Hammer on Anvil '

There is a growing danger in our society.  It is a falsehood that we are clinging to and treating as fact.  It is the belief that “I was born this way” means the same thing as “I am great how I am” and “My actions are justified.”

On the surface, this seems like a worthwhile ideal to uphold.  After all, each of us is super awesome in our own way.  The “I was born this way” mantra is wonderful when attached to people born with disorders such as Down Syndrome.  It helps to correct the mistaken belief some people hold that children born with disorders are somehow inferior.  Obviously, this is not true.

The danger of “I was born this way” is that it is evolving to include and justify behavior.  We are beginning to accept sinful behavior and write it off as “I was born this way so I don’t need to change.”  If a murderer or rapist were to use this line, we would never accept it.  Why then are we so willing to attach it to other behaviors?

Understand me that I am not attacking any particular behavior; I am attacking a mistaken assumption.  I taught high school debate for several years.  In educational debate, the primary focus is teaching how to form a logical and meaningful argument.  Towards this end, students debate on both sides of an issue.  It is not the issue itself that leads a student to win or lose a debate; it is how well they form and present their arguments.

The “I was born this way” argument, when attached to behavior, represents a mistaken cause and effect.  Cause: I was born this way.  Effect: I have no responsibility to change.

We all have problems.  We all have issues.  Those who rise above the particular issues they were born with represent some of the most inspiring stories our society has to offer.

The time has come for us to remodel “I was born this way.”  Instead of using it to justify our behavior, let’s use it to recognize our inherent imperfection and our responsibility to strive for better.

I was born imperfect, so God and I are working together to make me better.

I was born this way.

Alright, I’m going to warn you up front that this post is going to be a little deep.  Prepare yourself.

Several weeks ago, I posted a question on my Facebook page that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.  The question was this: Can tough love and unconditional love co-exist or are they mutually exclusive?

The consensus was that they can and do co-exist.  A common example was the relationship between parents and their children.  A mother can love her children no matter what they do and still show them tough love in order to correct bad behavior.  In fact, the two types of love are entwined because the mother would not bother being hard on her children if she did not want the best for them.

This makes total sense to me, but I still felt like there was more at the core of this question, so I played devil’s advocate.  I asked, “If we change how we express love to someone based solely on their choices and/or behavior, isn’t that the definition of conditional?”

The basic response to this was that conditional love is not defined as HOW we love someone, but WHETHER we love them.  A child’s behavior may cause a mother to change how she demonstrates love to him (i.e. she might need to show tough love in order to correct the behavior), but she never stops loving him.

This caused me to think about the perspective of the person who receives tough love.  Wouldn’t they see it as a form of conditional love?  Maybe even as manipulation?  If you have always shown your love to them in a certain way, and then their choices cause you to act differently, it would seem to them that you require them to behave a certain way in order to receive the same level of love.  From their perspective, it might seem that you are imposing your own personal belief system on them.

At this point, I’m departing from the mother and her children comparison.  I’m thinking about two adult friends.  If your best friend started acting differently towards you because he didn’t agree with some choices you’ve been making (because he feels those choices are not in your best interest), would you feel manipulated or would you feel loved?  What if you disagreed with his assessment about whether it was in your best interest?

I think that how we feel about this issue deeply affects our relationship with God.  God also shows both tough love and unconditional love.  When He shows tough love because you have sinned, do you feel loved or manipulated?

I’ve thought about this a lot lately and I think I’ve finally come to a conclusion.  Whether you feel loved or manipulated comes down to one issue – how much you trust the judgment of the person demonstrating tough love.

When we are children, we trust the judgment of our parents.  We don’t always like it, but we trust it.  And when we’re adults, we have to decide whose judgment to trust when our judgment is in conflict with that of our friends or family.

The same is true of our relationship with God.  When our choices conflict with God’s judgment, we have to decide whether to trust ourselves or God.  When we trust ourselves, we see God as a manipulator, offering our withholding love based on our actions.  But when we trust God over ourselves, we see the truth that God loves us the same throughout; He just wants what is best for us and He knows better than we do what the best is.

"Listen to advice and accept correction, and in the end you will be wise." -- Proverbs 19:20

There is one God, you are not God, and you are not perfect.  This statement applies to every human being there has ever been and there ever will be (Jesus Christ being the only exception).

