lukewarm.

unchristian theme 1: hypocritical

as i began reading this book, i struggled with pride. i struggled with viewing this from the “others” perspective.i struggled thinking that the things said by other people could actually be true of me. i firmly believe that this was a struggle that satan put into my mind/heart to blind me from some of the truths that are crippling jesus ministry on our earth and in my generation. people are seeking. there is no debate. if we don’t show them love (jesus) then we drop the ball, simply. a 35 year old believer from california was quoted as saying

“Christians have become political, judgemental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry, and without
balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the living God, the Holy
Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness? This type of life, how I yearn
for that.”

this is the reason. people want to form relationships. they want intimacy. we want closeness, compassion, love, etc. jesus left us with the responsibility through his church to be love (Him) to others. now, what are we doing? what have we, as a church, been doing? lets look at this first topic: hypoctical.

“Outsiders (non believing 19-26 year olds) consider us hypocritical - saying one thing and doing another - and they are skeptical of our morally superior attitudes. They say christians pretend to be something unreal, portreying a polished image that is not accurate. Christians think that the church is a place for virtuous and morally mature people.”

i think we all know that hypocrisy was something that jesus did not tolerate from the pharisees & saduccees. if you doubt this, i’d turn over to matthew 23:13-28. simply, the hypocrisy is not lip service, but rather our lifestyles. now listen, i’m writing this blog post on a $499 iPad 2, so i have no room whatsoever to claim that i have all my priorities together, but you can see the image of hypocrisy that “outsiders” might see if we are claiming, “we’re all equal in God”, but are living lives that we know are not in keeping with the things we know to be true.

mainly, outside of lifestyle, i believe the book identified a crucial element to this hypocritical label: it’s not just our lifestyle that has gotten us into trouble; its the very way in which we convey the priorities of being a christian. the most common message people hear from us is that christianity is a religion of rules and regulations. they think of us as hypocritical because they are measuring us by our own standards. think about this for a minute. have you thought about the significance of this statement? one of the primary reasons people are turned off to the church, jesus, christianity, hope, love, joy, etc. is our own percepton of faith as ‘living a good life, not sinnng, being good.’

explanation: if my personal faith centers around ‘being good’ or ‘not sinning’…how likely am i to display a transparent life in which all of my faults are laid bare in front of everyone? not likely, in my opinion. i believe this is where the hypocrisy comes in. we show this sense of holiness to protect ourselves, instead of reaching out to people transparently and saying, “i suffer from _____, just like you. but i have hope, power, strength, love, & joy because of Jesus.” this is our ministry. its not to congregate in multi million dollar buildings and sit with our friends for an hour a week. it is life. ministry should be completely normal. personally, there is a famiy of homeless people that attend our church in florence, italy. they come almost every sunday morning and almost every sunday morning they sit in the back alone. the wife normally speaks to two people, maybe three, and its only to ask for $. its difficult for me to look past that. its difficult for me not to judge or be skeptical of her & her husband, but that is not jesus. thats not my calling.

fact of the matter is, we’ll never do it right. until we start excepting our faults (publically) in our churches and realizing that we, “all have sinned and do fall short” (romans 3:23) we’ll never escape this branding. but, if we live a life worthy of the callng and live a life rooted in & following jesus we’ll display the fruit of his Holy Spirit. let’s accept the challenge to live differently, but not in a way that others are turned off to whose we are but rather drawn to Him.

unChristian: intro

this book, unchristian, was given to me almost two weeks ago by jim woodroof. this book was published in 2007 and it is a research study of teenagers/ young adults between the ages of 19-26 that stated they were nonchristian & on what they reallythink about christianity. in the book, this group is labeled “outsiders” and those who state a belief in God are labeled “insiders”. for me, it has been extremely eye opening and challenging as someone working with people primarily this age, but also the fact that i AM this age and can relate to the sentiments expressed by some of the people quoted in this book.

in the research, there were 6 major themes that occurred repetitively and these themes make up the crux of the book.  over the next few days, i’m going to try and verbalize the things that i thought about these topics, but more importantly, i hope that others will join in on the discussion. i believe that these things really are vital to the long-term vitality of what we consider now to be “the church”. here are the six broad themes:

