as we have done, and collectively the affections of God's people have been diverted toward maintaining these false gods along with the rest of our country with an effort that leaves little time & energy & passion for the things of God.  We're damaging our own souls by lounging in temptation and neglecting spiritual exercise.

Let's take an example from the Apostle Paul:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."  (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

Perseverance means putting up with things that are really uncomfortable for a long time because of the prize that waits at the end.  Jesus and His followers knew that this world was not home, but a place to learn & love & be about our Father’s business.

Here are a couple of parting shots.  Allow them to buffet your spirit and produce the effect desired by The Master:

"All these people [God's faithful servants in the Old Testament] were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16)

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good."  (1 Peter 4:12-19)

Keep The Christ In Christians - 5 of 12

JESUS WAS NEITHER LIBERAL NOR CONSERVATIVE...OR WAS HE BOTH?

There are few ways that American Christians are more divided today than in the realm of politics.  I'm not going to touch this polarized hot-topic with a 10-foot pole...not because I don't have opinions or because I'm afraid to pick a side, but because I think the vehement differences of opinion that are causing Christian brothers and sisters to bicker & fight & battle are simply not the point.  I'm not interested in having half of you demonize me because I don't share your opinion about your chosen set of topics.  Personally, I see both truth and corruption on both sides of American politics today, and why shouldn't there be...it's the world!  I call for honesty and respect among all who would claim to follow Jesus...regardless of "what direction our country is going."

Truly, if you look at the historical and Biblical record, it's clear that Jesus was neither purely conservative nor liberal, but appealed to all types of people.  He's a wonderful model for us, I think.  At times He was quite liberal...especially when it came to social issues of His day regarding the honor and treatment of marginalized people.  At other times, He was obviously conservative...upholding the Law of Moses and the Prophets and teaching others that obedience to God's ways was equal to loving Him.

Here are some passages that seem to show two sides of Jesus the Christ:

Jesus The Liberal

"When one of the Pharisees (aka super-religious conservative guy) invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”  “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.  Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50)

Jesus The Conservative

"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”(John 2:13-17)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-19)

In my opinion, we need to hold onto one without releasing the other...and let go of the ridiculous expectation that we're all going to agree about everything.  Living in sincere harmony with others  has nothing to do with what you agree on...it's about respecting each other enough to allow for differences of opinion.  Also, we need to keep the main thing the main thing...

"We have a poor history of staying put on the priorities of the Kingdom of God. Historically the institutional church has often been so wrapped up with the culture it was in that it found it difficult to set aside unjust causes…slavery, both in England and in America…the actions of the WWII German government…becoming identified with a particular political party... And we have been polarized by social issues like the Jesus Movement in the late 60’s, the abortion controversy, homosexuality, etc, etc. Every time the church or part of the church has become issue oriented, we have taken a side step from our main purpose and have often ended up looking obstructionist, plain silly, and mean-spirited." (Taft Mitchell, my favorite super-wise old guy)

Christ wants His People to shine for Him during this time....Some of us need to stop acting like Middle Schoolers with the slander & back-biting & name-calling...allowing for variation in how our faith in Christ is supposed to play itself out in this fallen world and political system that will always be fallen until His return.  We need supportive dialogue with each other, not shameful scandalization of each other!

I'll close with these scriptures:

"Love must be sincere...Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves...Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse...Live in harmony with one another. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord." (Romans 12-excerpts)

“My prayer is not for them [Jesus' disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:20-23)

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JESUS BELIEVED THAT OBEYING GOD'S TRUTH AND LOVING HIS NEIGHBOR WERE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

Flip a coin.  Heads or tails?  It depends on a lot of factors that we're not in control of...and not supposed to be, unless we're trying to cheat the system.  But both sides are there, ever present at both ends of the tiny little cylinder we call a "coin."  We flip coins when we can't figure-out something mentally without making a faux-pas socially.  The coin decides for us, and the two parties agree to abide by the result.  Wouldn't it be great if relationships & decisions in life were that easy?!  There are some correlations here for what it means to follow Jesus.

Some may say that following Jesus is all about studying & knowing God's Word inside & out, concentrating on adhering to His commands every minute of every day and avoiding temptations to sin.  These folks would probably love scriptures like these from Proverbs:

Proverbs 1:7"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 12:1-2
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. Good people obtain favor from the Lord, but he condemns those who devise wicked schemes."