Since God is God and He created everything, He knows what is best for us way better than we know what is best for ourselves (1).  So a long time ago, God gave us a bunch of rules to help us out.  It is called the Law and the most well known portion of it is the Ten Commandments (2).

God loves each of us a lot (and I mean a WHOLE LOT) and so He showed us how we could enter Heaven by giving us the law.  But the problem is this; we don’t follow it – not a single one of us (3).  And when we break even one law, we break all of it (4).

I know what you’re probably thinking: “I’ve been a basically good person, so won’t I get into Heaven anyways?”

That is a common myth that people believe.  The problem is that when you say that, you are allowing yourself to define “good”.  But let’s take a moment to honestly look at ourselves using God’s definition, the Ten Commandments.

Have you ever told a lie?  Even a small one?  A white lie to make someone feel better?  I know I have.  And if you’re being honest with yourself, you have too.

Well, the ninth commandment is “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (i.e. You shall not lie.).  That’s one down.

Have you ever stolen anything?  Even something of very little value or even no value?  I stole some candy from a store when I was a little kid.

The eighth commandment is “You shall not steal.”  That’s two.

So, if you’ve been honest with yourself, you have admitted that you are a lying thief (and we’ve only gone through two of the Ten Commandments) and you have to face God on Judgment Day.  If He judges you by the Ten Commandments, will He find you innocent or guilty?  If He is an honest, fair, and true judge, He will find you guilty.

So you’re sitting in the courtroom, the judge has just found you guilty, and he has set the fine at an amount that you cannot possibly afford.

The Good News

In walks a man you have never met before.  He walks up to you and sets the full amount on the table.  Then He says to you, “Here is your fine.  I have sold my house, my car, and every other possession I own.  I give this to you freely so that you can go free.”

Yep, you guessed it, the man is Jesus Christ.  As I mentioned before, God loves you a lot.  He also knew that you were going to mess up and that you would need help.  And so He sent His only Son to save you (5).

Jesus Christ gave His life so that you could have everlasting life in Heaven.  That is the good news!  All you have to do to receive His great gift is accept it and follow Him.  To use the courtroom analogy, you have to accept the money, place it before the judge, and he will say that you have paid in full.

But whether or not you accept this generous gift is completely up to you.  You cannot pay the fine yourself and no one else can pay it for you.  Jesus Christ is the one and only way (6).

When you face God on judgment day, you will face Him alone.  There will be no one else there to defend you.  When He shows you all of the laws you have broken, there is only one response that will suffice: “Jesus Christ has paid for my sin in full.”

And hey, after you accept this gift and walk out the courtroom door, what do you think you would do?  When the man who sold everything for you approaches, would you brush him off and then keep acting the same way you had before?  No way!  That guy has done so much for you!  You’re going to be grateful and you’re going to want to change.  This will be a sign that you have truly accepted Christ’s gift with your heart and not simply with your words (7).

Obviously there’s a lot more involved with the whole Christian story.  Read the Bible and check it out (8).  Get involved with a local church (9).  And hey, read this blog (no Bible verse for this one; it’s just good advice, haha!).

 

Anywho, something happened a few days ago that gives an interesting insight into the differences between Chinese and American culture (as well as a lesson for us as Christians).  I had just finished a flight lesson and I was giving my student some critiques.  I always make it a point when I do critiques to mention things the student is doing well in addition to areas he needs to improve.  During this particular flight, the student felt that he had performed poorly.  Still, I made sure to mention the good as well as the bad in my critique.  When I finished, he said, “Sir, you always encourage me.  You are too kind.”

 

This reaction surprised me.  Before I became a pilot, I was a high school teacher for five years.  As a teacher, I generally used the same process for critiques – mentioning both the good and the bad.  The American students, though, usually reacted quite differently from my Chinese student.  Instead of being pleasantly surprised that I mentioned things they did well, they lapped up the praise as if it were well-deserved while they were indignant (or indifferent) that I would dare mention any of their possible shortcomings.

 

The difference between the students extends to respect in general.  The Chinese students always call every flight instructor “sir” and they politely open doors for us.  They’ve even brought me bottles of water or Gatorade before some flights.  If an American student did these things, he would likely be shunned as a suck-up.

 

What I’ve learned from observing this behavior in my Chinese students is that humility is powerful.  When my Chinese students treat me with this respect, I feel valued as a teacher and as a person.  There were only a few American students who made me feel valued in that way.

