How Bullying Reveals a Recognition of God

As I finished up the topic of bullying yesterday I realized that there was one thing I had not covered that could be a comfort to those who are being bullied.

This has to do with bullying that is verbal in nature. If someone is making fun of you or calling you names their intention is to make you feel bad. Think about it. If we are nothing more than animals at the end of a long process of evolution name calling should have no impact. It should not hurt if our existence is merely accidental. But it does hurt. It is an attack on our dignity. The very fact that verbal bullying hurts should remind us of why it hurts. You see verbal bullying hurts because it assaults our dignity. Our dignity exist because we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Man often ends up acknowledging the creator in backhanded ways. Verbal bullying attacks a person with the intent of tearing them down. It matters because we are made in God's image. If the person being bullied could just realize this then they might realize also that if we are made in His image there is no better place to be then in His hands. If you are one of those being bullied today, turn to Jesus, repent of your sins against Him and seek Him as your Lord and master. The only life worth living is the life that is lived focused on the one in whose image we are made.

Guarding Against the State god of Evangelism

I want to clarify up front that I do believe that street preaching done right with a real gospel message can be effective. However, we have a group of people that show up in our town to street preach that are marked by their condemnation. They seek to condemn almost anyone that walks past them and I have yet to hear them speak of the marvelous grace that is ours in Jesus. There is something these street preachers do that is a form of idolatry. They use video cameras for legal protection, and they make sure to mention that they are free to preach, because of the the free speech protections provided by the constitution.

Lets think about this for a moment in the light of scripture. Paul was a roman citizen (Acts 16:37, 22:25). By law he had the right to not be arrested and beaten. He may have had protected freedom of speech. We never see Paul exercise his Roman rights when he is out preaching to the masses. Paul only brings up his rights when he is in close contact with his Roman guards. Why? Well it seems pretty clear that the gospel does not need the protection of man. We should not depend upon the state to be our guardian before the world. The gospel and the gospel alone should be presented. To present the gospel along with a message that we bow the knee to the state in order to preach the gospel is confusing. What marks effective street evangelism?

First the world needs to know that the thing that drives us is care and concern for their eternal destiny. This love for them is driven by the unmerited love we have received from God (1 John 4:10).

Second they need to understand that there is a sin problem that separates them from God and eternal life (Romans 3:23, 6:23).

Third they need to know that grace is available to all of those who will repent of their sin and accept Jesus as Lord and God (2 Corinthians 12:9).

This is the core of the gospel. It starts in the love we have received from God and ends in the love that can be received by any repentant sinner. To add anything man made like freedoms or rights to this gospel message just confuses it, muddies it and weighs it down. So keep your eyes focused on the King of our future Kingdom when you step out into the kingdoms of this world. If we are aliens and strangers with God focused minds and hearts then we will return bearing God focused sheaves with us (Ephesians 2:17-19, Hebrews 11:13-16).

A Hitch in the day

Today is Monday and it is the official pray for Christopher Hitchens day. I would encourage anyone to pray for Christopher Hitchens. I personally hope that the Lord convicts him of his sin and changes his heart on his deathbed just before he dies.

I don't want other Christians to know if Christopher Hitchens came to Christ in the end. Why? Because too many of us cannot be trusted with that information. There would be smear campaigns geared at discrediting his books and his atheistic thinking. Far too much time would be spent on discussions of Mr. Hitchens deathbed conversion. No instead we should be taking the time that we would spend on something like that and spend it on sharing the gospel with other atheist and unbelievers that need to know Jesus.

The other reason I don't want us to know if he ultimately comes to know Jesus is that his logic is already faulty. In an article on today's prayer vigil for Christopher called, "Atheist Christopher Hitchens to Skip Prayer Day in His Honor" there are several quotes that point to the reality of what is missing from his base arguments. The article says:

As for his work, Hitchens says he would be happy to be recalled simply as one of those "who are attempting to uphold reason and science against superstition."

Where his logic breaks down is that I too would like to uphold reason as well as logic against superstition. You see we both look at each others belief as superstition. He would denigrate my belief in God. I would point to his belief in evolution and faith in the infallibility of science and say that that belief is faulty.

As late as the 16th and 17th century spontaneous generation of living things from non living things was believed by all scientist of any merit. One scientist even published directions for creating mice from dirty underwear and wheat in 21 days. This idea of spontaneous generation of life from non living matter had been in existence from the time of Aristotle. Oh yea I almost forgot Evolutionist still believe this one. I guess I need to find another superstition that they no longer hold to.

