In the world

In 1991, the United States faced off against Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army for the first time. The actual war was an overwhelming American victory-every contact between American and Iraqi troops was completely one sided. Almost immediately the Iraqi army began to run, retreating from the country that they had invaded (Kuwait) back to their own soil. America was on the edge of victory when the decision was made to stop the war-as soon as the Iraqi army made it back to their home soil, American units stopped their pursuit. Militarily, America had their first overwhelming victory in a major war since World War 2, but that victory did not become reality in Iraq. Most of the elite Republican Guard survived the war, and continued to brutally oppress the people of Iraq until a second, more final invasion in 2003. Because the American army wasn’t allowed to fully claim their victory, Iraq spent anther decade under the control of the only world leader in the 20th century caught using chemical weapons on his own people. Quite the victory.

The conservative Church in North America seems to follow the same logic as the politicians who decided to call off the war in Iraq before the war actually reached Iraq. The same people who boldly declare that Jesus Christ is victorious over the powers of darkness and that we are “more than conquerors” in Him run in fear at the thought of living in our evil world. The same people support their children being missionaries overseas try to shelter them as much as possible from the pagan land in which we live. I’ve seen far too much of it over the last few months, and it has convicted me far more strongly than I’ve ever been convicted before! As such, I figured that I would type up my conviction on the subject, and, seeing as how many of the worst offenders of the Christian double life prefer to use “fire and brimstone” terminology, I figure I might as well be frank as well.

First off, I have to agree-America is becoming a pagan nation. Modern western culture stands in direct opposition to Christ, and I agree that our culture is used by the devil to weaken the Church. This is not because America is any more godless than any nation before her or any nation that shall come after her, it is the way of the world-every culture in human history, bar none, from the beginning of civilization until the end of time, is the product of a fallen and sinful world, and there has never been a civilization that was dedicated to God. America is godless, as was colonial Europe, the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and every other tongue, tribe and nation! As well, America never was a Christian nation, as Christ did not come to establish Christian nations!! His one and only Kingdom is His Church, established in His people-He is not looking for a country! I have heard people sadly say that America is no longer a Christian country-I beg to differ. America was never a Christian country to begin with-it was simply founded by largely Christian leadership, and the loss of Christian nation status that saddens so many Evangelicals is simply the Christian facade being torn off our society so that we can comprehend who we truly are. I agree that our society is getting worse rather than better over time-its called entropy. Everything on this earth gets worse over time rather than better-we live in a fallen, decaying world! No engineer is surprised that a bridge becomes weaker rather than stronger as it ages, and anybody with a knowledge of history can vouch that civilizations do the same thing as bridges-they become weaker, then collapse. Why should the Western world be any different? There has never been a time in human history when Hell hasn’t been extending its presence to earth, and the same holds true for North America today. The Devil’s work can be found in the poor and the homeless, rejected by a society so focused on personal gratification that they would love to make them just go away and stop bothering people. It can be found in lives destroyed by drug addictions, marriages destroyed by lust, pornography and adultery, in children scarred by abuse and babies lost through abortion. Make no mistake-ours is not a safe, Christian society.