 

What if we, as American Christians, dropped our proud indignation and replaced it with humility?  What if we stopped shouting about our religious freedom and instead demonstrated Christ’s love for our neighbors by helping the poor, the widows, and the orphans?  The people around us would be pleasantly surprised as we showed them how much they are valued.  Instead of seeing us as self-righteous hypocrites, they might start to see us as the keepers of a great truth that they want to know more about.  Think of the impact this would have.

 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” – Philippians 2:3-4

 

There was a movie made in 2005 called Reversal of Fortune in which filmmakers told a homeless man named Ted that they were making a movie on what homeless life was like.  Their true purpose, however, was hidden from Ted.  They placed a briefcase containing $100,000 inside a trash bin that they knew Ted would go through.  When he found the money he was quite excited, as you would expect.

 

What happened next, though, was something you probably would not expect.  Ted quickly got an apartment and bought a $30,000 car.  Then, he took a couple of his friends to the car dealership and bought them expensive cars too.  He wined and dined women, drank, smoked, partied, and in the end found himself right back where he started – broke and homeless.

 

Putting aside the morality of whether or not the filmmakers should have messed with Ted’s life in this way, this film holds an important lesson for all of us when looked at metaphorically.  Everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, has been given a gift worth much more than $100,000 – the gift of life.  The choice we all face, just like the choice that Ted faced, is what to do with this gift.  Do we, like Ted, use it to pursue the American Dream of maximum pleasure for minimal effort, or do we invest in something far greater that will last much longer?  We all know what happens when this gift runs out, and for whatever reason we choose to ignore it.  We try to rationalize our choice to ignore in countless ways, but in the end we face a choice, do we live for today or do we live for tomorrow?

 

Imagine the Eiffel Tower when it was brand new.  Strong and pristine.  But imagine that every day a single woodpecker comes and pecks the tower a single time.  Then he flies away and doesn’t return again until the next day when the cycle repeats.  How long do you think it would take that one woodpecker to bring the Eiffel Tower down?  If he started when you were born, would he be done by the time you died?  It’s unlikely.  Yet even if you took the entire time it would take for the woodpecker to bring the tower down, and even if you waited even longer for the woodpecker to reduce the entire tower to dust, even all of those years, decades, centuries, and millennia would be just a blink of an eye when compared to eternity.

 

Eternity is coming whether we like it or not.  Have you chosen to use your gift to prepare for it or have you chosen to waste it away?  Make no mistake, the choice is there whether or not you act on it.  We will all have to face God when we die and explain that choice.  Are you satisfied with what you’ll have to say?

 

I leave you with this quote from Jesus from Matthew 6:19-21:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it.  If you’re a homosexual, I think you’re a sinner.  The Bible agrees with me.

                                                            

But here’s the thing that often gets overlooked.  If you’re a heterosexual, the Bible also says you’re a sinner.  In fact, you’re also a sinner if you’re a pastor, a nun, a doctor, a factory worker, rich, poor, black, white, or just plain human (see Romans 3:23-24).

I’ll even go one further with another shocking Biblical truth.  No sin is worse than any other (see James 2:10).  What that means is that the priest’s sins separate him from God every bit as much as the gay’s.  I know some of you are ready to go up in arms about whether or not homosexuality is a sin, so let me say this – For the non-believer, it doesn’t matter.  Since we are all sinners, a homosexual would still be a sinner even if he wasn’t gay.

Oh I know, that’s all well and good in theory, but what about in practice?  We Christians don’t exactly treat a homosexual’s sins as equal to our own, do we?  We’re pretty hypocritical in that way.  It doesn’t happen with just homosexuality either.  A few weeks ago, Hannah posted about being “trampled by saints” when she was younger just because she’s quirky.

I think Gandhi hit the nail on the head when he said, “I like your Christ.  I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  He’s right; we’re not.  We fall painfully short, and many of us who claim to be Christians are actually not.  That’s not an exaggeration – many.  Jesus himself said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

The fact is that the gay sinner needs God’s mercy just like everyone else.  Not more, not less.  If you jump out of an airplane, you need a parachute as much as everyone else who jumped out.

But here’s the thing - if you jump out of a plane, you do need a parachute.  No amount of flapping your arms is going to save you.  You can’t save yourself and no one else can save you.  You need a parachute.  In a nutshell, that is the Christian story.