1. hypocritical (shocker)
2. too focused on getting converts
3. antihomosexual
4. sheltered
5. too political
6. judgemental

do any of these things strike a chord with any of you? i know they did for me. we’ll start the discussion tomorrow.

action: 1 john 3:16-20

i think one of the most interesting things that has occurred since becoming a “missionary” (which, frankly, i think is a word that we have misappropriated to identify only people that live in foreign countries and share their faith…simple put, we are all missionaries) is that i’m seeing scripture in an entirely different light. now, honestly, this is the first time in my life that i’ve actually searched the scriptures, but in this search, i feel and see the words coming to life.

over the past weekend, i was blessed, encouraged, and privileged to participate in a youth retreat with almost 25 italian youth whose ages ranged from 15-26. also, i spent the weekend reading through 1-2 peter, 1-3 john, & jude. the theme of the weekend was “faith & struggle: what do we do with our faith.” it was interesting that i was reading through 1 john 3 when the weekend arrived. this entire chapter is a massive encouragement, but also a stout challenge.

simply, why do we feel that words surplant action. all weekend, i was reminded of how different the effect of action vs. words really is. service, at its very core, is action. it is doing something. note verse 18 of chapter 3,”…let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

it’s a simple message when we look at the clarification of this verse two verses prior… “this is how we know what love is: jesus christ laid down (verb) his life for us. and we ought to lay down (verb-present tense…aka. now) our lives for our brothers.”

too often, we replace words, lip service, superficial conversation, etc…for literal action. albeight well meaning, we lose vital opportunities to not only show love to others, but to demonstrate what jesus intended in his ministry…action.

strangers. (hebrews 13:5)

so, i’ve always behaved differently around other people….especially guests. i’m sure all of us have heard devotionals where the speaker talks about “putting out the best for others” like the nice plates & silverware and stuff like that, but this is not what i’m talking about. don’t you just act differently when other people are with you that you don’t know that well? or better question, don’t you act differently around elders or people you respect? me, personally, i know that i don’t use the same conversational english with my grandfather that i use with my brother and the same with my father. 

for some reason when we are around people that we don’t know or people that we respect, we are more deliberate with our words and more intentional with our actions. the best example i can give is that when i first met laura’s grandparents. i would think about everything i was going to say so that i would make sure not to say something terrible or off-putting because i wanted to make a good impression on them. i wanted them to know that i cared about their granddaughter and that i valued their opinion of me. 

i finished reading ‘the pursuit of god’ by a.w. tozer, and in chapter 5 he talks about the “universal presence of god”. as i was reading that chapter, i asked myself, “do i believe that god is always there?” the answer was quickly, “no.” i don’t. if i did, i wouldn’t do half of the things that i do and i wouldn’t think the things that i think. why do we believe that god is omnipotent, but believe there are some things that we can keep from him? or that there are things that we do that he can’t see? if we believe that he can’t see these things, then what kind of ‘god’ is he? 

i like the end of verse 5 in chapter 13 of hebrews and i enjoy the way that the message version reads: 

“…since God assured us, ‘i’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,’ we can boldy quote,

god is there, ready to help; i’m fearless no matter what. who or what can get to me? -Hebrews 13:5

god’s presence doesn’t inhibit us, but it makes us stronger. i believe that if i lived like god was (and is) there with me ALWAYS then i would be a better person. let’s not forget this and try to live purposefully for the god that has pulled us near to him.

sleeping in a boat - matthew 8:23-27; mark 4:35-41

in italy, i have learned the vital importance of sleep & rest. every day, we are always preparing to do something, actually doing something, thinking about doing something, or wondering why we aren’t doing something. it’s stressful, tiring, and exhausting. it’s funny because this past weekend we’ve had some of the longest days that we have had since moving here, and it just so happens that they have been in succession. all of these things have been fantastic and we’ve enjoyed them, but at night when our heads finally hit the pillow, we sleep hard.