The question once we accept the fact that the devil works in our society is how we should respond. The answer runs the gauntlet from Churches that refuse to acknowledge the very existence of sin for fear of offending sinners to groups such as the Amish who have nothing to do with society at all. I believe that there are serious problems with both extremes, but conservative Evangelical Christians have devoted more than enough time to condemning the heresy of the first group, so I figure its time to say something about the latter. I, a Canadian, am a Christian today because Paul, following God’s leading, left Israel and spread the Gospel across the decidedly pagan Roman Empire. This Gospel went all the way to the godless barbarians who inhabited Europe at the time, where it flourished, and was further spread several centuries later by missionaries who were willing to leave the safety of their monasteries to travel to a vast, dark, godless continent, live among a pagan people, and spread their faith to them. In other words, I am saved today due to generations of Christians who determined that their Savior was more powerful than the devil and their faith stronger than the godlessness of the pagans and infidels of the world around them, and who, once equipped for service, left the sanctuary they came from and lived out their faith in lands of complete godlessness. If I will stand in Heaven someday due to the willingness of these people to engage a godless world, it would be nothing less than the work of Satan himself for me to refuse to do the same. If a Christian does not show Christ to a godless world, he may be personally saved, but he will be absolutely worthless to the Kingdom of God, and it is impossible for me to show Christ to a godless world when I refuse to be seen anywhere close to that world! I see 2 very strong problems with any doctrine that attempts to allow for faith to be lived out without actively engaging the world:
1.It isn’t consistent.
Even the most sheltered Christians cannot deny the Great Commission. Near the end of the book of Matthew, Jesus commands His disciples to go out to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. As I said earlier, we can know the Gospel today because of a history of Christians taking this commandment seriously. However, this is more than a call to overseas missions. I find it to be quite interesting when the same people who call for us to be willing to go to the farthest reaches of the world and spread the Gospel to the most barbaric tribes in the world also tell us that we be very careful at school, because we live around non Christians. The same people who speak of the need for us to go and redeem other godless cultures for Christ tell us to stay away from the more “unchristian” parts of our culture, then wonder why our culture seems to be going downhill. We can find common ground with the native mythology of Brazilian tribes to lead them to Christ, but we cant do the same with secular music, movies, or culture to lead people to Christ here. We need missionaries to spread the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him-what a joy it would be if many Churches could commission missionaries to reach the unreached sitting right outside their own front doors! If we could equip and commission missionaries to venture all the way to their neighbours and find some common ground, such as an invitation to a football night, to engage them and spread the gospel to them! Imagine what would happen if the crowds that gather at restaurants after Church Sunday morning would take a quick break from discussing the things of God among each other to actually speak of the Gospel to the waitress standing in front of them taking their order! And what would happen if we took children and teenagers with a strong and living faith and, in addition to sending them on missions trips to Central America and Africa, sent them on a missions trip everyday as students at our public schools and universities! Can you imagine the revival that would sweep the nation?? I’ve heard, and been a part of, so many conversations regarding the pagans who live around us, and it has taken me years to see this, but each time the subject comes up Christ has the same message for us-”Yes, I know that those people are godless! That’s why I brought you here, oh you who have God!” It is stupid, inconsistent and unbiblical for us to think that we are not missionaries setting foot on the mission field God has us in the second that we step outside of our Church doors on Sunday morning.
2.It makes my God seem weak!
At its core, any attempt to shelter my faith from the wicked world around me is based on one subconscious assumption: that engaging the world will weaken my faith. I believe that I can see why some would be worried about this-the result of a sheltered and overly protected faith is a weak faith! Paul lived in a pagan world-every sin imaginable took place in the Roman Empire, and he will have seen the worst of it during lifetime of travel. The reason that he could keep going and face the evil world was not a naive belief that things “weren’t all that bad”, but rather the assurance that Jesus within him was stronger than anything around him. I know that gravity is one of the strongest forces on earth-no matter how hard I jump, I’m bound by it! Yet I truly believe that, when I fly home in a week, the plane that I’m on will defy gravity and soar thousands of feet above the ground. I don’t need to be blissfully ignorant of the nature of gravity to believe in flight, I simply have to believe that lift that a Canadair Regional Jet can produce is greater than the force of gravity that this earth can produce! Any argument that says that a Christian should never go to a secular college because of the high number of Christians who seem to lose their faith during college is based on the unstated assumption that the Lord and Creator of the universe, who declared me mine through His death on the cross and now dwells inside of me, simply isnt capable of winning a fight with a few college professors. The high rate of Christians falling away in our university is a problem, but the solution is making sure that my generation has a real, storm tested relationship with God that can face a secular school rather than a weak, sheltered faith that has never been exposed to the world before. Anybody who says that the solution to the problem is to keep Christians out of university demeans the power of my God.

To clarify, I believe that we do need to be careful with our use of our freedom in Christ, and we need to follow our personal convictions. A personal conviction is something that God lays on each individual’s heart, but that isn’t necessarily a Biblical commandment. For example, the fact that I should not commit adultery is a commandment-it applies to all Christians. However, if God gives me the conviction that guarding myself from lust and adultery means that I cant go to a football game due to the lack of clothing on the cheerleading team, it is a conviction-it would be wrong for me to go to a football game, but there is no Biblical commandment against football games, and another Christian male who doesn’t struggle with cheerleader induced lust could still go the game and be right in God’s eyes, provided that he isn’t convicted about it as well. The problem comes when those who are “strongly convicted” (they cant set foot outside their homes without being barraged by temptation) begin to condemn other Christians for not following their convictions, or try to pass their convictions as Biblical commandments. As well, we must be very careful that we use our freedom in Christ to engage the world for Him and not for ourselves-engaging sinners shouldn’t mean sinning with sinners, and we need to ensure that we remain above reproach when engaging a godless world-it is possible for the light to be dimmed with sin just as easily as it can be hidden inside a Church for safekeeping! Engaging the world without becoming like the world in this manner is extremely difficult-we expose ourselves to greater temptation, and far more complicated moral situations-it is far easier to say “Abortion is murder!!” in a Bible school classroom than to sit down with a pregnant 16 year old who is too frightened to make a rational decision and condemn her for even considering murder. It seems far easier to live out our faith in the safety of the Church, far from the challenges of the world, but any attempt to do so faces one flaw-impossibility. The Great Commission isn’t optional, and it is far too blunt and direct for us to dismiss it as non applicable to our lives. I believe that there is one part of Satan’s world system that is far less mentioned among conservative Christians than all the rest, one too sad, convicting and downright awkward to be discussed much-Satan’s world system can exert the power it has today due to evangelical Christians so terrified and hateful of a non Christian society that they barricade themselves as far from it as they can get, leaving behind a nation unengaged by those Christ sent to engage the world, and, thanks in part to us, at the mercy of the forces of Hell on earth.

