The Four Realities: Living In The Past As Christians

Someone once asked me about the type of music I listen to. I shrugged my shoulders and responded, “Eh, mainly Christian music.” In that moment, I received the typical judgmental look: a swift perusal of the eyes up and down my figure followed by a nod. It was a look filled with the indication that I had granted them no surprise and they were almost disappointed with my answer.

Its not that I don’t like any other music. It’s that I like to listen to music that stirs up emotions within my being for the edification of it. I like to listen to music with truths that I affirm, rather than just give me a beat to dance to. I’m sorry if that is not on the iTunes Top Ten.

But that is my defense on why I usually don’t listen to mainstream pop culture music. Other Christians might think otherwise. On one side you get the Christians who say, as long as it doesn’t corrupt your being its fine to listen to. On the other side you get Christians who repent after listening to such a thing. These different approaches are all contradictory to a culture with gaping wide eyes fixed on us. It is always a debate for us on what is the most appropriate way to engage culture.

I’ve traced why there is this disparity within Christian thinking. This debate all comes down to the question of: what effect on reality does our belief in Christ take?

Too many Christians live in some past reality with their belief in Christ. Let me explain: I have noticed four realities present within Scripture and how these realities are reflected in our ways of thinking as Christians. There is the Reality of Perfection, the Reality of Compromise, the Reality of Divinity, and the Reality of Actualization, and with each reality is a flaw in thinking attached to it.

1.     Reality of Perfection- The Flaw of a Perfect/Lamentless Faith

Perfection was present at the beginning of Genesis. God was walking among the garden with man and everything was dandy. Yet in today’s culture, there are Christians who walk around as if God is right beside them in the garden. It is the flaw that everything should be perfect now because we have hope in Christ. There is a right way to engage culture, but it does not exist within this reality.

2.     Reality of Compromise- The Flaw of a Merit-Based Faith

As soon as the Fall of Man happened, we kept trying to compromise or reason with God. God and man finally had to reach a compromise in which God could only dwell with us through the following of laws. Life becomes governed by laws, and sadly, that is how some Christians live. It is the flaw where we reason with God for our sin, hoping He might reward us, because in this reality, love is conditional. There is a right way to engage culture, but it does not exist within this reality.

3.     Reality of Divinity- The Flaw of No Belief

Everything changed once Jesus stepped in the picture. Reality was no longer a compromise, but rather justice lived out. Jesus came and He preached His divinity, yet there were people who followed Him as merely a teacher. If Jesus was just a teacher, there is no reason to believe in Him, which brings us to today. There are people who say they believe in Jesus and His divinity, yet their actions and words only affirm Him to be a good teacher in their lives. It is the flaw where saying you believe in Jesus is enough, but what does that mean of our belief in Him? There is a right way to engage culture, but it does not exist within this reality.

4.     Reality of Actualization- The Flaw of No Fruits of Faith

After Jesus left, His disciples were here on earth forming the church. This is where the truth that He spoke became an actualized reality. This is the reality that we are to live in today as Christians, because it takes truth and applies it. Yet there is a flaw in this reality also, and that is the belief that faith doesn't need to manifest itself in any form. It is the flaw that fruit doesn’t need to be present. We are to engage culture in this reality, but the only way we can is to organically produce fruits of our faith for the world to see.

I am proposing that the most appropriate way to engage culture, comes in the form of analyzing our roots, see in which reality our thinking lies, and then shift our thinking in a way that applies it to the reality of today. As a Christian, don’t live in the past with your thinking. The truth of the past is the same as the present. It’s just a matter of making it a reality.

Stay tuned for blogs diving into each reality, discussing what I believe is a right way to overcome thinking in the past.

Who Would Jesus Vote For?

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned . . . For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ . . . For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

-Romans 5:12, 17, and 19

It was the sound I was all too familiar with at this time of the year. As the chalk clamored its way to recording knowledge across the blackboard, I couldn’t help but think, here I am in the academic setting once again. But of course, anytime you’re in the academic setting at a public university you’re going to find yourself in conflict with views, especially if you’re a Christian. For instance, at this particular time I was in my Creative Writing class. The teacher was taking suggestions from the students about what inspires their writing. After a brief silence and the board flooded with inspiring things, I said faith. She shot an inquisitive glare my way and told me to be more specific. I said, “Faith or religion or what I believe about God inspires my writing.” Unfortunately, I was shot down. She responded with, “Well if you do that, then you are just trying to get across a set of beliefs instead of write.” That could be a valid argument, depending on how you look at it.

But the point of this story is this: the assumption with the Christian is that everything is an effort to get across a set of beliefs.

Especially in politics. Within our culture today, to be a Christian is to be a Republican and anti-Obama because that is the party which enables us to get across a set of beliefs, as if it is written somewhere in the Bible that the Christian must vote Republican.

Now don’t mistake my words here. Typically when I speak about politics, people try to dissect my words trying to figure out whether I’m on their side or not. I’m not speaking of sides, I’m speaking of truth. Truth doesn’t take sides. It stands alone. But a set of beliefs can take sides. Which is how faith has entered the political realm. The message of Christ and the cross has been politicized into a mere set of beliefs so they could be split under partisan labels for a political agenda.