I can picture it almost like a cartoon.  You’re flying along on God’s plane (God is the pilot) when you decide you don’t like God’s rules, so you jump off the plane, not thinking about the consequences.  God is heartbroken because he loves you, so he tells his son to go after you (see John 3:16).  Jesus grabs the only parachute and dives after you without a second thought.  He catches you, hands you the parachute, and then plummets to his death.  (Okay, so it’s not a very happy cartoon.  He ends up rising again, though, so it is all okay in the end.)

Now you have a parachute and a choice.  You can put on the parachute and live to admit to God that you were wrong or you can say “To Hell with Christ’s sacrifice!” and ride your pride all the way to the ground.

That’s the Christian story.  Christians are just humans with parachutes.  We jumped off the plane too.  Some of us with parachutes need to stop pointing fingers with “Holier than Thou” attitudes and some of us who are pointing fingers need to realize that we need to put on our own parachutes (see Matthew 7:3-5 and 2 Corinthians 13:5).  But the fact remains that the gay sinner needs Christ just like the rest of us and that God loves the gay sinner regardless of the actions of those who claim to follow Him.

Battles We Should Be Fighting (For and Against)

1) Hunger (Against)  What would you do if you were given the opportunity to have Jesus Christ as a dinner guest in your home?  Most of us would likely jump at the chance.  We’d scrub every surface, vacuum and mop every floor, set out our finest dinnerware, and prepare a grand meal.  Well guess what?  You’ve got that chance.  Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35).  What, you don’t remember having Jesus as a dinner guest?  He goes on to say, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).  There are opportunities aplenty for fighting this battle.  Need a place to start?  Check out Action Against Hunger and Water.org.

2) Orphans (For)  Imagine if between a half and two-thirds of the United States were orphans.  According to a recent UNICEF report(1), that is the estimated number of orphans in the world today (143 million to 210 million).  Without parents to guide and provide for them, they have a difficult road ahead.  Older orphans are particularly vulnerable, to abuse, suicide, slavery, or becoming child soldiers(2).  James tells us, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (1:27a).  Need a place to start?  Check out Harvest Ministry and OrphanHope International.

3) Widows (For)  This is a battle that is often tragically overlooked.  Losing any loved one is difficult, but losing a spouse is particularly devastating.  In the US, the primary hurdles that widows face are financial hardship and loneliness/grief.  “Statistics on widows age 65 and over show that five years after they were widowed 9.4% were living below the low-income threshold” (3).  Elsewhere in the world, widowed women face even larger hurdles as they are often shunned from society.  One woman from India said of being a widow, “We are considered bad omens.  We are excluded from all auspicious events.”  Another from Nigeria said, “We are treated like animals just because we are widows.”  And a woman from Bangladesh said, “We have no shelter, my children can no longer go to school.” (4).  How can you help?  Start by checking out Widows’ Rights International and Widows Ministry.

4) Poverty (Against) The problem of poverty is difficult to grasp in the US.  We are the richest country in the world.  Does your household make $35,000 a year or more?  You are in the top 4% of wealth in the world.  $50,000 or more?  You’re in the top 1%.  There is often a stigma against the poor that they could get out of poverty if they would just be willing to work, but this is not the case in most instances.  In poor countries, in particular, people often know what they could do to improve their standard of living, but they are unable to do so because they have no money to begin with.  For example, they may know that buying a goat to milk would pay for itself in two months and would then bring sustainable income to be able to send their children to school, but that knowledge does no good if they have no money to buy the goat to begin with, nor any way to even get a loan for the goat.  There are tons of ways you can help.  Two of my favorites are Zidisha and World Concern.

5) Healthy Marriages (For) It is an institution that we claim to value very highly, yet the divorce rates among Christians are just as high as, if not higher than, non-Christians.  We live in a society where feelings are perceived to be all that matter in relationships.  If our feelings towards a spouse change, we should just divorce and start again with fresh feelings with someone else.  But what if we started placing commitment and loyalty above feelings?  In most cases, people do not cut blood relatives out of their lives because of feelings.  How much less so should they be cutting out the one with whom they have been made one flesh?  That’s not to say it’s easy.  It’s hard.   It’s hard to do the right thing.  There will be challenges, hurdles, and difficulties galore.  But the greatest love stories are the ones where two people supported one another through the most difficult circumstances and came out stronger in the end.  If they were worth fighting for to make them your spouse, they’re worth fighting for to keep them your spouse.  One great resource for this is Focus on the Family.