Engaging the world means getting rid of our halfhearted idea of missions being the equipping of the chosen few to go overseas among every godless tribe and nation, and choosing instead to equip the entire Church to go out into a godless world-taking mature believers out of their sheltered “Christian society” and sending them to the heart of our universities, our inner cities, the houses next door to us, and everything else that we describe as Satan’s bastions in our world.

Our Calling

Back in the middle of the 20th century, 2 obscure countries were at war. After years of fighting, the Commander of the Armies of one of the countries rode into the capitol of a major province and gathered everybody together inside the capitol building. “I just returned from the biggest battle in the war,” he said, “And my army was victorious! The enemies back is broken, and they know that they can no longer stand against us. All we have left to do is drive them back to their country and accept their surrender. I came to you because I wanted to give you a chance to join in my victory-I want you to join my army, so you can be present when I accept the enemies surrender! All you need to do is come, and join my camp. I will arm you. I will train you. I will organise you-everything you need, I will provide!”

The General’s offer became the biggest news item in the entire province. A chance to share in his victory-who could pass it up?? Unfortunately, many citizens decided right away that they wouldnt take the General up on his offer-after all, they had families, businesses, friendships and lives to worry about, all of which were far more important than somebody elses war! Many other people decided that they wouldnt just take the general up on his offer, they would do better-instead of making the General provide training and weapons, they would equip themselves! Although they didnt have the factories requirewd to produce modern rifles, machine guns, or artillery, but the could sharpen pitchforks and make clubs to carry into battle-not much, but better than showing up with nothing! Once the weapons production was underway, they realized that they could also form their own Battalions and Divions-after all, wouldnt the General be impressed if, instead of an unorganized rabble he saw a mighty army march out to join him? It didnt take long for conflict to develop between the self titled Majors and Captains running the newly formed units-arguments over every small detail of how things should be run, what the uniforms should look like, what anthems should be chanted while marching to the front, and everything else imaginable. Those who werent stuck in the middle of the arguments became complacent-why should they all go and fight? Why not keep most of the army at home to keep the peace? They decided to send out small scout teams to join up with the General’s great army, but keep most of their men back home, at least until all the trouble had been ironed out.

Months passed. The General managed to drive the enemy back to their capitol and drive them to surrender, however when he called for the volunteers from the province he had visited to come forward with him to accept the surrender, only a handful of men came forward. Angered that the people he wished to honor didnt take up his invitation, the general returned to the same provencial capitol he had visited long before, called everybody together, and returned to the stage. When he looked out at the crowd surrounding the stage, the General saw a large group of sullen men in front of him wearing business suits. “Where were you?” he asked them, and somebody stepped forward. “We have lives to live. Families to look after. Businesses to run! We just didnt have time for your war!” The General watched them as they stared at his honor guard on the stage. Despite the wealth made clear by their clothing, their pride vanished as they stared at the battle scars and uniforms of the soldiers onstage. “Very well,” the General replied, “I understand your situation. As you know, I’ve returned victorious from the war! To celebrate my victory, there will be a feast tonight! However, I’m afraid that I cant afford to have you there-I have my men to feed, and medals to award-there isnt any more room for you at my feast than there was for my war in your lives.” With that, he sent them out of the room. Next, the General saw a group of men wearing shabby uniforms carrying pitchforks and clubs. The one wearing the least muddy uniform stepped forward. “Welcome back sir!” he said, “Were glad to see you again! Look at everything that we’ve done for the cause-we made our own uniforms, our own weapons, and formed our own army to win the war for you!” The general shook his head at the contrast between the dirty coveralls of the “army” in front of the stage and the pressed, spotless Battle Dress Uniforms of the men onstage with him, and the pitchforks and clubs carried by those in the crowd and the polished, menacing assault rifles carried by his soldiers, then looked the leader of the ragtag militia in the eye. “I didnt ask you to arm and train yourselves, did I? Your men would have been killed if they faced the enemy with gear like that! I am the only one who can equip you so you can survive! All I asked for you to do was come and join me, and you were so busy playing soldier that you didnt even do this! As I told the others, my victory feast tonight is only for those who fought in the war, and you did not. Now, leave my presence-my men have a feast to enjoy!”

