Saturday, April 28, 2012

Christians in a Nation Turning from and Turning on God


More and more, I'm sensing that Christians in the US could soon be experiencing something they have pretty much never before experienced. The US has from its beginning and its roots had at the least a generic Christian culture. Not that all Americans, ever, have been practicing believers, of course. That accommodating attitude - cultural and governmental - toward Christianity, however, looks like it is changing!
Just as Egypt had its generation who didn't know Joseph and turned against God's people, the US has people who don't know Jesus - or care to - who are beginning to dominate US culture. And to turn it against Christians. Many schools and universities are now exerting themselves to silence and suppress Christians, when they can get away with it. Regulations governing and defining the required the training for some professions are being rewritten to force on Christians choices between violating their faith or leaving their profession. Many social services people view Christian belief as supporting suspicion of abuse when parents are accused of child abuse. Cities and towns are using zoning ordinances and permit processes as means to block or severely limit the building and expansion of churches. Hostile neighbors are using police and bureaucrats to twist zoning ordinances to prevent Christians from hosting Bible studies and prayer groups in their homes.
All these things, sadly, are not outlandish "possibilities" conjured by my fevered imagination. Would that they were! These are all based on recent news stories and court cases! Let's call this what it is ... dare to use that ugly "P" word ... Persecution. We are a far from lions and arenas - hopefully very far, and will never get to its modern equivalent. But US Christians are, I think, seeing the beginnings of real persecution.
US Churches and Christians cannot afford to ignore which way societal winds are blowing. These trends are not irreversible, but that will require prayer, much work and much prayer! As those efforts play out, to whatever end, Christians need to keep aware of reality and be prepared to fight, evade, and use creative ways to bypass the efforts of would-be persecutors. Churches need to have "Plans B, C, and D" in mind, even in operation, to neutralize attacks on leadership and facilities usage.
Does that sound paranoid? Sadly, I think it's prudent to recognize, be prepared for and be ready to respond to reality and realistic possibilities! Of course, such things need not come to be. Christians need to be praying! We can do all we can - and I'll get to that - but the One Who has, and can again, defeat anything the world can throw against us is God. If we rely on ourselves, we will be defeated; if we rely on God, victory will be His!
That doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing! The precautions alluded to above should be taken. Done properly, they will enhance the life of the church, and often are (or enhance) things churches should be doing anyway! Churches and Christians need to use their rights fully - being careful to obey laws that are right - and not be intimidated into foregoing those rights by the prospect of opposition from unrighteous people. Churches and Christians need to become involved in their communities, not retreat into their buildings and homes. Churches and Christians need to make themselves visible in their communities, and necessary. Being visible - known, not a mystery - will make it much harder for would-persecutors to demonize Christians. And being visible and necessary is something Jesus commanded His followers to be.
Two other key strategies are to spread leadership and ministry responsibilities among more people, and to become less dependent on a particular building. In more difficult times, flexibility strengthens the church and makes it less vulnerable to attack. Spreading leadership and ministry responsibilities limits the effects of an attack on one leader. Flexibility in meetings and meeting places similarly limits the effect of losing a facility. In good times, those strategies have significant benefits. Spreading leadership and ministry responsibilities means more can be done, better. And spiritual growth among congregation members is encouraged. Flexibility in meeting places, especially in increased usage of members' homes, will similarly foster spiritual growth and closeness of fellowship within the congregation.
Persecution, if it comes, will not be pleasant. But persecution, if it comes, will make the church stronger. What happens is not something we can control. But we can strive to be what Jesus wants us to be, grow into what He wants us to be, and trust Him to lead in and fight our spiritual battles.