I can almost see the rule-followers nodding their heads and saying "amen" now!  On the opposite extreme would be the those who say that following Jesus is all about loving and serving others...that doctrine and rules are secondary to sincere love that can cover over the sin in us and others.  This group would like these scriptures:

John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Romans 13:8
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law."

Which one is right?  The answer is YES....I think Jesus embodies and teaches a BALANCE OF BOTH, and calls us to be like Him.  In various situations, we need to emphasize one or the other...but always a measure of both.

It seems like most of us tend toward one of the extremes when it comes to how we think & act toward God and others.  Erring on either the side of truth or grace.  An overly pious person may struggle with legalism and find themselves a slave to "sin management"...while a bleeding-heart person may fall into co-dependence and exude a form of "sloppy agape'."

The trouble is, you can't pull grace & truth apart...in Christ, they are inter-dependent and meant to stay together.  "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). When we focus on one at the expense of the other, we misrepresent our Master's character and mission, and muddy the lens through which He is seen by those He seeks to bring into His family.  It is our mission, as Christ-ians (literally "Little Christs") to be His presence in our world.  There will always be forms of persecution against us from those who simply do not believe in Him, but let us repent daily of the ways we obscure their vision of the real Him.

Consider these scriptures:

Romans 13:8-10 (note that I'm restating v.8 to show it's full context!)"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”a and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

James 1:27
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

Ephesians 4:15-16
"SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Keep The Christ In Christians - 3 of 12

JESUS INFLUENCED OTHERS BY SACRIFICE AND SERVICE

I've done a fair amount of research about leadership, and there are a multitude of definitions about what it is.  It's hard to quantify and generalize something intangible when there is such a variety of examples.  That's probably because there's such a variety of humans, with a wide array of backgrounds, passions, and motivations.  The common denominator, in most healthy cases, is that leaders are influential.  They affect the thoughts and behaviors of those they lead.  There are, of course, many unhealthy examples of leadership...involving various expressions of force (manipulation, intimidation, competition, fear, etc.).  Leaders who are admired & respected & followed understand that the purpose of their role has to do with their followers, not themselves.

Nobody understood and modeled this more effectively than the unschooled carpenter from a back-water hick town called Nazareth.  You could say that Jesus "never forgot where He came from"...in more ways that one, I suppose.  He came from a blue collar family, in a little town of no influence. This undoubtedly shaped some of His patterns, and I'm sure it was intentional.  But really, He was the Crown Prince in disguise...identifying with, loving, and sacrificing Himself for His subjects.  Wow, that sounds like a hundred movies & books doesn't it?  It's the Great Narrative that's been plagiarized ever since.

Leaders in our world, both at the time of Jesus as well as today, tend to follow a completely different
paradigm...and it seems to be alive and well among Christians as well.  It is believed by many that leadership is about doing great things, exercising power, and controlling the behavior of others...all for the benefit of the leader or the leader's cause.  Worldly leadership is about creating advantage for self, family & friends, and personal agendas.  Worldly leaders believe that the vision & power & influence God gave them was meant for their own benefit, and hijack it accordingly...but Jesus' opinion is that leadership is about serving others, and that greatness is obtained by personal sacrifice.

These concepts apply to all of us, really.  We may believe in God, but we often act as if everything depended on us.  Like that old phrase "pray as if everything depends on God, and act as if everything depends on you."  I think that's stupid advice.  I think we should act a lot more like God's actually in control...that's the counsel of scripture...we're just to impatient and pigheaded to yield.  Mother Teresa reminds us that we cannot do any great things for God...only small things with great love.

Jesus' entire life demonstrated unyielding faith that His Father was in control of His mission and legacy...and turned the results over to Him.  Man, do I need to hear this!  Do you?  What we need to always remember, and get smacked in the head with when we forget, is that this world is His not ours...and that our mission in this short-life is to build His Kingdom not ours.

Amen.  That takes some pressure off me and refocuses my soul on my Master.  I know what I'm going to do about it....what are you going to do about it?

Luke 22:24-27
"[Jesus' apostles] began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves."