As Christians, we tend to struggle when it comes to focus. Rather than devoting our lives to Christ Himself, we put massive amounts of time and energy into things that, although “spiritual”, arent overly important. We see the Church and our interaction with it as our chance to impress God, and run around in circles trying to make it as impressive as possible-we build massive, modern buildings with the technology needed to awe congregations. We run wild with programs, groups, retreats, seminars and anything else we can do to ensure that the announcements section of the bulletin is packed! We look everywhere for the newest speaker, song, teaching or perspective needed to make our message sound modern, impacting, and appealing to the world. We try to create worship services with all the splendor and audio visual effects of a rock concert (with Crosses instead of band logos and coffee instead of beer of course), and do anything we can to woo the world into the Church…and yet, somehow it doesnt seem to work as well as we want it to. All the radical new movements tend to fade as soon as the next radical new movement starts. Bitterness tends to form over pointless issues, from how many guitars should be onstage during worship to whether the rapture will happen before the tribulation. Our attempts to impress the world and draw them into our midst never seem to catch on-although megachurches are growing rapidly, Christianity itself is shrinking. Seeker friendly Churches arent attracting “seekers”, just Christians looking for more entertainment than what their old Church could offer. It seems like everything we try doesnt work the way it should!

The reason that we run into so much trouble with all of our ideas is that we make the same mistake that the self formed army made in the story. Jesus didnt call us to impress Him with how well we can handle the Church-instead, He made it clear that He is the one running it! The Church of Christ is only capable of following the calling of Christ through the strength of Christ-were doomed to failure without Him. We will never win a spiritual battle with the teachings and ideas that we develop-a fluffy, sin free gospel will do about as well in the world as a squad armed with pitchforks would do against an actual army, even an army that is headed for defeat. The only teaching that has the power to change lives is the one that was already provided to us-”Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” as Paul described it, and the only purpose that can create a strong, united Church is also one already given to us-the spread of that Gospel! The worst thing a soldier can face is peace-units that stand united in battle often tend to descend into bitter factions in peacetime. A Church that is driven to spread the Gospel to the world doesnt have the time or energy to quarrel over unimportant issues, while the Church that lacks that drive is doomed from the start-it will spend all eternity trying to reinvent itself, refocus itself, reinvigorate itself, and seek the next big thing until it either dissapears, or finds that “the secret” was actually laid out in full 2,000 years ago, and will never change. I have a feeling that, when Christ returns for His Church, He wont be overly impressed by the self made armies standing before Him, beaming with pride as they explain the genius of their programs and teachings. Thankfully, He hasnt hidden what He wants for us-Christ will be glorified in our lives through one influential figure-Himself. And through one message-the one that He laid out for us in His Word. Anything that seeks to please Him outside of those 2 key elements is wasted time.

Theres a Man in Heaven!

“Theres a MAN on the THRONE in HEAVEN!”

These are the words that Bernard Briscoe, one of the speakers at His Hill, uses to paraphrase the start of Isaiah chapter 6-the part of Isaiah where he has a vision of the Lord on His throne in Heaven (the “here I am, send me!”) encounter). The part of the story that isnt covered overly well is how the story starts-”In the year that King Uzziah died”. This isnt a random event picked to show the year when Isaiah had his vision, its a reference to the conditon of the country at the time!

A brief history of Israel up to this point would make Somalia look like a pillar of stability-a nation is chosen by God and carried from slavery in Egypt across a desert to the Promised Land-Judea. On the way, the people turn against God, and spend 40 years in the wilderness. They finally arrive in the promised land…and screw up God’s instructions, leading to centuries of trouble with idolatry. Foreign armies attack and almost overrun the country every time that they fall away from God, and they are saved only by God’s divine intervention and the raising up of Judges (temporary military and political leaders) to save the nation, and return them to the God who called them out of Egypt. Continuing a traditon of grumbling, the people of Israel demand that God give them a king, as this is what all the cool nations of the time did, and God gave them Saul-a natural leader who emerges victorious in battle against Israel’s enemy…after which he disobeys God, offers a sacrifice he was not called to offer, and falls out from God’s will. Next up comes David, God’s annointed! A man after God’s own heart! Who has to spend years running for his life running from Saul, then becomes King and promptly knocks up the wife of one of his greatest military strongmen. David proceeds to kill the husband, just in case adultery isnt a big enough deal without murder added onto the bill. Despite this, David receives a promise from God-he will be the father of a dynasty that will last forever, and the world will be saved through his descendants.