What surprises me in this time are the people who vote because they believe the U.S. is taking a step towards being a holy nation through voting a particular party. There are only a few who really hold on to this belief, but there is an interstice where people believe a vote for a particular party is a vote for how Jesus would vote.

With that in mind, I challenge you with the question: who do you think Jesus would vote for?

It is a challenging question because no one can wholeheartedly say who Jesus would vote for. They might try to say Jesus would vote Republican or Democrat, but in their heart, they wouldn’t believe it. In reality, most people might say that Jesus wouldn’t vote at all!

Now I pose that question to humble you, not to discourage you from voting. People need a reminder that the nation being a holy nation isn’t contingent upon Christian beliefs given under a partisan label. It is contingent upon making disciples for Christ who make disciples for Christ. We are to flood the world with the truth of Christ, not with the convictions or beliefs that might follow after a life with Him.

You see, it’s a matter of how people believe they can conquer systemic sin. Some people believe that politics and the work of the government is what is needed to overcome systemic sin. But with politics, as I have mentioned before, the message of Christ has been politicized and scattered upon partisan labels. No party is going to promote Jesus for president.

What is needed though is the work of God and the bringing of the Gospel to impact people on the personal level and eventually impact the system. For sin entered the world on a personal level, then it affected relations, and finally it affected the system. But just as Jesus came into the world and brought us the message of Himself, the Gospel needs to first impact people on a personal level, then relationally, then systemically. We can’t skip ahead to redeem society by changing the system. It must happen on the personal level first. Which is why being a holy nation is dependent upon making disciples for Christ who make disciples for Christ.

So as you vote in this election, I encourage you to make an informed vote. Not so much informed on the issues at hand, but informed on what you really believe. Are you voting to get across a set of beliefs (because that is what the world expects of Christians), or are you voting because you wish to flood the world with the uniform truth of Christ? If it is the latter, humble yourself to believe that the change must first occur on the personal level. This election won’t change people believing in Christ or not. They must first be impacted by it on the personal level in order for it to spread to the systemic level. Don’t vote values to preach Christ, preach Christ to see values.

Inspiration to Change the World

“That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

-2 Corinthians 5:19-20 (ESV)

Imagine I have a ball. This ball can do anything and everything that any normal ball could do. It can bounce, be squeezed, be propelled through the air by the forceful pitch of my hand, just about anything except be caught (bear with me on this). Now imagine I throw this extraordinary ball, right at you! What would your first instinct be? Probably, to move, right? Only if you believed the ball to be headed straight for you would you move. If you had any inclination that the ball wasn’t headed for you, you wouldn’t move.

The point of this example is that you have to believe the ball is going to hit you in order to move. It takes belief for us to move! True belief causes you to move, whether that means to avoid something like a ball, or to act upon that belief. For instance, I could use my belief in God. I truly believe God has reconciled me to Himself so therefore, I should live a holy life pleasing to Him. Living a life pleasing to Him is a direct result of my true belief in Him. My belief in Him inspires that movement.

Now I use the word inspire here for a reason. In the last two posts I have discussed what is needed to change the world for His glory. Yet I skipped over one important aspect, which really should have been covered first. In order to change the world, you have to be inspired to move in that direction.

Now the main point I want to drive home in this post is this: Belief in God through the Gospel should inspire us to change the world. KNOW GOD, CHANGE THE WORLD.

How do we know that His vision for the world has transferred upon us? Just take the Great Commission for example, or even the verse above. It says that God was reconciling the world to Himself through Christ. Then it says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. By being an ambassador for Christ, we partake in the same work of striving to reconcile the world.

But honestly, we wouldn’t even know the message of reconciliation without knowing Christ and the Gospel, or the story of His death and resurrection for our sake. It is because we believe the Gospel that we are reconciled to God and know Him.

But does that belief inspire movement? Are we inspired to change the world through our belief in the Gospel?

Before you challenge yourself with this question, I want you to more clearly understand the picture of reconciliation in the Gospel. Now the Gospel is reflected in many parts of the Bible, but to discuss this, I am going to dive into the story of Hosea. Now Hosea was an Old Testament prophet who married an adulterous woman named Gomer. Now Gomer left  him, but Hosea, as a picture of God’s faithful and redeeming love, seeks out Gomer and reconciles her to himself. This is a picture of the Gospel. That through Christ, God sought us out and reconciled those who believe in Christ to Himself.

There are two verses in Hosea that clearly defines this reconciliation. Hosea 2:19-20 says,

“And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”

Notice how Christ’s action on the cross clearly integrates these aspects in the message of the Gospel. Righteousness was displayed, justice was served, love was shown, and mercy was given, all through the faithful act of Christ giving His life for us on the cross. And it is because of that, that we know God, as the verse says.

But reconciliation has to happen in order to know God. That is what the story of Hosea portrays. Hosea sought reconciliation in order to know God.