Keep The Christ In Christians - 2 of 12

JESUS WAS MOTIVATED BY LOVE

In this series, I'm making the appeal to followers of Christ to set aside dependences.  For all of us to "lay down our gods" - the attachments that entangle our souls and obscure our vision of Christ and His mission through us here in America.  Yesterday's introduction was scathing.  It was meant to be...not because I like to inflict pain, but because I often need it, and I know you do too.  The jolt causes me to take stock of the direction my thoughts & feelings & behaviors...and call me back to God's ways.  His Word is filled with all kinds of examples of God disciplining His people through leaders who were also on-journey toward Him.

Hebrews 12:5-6, 11
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son...No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Today the tone changes and we begin looking at solutions...at VISION

We get stuck all the time, and God miraculously draws us into His future blessings by giving us visions of hope and new definitions to live by.  He enables us to be what we cannot be.  The best vision of hope, the most perfect model by far, is to look carefully at the character & teachings of Jesus the Christ.  Today, I think it's appropriate to look at His main motivation: LOVE.

In John 3, Jesus was teaching a respected religious leader named Nicodemus.  The prevalent belief of the faithful in those days was that God blessed those who were the most perfect and blameless according to the "Law of Moses"...what we now know as the first 5 books of the Old Testament.  If you ever look carefully through all those hundreds of laws, you'll get an eyeful for sure!  They're not just God's unchanging moral laws, there are also ceremonial/religious laws that pertain specifically to the people of Israel at that time in history before Christ.  There were specific groups of teachers/leaders called the "Pharisees" and "Teachers of the Law" who were totally dedicated to understanding & teaching all the laws, and making sure that everyone else did too.  They were the "moral police" who believed it was their job to tell others everything they did that was wrong and make them follow the rules.  They were the models of society.  They were the ultimate control freaks.  They were also totally misrepresenting God's motives, and they became the primary enemies of Jesus and the chief villains of the Gospels.

Jesus' message of love was totally revolutionary and disruptive to the popular teachings and ways of His culture.  There was a very real belief that God's love and approval was conditional upon peoples' ability to keep all of God's rules...and any lapse in this would bring about judgement.  There were those who accepted the Law but were a bit more flexible and inquisitive...they were essentially squashed under the heavy tide of legalism, and often jettisoned from communities of faith.  Jesus came into sharp controversy with these people:

Matthew 23:13“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

Luke 20:45-47"While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 'Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.'”

Does this sound familiar?  There are Pharisees among us today, aren't there? Are you one? Am I? Is this how we're seen by our society?

Here are some glimpses of the way of love, promoted and modeled by Jesus and His followers:

John 3:16-17"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

Luke 6:27-31“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Romans 5:6-8"At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Now, does all this mean that God's Law, His moral mandates, are unimportant and irrelevant and we should all just skip around loving everything without boundaries?  No.  Jesus didn't do that either, we'll look at that later.  What it does mean is that Jesus, who was God's presence in the world, demonstrated His nature and His motive...put it on display as a model for us to follow.  God is not a demanding tyrant, He's a loving Father.  God is not standing up there glaring at you, waiting for you to screw-up so he can yell at you...He's cheering you on from the sidelines with tears in His eyes.  He remembers all the messes you've made of yourself that He's helped clean up for you.  He's the one who knows your inability to love Him and obey Him perfectly...that's why He willingly paid the penalty for you in order that His perfection can clothe you in majesty you do not deserve.

"God issues an undeserved invitation to undeserving people, and in addition provides the righteousness the invitation demands!" (NIV Commentary)

1 John 3:1"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"

Keep The Christ In Christians - 1 of 12

Dear American Christians:

This is an open letter to all my brothers & sisters in Christ who are also Americans.  I feel compelled to write these words God has given me to share.  We find ourselves conflicted in the midst of a culture war, and battle lines are being drawn between us.  Nationalistic conservatives and liberals alike are staking claim to their perception of Christ's concern for our country, and His plan for our future.  Polarity, like what we are experiencing, is bound to come in this world...but woe to us followers of Christ when we get caught up in it.  We vilify our brothers for the specks in their eyes while we have big sticks in our own!  I'm afraid that we have become quite misguided in our understanding of who Jesus is and what He really wants for all stripes of His followers.  He's not focused on prospering our country; He's calling the hearts of all His people back to following Him, regardless of the direction our country goes.  Worldly powers will come and go, but Christ's testimony through His people will endure as we shine His character & values in the midst of a world that is watching!