sunday, i was fortunate to be able to participate in a soccer game with some of the members of our church and another local congregation. we played for almost two hours and by the end i was beat (this was after having minimal sleep the two days before). i sat there for a minute and for some reason i started thinking about these two accounts from the gospels. i started thinking about jesus on this boat.

okay, so jesus has begun his ministry and he has been healing people, talking to a centurion, talking about narrow & wide gates, using parables…basically, ministering to the needs of others on every level. i imagine that he didn’t have an exorbitant amount of free time AND i imagine that he was probably beat. ok, so if your like me and you look at the story of ‘jesus calming the storm’, what is it that we always pay attention to? for me, i’ve always put an extreme amount of emphasis (along with those that have used this story to teach me) on the ‘lack of faith of the disciples’, or ‘always putting your trust in god no matter the circumstances’, or (my personal favorite) ‘there are always storms in our lives especially when we least expect them’. i’m not saying that any of these are wrong, but i would like to point out something from this story that was new to me & hopefully will be new to you.

jesus was fast alseep in the stern of a boat in the middle of a terrible storm.

so, i’ve been tired before. i’ve worked long hours. i’ve stayed up all night to study for tests and not slept for long periods of time. i’ve been tired, but i don’t think i’ve been this tired. jesus had given himself physically, emotionally, spiritually to the point of sheer exhaustion and he was done. can you imagine trying to sleep in the stern of a boat? on a cushion? in the middle of a thunderstorm WITH water splashing INTO the boat? i don’t think i could. my favorite part of this story is the disciples having to wake him up. ‘um, jesus, there’s a mild problem with the boat. it’s full of water and we’re all about to drown, but if you could just put your REM sleep on hold for second, we’d appreciate it.’

have i ever let god use me to the point of this exhaustion? to the point that i could sleep in a boat that was sinking in the middle of a terrible storm? to the extent that my friends would have to come to me and say, ‘bud, if you don’t wake up i think you’re going to drown with the boat.’ i pray that god will use us this way. that god will take each of us, that will allow him, and use us up for his glory. it’s my prayer today that we start (or continue) living active lives for god’s purposes on his earth & quit finding excuses for not being sold out to living lives worthy of our calling.

blindspots

i don’t like blindspots. i have been living in italy for almost 7 months and i haven’t driven anything in that span of time, but i assure you that i still do not have room in my heart for these things. once when i was going to buy my first car, i test drove a brand new one, and decided to look at a totally different model of car due to how huge the blindspots were. there were these huge black, plastic panels that prevented you from seeing what was coming (and i’m not a huge fan of that).

when we’re driving and we have a blindspot, what do we ask the person in the passenger seat? 

“anything coming? am i clear?”

if we don’t ask those questions, usually when we start to merge over on top of something/someone we’ll either receive a very loud, persistent car horn or the people in the car with you will start saying, “stop! there’s somebody there!”

i was recently reading through radical by david platt and in chapter 5 & 6 he touches on this concept of ‘blindspots’. i think the perspective that i enjoyed most was not the blindspots themselves, but the fact that a large majority of the time we can’t see them unless someone tells us about them or if they are ‘revealed to us’.  here is a brief quote from chapter 6 about blinspots from dr. platt:

‘areas of our lives that need to be uncovered so we can see correctly and adjust our lives accordingly. but they are hard to identify. others can often see them in us, and we rely on friends to point them out. but the reality is, even then we have a hard time recognizing them. we don’t want to admit they exist…we discover them in hindsight, but we struggle to see them in the present.’

this hit me hard. i started thinking about the things that i choose in my life to sweep under the rug. to justify. to explain. to make excuse for when in reality i’m not being proactive in making a change that would solve the problem completely. then i started thinking about how i’ve never helped another christian by identifying a ‘blindspot’ in their life. our culture teaches us to stick to our own business and to worry about ourselves, our problems, ‘our planks’ (matthew 7:3-5), but as a church, are we identifying these things with each other?