And knowing God inspires movement. He is so big, so powerful, so mighty, that we are to be forever propelled by the collision of our life with Him.

God desires for us to know Him, in order that we might be moved by Him. And that movement involves being an ambassador for Christ, to spread the message of reconciliation. But as the verse at the beginning displays, you cannot be an ambassador for Christ without first being reconciled to Him, because knowing Him is what inspires movement. The inspiration to change the world comes through knowing Him.

KNOW GOD, CHANGE THE WORLD. 

Grace to Change the World

“But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

-1 Cor. 15:10 (ESV)

Somebody asked me once, why I continue to write. Underlain in the tone of their inquiring voice was an assumption that my writing was in vain. Why? Because in their mind, no one read it. I didn’t respond to the question.

But here is my response now: I continue to write for the same reason I work with churches. It’s the same reason why have a daily devotion time. It’s the same reason I poured myself out to put on a campus ministry event to give glory to God. It’s the same reason I want to see lives changed! Because I understand what was needed to overcome my corrupted soul. It took GOD dying on the cross in order for me to be here. Can you believe that? I, in myself, had no power to arrive at the place where I’m at now, so a GOD had to die for my sake, so I can desire to change lives. I write because His death and resurrection were not in vain.

Yet, I see so many people treat it as if it was. As if the grace given to us because of His death and resurrection was something we deserved. They take it and then try to change the world in their own power. But we cannot change the world in our own power. I’m here to say that it takes the power of God to change the world. It ultimately takes the power of grace.

To change the world, you must accept grace, and you must steward grace.

You see, it’s a formula. You can’t steward grace without accepting it. And you can’t accept grace without stewarding it. If you steward grace without accepting it, the grace you’ve accepted becomes a lie. If you accept grace without stewarding it, you didn’t really accept it. The first step is to accept the fullness of grace in the form of Jesus Christ (John 1:16). Once you understand this amount of grace that you are accepting, then you work harder to steward the grace.

In accepting the grace, you must humble yourself (1 Peter 5:5). More of Him, less of you. Why? Because it is depending on His power rather than your own. I see this played out in my life all the time as I reflect back on times where I was too proud for grace. By my power I was being led to destruction. By His power, I was led to salvation. Humble yourself to receive the grace needed to change your life.

And then, having grace requires that you steward it (1 Peter 4:10). The definition of steward (as a noun) in the dictionary states: one who administers anything as the agent of another. I love this definition because right away it points out that it is not our grace. It is not my power, but His! If you accept grace without stewarding it, you are saying that the grace is yours to take ownership of and to decide what to do with, which (as I’ve said before) is a lie. We accept the fullness of grace with the expectation that we act as an agent of it. Stewarding the grace is a requirement.

What is the right manner you steward the grace? You don’t preach it as your own, you live according to it, and you use your life to point people to the One who gave you the grace in order that they might receive it as well.

There is an amazing parable in the Bible that Jesus tells in Matthew 18:21-35 that perfectly illustrates this concept. In the parable, a master forgives his servant of a large debt that he owes. In return, the servant walks away and punishes another of a small debt that that person owed the servant. As a result, the master punishes the servant for not stewarding the grace himself.

You see, the master expected the servant to live according to the grace given to him. Yet he didn’t, which meant that he really didn’t understand the gravity of what was given to him. That is a ridicule to the master because the master poured himself out in order to forgive the servant. If you accept the fullness of grace, you must steward it.

Paul understood this. As displayed in the verse above, he worked hard to steward the grace given to him because he understood the power needed to redeem him.

So I leave you with this: the reason I did all that stuff I said at the beginning of the post (and still continue to do) is not because I am perfect. It is because I am imperfect. Perfection by human ability is not possible. But through humbling yourself to receive His power, you can do anything. Humble yourself to the point where His power may be exalted through your imperfection. Remember that you are more effective not as a perfect being, but an imperfect being who understands the gift of God’s grace. For it is through accepting His grace (through humility) and stewarding it that we have the ability to change the world. Not of our own power, but of His. 

Efficiency to Change the World

“And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.”

-Philemon 6 (ESV)

I have received that quizzical look all too many times before. The people, they praise me for my works, they praise me for my actions, they praise me for my speech (and I mean this is the most humble fashion possible), and yet it is always interspersed with that quizzical look. That look that says, “How can you preach after coming from a secular religious education?” or, “How were you able to put up with studying religion in a secular institute?”

It is not a bad question to ask, and I am not knocking on those who have received a Christian education. However, the thing to note here is that these people approach me as if the leading condition in order to be a pastor is to receive your degree from a Christian institute.

Let me ask the question: is it wrong of me to receive my religious education in a secular setting? Am I suppose to draw myself out into a Christian institute in order to be effective as a pastor?

The quizzical look is a direct result of their view meeting conflict with the physical representation of its counterpart, namely me. But I’m not here to try and refute their view because the important thing here is not that they question “how,” but that they don’t question my effectiveness or efficiency. No matter what education I have received, I am still effective.

If any of you know me, you know that my whole mantra for life is “change the world.” That is why being effective is so important to me! Being effective is the first step in changing the world.