The tragic reality is that many of us are so captivated by the offerings of the world around us, we have lost touch with the character of the real, historical, Biblical Christ.  When we look carefully into the scriptures, what we see of Him is so revolutionary to our own cherished ways of thinking & behaving that, in all honesty, we would rather not follow the Jesus of reality.  So we create an avatar of Him in our imagination that blends well with our values and dreams.  We want a Christ who will grant us prosperity in this world, yet the Christ who is actually there beckons us to lay down our lives in this world in order to follow Him.  Even though we attend "Churches" and call ourselves "Christians", many of us are following a false Christ of our own making...while the real one whispers in our ears to come back to Him and His Ways so that He can be revealed through us.  THIS is the travesty of the American Church: We have forgotten our first love, turned our backs on our Master, and have become conflicted & wayward like the early church in Laodicea:

Revelation 3:14-19“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year.  I love the traditions & trees & lights & music & gifts...and the general sense of goodwill it promotes in people.  Yet, as a follower of Christ, it's a bit weird with how Santa Claus and the stressful shopping rush stomps the nativity story about Jesus deeper & deeper into the snow each year.  There's also the indignant voices from within Christendom calling for our society to "Keep Christ In Christmas."  The tide of public opinion has definitely shifted when it comes to keeping the "religious" aspects of Christian holy days out of the public sphere.  There are different sides to this, but regardless of how you see it, I'd like to put forth something totally different....a revolutionary thought that I consider to be the most important thing of all. What if followers of Jesus were less concerned with protecting their treasured man-made traditions, and instead focused attention & energy on keeping Christ In Themselves!  God isn't concerned with outward appearances, He cares about our hearts.

It's a well-documented fact that church attendance & influence has been dramatically dropping for a couple of decades, while people are leaving in disillusioned droves due to the hypocrisy & irrelevance they cannot reconcile with the ways of Jesus and the Early Church they read about in the Bible.  Church leaders & members blame our nation's continuing drift away from the Judeo/Christian values of our past and wage war against culture...fighting the wrong battles while the world rolls their eyes at our duplicity.  In this, we discredit the character & Kingdom of our Namesake in vain attempts to protect our practices & reputations.  In my opinion, the culprit for the Kingdom's decline in America is not "all those Non-Christians" who are diluting the waters...it's us.  

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." (Brennan Manning)  

Look at the polls and look around you, Christians as a whole aren't living appreciably different than anyone else in American culture.  When the people of Jesus no longer look like Jesus, then I say that we have a real problem. We, along with all Americans, are known throughout the world as the most privileged & pampered & pompous people in the world.  What does this look like?  It's revealed in our values...values spring from our true beliefs....beliefs are born from what we put our faith & hope in.  In a very real sense, although we're not physically bowing down to physical idols, we Americans absolutely worship false gods...and those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ are scarcely different:

Wealth (greed)
Freedom (independence/choice)
Popularity/acceptance/approval
Sex/romance (lust)
Pleasure ("God wants me to be happy, so...")
Self/narcissism (pride)
Comfort/laziness (sloth)
Reputation/fame (power/influence)
Rebellion (that which is forbidden)
Fulfillment (gluttony)
More (envy)
Control/precision
Adventure/experiences (hobbies, sports)

False hopes come from believing lies, and we have swallowed the hook-line-sinker of the world's corrupted values with one side of our mouths and prayed that Jesus will bless us and our country with the other.  It's no wonder we are the most depressed & troubled developed nation in the world!  People of Jesus, why are you so downcast? Put your hope in God!

I was thinking about the "12 Days Of Christmas", one of my favorite Christmas songs; and felt compelled by the Spirit to write "12 Ways Of Christ" between now and the holiday that bears His Name.  All of this may piss you off....or it may cause you to step back and take an honest look in the mirror...that's what I'm doing too.  This is a 12-part blog intended to shine light on errors of thought & practice we get entangled with in our journeys with Christ..and call us back to Him.  Here are a few Biblical voices to consider:

James 4:4-10 (excerpts)
"You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor."

Amos 5:21-24“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies…I will not accept your offerings..Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”

1 Peter 2:11-16"Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles [in this world], to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us...For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves."

Matthew 5:13-16"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

More tomorrow...