A few generations later, we reach King Uzziah. During the time I skipped, Israel has faced the threat of invasion many times, has split into 2 states and fought a bitter civil war, and has seen too many kings turn their back on God-kings of a Dynasty chosen by God Himself. Worse yet, one of these kings is to be the Mesiah-the Savior! With each dead king came another failed chance at the fulfilment of the promise, and at the time of Isaiah’s vision, another King had died. God had promised Abraham that He would raise a mighty nation that would bless the world from his offspring…and the nation was one good war away from complete collapse. God had promised David that one of his offspring would be the Savior…and his offspring have, so far, been close to complete failures!

Theres a point in life when it becomes hard to believe in God’s revelation. He shows us where He wants us, we assume that we follow His plan, and we hit a wall when God’s plan turns to look nothing like what we expected. The absolute confidence that we are where God has us starts to fade when our comparison between what we expected and what we see happening seems similar to what Isaiah must have seen, comparing a glorious Kingdom worthy of God with the broken nation he lived in. When the sucess we expected turned into failure. How is that God could allow His plan to fail?

This is where Isaiah’s revelation fits in-God showed Isaiah the good news! There is a Man on the Throne in Heaven! God wasn’t frantically running around asking His Angels what to do about the state of Israel, or making frantic last minute plans for the next king, He was on the throne-in control. God’s plans are above ours, but they WILL come to fruition! Like Isaiah, we need to draw our hope from the Throne, not from the scene immediately around us. The king after Uzziah wasnt the Savior-in fact, most of the Kings over the next few hundred years were next to worthless. In the end, Israel ceased to exist-however, the line of David carried on until 0bc, when the final King in the line of David was born-Christ.

Christ as the Life

It seems like the Gospel can be divided to a large extent into the 3 definitions of Christ that we were given to write these papers on-Christ is the Word of God, meaning that Christ is God, creator and not created, and as such above His creation. Christ is light-nobody can truly come before Him and not see the darkness in his own life. He makes clear to us both God’s standard, and how far short of it we truly are. These facts combined could be considered “the bad news of the Good News”. We have a perfect God who demands perfection…and both we and that perfect God know that we are imperfect! This is where the good news comes in-Christ as the life.
Unlike the other 2 descriptions of Christ that we looked at, acknowledging Christ as the life is an active response, rather than a passive observation. My life need not change due to the fact that Christ is the word of God, and even if I’m brought to my knees by the depth of my failure as revealed through the Light of Christ, it is impossible for me to do any better on my own strength-it is impossible for me to truly be “good” or “godly” apart from Christ. However, in order to acknowledge that Christ is the light, He states that I must be born again into His new life.
This is the part where things get tricky-I know full well that things don’t end well if I live my life alone, but there are certain things I like about my own life better than Christ’s life! When the Titanic started sinking, many of the first lifeboats to launch were only half full-many of the passengers took a good hard look at the luxurious lounge they were in, and the rickety wooden lifeboats, and decided that they would rather stay on the ship. There is a strong application in this story-although the passengers who stayed on the ship died in luxury, they still died! They could only be saved in the lifeboat-giving up the luxuries of the sinking ship in the process. Trading my life for Christ’s is a decision to get in the lifeboat…followed by a lifetime staying in that boat!

Christ as the Light

Christ was sent to be a Light in a dark world. When I was growing up, I always figured that sending Jesus was a desperate last ditch attempt by God to rescue everybody that He could, and I was always confused-if Jesus was sent to rescue everybody, one look at the world would make His mission seem like a failure. John paints a very different picture.
Spiritually, not everybody wants light. Light exposes what darkness can hide-living in Christ first requires admitting that we alone are failures. It also requires us admitting that there is a standard we’re expected to live up to, and our culture is based on the premise that sin is easier to deal with if right and wrong are no longer acknowledged. John the Baptist was sent to tell the world of the coming of the light-of all the prophets, John had the best news for the world! And yet, he was executed. The coming of the Light requires a reaction-either acceptance or rejection, and some will always reject Him, just as we accepted Him.
I found it very significant that John said that we have the right to call ourselves children of God. There’s a big difference between a privilege and a right-if we had the privilege to call ourselves children of God, that privilege could be revoked at any time, and is not guaranteed. I figured out 2 years ago that my driver’s license is a privilege, when I lost it for 2 months. A right is guaranteed-it cannot be revoked. In other words, we are not children of God provided that we do good, or that we meet a quota of new Christian converts, or that we live up to any standard we can set for ourselves. Christ has declared us children of God, and guaranteed our status, so we will never need to fear that we will be rejected by Him.