the thought for today is simply, what is it in our lives that is preventing us from being totally & completely committed to jesus? what is it that we’ve justified to ourselves? is it building a million dollar building knowing that over 84% of the world lives on one dollar a day? is it racism? is it an absolute obsession with things? money? a life committed to self? i’m tired of living in a way that needs justification. i’ve been given the most incredible thing that anyone has ever received and i’m tired of investing in myself and ignoring the command, “go.” i’ll finish with two quotes from “radical”:

“I wonder at some points if I’m being irresponsible or unwise. But then I realize there is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, ‘I wish you would have kept more for yourself.’ I’m confident that God with take care of me.” - member of Brook Hills church

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” -Jim Elliot

experiencing His love - john 8:1-11

today is easter & luckily, i believe, that today is no different than any other day of the year because the God that i serve and believe in conquered death once (not once a year on easter sunday). personally, i’m trying to make the type of emotion associated with this one day of the year an every day occurrence. i hope that we all can rejoice with the author of romans 6:8-10:

“now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know (emphasis mine) that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot (emphasis mine) die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”

today, at the florence church of christ, we were lucky to have jeff hopper (director of international programs for harding university). he spoke about the holiness of God, but more importantly about the love that God showed/s us through Jesus. he, briefly, referenced the story of the women caught in the act of adultery in john 8. the one concept that i have never tied to this story was the fact that the woman might not of had a clue who jesus was. think about that.

often, when we hear about this story, we spend most of our time trying to figure out what jesus wrote on the ground while the angry mob was standing there ready to kill this woman. but today, let’s look at it from the perspective of this woman. let’s describe her: naked, ashamed, humiliated, dirty, sinner, terrified, scared, etc. think about how you would feel. she has no idea who this ‘Teacher’ is, but she knows that the mob is waiting on him to give them the go ahead. the law said….death. the mob was right. but, jesus says what? jeff explained, “jesus, basically, asked the crowd, ‘Who of you possess the ability to judge this woman? who among you holds the holiness of god to be her judge?” and the crowd disperses. they leave her, and jesus tells her he doesn’t condemn her and to go on her way.

so… where does that leave us? this woman, maybe, had no idea who this man was, but she experienced a love, a compassion, a salvation that was different than every other person there. again, i go back to the holy spirit. jesus leaves us the holy spirit and we are filled with GOD. today, we celebrate a risen lord, but i challenge us to not only celebrate the fact that he conquered death, but to look at ourselves and decide whether we are showing the amazing life that we now have because of him. let’s start on this easter not only praising our risen lord with words, but in how we live so that those that we come in contact with will see the difference and like the prophets of baal in 1 Kings 18:39 will say, “The Lord-he is God! The Lord-he is God!”

‘continuing debt’: romans 13:8

laura and i despise debt. so much so that when i had a huge amount of student loan debt, we committed to pay the entire amount in full before we came to italy in the fall. we had to sacrifice a lot of things, but we always had what we needed (and most of what we wanted). i think the thing that was most strange about that time was how present the thought of this debt was on our minds. we had read ‘the total money makeover’ by dave ramsey (as pictured below) and we were both committed to living & completing this task…and we did.

every thursday night at the church here in florence, we have an italian bible study and we’ve been focusing on the book of Romans. last night, i was reading through this chapter to myself during the bible study when i came across verse 8 in the chapter:

“let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” -Romans 13:8

i kept reading that verse over and over again. i looked in the italian ‘la bibbia’ to see if the language was similar and there was one word that was not there…”continuing”. first, think about how we feel about debt. we are always thinking about how were going to pay it. when it’s due. who we owe…etc. second, think about it like it is always there…in every situation…in the months were you had an unexpected bill…when the car broke down and there is less money in the bank or when you really want to buy that one thing, but you can’t.

this concept is a struggle for me because i don’t love people continually. i love people conditionally. i love people when it’s comfortable. i love people if they love me or if they are pleasant. but, that is not jesus. also, i don’t think about it like a debt. i don’t think about it like i owe them. like they deserve my time, energy, & effort. i don’t think about it like a debt. i should.

unconditional love for the ‘others’ was jesus thing. join me as i try to live out matthew 22:37-40 & romans 13:8 and ‘love people as i love myself.’ 