Costly Love



Love cannot be bought with money. It is too precious and costly. A living love costs the lives of the lover and the loved.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Hands & Feet, Heads & Hearts

Christians' hands, feet and mouths need to be moved by our heads and hearts. Communication between head and heart should be two-way, and informed by God and His word.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

What Jesus' Resurrection Means to Me

The world has never had a lack of thoughtful moral philosophers. Many have had useful and thoughtful insights. Many claimed to offer insights of spiritual significance. All are dead or will die ... except for one. Jesus was a great teacher, offered great insight into what humans really are, pointed to what He said was the right spiritual path, and claimed to do and be much more than just a great teacher. He claimed to be God, the Son of God. He claimed he would save from their sins as many as would believe in Him. He claimed to be the path to God and eternal life. Like all the other moral teachers, Jesus died - a horrible death. Unlike any other moral teacher (or any other human being), He didn't stay dead.
That's what sets Jesus apart from both the other moral teachers and delusional people who claim to be God! Jesus' resurrection was the seal of the authenticity of all He claimed to do and be! Jesus is God! Jesus had the authority and power to do all it took to save me from my sins, to reconcile me to God! Jesus' resurrection showed that life doesn't end with death, that for those united with him by faith will also be raised from the dead, to spend eternity with God. And Jesus did all this, not because I was such a wonderful person, not because I deserved it. Let me be clear … I did not deserve what Jesus did for me! Jesus did what He did simply because He loved me, and every other equally undeserving human being. Jesus' resurrection is the culmination of the process that gave me eternal life. Jesus resurrection is the pinnacle of 33 years of a life of proving that God, the Creator of the universe, loves me.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Jesus' Holy Week

In the hustle and bustle of daily life this year it almost escaped my attention that this week was “Holy Week”, the week culminating in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Some of my “stuff” was of some definite significance; some was just the stuff of daily life, lived and forgotten a month or a year later; some was what is sometimes called, “First World Problems”.

Jesus death and resurrection are the culmination and the radiating point for God's love for mankind, for me. And I got to thinking … what was Jesus' “Holy Week” like … what was some of the “stuff” He experienced and did for me?

Triumphal entry – much of the same crowd would be howling for His crucifixion later in the week

Entered the temple – had to clear out the corrupt hucksters cheating honest people who wanted to worship God

Left the temple, his disciples pointing out its magnificence – Jesus had to tell them of the doom that would come on Jerusalem and the temple

Week-long verbal traps and running verbal battles with the Jewish religious leaders who should have been the first to recognize and honor Him

Celebrated Passover with his disciples – knowing this was His last meal with them ... knowing one of those disciples would betray him

Gethsemane – the hours of mental anguish of knowing the physical agony what was coming … and being betrayed after His time of prayer

Trial” before the Sanhedrin – knowing his disciples had fled, and that at that moment Peter was denying even knowing Him

Roman “justice” and torture – arbitrary, intentionally sadistic

Crucifixion – the most prolonged agony mankind then knew how to extract

Bearing the burden of, being separated from the Father because of, the world's sin ... my sin

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Broken People in a Broken World

The idea that we humans are a broken people is familiar to Christians - whether under the term "original sin" or "total depravity". It's not something we love to contemplate - some non-believers revile or condemn Christianity for this teaching - but it's a reality we need to acknowledge in order to grasp the reality of who we are and of what people in this world truly are at heart. Monsters like Mao, Stalin and Hitler were extremes, not aberrations!
Less familiar is the truth that this world is also broken. After each creative act, God pronounced what He had just created “good”. Not just nice or pretty, but "good" ... not just from a human perspective, but good in the eyes of the almighty, righteous, God. When Adam sinned, it affected more than just him, it affected (maybe I should say "infected"!) all of his descendants. I already mentioned that. But at that time, God pointed out something more. He said that because of Adam, the ground, the Earth, was cursed. Jumping into the New Testament, this cursed state may be what Paul refers to when he speaks of all creation "groaning":
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8:20-22, ESV
So we aren't just broken people living with other broken people - tough enough! We also are broken people living among broken people in a broken world!
So ... does that mean we're in a mess and should just throw up our hands in hopelessness and surrender? That isn't at all what Jesus told His followers to do! Jesus commanded us to take the message of redemption - words and action wherever we go. And to teach others to continue in that commission. We can be Jesus hands and feet and mouths in bringing redemption to whosoever will believe.