Christ as the Light

When I was going through the NT in devotions at home last year, the 1st chapter of John really stood out-I can get in a habit of reading through the epistles and learning about how Christ wants us to live, and forget who Christ is! John starts out by describing His majesty and power-He is the Word of God. He is the Creator, and not the Creation. He is above all of creation-on a completely different level than anything we know. He is God!
The most inconceivable part comes in v14. Christians aren’t the only ones who acknowledge the power and deity of God-almost any monotheistic religion will agree that there is an all powerful being somewhere off in the Heavens who created us and is watching over us, but in v14 He comes to us! The Word of God is sent from the Creator to creation, and not in all glory, but in flesh! The wording of the verse seems interesting to me-“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…” Humans have the concept of status and privilege and status ingrained in us-those of a higher status should never be expected to lower themselves. If I were to go to the poorest town in all of Mexico, rent a decent car, have bodyguards on hand to keep me safe, and stay at a nice hotel, I would not be dwelling among the poor-I would just be visiting. For me, dwelling among people means subjecting yourself to the same life as them-facing every hardship that they face. When I was visiting my school in December, I wasn’t dwelling among the students-I didn’t have the same rules as them, I didn’t sleep in the same dorm, I didn’t have the same obligations and restrictions, and I could drive off on sandwich day. Its only now that Im dwelling among the students. Christ, the Word of God, Creator and not creation, lowered Himself to our level and dwelt among us-no special status, and no exemption from any trial, hardship or temptation we face.

End of a Year

Saturday morning, after around a year at home, its time to pack up again and drive back to His Hill. No more having my own room, my favorite curfew (none!), and no more of the blessed thing called a well paying job…its amazing to see my bank account get bigger instead of smaller as time goes on! All that gets traded, first for a long drive, a lot of trust in God and gps, and a sincere hope that there will be a power outlet in the state of Kansas so I can plug a cell phone charger in (rumor has it that theres one right close to the Missouri side of Kansas City, but the locals havent figured out what on earth its for yet…), and then another year in Texas. The first time I went down, all I knew about the school came from a website-I was convinced until I first stepped foot on campus that I was going to the middle of a desert. I know the school better now, but one thing is exactly the same-I know that I will be changed when I’m there. It happened in my first year, and it happened during the year in between-change is really one of the few things that is constant in life, and the God I serve is far too powerful to be limited to Bible schools to mould His people. He shapes us when we seek Him and when we try to ignore Him. He reveals Himself when all we can see is His victory, and when we are terrified by the strength of the enemy. He teaches us when we travel halfway across a continent to learn about Him, and when we come back home. Here are a few things I’ve picked up since I got back:
-We arent made to be good on our own.
Before I was ever allowed to touch a rifle, my dad taught me how to handle it safely (main point? dont point it at people!). That was about a decade ago, and I’ve had plenty of experience handling them since then, but none of those safety rules have changed-the experience of the shooter doesnt change the danger posed by the rifle! In the same way, spiritual discipline and dependence on God arent spiritual training wheels for young Christians. Its a tempting trap to fall into, but a Christian who cuts time for devotions, prayer, and God out of his life is like a guy so proud of his relationship with his girlfriend that he feels no need to actually devote time to her anymore for the relationship to stay strong.
-God sees our lives very different than we do.
High school. College. Degree. Family. Career. Retirement. Golf course. Coffin. Our lives are so wonderfully planned out-we always have a target to aim for. Life is a series of waypoints to meet as quickly and sucsessfully as possible. Honors student. Law school. Wonderful wife and family. Corner office and silver BMW. Retire at 55…God has a bigger plan in mind. He’s not overly concerned with how well we can meet expectations. He doesnt care if we look like “winners”-if He allowed His Son to be mocked and killed with no dignity, why would He reserve better treatment for us? He has MORE for His people than a set of waypoints, He offers life the way it was intended to be lived-the problem is the frustrating battle that occurs when His life takes us far away from our waypoints, and we see that following Him and following ourselves are 2 very different things.
-God isnt into half measures.
God didnt send us a half son. Jesus didnt half die. He didnt half save us. God’s love for us is full and unconditional-He is our creator, relationship with Him is our sole reason for existence, and Christ’s blood fully atoned for all of our sins. Any attempt to respond to this unconditional, complete love and sacrifice with half measures and hesitant, partial devotion is a waste of time-a halfhearted Christian who insists on controlling any part of his life apart from God is useless to Him, and is in for a rough ride!
-There is a difference between faith in God’s plan and faith in God.
It always seems to me that faith would be easier if God would come to everybody in a dream and show them His plan for their lives. Maybe a timeline would be nice-”2006:graduate high school, 2008:attend His Hill, 2010:attend University of Nebraska, grad 2014 w/degree in criminology…” would make it easy for me to believe that God has my future under control. However, the second I would see that map, my faith would be rested in the map and not the One who made it. Seeking God’s will has shown me what I need to know for now-that He wants me back at the Hill. But He hasnt shown me everything I’ve been dying to see-where will I be in 5 years? Will I have a career? A family? What comes after “the next step”? Where am I going? It may be frustrating, but this is faith-not trusting in what I hope God has for me, but trusting in GOD! This, above all else, is His will for us! A shepherd doesnt explain to every sheep where he will lead the flock. He doesnt hand out maps-the sheep wouldnt know how to follow them! Rather, He guides them. He leads them. As long as they trust him and follow, they will arrive exactly where the shepherd wants them. And, judging by all the references in the Bible, we seem to share a lot with sheep!