While this might bring a chuckle from some and groans from others the point is that this is what Hitchens and others like him do. They set Christians up to look superstitious or like nut cases and then they lampoon them in the name of science. What I am wanting you all to see here is that they think that they are doing the world a service. The reality is that they are living out what Paul said in Romans 1. They suppress the truth and become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened (Romans 1:18, 21). We must have grace toward them just like God had toward us when we were like them.

Right now Christopher Hitchens is moving very rapidly into an eternity of bearing the wrath of God. This is something that I do not wish on anyone. Even if you missed praying for Hitchens on the official prayer day, pray for him now. We have an irresistible almighty God who can overcome and save even the hardest of hearts. Keep your eyes on Jesus and trust Him because He can save Christopher from the wrath to come.

Why are we so conflicted???

A piece by Christopher Ryan in CNN's opinion section grabbed my attention today. It was titled, "Monogamy unnatural for our sexy species". What I find completely remarkable when I read articles like this is how they isolate one thing. If you look at humanity we are not just in conflict over sex. We are in conflict over just about everything. We want to look good but we want to enjoy our food. We want to help others out but we want to have our free time and recreation. We want to be dedicated to our jobs and to our families. The list could go on and on. The secular world comes up with one solution after another. The solution of not having any sexual commitment was tried in the '60's and found to be bankrupt. Ryan seems to be proposing that that sort of freedom is what we need. The problem we really face is that we sense something is not quite right. We lack a certain level of expected fulfillment. The natural man (because he still thinks he can be a god unto himself - Genesis 3:5) looks for answers of his own making everywhere. There is one place he refuses steadfastly to look. He will not look to God. Yet there is the real answer to the lack of fulfillment that men struggle with. There are a lot of people in the church that still struggle aren't there? Yes and in almost every case the struggles we have are in areas that we are growing to trust God in. Many who attend church struggle with even knowing how to pursue God in a personal manner. This very problem is one of the key reasons that I wrote the book, "The God Focused Life". I am just tired of seeing Christians who are no different then the world. We should be different. I know that my life is very fulfilled and that is because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is a living Lord who takes our burdens and gives us His peace that passes all understanding. The only reason that humanity finds all of these things unnatural or conflicting is because we are born in sin. Our sin nature is self-desturctive. It causes us to do things and long for things that are detrimental to us. Do you want peace and rest for your soul then turn to Jesus for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:29-30). He will give you true rest for your souls. But you will never find that rest until you want Him more than you want anything else. When the desire for personal peace or affluence or anything else eclipses our desire for God our souls feel the bankruptcy of the substitute longing. Jesus is not a means to an end. Jesus is the end of our seeking. The relationship available to us in Him will satisfy the most hungry and thirsty soul. To know Him repent of your rebellion and sin against Him and seek Him with all that you are. This God focused pursuit is the only true answer to our conflicted natures.

Evangelism confusion

Tonight we were out sharing our faith at a local street fair. We have a booth that our church pays for and the reason that we are there is to share the gospel. I thought I would relate one instance in particular. I shared the gospel with three young men. I use a very interactive question and answer type of dialog in order to engage them and walk them through the gospel. There was a young man who would come up from time to time and then he would go away. After sharing the gospel with them and making sure that they were clear on the salvation that has been offered to them in Jesus Christ I sent them on their way. The thing that makes me pause is that within a few minutes the guy from the edges of the conversation comes up to me almost crying in gratitude for me sharing the gospel with his friends. He was so glad that I had given his friends the gospel message. Now don't get me wrong. I am excited to be able to share the gospel. But there is nothing special or magical about me or my words. This young man who was so grateful could have been the one to share the gospel with these guys. I bet if I had pressed the issue I would have found out that he really did not understand how to share the gospel. Oh I am sure he could give his testimony. I do not doubt his genuine gratefulness. To be honest I do not think that the problem really is his.
What I have found is that there is an overwhelming rejection of personal evangelism among most people that call themselves evangelicals. This rejection has been initiated and fostered by pastors. Dozens of pastors have asked me with an air of incredulity, "Does that really work?!?" The resounding answer is yes it does. The other common thing is that people are claiming to go out to do evangelism but what they are really doing is name it and claim it theology on the street. They go out and pray for healing of headaches and backaches etc. So they spend a lot of time looking for just the right person and are not really equipped to share the gospel message. They may not even know how to share the gospel message. When you live a God focused life you are going to come to understand that healing evangelism and lifestyle evangelism are poor substitutes for evangelism. The God focused life causes us to realize that we have met and know the most incredible being that has ever existed. Why would I want to share anything less than the way to know Him. The gospel message in a nutshell is this: In order to know Jesus people must recognize that they have sinned against God and are in a desperate situation without hope apart from Jesus. People need to know that they must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus. People will not get this from watching us or having us pray for healing. Anyone can do it, you just have to have the reality of how magnificent Christ is burned into your heart by constantly gazing at Him. People really do need to hear this message and someone really does need to tell them. Who will tell your friends? Will it be you? Or will you wait for someone else and be really grateful that your friends finally heard? Will they ever hear? What's it going to be?