6) Sex Trafficking (Against) Think this just happens in backwater countries halfway across the world?  Wrong.  This is the most prevalent form of slavery today and it’s happening in our own backyard.  In 2005, the Department of Justice reported there have been an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 sex slaves in the US since 2001.  A 2009 study estimated nearly 300,000 youth in the US were at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses.  This involves girls as young as 5 or 6 years old (5).  Need a place to start helping?  In many cases, generating awareness to help local organization is the greatest need.  Also check out the organizations listed at WakePeopleUp.com.

7) Needs in Our Own Backyard  We Christians often get the idea that we have to go somewhere in order to do any good, but there are plenty of “mission” opportunities right in your own backyard.  There are needs that need to be met and people whose lives you could be impacting in a positive way.  You probably won’t have to search very far in order to find an organization that is meeting needs in your community.  There is a fantastic organization in my community called Mission Arlington.  They help low-income families and individuals with food, tutoring, furniture, rental assistance, health, dental, etc.  It’s truly amazing all that they do.  There is also an organization I’m familiar with in Austin, TX called the Karpophereō Project (KP Project for short).  They work with people who once suffered from chronic homelessness.  If you have a backyard and are willing, they will come and plant a garden in your backyard.  Then, they’ll come once or twice a week to tend the garden and harvest the fruit/vegetables.  As the homeowner, you get half of the produce.  The other half is sold at a local farmers market, and the proceeds go to the chronically homeless, which “can help take the financial edge off societal reintroduction.”  These are great organizations, but the thing is, they may not be right for your community.  Take the time to find what needs are in your community and what you can do to help meet them.

The Battle We Should Not Be Fighting

1) Sin in Non-Believers  Far too much of our energy is spent fighting sin in non-believers.  We do this thinking it will actually do some good, but our own Bible tells us otherwise.  If your non-believing brother quits sinning, will it earn him a place in the Kingdom of Heaven?  No.  Will he be any closer to God?  No.  So stop fighting a battle you cannot win.  Our fight against sin in non-believers is a band-aid on a broken bone.  Wouldn’t it be far better if we mended the broken bone?  We can do this by demonstrating Christ’s love by fighting the right battles.  Then we will be the salt and light to the world that Jesus spoke of Matthew 5:13-16 and people will see true value in Christ.

“You are the salt of the earth.   But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.  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” (Matthew 5:13-16).

A book I recently finished (The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan) had a quote that I found particularly interesting: “Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.”  In other words, it takes much less effort to die for something than it does to work a lifetime for that same thing.  (It’s worth noting that this does not discount the courage or valor of one who has faced death for a cause.)

This got me to thinking about applications to our lives as Christians.  Obviously, none of us would want to die for our faith (and in America we don’t face that risk), but if we did, what would happen?  If we are truly saved, death means we are on our way to Heaven where we will face no more pain and we will be in the presence of God Himself.  Talk about lighter than a feather!

So for those of us still here, there is our duty.  And while we’re still here on Earth, we face a metaphorical mountain of challenges.  It isn’t easy and God never said that it would be.  But there is work that we are called to as followers of Christ.

(Tangent.  I don’t like calling our service for God our duty.  This could easily be a post by itself.  To simplify matters, my views on the subject are nicely summarized in Jason Gray’s song “More Like Falling in Love” and were touched on in one of my former posts, “The Myth of Belief.”)

So this is where my BOOM verse comes in.  Remember, “Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.”  When it comes to following God, it takes a commitment beyond a 30-second prayer and going to church on Sunday.  Check out these verses from Isaiah (emphasis mine):

“For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.  They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.  ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?  Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?’

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.  Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.  You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.  Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?  Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?  Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”  -- Isaiah 58:2-9

Wow.  Those are some powerful and convicting words.  I hope they slapped you in the face just like they did for me.

Remember, God isn’t looking for a moment or a day; He’s looking for a lifetime commitment.

Let’s face it, Jesus is a jerk.  Who else would say “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30)?  That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?  At times, he even sounds like a politician with a series of attack ads, calling his opponents a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 12:34), “blind guides” (Matthew 15:14), and “hypocrites” (Luke 13:15).