What We Deserve

Over the past few months, I have grown to loathe the term “deserve”. Most of the time, I hear it at work, when customers will whine and complain that they “deserve” 6 months of their bill refunded to them, as their service wasnt working exactly as they had hoped it would, or because they werent aware of a fee or charge on their account. The ironic part is that, in reality, they dont deserve a penny-when they signed up for service, they signed a document entitled “Terms of service”. When they sign this, they agree to accept whatever service they get, with no guarantees that anything will actually work. In other words, if their service was terrible, all they deserve is laughter, for choosing the wrong company to buy from.

Although “deserve” amuses me when used at work, it annoys me when used morally. I think that almost every civil movement that I disagree with is based on the assumption that somebody or some group of people deserves something that they are not receiving. The problem with this concept is defining what people “deserve”-in my opinion, we tend to give way too much credit!

I believe that ultimately, a person can deserve one of 2 things-the vindication of perfection, or the damnation of imperfection. Outside of these moral absolutes, things tend to get hazy-a thief in Canada is typically seen as “deserving” a few months in prison, while a thief in Saudi Arabia is seen as “deserving” an amputated hand. An abortion doctor is seen to liberals as “deserving” a medal for empowering women, while to religious conservatives (myself included) he is seen as “deserving” to stand before a court of law under a conviction of murder. An undercover cop is seen as “deserving” a medal to an average civilian, or death to the members of the gang he works for. However, its clear that those who are perfect deserve a reward for their perfection, while those who are imperfect deserve a punishment for their imperfection. There is only one problem with this judgement-none of us deserve the rewards of perfection.

It doesnt take a Bible to convince us that were not perfect-our own hearts are well aware of it! We know how often we fall very short of the standard of perfection! And, if were not perfect, we do not deserve the rewards of perfection. It would be stupid for us to start drawing lines on what is small enough to go unpunished and what isnt, because there is no moral absolute on which we can base that line. Should stealing be allowed to go unpunished? What about lying, or cheating? There is no firm foundation for any line other than the one I started with-perfection, or imperfection. Following this, all we really deserve is the results of imperfection-punishment.

Usually, we have 2 separate ways to use the term “deserve”-there is what others that we do not like deserve, like the murderer who deserves to be on death row, and there is what we deserve, like a promotion, or new car. Dividing between these 2 just doesnt work-really, all we deserve is the same thing as the murderer-punishment. Its a hard thing to admit, but it is only when we admit that we deserve nothing good that we can move onto the only way that we can receive something good-grace.

Love

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Michael Bay (the movie industry equivalent of a decepticon) decides to throw in a little subplot-Sam’s relationship with Megan Fox, and the buildup to the moment when he would finally say “I love you.” Right from the start, it annoyed me-I went to see a giant robot deathmatch in its purest form, without any human emotions involved! If I wanted to see a sappy love story, I would have cuddled up on a sofa at home and watched The Notebook… On a deeper level though, the movie gives a seriously shallow view of love.