But how do you become effective?

The verse above is from Paul’s letter to Philemon in the New Testament. In this short book, Paul is appealing to Philemon, a fellow brother in the faith, to forgive a man by the name of Onesimus. You see, Onesimus was a slave to Philemon, but Onesimus decides to do wrong to Philemon and then run away. Along his excursion he meets Paul and through him enters into a relationship with Jesus. This letter is an appeal to Philemon to allow Onesimus to come back, as a slave and as a brother. This is all summed up in verse 16 of the letter, where it says: “No longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother-especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”

You see, Paul is having Onesimus return as a slave, but how is his return as a slave more than a slave? Paul describes Onesimus as being useless before but useful now (vs. 11). He is useful now because he has faith.

So I return to the question: how do we become effective? Refer to the verse above. We become effective by actually having a faith that is big enough to be shared.

Think about it: faith itself is an odd sight to see, especially in a world where the most that people stand for is their own self-governing and eclectic collection of values. Being effective requires having faith, because faith draws you out.

Now I say ‘draws you out’ but if anything, faith draws us in more than it draws us out. Let me explain. It calls us out of the world, but it also calls us to be effective which requires being in the world. So how do we reconcile this thought of drawing out of the world yet sharing the faith? You become effective by drawing into the lives of people (this is what I meant by faith calls us to draw in), and that action in itself, draws you out. Especially in today’s isolationist culture, the idea of a person reaching out to another without acting out of any selfish accord is unheard of! That act of love, of drawing into people’s lives, is a calling out of the world.

But you can only do that through continuing your secular calling! Notice how Paul sent Onesimus to return as a slave. He didn’t call him to live this monastic life in the hills, but rather to return to his position before. There is no physical revolution to be had here! The revolution comes in the fact that the believer renounces rebellion and revolution for the sake of expressing that his life is fixed upon the hope of Christ and not the hope of this world1. He is more effective as a believer in his secular calling.

So this is my appeal to those who believe that in order to be effective for the Kingdom, they have to draw themselves out of the world. We are effective through faith. We can only share our faith by remaining in our secular calling. You can have greater influence by remaining where you are, just as long as you have an imperishable faith.

“Each one should remain in the condition

in which he was called.”

-1 Corinthians 7:20 (ESV)

---

1 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Touchstone, 1995. 260. Print.

Compelled By Imperfection

“For to be sure, He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in Him, yet by God’s power we will live with Him to serve you.”

-2 Corinthians 13:4

People look up to him. Whether physically when he is on stage or to his character, people look up to him.  They esteem him to be the best of them, a model for daily applied conviction in God, a “practice what you preach” sort of guy. Yet inwardly burns a weakness, an imperfection, a thorn in the flesh as Paul would say.

Does this defeat the man’s credibility? That in all reality, he really is not perfect? No, because we know that no man is perfect. Then where does the man gain his credibility from? It is gained in the condition that his imperfection is not visible, yet it is captured and enslaved to live for the glory of One who is Perfect. It is how they practice their imperfection and what they use it for where pastors gain their credibility.

Too many times have I heard stories where pastors expose their imperfection before their congregation by not capturing it for the glory of the One who they preach about. As a consequence, their congregation struggles to pick up the pieces of a broken leader and a people without guidance. What was once the flaw of one man, instantly became the flaw of many who put their trust in him.

How could this have happened? It is a direct result of man striving for perfection by his own ability.

You see, when we look at weakness through the scope of our own power, that weakness shouldn’t exist. Why? Because we have worked and have labored to overcome it. Then when it resurfaces in a much greater fashion, we are left pondering upon why we are not perfect after our work. We determine it is because we have not worked hard enough. It is then that we become subjected to an endless cycle of bitter labor trying to overcome imperfection by our own power.

But when we look at weakness through the scope of God’s power, we find the grace needed to overcome our fault. This grace redefines our work and labor. It says that we are forgiven of our sins, but we must strive for perfection through this grace that we might not fall into temptation of this sin again. It says that through His power, we are now able to work harder in able to live a life pleasing to the One who forgave us of our debt. For if someone gave you money to pay a debt, would you behave in such a way that shows them that you haven’t learned your lesson? No, we wouldn’t! His grace tells us that by His power, we can now work to reconcile the world to Himself. This statement is reflected in the verse above. Only by God’s power, Paul says he is able to serve the people of Corinth.

In the same way, pastors only serve the body by living off His power. A pastor fails when they preach their own power over God’s power. When a pastor does this, his weaknesses are not overcome. His flawed and broken nature becomes exposed and the congregation suffers.

It’s as simple as this: If man lives off his own power, his imperfection is grieved; but if man lives off God’s power, his imperfection is praised. Praised in the sense that he models where to go with his imperfection, and many are benefitted because of this.

Now I don’t want you to walk away from this post believing that this only pertains to pastors and not people. This message pertains to all who bear the good news of Jesus Christ.