so i was reading through titus

i’m going to imagine that many of us have never started a sentence with this phrase: “so this morning i was reading titus.” but, this morning i actually was. i’m currently in the middle of the m’cheyne bible reading plan which will put me and laura through the new testament twice & old testament once in a year (4 chapters/day) and today was titus. 

so, in this very small book of the new testament paul is writing to titus, “my true son in our common faith” (v. 4) & when i was reading through these 3 chapters i kept hearing about example. i kept seeing this concept of living & teaching in such a way that others can see the difference. chapter 2 begins with paul saying, “you must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” and then he goes on to give a checklist of the types of attitudes needed to be displayed by the “older men…older women…young men…and slaves.” (v. 2-10)

what paul writes here in chapter two kind of hit me in the face because my primary mission in italy is/has been to reach the ‘young men & women’. read this with me:

“Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”  -Titus 2:6-8

everything. ouch. have i set an example in everything that i’m doing? have we ever stopped to think really about what our presence means in the lives of those around us? this question isn’t just for people my parents age or even my age, but teenagers alike. francis chan wrote in his book ‘forgotten god’: 

Or, as my youth pastor once asked me, what would your church (and the worldwide church) look like if everyone was as committed as you are? If everyone gave and served and prayed exactly (emphasis mine) like you, would the church be healthy and empowered? Or would it be weak and listless?

i know this is very ‘youth group’y but honestly, what do you think about that? i know what the answer is as far as i’m concerned. luckily, paul reminds us at the end of titus why we need to be excited, different, healthy, empowered in our mission:

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. -Titus 3:4-7

today, lets take a look at where we are and stop talking and start doing. 

grace isn’t fair.

so, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. my wife’s parents came to italy for a visit and were here for 12 days. we had a blast, and we were busy every single day. sadly, laura and i weren’t just excited to see them, but we were also excited about some of the things that they were bringing us that we can’t find in italy. for laura, it was mainly cooking items. for me, it was books!!

i would like to especially thank gary lemmons & buster clemens (hyg youth group) for helping this stack of books make it to florence, italy from memphis, tn. one book in particular that i really couldn’t wait to read was love wins by rob bell. this is his newest book that was released in march of 2011. i want other people to read it, but the main topic of this book is heaven, hell, & what we do with it as Christians. the best part about rob bell, to me, is that he doesn’t demand that you agree with everything he says, but rather he wants you to think, to study, to discern for yourself; and he writes in a way that does that. personally, he challenged everything i knew about this subject and has forced me study scripture for myself to come to a conclusion. however, there has been one quote from this book that has been rattling around in my brain since finishing it:

“grace and generosity aren’t fair; that’s their very essence.”

in his book, he gives a very unique perspective on the Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. usually, when we hear this story we are hearing it from the perspective of the younger son & the father, but bell spends the majority of time talking about the older brother & the father. yet again, i want you to read it, but one thing that most of us know about this story is that the “older brother” was the one that had it all together. he worked hard. he did what the father asked him. he didn’t go on an extravagant vacation. he didn’t do anything that the father told him not to. but what attitude do we see at the end of luke’s account of this story: jealousy, anger, hatred, etc. 

it’s at this point that i try to wrap around the concept of what that quote means. you and i will never do enough to deserve salvation. never. i feel like my american upbringing has instilled in me the drive to ‘diy’ it. there isn’t anything that hard work and diligence won’t fix, but amazingly, the best thing you can receive isn’t set up on this program. thankfully. it’s at this point, that i challenge the validity of what our opinions of others are and the concept of “in & out” (with regard to heaven). If you asked the older brother (in Luke 15), who was going to find favor in his father’s eyes and would receive the party, who do you think he would say? exactly. let’s take a minute and just come to the realization that we will never do enough. ever.

i’m not trying to touch on ‘universalism’ or saying there isn’t judgement, but i am withholding my judgement because mine is wrong and will never be the same as the Father’s. it will always be wrong. as far as the importance of the older & younger brother, there is no difference. in romans 3:22-23, “this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all (emphasis mine) who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall (present tense, not past) short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

thank God that grace isn’t fair and that it’s free. what do you think?