Islam, Grace and Southpark

Comedy central apparently aired an episode of Southpark in which they depicted the prophet Mohamed dressed up in a bear costume. I am not endorsing or recommending you see this episode or any episode. The issue here is that a group called revolution muslim opposed the episode. They were adamant that depictions of Mohammed not be shown. They posted on their website graphic pictures of the death of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004 by Muslim extremists for making a movie about Muslim women. The caption under the images read: “Have Matt Stone and Trey Parker Forgotten This?” The threat was seen as very real and comedy central censored the episode. What strikes me about this is the lake of grace that exists in the religion of Islam. While I am sure that Revolution Muslim does not represent all muslims, Islam is rigid and there are reasons that countries controlled by Muslim leadership are so repressive. The main thing that stands out to me is the appalling lack of grace. I have witnessed to Muslims in this country and it always strikes me how they are working to balance the scales. They talk about repenting and seeking to do good. Lets take a step back and think about the seriousness of sin and its offense to God. If I lied to my children I will not get in a great deal of trouble. If I lie to my wife I will certainly face consequences. If I lie to a police officer or a judge I could go to jail. If I lie to the federal government I could lose my life for treason. The difference in each of these situations is the stature of the person or entity I lied to affected the consequences of telling a lie. God is greater than any government and He is holy. How much of an offense is one lie to God? Could anyone ever do enough good to offset just one lie? The tragedy for my muslim neighbors is that they live under a religious experience that offers no grace and so they offer no grace. I count myself privileged that God called my in grace to Himself. He paid the penalty for my sin and made me His child. I repented and now seek to follow Him as my Lord. Repentance for me was recognizing that I have sinned against God and cannot hope to pay the penalty on my own. I called on God in my brokenness to save me and Jesus took my penalty and paid my price. I am counting on grace and this gives me the ability through the Holy Spirit to offer more grace to others. May God grant my Muslim neighbors the grace they need to meet Jesus repent and receive His grace so that they too can come to live God focused lives in Jesus my God.

When evil becomes good and good becomes evil

The New York Times has an article titled, "Evangelist May Be Disinvited to Prayer Day Event at Pentagon". A more complete article was on Yahoo, "Army considers rescinding invitation to evangelist." Apparently the Pentagon is considering rescinding an invitation for Franklin Graham to pray at the national day of prayer event at the Pentagon. The reason for the potential recall of the invitation hinges on a statement Franklin made in 2001. After the terrorist attacks he said, "Islam is a very evil and wicked religion". Since we have Muslim employees at the pentagon people are afraid that Graham's presence might endanger American troops by stirring up Muslim extremists.
Now lets think about this logically. Our troops are in the middle east fighting muslim extremist because they attacked us first. Somehow a Christian preacher praying at what is a historically Christian tradition in a Christian country is going to stir up muslim extremist. The extremist are not already stirred up by the fact that our troops are fighting their fellow extremist?!? A preacher praying for a few minutes in our country is going to push the extremist over the edge? I guess they will now become extreme extremist (whatever that is). This is just evidence that we have become a nation that is held hostage to the radical belief that we can somehow pacify our enemy into accepting us. This will never happen and that is apparent. Since this is not a political blog why the political focus? I am glad you asked. You see we do the same thing in the church. We do it with the seeker friendly movement. All this is a watering down of the gospel to make it relevant to the unsaved. What we have done is stripped the gospel of its power to change lives in the name of having more friends. We are trying to pacify them into accepting us. This will never happen. Men and women need a change of heart in order to accept Christ. Jesus was not acceptable in His day and to the pagan He is still not acceptable. Why? Jesus requires us to repent of our sin and accept Him as our Lord. Paul called people to repent and believe in Acts 19:3-5. There are people in the church today who would tell you it is evil to share this message with someone. We have begun to call good things evil when we do this. We seem to have forgotten where we should be seeking our friends. James 4:4 says that friendship with the world makes us an enemy of God. See what we need to do is seek Christ first and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). This will result in a transformed life and a real care and compassion for people that comes from Jesus. This is the only way that lives will be changed from evil to good. We must never give up seeking to live the God focused life.