So to everyone, my charge to you is this: Strive for perfection. This is a biblical charge on the grounds that we should aim to be made perfect by grace. To do this requires you to acknowledge the imperfection of your own power. Accept that there is no way you can work out of your own ability for perfection. In doing so, your imperfection propels you into the effective exaltation of His mighty power and Name.

Strive for perfection out of His power.

“But He said to me:

‘My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in

weakness.’ Therefore I will boast

all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

-2 Corinthians 12:9

Change The World

Coffee shops can play themselves out like theaters sometimes. There are those, who you can spot with their glazed look, who are numb to any surrounding activity because their mind is burdened by the thought of the work they have to endure in order to get that next paycheck. Then there are the business executives, who barely have enough time to sit for coffee, so they run in like a blur and make their escape to face a world who spoon feeds them their daily dose of vanity. And lastly, there are those who are not working, but simply enjoying a cup of coffee on a morning just like any other morning. Yet they are infected with mediocrity as the rest of their day is filled with activities that fluff their pillow of comfort. They are like puppets, buying into a system fueled by money, as if the money has taken on life and is actually the one tugging at their strings.

Yet this is all just generalization and harsh language for a people I don’t understand. Who knows? Their treasures in this world are probably being poured out into charities and churches, right as we speak! But the key thing I wanted to note with these people is that I can’t help but see limited movement. Movement that has so much greater potential, but is stifled by the attitude of the mind.

And sometimes I see this attitude placed on me! People would ask me what I want to do with life. I tell them I want to become a pastor. Some gawk and awe, others ask questions about the money, and a select few confess their sins to me. You see, when has the role of a pastor become so diminished within our culture? When did it become about the money? When did it become a role that is adorable? It never did, but by placing a mindset so focused on finding security in this topsy-turvy generation, the role of pastor becomes reaped of all potency. The true role of a pastor, or anyone bearing the message of Jesus Christ, is to change the world.

Yet what if I told those people that my true desire was to change the world? Disbelief would ensue. They wouldn’t be able to comprehend it because they could not see themselves doing that with their own lives. But I’m here to spread the message that we all have the ability to change the world.

Yes, it’s true. I do want to change the world. Most people with an ambition like mine, when they envision this see blood, sweat, and toil shed by the stretching of human capacity. When I envision this, I see blood, sweat, and toil, but in the hands of Jesus Christ, who by suffering for our sake, gave us the life-changing word needed to accomplish the greatest of feats this world has ever seen.

You see, I’m here to proclaim that by living according to the life-giving message of Jesus Christ, we all become induced with the ability to change this world. I’m here to say that this world is not some malleable environment meant to be beaten and bruised for our comforts, but rather an environment meant to be modeled after the dwelling of our Maker. I’m here to say that we are all to set our sights on things above in order to effectively change the world around.

So what is your sight set on? Changing this world, or being of it? The choice is yours.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit

comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in

Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to

the ends of the earth.”

-Acts 1:8 (NIV)

Hurt With Purpose

“In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked Him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but He can’t save Himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

-Matthew 27:41-43

I was in line getting my dinner for the day when she blasted me with the question. As her lips made the indication of words about to spill out, I could already tell where this conversation was headed. She mentioned how horrible the Colorado shootings were. In my head, I thought, “I don’t want to demean the tragedy of what happened to small talk.”

The striking thing about this that was brought to my mind was how people deal with pain. Some people are numb to it in such a capacity that it only becomes small talk for them. Some people, when they hear of stuff like this happen in our country, force down the reticent cries of humanity, and let surface this seemingly apathetic manner towards the tragedy. What I have seen is that most people question. I have seen people flood Twitter and Facebook with questions of why God would do this, a question their aching soul has longed for a solution to.

The main question thrown around is this: “If God is so loving, why would He do this?”

My goal with this post is not to answer this question, but to provide reason to suggest that this question is not the question to be asking in order to deal with pain.

People place a condition upon God saying, “If God is so loving, why would He do this?” My question with this is why don’t the same people who ask that question place that condition upon man? Saying, “If man is so good or better off without God, why do they do this?” Because deep down, lodged in the deepest depth of our being, is the universal belief that we are not perfect, that we are not fine without God, that there is Something bigger than us.

By placing a condition upon God, we find our self falling victim to the same thing the chief priests did to Jesus in the verses above. They acted as if they knew God, but little did they know, God had a plan that would only be fulfilled through the pain and suffering of His Son.

I’m not pretending like I know what God had in mind with this shooting. But I know what to do in response. Instead of questioning, I pray that life can emerge out of this death, just like it did for Jesus Christ. Instead of questioning, I have the hope to move forward, knowing that someday, all the evil of the world will be forever redeemed.

You see, I only see the dealing of this pain going two ways: run from it and leave it to be forever questioned in our being, or face it with the reality that God is an all powerful God who has a purpose through pain. When pain tears away at the spirit of man, it either leaves the foundation of a thriving hope or nothing at all.