This hardly fits with the vision of Jesus that most of us have in our minds.  We picture Jesus helping the poor, the widow, and the orphan, feeding the hungry, and healing the sick.  So where is the disconnect?  How does the Jesus who loves everyone coexist with the Jesus who is a jerk?

To answer that, we have to look at who Jesus is talking to when he is being a jerk and who he is talking to when he is displaying love.

In each of the examples of name-calling above, Jesus is speaking with the Pharisees.  They have clearly demonstrated that they love God only through outward appearance and not with their hearts.  When Jesus calls them hypocrites, he isn’t name-calling; he’s stating the truth.  He tells them, ““You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.  What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15).

One of Christ’s biggest pet peeves is when people who claim to follow God do so only with their lips.  With these people, who know the way they should go, but still do not, Jesus is a jerk.  He tells them plainly, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Christ is kinder to the sinners than he is to the saints.  He even says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).  To the sinners, Jesus continually demonstrates love.  He heals the sick (Matthew 15:28, Luke 9:11, Matthew 8:16-17), he feeds the hungry (John 6:1-14), and he extends grace (John 8:1-11).

Christ shows us that he gives the law to the proud and grace to the humble.  Therefore, “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5).  Look into your own heart and make sure that you haven’t simply accepted Jesus as your savior; make sure you have accepted him as your Lord.  If not, you may face him on Judgment Day and find that he isn’t what you expected.  You might think he's a jerk when he tells you plainly "I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoer!" (Matthew 7:23).

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about accountability for churches.  It seems that the only accountability many churches have nowadays is popularity.  If the church is popular, more people come; when more people come, the church gets more money; when the church gets more money, the church can buy more stuff to become more popular and the cycle repeats.

Ugh.  I’m so sick of this cycle where the church only exists to bless the blessed and get more people in the door.  It’s things like this that make the Bible just as radical today as the early days of the church.  The Bible does not support this cycle.  I would love to see accountability to Biblical standards.

There are three particular verses that I have in mind for this accountability (I’m sure there are many more that would also be applicable):

1) “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – Matthew 28:19

2) “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.” – James 1:27

3) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” – John 15:12

The Bible tells us to go and make disciples, to look after orphans and widows, and to love each other.  Here are standards worth living up to.  Here are standards that Christians should feel compelled to hold their churches to.

Unfortunately, the accountability that I’m referring to doesn’t exist…yet.  Churches are accountable to God and to you, its members.  Church leaders will most definitely have to answer to God for skewed priorities on the day of judgment.  But that doesn’t help in fixing our churches in the here and now.

There’s still you, though, and you can make a difference.  How, you ask?  There are a couple of ways.

The most important is also the most difficult; you need to look at the man (or woman) in the mirror and be the change you want to see in the world.  Following God and the Bible isn’t something you can pass on to somebody else, even to your church leadership.  When you stand before God for judgment, you will do so alone, so take responsibility for living out the Bible in your own life.

A second way you can make a difference is by not feeding into the popularity cycle.  Don’t pick the church that is the flavor of the month and don’t pick just because everybody else is going there.  Heck, don’t even pick because you went there and you liked the general feeling and how many people said hello to you.  Do some research.  Get to know the church’s core beliefs and find out if they are actually living those beliefs or just paying lip service to God.  One way to determine a church’s true beliefs is to look at its pocketbook.  Find a copy of the church’s budget and determine what percentage it is spending on outreach, missionaries, supporting orphans and widows, feeding the hungry, and other ways that fit the three verses I mentioned.  For many churches, this percentage is small.  I would argue that the percentage should be 30% - 50% for the churches that are truly living God out loud.

If your church doesn’t meet that criteria, you have a choice to make.  You can either find a new church or you can strive to be a catalyst for change within your church.  Start living out the Bible by looking for (and possibly creating) opportunities to serve others and meet needs.  Draw your like-minded friends from your church into these opportunities.  Start something where you are showing (not simply telling) your church how church should be done.

We don’t have to settle for churches that strive for less than God’s best.  We can find Godly churches and we can be Godly churches.  Do your part in holding our churches accountable.

Adjectives are words that describe something.  A person can be old or young, short or tall, nice or mean, silly or serious, etc.  Objects can be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple, and they can be square, circular, or triangular.

