Friday, December 16, 2005

My Camel sized sin

Mark 10:17-27 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."


How many folks can relate to the rich man? America is the wealthiest nation which has ever existed. I believe this suggests that we all fall into the category of rich, at least comparatively speaking. I want God to challenge me and any reader with this question about wealth because there’s no sense going any further until I check my own heart and intentions. Let me check my heart by seeing, if I’m honest with myself, if I’m asking the question “what’s wrong with what this guy (the rich man) has said or done?”. Wealth leads to contentment which can lead to a notion of independence which then pushes God further and further out of our lives. Keeping in mind, however, the Bible teaches us that there were at least a few rich disciples who were counted among Jesus’ disciples (the women mentioned in Matthew 8:2-4, Nicodemus the Pharisee, Zacchaeus the tax collector, Joseph of Arimathea, just to name a few). What does this say about the power of God and the zeal He has for His glory?

The rich man ran up to Jesus and fell on his knees before him. He said good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life? This communicates to me one of two things: 1. this rich man highly respected Jesus and recognized Jesus had some measure of authority over him or 2. The rich man wanted to disarm Jesus with flattery and make a public showing of his piety before someone he considered to be the most famous teacher/prophet in all of Israel, at the time. From this scripture, in my opinion, the truth is somewhere in between. In my opinion this rich man is concerned with his outside appearance and the opinion of others, but I also believe he truly wanted something more in his life and somehow he knew Jesus had the answer. However, this rich man wanted the quick and dirty answers. He most definitely didn’t want to hear about perseverance, sacrifice and faith.

The rich man said “good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. Do you see what’s going on here? The rich man wants that quick and dirty answer from Jesus. In my opinion, Jesus answers his question with a challenge: ‘When you say “good teacher” do you believe that I am God or do you just want a quick and dirty answer?’ (I stress in my opinion because this is definitely open to interpretation.)

The funny thing is, Jesus actually gives the rich man the quick and dirty answer to eternal life. “You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" In my opinion Jesus is pointing out the sins in the rich man’s life, much like He did with the woman at the well. I say this because He doesn’t mention all of the commandments. Obviously Jesus knows the hearts of man and obviously He loves us despite this. I believe Jesus gave the rich man what he wanted (the direct answers) in order to point him to Himself (Jesus).

"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Notice the rich man’s response or rather notice what he omits in his response. He dropped the word “good” and thus acknowledges in speech what was truly in his heart. Jesus never said “How dare you call me good! Only God is good and I am not He!” Also, as I noted in the previous paragraph, I believe the rich man is lying to Jesus in this response.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Now Jesus issues the more straight forward challenge. He doesn’t call the rich man a liar or anything of the like. He cuts to the chase and says (basically) “get rid of that which hinders you, the deceitfulness of wealth, and come and follow me”. I wonder if I truly believe the Word is living because if it is then Jesus is speaking to me, and every person, here. Think long and hard about how these verses are speaking to you. There are some very real, very necessary challenges here which are completely counter culture and completely contrary to what we were all taught in school, the work place and our homes growing up. I’ve always been taught to work hard, make lots of money and maintain a good image and a good name for others. Well I’m here to tell you my name is meaningless, outside of Jesus. My name has it’s origins in man just like my sin. Remember “Narrow is the path”!

"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." What was Jesus doing here? I believe He was now challenging His disciples to look to Him for salvation. The point is no one can be saved without Jesus. If none are good except God then none can be saved on their own (Psalm 14:2-3).

(Matthew 13:3-23)

How should the church address those people who receive the seed in the thorns, those who allow the word to be chocked by the deceitfulness of wealth? I would argue to say Christ centered, loving discipleship. However, this takes courage and confidence in Christ. It’s also counter culture, requires a focus on Christ and others and forces us out of our comfort zones.

Should affluent churches be placed in affluent areas? Should churches cater to the masses, especially the wealthier masses? Should churches pander to man at all? The flesh wants us all to run away to do everything to please men and lift up ourselves. The flesh wants us to worry about this life and fill it with more and more. Ultimately the flesh wants to be content with this life and independent of God. Woe to the man who is content with this life. I believe the desires we have for more (fill in the blank) are our desires for Christ. We should all be content with what the Lord gives us, but never content with our relationship with Him.

Love your brother so that there’s a possibility “He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

A prayer: If bringing my name low humbles me and lifts up the name of Jesus then may my name be nothing to every man. If my wealth holds me back from Jesus then may I loose it all for Him. May I realize my own sin, and in this realization understand why I need Jesus so much in my life. May I be more like Zacchaeus the tax collector, who when he stood before Jesus and heard the accusations of the crowd against Jesus, for his association with him, immediately gave away much of his wealth (Luke 19), not to please man, but to please Jesus. May I understand your Word so that, for your name’s sake, others may also understand. Amen.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas, or Holiday

There has been much discussion in blog-dom concerning this trend of the megachurches canceling Christmas services. Well I guess I'm throwing my name into the hat as well. However, someone else has hit the nail on the head with this whole issue, in my opinion. I was reading the Internet Monk's thoughts on this and I found myself with little else to say. He pretty much sums up my feeling on all this. Basically, the issue isn't about putting one day above another or "how dare you cancel Christmas? This is the Lord's day!". We all know that everyday is the Lord's day. This issue is about fullfilling the great commission, or more basically, promoting a godly witness. It's our witness, as a Christian community which is the issue. Every year the godless in this nation are pushing out God and every year we (the church) are letting them. It's not about protecting my beliefs, it's about protecting my witness. God doesn't need to protect His honor, but He has left us as stewards of this world. There's a responsibility in that.