That is why I propose that we should not be a people who run from the question of pain of suffering, but instead hurt with purpose. The purpose that pain only makes us stronger by revealing our living hope in an Almighty God. In a workout, every muscles of your body only gains definition when you struggle through the pain. But there is no way to move forward through the pain without hope propelling you. The crux of my character, what I stand for, is only defined through pain because it is through pain my hope is most revealed.

For the unbeliever reading this, I pray that you can find the hope needed to answer the question of pain. And for the believer, I pray that events such as these may not cause you to stumble in your faith, but rather cause you to be modeled more like Christ. Because Christ had hope in His suffering on the cross, and that is what caused Him to endure it and move forward in order to bring us life.

Don’t run from pain. Be modeled by it.

Hurt with a purpose.

For The Love of God

“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

-1 Timothy 1:5

His expression revealed that he was dumbfounded by what I thought was elementary. So here we were, me and a new friend, both confused because we approached each other from different grounds, different viewpoints. We were discussing our current relationships: me and my beautiful girlfriend, and him and the girl he was pursuing. It surprised me that he was shocked by the intentionality that I set in place for my relationship. But as he began to share his current predicament in his pursuit of a certain lady, it became clear to me that the reason we differed so much in terms of the way we approach our relationship is because we both have two very different definitions of love.

Now that I think about it, society itself struggles for a more solid definition of love. Too many times do I hear people vowing that they’ll give everything up for their partner and how that is love, but then two weeks later they give up their partner instead of everything. And then people mask over that with this vague statement saying, “Things change,” or, “You never know what is going to happen.” Then I hear a lot of people who adopt the definition of love stated in 1 Corinthians 13. But then I guess the reading of the Word doesn’t change them because they become impatient, unkind, and unloving. We live in a culture that is starving for a more concrete definition to love.

Yet because I have experienced the transforming power of the Gospel, I feel that I have a concrete definition of love that is present in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I believe the primary reason me and my friend differed on our views of love are because I love God. Loving someone by loving God is such a distinct love that it contrasts the world’s definition of love. It is a love characterized by intentionality and foundation.

Speaking on intentionality: Jesus was intentional with His love. He didn’t come and say, “I love them but I don’t know if I’ll die for them. We’ll see how it goes. Things change. You never know what is going to happen.” No! The intentionality of His love saved our lives!

Now speaking upon foundation: the foundation I talk about is present in the verse above. Because He died for us, He made His love complete in us by giving us the foundation of loving out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

For the pure heart, is your heart inclined towards the good of your partner? And when I say good, I mean the good established through Scripture, not what is socially acceptable or your definition of good.

For the good conscience, are you keeping your relationship guilt free? Because true love doesn’t carry the burden of a guilty conscience. We get this idea from what Jesus did for us on the cross. Because check this out: Jesus died for our burden of sin. We were guilty but because He came and offered grace, by His grace, we can have a clear conscience. We can repent and not deal with that burden of sin! It is out of a clear conscience that we follow Him and love Him by obeying His commandments. That is why is 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love because He first loved us.” Because He loved us, He gave us the grace needed to clear our conscience, not so that we can mess up more, but so we can build a relationship that is modeled out of His love for us. So that we can truly love with a clear conscience. Jesus has forever cleared our conscience, but that calls for not putting our self in a position where we are to feel guilty again. If we truly love because He loved us first, our love should affirm His love by having a guilt free conscience.

And for the sincere faith, are you loving your partner by loving God? For if Jesus Christ is love, then you must know that true love if you want to truly love your partner. You must have faith in the one who makes faith possible. In order to truly love you must love that which is True.

So here is the kicker: without true love from God, one cannot attain this love with foundation. For what is someone to keep their heart pure for? What is someone to have a good conscience against? And what is someone to have faith in, if not God?

Here is the main question I want to challenge you with: Do you love differently because you love God?

We should affirm the love of God by showing that we have a love with intentionality and foundation. The foundation is this: that our love is formed upon a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. And this true love is not possible without first loving God and following in His ways.

Imagine if our culture loved each other out of the clear and distinct definition of love given to us in the Gospel. Imagine if we were a people who were for the love of God. As people of God, we must love differently. Our love should affirm and point to God’s love. 

The Ideal Manhood

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” –Isaiah 7:9

One of the greatest fears I have in life is that way down the future, one of my kids will wake up in the morning, look out the window, and see nothing. They’ll look at the sky and see nothing but a big blue expanse. And when the sun sets in that sky, they’ll see nothing but a fiery blend of warm colors. The grass will be nothing more than green and the stars will be nothing more than science to them. You see, I want my kids to wake up in the morning and go to bed at night confident in who they are and what they believe.

I say this now as I’m sitting in a coffee shop on my birthday because I can see numerous times in my life where I have woken up not sure about what I stand for. I would simply just get up and go do. I would go to school or work a nine to five as if it were to speaking meaning and essence into my life. Yet ripping at my heart was a conviction that to be a man meant not to just do, but to have my actions filtered out of my beliefs. This conviction was only birthed out of a holistic understanding of the picture of men painted within Scripture.

Too many times have I seen man not given purpose, so they work out of their muscles and their ability rather than their belief. Yet in Scripture I see manhood defined not in what they do, but rather what they stand for. Their life is not given meaning in their muscles, money, or cars, but in their inner workings from which their convictions arise.