When we look at the adjectives that describe people, we find that many of them are subjective; they only work when the person being described can be compared to other people.  When you call a person tall, you’re not truly saying that they are tall; you are saying that they are tall compared to others.  If they were not taller than others, you would not describe them as tall.  This is the case of many (but not all) of the adjectives that we use to describe ourselves.

There are a few points I want to make with this.

Firstly, God gives everyone gifts and He delights in variety.  If you want to know of several ways that God delights in you, simply compile a list of adjectives about yourself.  Some people are funny, witty, and popular.  Others may be shy, smart, and introverted.  These traits are neither good nor bad.  God uses all of them and He delights in all of them.

Picture a scale with one trait on one end and its opposite on the other end (i.e. short/tall, serious/silly, introverted/extroverted).  God didn’t make us all the same.  That would be boring and we’d probably drive each other crazy.  God took all of those scales and he chose what would make up you – the unique combination that would make you special.

We sometimes look at these traits that God has given us and assign values to them.  Maybe we think it’s better to be tall than short or better to be popular than shy.  But God doesn’t view it that way.  He doesn’t make anything second rate.  To illustrate my point, consider Down Syndrome.  Many people consider Down Syndrome to be some horrible disease, but you know what?  I don’t know that I have ever seen a person with Down Syndrome who was not smiling.  I wish to God that I was that happy.  What a blessing.

My second point is this: since adjectives are used to compare ourselves to others, we need to be cautious that we do not become prideful.  We all have some trait or skill that exceeds other people.  If you want to keep your pride in check, just change who you’re comparing yourself to.  Instead of comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to God.  Now what adjectives can be used to describe you?  Certainly nothing flattering.

Lastly, there are some adjectives that don’t require comparisons.  You can describe a tomato as red without comparing it to a carrot.  When these adjectives are used with people, they describe our shared humanity.  We have all been sad, afraid, worried, and defeated and we have all been happy, courageous, calm, and victorious.  We need to never forget that we are all God’s children.  We are all sinful and need Jesus Christ.

Who knew that there was so much we could learn from a single type of word?

There is an epidemic in this country.  It goes largely unnoticed, although many have tried to increase awareness of it.  Most people, it seems, would rather hear a thousand convincing lies before one inconvenient truth though.

This epidemic has nothing to do with physical health.  It has everything to do with the spiritual reality of the American church.  We are raising entire generations of spiritual teenagers.

Consider the average American church.  On Sundays, adults and children go to Sunday school before joining together for worship.  Sometime during the week, the adults may get together for a Bible study, and the children may get together for a social/Bible event.  About once a month, there is a large social gathering (It probably fits within one of these three P’s: potlucks, parties, and play.).  There is a general push to serve, but mostly only within the church as a greeter, a teacher, or running the sound/lights.  Occasional special collections are taken for the church’s front-line Christians: the missionaries overseas or those meeting needs here in our own backyard.  And once in a blue moon, there is an opportunity for the average church-goer to give back to the community through some kind of service project.

Think I just described your church?  I probably did.  This description fits almost every church I’ve attended since I left the Catholic church after high school (and in most ways, it fits the Catholic church too).

So what’s the problem?  Here it is: The ultimate goal of the average American church is for its’ members to become spiritual teenagers.  Spiritual teenagers study the word and sometimes help teach the word, but, much like physical teenagers, rarely exercise the true duties of adulthood.  Teenagers lack the sense of personal responsibility that requires them to be doers of the word.  They display rebellion against the true authority, God.

“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” – Isaiah 29:13

Imagine a scenario.  Let’s say a man told you he was a pilot.  He knew all of the regulations, airspace, aerodynamics, etc. and he could tell you the detailed specifications of several types of aircraft.  There’s just one problem; He’s never flown (or even been a passenger on) a plane.  Would you call this man a pilot?  By the same logic, would you call a man who studies about Christ but does not live out His commands a Christian?

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” – James 2:26

We have fallen victim to a watered-down theology in which we have been encouraged to make a truce with God when what we truly need is to surrender.

Jesus showed us the example to follow.  What did He do?  He served needs in local communities and He told people about God along the way.  He showed God’s love to people personally.  He submitted to God even when He didn’t want to (Matthew 26:39).

Aren’t you glad Jesus didn’t just spend time with other like-minded people and socialize?  That isn’t God’s ultimate will for His Church.

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.  The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” – C.S. Lewis

It’s time to end the truce.  Surrender.  Embrace the spiritual adulthood that God longs for you to step into.