Sin nature vs. Pride

The immediate reaction to this title will be to say, aren't they the same? And in the respect that they are both sin you are correct. But as a Christian the fact that I am a sinful man helps me to have more grace with others. The biggest problem that the Pharisees faced was pride. Their faith had degenerated into one of externalism. All that mattered was what they looked like. This problem continues today. It's manifestation is different but it still exists. In the Christian community it might be performance pressure at church meetings. We may put the pressure on ourselves but it's often there. This can be a form of pride. Perhaps we want life to appear to be better than what it is. Are we fooling ourselves by thinking that we need to look a certain way? What about the tendency we have to try and please God through external actions? Remember Isaiah 6:1-7, here this prophet who would have been considered a great man in any of our churches calls himself a man of unclean lips. He sees the sin in his life and it humbles him. You see our sin when seen for what it is does humble us. It brings us up short and helps us to realize that not only do we not measure up we can never measure up. That is a good thing. Because when we really come to understand that WE truly cannot measure up we are closer to depending on God than at any other time. When we depend on God that is really when His glory can shine through us. Our pride must be put to death. When we realize that we only deserve God's wrath for everything then we will more desperately look to our Savior. Not that we go out and seek to sin, but the reality of our sin nature can become a catalyst that drives us more passionately into pursuing a God focused life.

Making the gospel relevant?

As I reflected on yesterday's post it seems to me that there are two engines that drive the vehicle of relevancy. The first engine is a misrepresentation of what the gospel is. Often the gospel message is presented in a context that is far from Biblical. (What I mean by Biblical is that it is not the way that Jesus or the apostles presented it.) It is often presented to people as if they are part of a group that needs some help getting to heaven and the cross gets us there. While the description is true in its essence there is never any need for the individuals that we share this with to feel sorry for offending a Holy God. There is no strong call to repent because there is no discussion of sin outside of the context of being part of a group of sinners. This rarely produces repentance and thus does not produce a personal need for a Savior. The second confusing way the gospel is presented is that God has a wonderful plan for your life. God does have a wonderful plan for the life of anyone who repents of his or her sin and follows Jesus as their Lord. The problem is that the idea of repentance and taking Jesus as Lord is usually not mentioned at all. It ends up being about asking Jesus into your heart. No repentance, no following required and usually none is committed to outside of a canned prayer. The gospel is all about recognizing that we are sinners and hopelessly lost without God's intervention in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If this were the gospel message that was presented there would be no need to make it relevant. The second engine that drives the vehicle of relevancy is the engine of unbelief. People simply do not believe that the work of the Holy Spirit combined with a clear Biblical gospel message is sufficient. This is simply a tragic misunderstanding of the power, purpose and work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus acted as if the message of repenting of sin and following Him was all that was needed. Take for example His interaction with the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-22. The best way I know to combat both of these problems is to focus primarily on our Lord as we engage with Him in His word.

Extreme fighting for Jesus???

A headline caught my eye today that I just could not resist weighing in on. The video report was titled Jesus was the ultimate fighter. I looked up the guy's web site http://xtremeministries.com/ and was struck by the main thrust of the rationalization. Are you ready? The goal is to make the gospel relevant or attractive to a certain segment of people. What amazes me about this approach is that you could use the relevancy card for anything. Let's start gangsters for the gospel, because even gangsters need Jesus. How about prostitutes for pentecost. They use their business to bring guys in and then when they are finished they give them the gospel. Come on when we go down this road we essentially are saying that the gospel is not relevant enough by itself. Apparently the Holy Spirit cannot change a heart without us hanging something relevant around the gospel. It is so completely ridiculous that I find it amazing. First of all you and I do not change people's hearts. The Holy Spirit does the work. I don't have a problem with someone being a Christian and playing at a sport like extreme fighting. The problem comes into play when we change it into something that goes beyond a Christian that plays a sport. Somehow now it needs to be a Christianized sport? I don't get it. People can be Christians. Sports cannot be Christian. They are a thing and have no soul. We don't need a sport or a certain style of music or a network marketing business or a political platform to carry the gospel. We need people to get their eyes off of all of these temporal things and fix them on Jesus. The creator of the universe came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the most magnificent being that has ever existed. He offers to rebels that are completely corrupt, the potential of reconciliation to God through repentance of sin and commitment to Him. I don't know how you can make that more relevant. Really anything that would be added by us only distracts from that message. We must keep our eyes on the Savior. Our only hope is found in Him.