There is an evident contrast I see from the men of Scripture and the modern day man that exists today. Today I see man (not all men) going through life not sure of what they stand for. Falling on their hard shell of an exterior are titles meant to give them some sort of definition in being a man. Give them some sort of shape rather than being a formless nothing. But sadly, they are deemed the perverts, the adulterers, the cheaters, the jocks, the prideful, and the villain. There are some men who are deemed honorable and noble, but if you take a magnifying glass to their life you see that this sense of chivalry has no backbone, no spine from which it forms its foundation. Man is given no shape, no definition in themselves.

But as I reflect on my birthday, I praise God that being a man of the Lord makes complete sense. It is the ideal manhood where someone could look upon the man and know not only what they stand for but also why they believe what they believe. It is in this manhood I see that actions are filtered through convictions and not the other way around. It is in this manhood that I can wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, knowing who I am and what I stand for.

It only took me 21 years to figure out what it truly means to be a man. It is not wholly dependent on age or ability. It is dependent on the very thing that speaks a satisfying essence into my being. Praise be to God and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that I am given a meaning. Praise be to God that I can look upon these past 21 years of life and not simply believe them to be an act of providence arising out of my own ability, but rather an orchestration of different instruments leading me to sing the praise of my Maker.

The Error of Separation

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

-Jonah 4:5-11

Many of us have heard the story of Jonah, whether it be through the Old Testament book or the Veggie Tales movie. If you haven’t the story is simple: Jonah was told to go preach repentance to the Assyrian city of Nineveh, he disobeys, tries to flee, gets swallowed by a big fish, prays and gets spit out on the shore, goes and preaches, and then sits on a hill to watch God not bring calamity upon the city. But here are three errors Jonah made that we can apply to our society and how to interact with culture.

1. Jonah separated himself. In Jonah 4:5 we see that Jonah goes and separates himself from people and culture in order to watch the Lord bring judgment upon Nineveh, which didn’t happen. To add to things, he built for himself a shelter there. How does this apply to ourselves? Do you ever notice that there are people in society who elevate themselves and then justify themselves with arguments that people could easily poke holes into? This is similar to Jonah building a shelter. He separated himself from society and then built a shelter in order to make his separation feel better. But notice in verse 6 that God provides a plant to ease his discomfort. Though Jonah built a shelter, he was still uncomfortable. But sometimes, God leads us to a place where he affirms and comforts us in our separation. This might include people in our lives who are supporting us. Does that mean that God approves of our separation? No because we see the plant die. By God’s authority we see that the plant dies, and once the plant dies, Jonah is once again vulnerable to the heat. In our separation, in our elevation of ourselves, we will get heat. There might be times where God supports us in circumstances of our separation, but remember that God is for His own glory, and in that, He will also expose us to the heat if that’s what it takes for Him to receive the glory.

2. Jonah expected something that was contradictory to God’s nature. In Jonah’s separation, he was left alone to form his own thoughts about God. This is one of the many dangers of not involving yourself in community and the Word. By separating yourself, you become subject to your own perceptions, when we as believers should form our convictions against what the Word says, and then apply what we believe through experience and community. You are not subject to any of that through separation. Involve yourself in community and God’s word and find out more of God’s nature.

3. Jonah had no personal investment in the people of Nineveh. When the vine disappeared, Jonah was angry because he was only concerned about what the vine provided for him in the moment. Jonah did not grieve because he was not personally invested in the vine itself. Now this related with his relationship with Nineveh. He wasn’t personally invested in Nineveh. He only justified himself and his sins by passing judgment on the people. He wasn’t invested in Nineveh because he would have rejoiced in the compassion of the Lord. There is a great danger to this. We cannot believe that the Word of God applies to us in one way and then to another in another way.  We cannot separate ourselves to this degree.

Overall point: Do not separate yourself from culture, but rather engage it. As believers, we are distinct, but this distinction does not call us to elevate ourselves and pass judgment on people like some believers I see in the media. It calls us to go out into the world, preach the Gospel, and represent the change that the Gospel is suppose to bring about in our life. By drawing our self out of the world, we bear no fruit, and it is the branch that has no fruit that is more apt for the fire.

We see with Jonah that it is a lot more work to elevate yourself because then you have to justify yourself, come up with things for yourself, and have no outlet for you to pour out. Remember, Jonah would have had a much better time if he chose to stay within Nineveh and rejoice in the repentance of the people. But instead he chose to separate himself. As Christians, we need to be relational people in order to learn of God’s true nature and apply what He wants of us in this world. 

The Flesh Is Willing, But The Spirit Is Weak

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

-John 1:14

“That’s ridiculous!” was the cry of the crowd.

“That man should respect boundaries. I have no problem with religion, but when someone tries to talk to me about it is when I get annoyed. Stop trying to shove it down my throat,” said one highly opinionated and cynical gentleman.