Here's a quote from the Internet Monk's article on this topic and I would encourage anyone to read it. I feel it sums up my feelings (click on the title of this article to see the Internet Monk's original article):

“In Dicken’s Christmas Carol, Scrooge sees Bob and Tiny Tim return from Christmas Day worship:
`And how did little Tim behave?'’ asked Mrs Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content.
“As good as gold,'’ said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.'’


And Scrooge himself, with a changed nature…
He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows: and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk — that anything — could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew’s house.

I’m glad for the churches who will still give Tiny Tim and Scrooge the opportunity to hear the message of Christ on, of all days of the year, December 25th.”

Monday, December 05, 2005

Amish-ism

I was having a chat with my mother the other night. One of the topics of conversation that came up was the sheltered lives of Christians. This conversation came up as I was reflecting on an earlier conversation I had with a friend of mine concerning his girlfriend’s mother. My friend shared with me a story about this one time he, his girlfriend and her mother were walking down the street, engaged in conversation, when they passed this guy who was uttering profanity to himself. My friend and his girlfriend continued their conversation not paying much attention to what they just heard. Her mother, on the other hand, exclaimed “Did you hear what that man just said?!!”. After sharing this story with my mother she shared with me that she could very much relate to this reaction. She explained to me the culture shock she went through several years ago when she reentered the work force after my dad was laid off. She was a phlebotomist at this hospital back in Binghamton, NY. She began to explain to me her shock at the frequent use of profanity, vulgarity and descriptions of the immoral acts her co-workers were involved in. After my mother shared this with me I started wondering about the prevalence of sheltered Christianity in our churches, with our leaders and what this meant, with regards to interacting with the unbelieving world.

Should we really ever be surprised by heathens being, well… heathen? How can a sheltered man teach others how to engage the (heathen) world for the purposes of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ? How many of our teachers followed the pattern of attending Christian schools through college, then seminary and then straight into ministry? Or how many of them are involved in the lives of unsaved folks now? If no servant is better then his master, then why aren’t we engaging the world around us as Jesus did? Both Jesus and Paul were able to adeptly use the culture around them to either start a lesson or preach about the good news of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13: I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.

There is a prevalence of sheltered ignorance, in the church, we use to excuse the responsibility we have to engage the world. This misunderstanding of remaining in, but not of the world. The Amish fell prey to a huge misunderstanding of this scripture many years ago and so now they’re stuck in the 1800’s. As if the 1800’s were the pinnacle of human purity. Are we creating a contemporary “Amish-like” society in our churches now? However, in one interpretation (not being “of the world”), it almost seems as though we ignore scripture.

Colossians 2:20-23 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

In these verses Paul is writing about Gnostic practices of trying to attain grace from God through human wisdom and actions. I believe the Bible teaches Christ’s love comes from the Father and His love is independent of the objects of His love. Are we trying to please man or are we trying to manipulate God when we act like “good” Christians or good Gnostics or good Pharisees? I think we so much desire to be like God that we secretly want others to worship (like/ highly respect/ adore/ desire) us and be in control of our own destiny. Why do you think satan has any power at all in this world? We gave it to him when we ate the fruit and turned our back on God. The major difference between a good, yet sinful man and an evil one (by human standards) is that the evil man has a firmer grasp on these two desires, willingly turns his back on God and tries to fulfill his sinful desires. A truly godly man has come to this same realization, however, instead of falling into his desires, he gives them over to Jesus Christ and observes, through the unfolding of his life in Christ, how these desires were nailed to a cross a long time ago. This gives him real power and ultimate freedom because he understands that this power doesn’t come from himself, but exists for the sole purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ and His glory is the salvation of mankind.

Do you see the confidence and power which can be drawn upon here? Why are you so afraid to engage the world? Are you afraid they will see you for the insecure wretched sinner you really are? Join the rest of humanity. Is this what keeps you from pouring into other brothers and sisters in Christ, with your own family? Take hold of the freedom in Christ.

Matthew 3:16-17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

If we are saved then God sees only the blood of His son. For if He saw anything else Jesus would have to die again and Jesus was lying when he said “It is finished”. This is where our freedom comes from. God looks upon Jesus, loves Him and is well pleased. This is our confidence, not the value others place on us. This enables us, as Christians, to say “Yes I am a sinner, however, my sins have been forgiven!”.

Wake up you lazy sleepers! Too many Christians expect everything to be spoon fed to them and too many churches try really hard to accommodate this desire. The church puts far too much importance on 1 to 2 hours every Sunday morning and almost no emphasis on the rest of the week. No more excuses like “those verses no longer apply to us.”, or “Our current culture doesn’t support that. Those verses are just too difficult and ideal in our culture.”

(John 1:1-5) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Jesus Christ is the Word and the Word is the eternal truth. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. This tells me that all of scripture is God breathed and of eternal significant. If you overlook scripture because it seems too ideal, then I would argue that you’re leaning towards being “of the world”. Don’t allow satan to cloud your judgment through living in a sheltered existence. Don’t believe his lies about the unknown. Don’t allow yourself to become irrelevant. Don’t listen to people who purport that scripture is no more then stories. Jesus Christ isn’t a story, He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and His word is eternal.

Now is the time for action, to apply our faith in the lives of others and humble ourselves enough to be held accountable, to be the Good Samaritan, to serve our fellow man, to take a real interest in him, instead of focusing so much on ourselves. The church doesn’t need anymore sheltered leaders and laymen who never leave their “Christian” world or feel they are an island unto themselves. Put aside your fears, for they are not of God, but put on the full armor of God. If you’re just not comfortable with engaging the heathen world, then get into prayer and take action. Seek out people who can disciple you in this area. Again don’t just expect it to fall into your lap. Your life is nothing without Jesus and He wants you to be interested in and love others.

Matthew 22:36-40 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."