Love isnt a word. Its not a feeling. Its a commitment. And its not proven strongest during the “perfect moment” (the movie moment when the words are uttered and suddenly everything changes.) In the Bible, love in its ultimate form is shown to us on a Cross, where an innocent man died alone for those He love. Some things stand out to me from Christ’s display that Hollywood always seems to forget:

-Love isnt selfish. Most relationships only last as long as both parties get what they want, and end with somebody feeling used. Shallow, Hollywood love would be quite good with Palm Sunday, the day when the world showered Christ with praise, but its nowhere near strong enough to stand up to Good Friday!

-Love doesn’t depend on perfection. Relationships grow cold when the people involved start to see imperfections. Intimacy makes it very hard to hide flaws. Christ knew those He loved quite intimately-He knows us as only a creator can. Every single flaw that every single person has ever hidden, all the hate, lust, perversion, and downright sin that plagues mankind was completely visible to Him! If anybody had a good excuse to call love off, He did-but, as the Cross proves, His love never changed.

-Love is unshakable. Shallow “really like”s depend on easy situations-when trouble comes, they die. Genuine love is proven in times of trouble-Christ’s love wasnt proven during a sermon, or even a miracle, as vividly as it was at His excecution. He didnt just love us enough to come to be with us, He loved us enough to die, rejected, as a criminal. He showed love through pain, and sacrifice-imagine the pain of the perfect Son of God bearing the weight of every imperfection in history!

Real love isnt easy. Life is all about plot twists, and sadly tends to lack the magical happy endings that send moviegoers home happy after 2 hours or so. Hard times that only require a 3 minute musical montage in a movie are significantly more difficult in real life! This is why most relationships fail. This is why too many marriages fail. Shallow love and real life combine to make breakups an accepted part of our society. Fortunately, God made us for more than shallow. A Christian is a person called and empowered to be like Christ-in every aspect of life, including love. When a Christian says `I love you`, it should be a commitment. With the empowerment of Christ, trouble will simply prove that commitment, it wont change it. After all, we have an amazing example to follow!

Focus

More than anytime in history, we are a culture who does not know how to focus. We call it multitasking-sitting in front of the TV while checking Facebook on a computer and texting is quite often seen as a perfectly normal way to relax. Our cell phones tend to be surgically implanted to our ears-in fact, Sprint’s main celling point for the new Palm Treo smartphone is that its made for multitasking, running more than one app at once. The problem with this is that we have become so focused on multitasking that we tend to shut down when dealing with less than 5 things at the same time. For me, Im used to constantly splitting attention between whatever Im doing and my Blackberry, which is never more than 6 inches away, and hardly ever off. I know that it limits my ability to devote all my attention to something-when Im testing a rifle, that Berry will be shut off and on a table, so all my attention goes to what I see in the scope, not a vibrating phone in my pocket. However, for some reason, it took me a long time to realise that my prayer time, devos, quiet time, and everything else wasnt getting that same undivided attention-I could give up distractions in order to get a better shot on a cardboard target, but I couldnt do so to better understand what my creator would have me understand!

Paul uses several examples to stress the value of focus in our walk with Christ-the soldier entering a battle, the runner in a race, the farmer growing his crop and plenty of others. These are not prime settings for multitasking-as a friend of mine keeps reminding me, texting while running doesnt exactly speed the runner up, and if I were going on patrol in a hostile city, I would not be overly happy to be paired up with a soldier who is playing with his iPod while the others watch the street with their guns ready. We need to focus on God! To spend time with Him! This is the only way in which we can grow close to Him. When a guy and a girl become “a couple”, they grow closer by spending time together-time focused on each other! (A relationship will not last long if the guy spends an entire date on his cell phone, completely ignoring the girl) How is growing closer to the God of the Universe any different? If I could spend an hour with a special girl, I would jump at the chance! Yet last year at the Hill, we had a class when we were told to go, alone, for an hour, to spend some quiet time with God, and I was horrified! I knew I shouldnt bring my cell phone, I wasnt tired enough to go to sleep, and I was convinced that I would be bored to death 5 minutes into that hour! In the end, I survived it just fine (without sleeping!). I wasnt given any amazing revelation, but I got a chance to focus on Him alone-no distractions.

A few days ago, when I started thinking about all this, some changes happened. My Blackberry is now in the same state for devo time as it is for target practice (and running)-silent, and out of reach! Any important relationship requires this elimination of distraction, this focus-and if we can do it for the sake of a dating relationship, what excuse do we have not to in our relationship with our Creator?