But then, like a sudden calm before the storm, an eerie silence swept over the room. With shifty eyes the friends shot glances at one another. Yet while they were exchanging looks, not one of them dared to glance my direction. They were fully aware of the elephant in the room- that I was a Christian. It would probably be too much of your dismay that I did not respond to the conversation. It was not right at the moment for me to sling my convictions around like stones defending against an attack. I was outnumbered by people feeding off each other with their shared negativity.

But half of me sought to figure out where they got this notion that Christians are out there trying to shove religion down their throats with force. From where did this hostility arise? It wasn’t a hard question to answer. Flip on the news and you see headlines about Christians’ judgmental antics, but rarely do you see anything about their love. I can just envision the newscaster yelling to our face, “And in other news, those crazy Christians are at it again saying that God desires that we need to kill all the gays, fornicators, adulterers, and dirty politicians!” What? Since when did Jesus say that?

The problem is that with Christianity there is always this question of how we are to interact with the world. It is right to say that we, as disciples of Jesus, are set apart from the world, but where do we go from that? Often the only Christians that get publicized are those that take this question to the extreme and give their own conception of the ideal standard and place that over the world. But the true disciple realizes that the standard is not to be found in the self, but in Christ. As disciples we are conforming to His likeness (Romans 8:29), and that is what we should strive for.

Here is my interpretation of how to interact with the world:

We are not to lift ourselves higher than we are to look down on the world. We are not to forsake our convictions by tolerating everything. We are to strive for Christ who exists as the perfect balance between flesh and Spirit.

In John 1:14 it says that The Word became flesh. Jesus Christ, in all His perfection, bound himself within flesh, yet was still God. He stood for us as the new standard to a depraved and desolate world, the perfect balance between flesh and Spirit. The verse above says He was full of grace and truth. Being full of grace and truth is synonymous with the balance between flesh and Spirit because Jesus needed grace to redeem the flesh on one side and then on the opposite side needed the truth of the Spirit to speak direction and vision to a lost people.

How do we apply this? Well you often get perversions of the Gospel and false teachings from distortions of grace and truth. For instance, ministries that preach that we need to be concerned about all this political and social activism has an overemphasis of spirit leading them to believe that they have the truth of God when in reality, through their perversion, they are preaching their own truth. With this truth, there is no grace for anyone on the outside. But then on the opposite side of the spectrum we see ministries saying that everything is permissible, much like the church in Corinth. They tolerate anything and everything, but without any guiding truth from the Spirit, their church merely becomes a social club that gives them an excuse to gather once a week to gossip, slander, etc. etc. The extremes are the ones that get publicized to my friends mentioned above.

Yet we find Christ in the middle, with the fullness of grace in one hand and the fullness of truth in the other. Being the perfect balance between flesh and Spirit, He gave us the standard with which we are to approach the world.

But then comes the question on the side of grace: how tolerant are we to be before we become too tolerant or too intolerant? Where is the balance? Just consider this: Christianity is NOT a tolerant religion. It is an intolerant religion in the sense that its values do not function in the operations of this world. If Christianity were a “tolerant” religion, there would be no impetus to preach the Gospel. The Gospel would merely become pillows in a coffin meant to comfort a decaying corpse. It would affirm all the actions of the world. But the fact that the Gospel inspires change shows that it is not tolerant to the state of this world. So the answer to the question is this: everything that affirms Jesus Christ as the truth. Jesus Christ didn’t say, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE”  (John 14:6) for nothing. He said this with the desire that we filter our life, our goals, our values, and our direction in this world through THE TRUTH of Him. Anything that affirms the truth is true, and anything that doesn’t is simply false.

But then this leads us to the other question, on the side of truth: How are we to bear this truth before we become very dogmatic and hostile with it? Think about it like this: the truth is like dangerous material in a chemical plant. You handle it with caution, discernment, and gentleness for it is very powerful. If you go throwing it around, it ceases to become truth and just blows up in your face. Look to how Jesus handled the truth. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this, “The love of Christ for the sinner is in itself the condemnation of sin and expression of His extreme hatred of sin.” Jesus handled the truth with love and care, not forsaking it by hurling it around to obliterate the people. Think about it like this: if someone throws a stone at you, you’re naturally going to want to throw it back. That’s what happens when you force truth upon people. But when you treasure and love the truth it is like passing precious pearls. The receiving party does not dare retaliate in a hostile manner, but rather, feels humbled accepting your treasure. That’s how Jesus handled the truth.

You see what I did with the questions of grace and truth? There is a relationship between the two. Grace is only formed upon finding the truth and the truth is only conveyed through grace. They cannot exist in the right manner outside of each other. They exist, to us, perfectly bound together in the figure of Jesus Christ.

Never find yourself in a position where you misrepresent or pervert Christianity through a willing flesh and weak spirit. That where most miscomprehensions come from: people who desire their own ambitions outside of the truth of the Spirit conveyed through His Holy Word. They will with the flesh and their own weak spirit. But we know that is not how things are to be. Flesh and spirit were meant to be perfectly married together when we, fleshly humans, commit ourselves to the True Spirit, Jesus Christ.