The Unredemptive Blogs

The blog phenomenon is of great benefit in many ways, including offering great resources for spiritual growth and expression. Like most things, however, it has also provided a platform for destructiveness and merciless judgment, which was there before the internet, but now has an informational conduit with which to spread its venom. Such is the blog called Slice of Laodicea overseen by a woman named Ingrid Schlueter. She operates this blog as a spiritual correction to everyone and everything she deems in need of her doctrinal authority, including questioning the ordination and calling of scores, perhaps hundreds, of ordained pastors and preachers. She herself has only a radio program on a station started and I assume still overseen by her father. But her ecclesiastical usurpation aside, I want to address a broader issue that she, as well as other Christian bloggers, exhibit regularly.

Last year the governor of Alaska was nominated to run for vice president on the Republican ticket. Since I am non-political, including abstaining from voting, I have no political axe to grind and Ms. Palin seemed to be a nice woman who also professed a faith in Jesus Christ. During the campaign it became known that her 17 year old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant out of wedlock. As you can imagine the press had a field day with that from all perspectives within our culture. Some were absolutely horrible while others thought nothing of it.

Bristol Palin, with the guidance of her parents decided to have the child and not have an abortion. She is on the beginning of a journey that will have some unique struggles. Recently she decided to go with her mother and give an interview to Fox news about her situation. She tells of her desire to be an example of what not to do, and to even speak to teenagers on the subject. She expresses remorse in a 17 year old language, and nowhere does she say what she did was right, even though she does not regret the baby itself. How could she?

But now enters the “Christian” blogashpere, ready to pounce on her every word and demanding she show more shame and contrition, such as would meet their criteria. One such post emanated from the blog Slice of Laodicea, written by Ms. Schlueter. It is a treatise on condemnation and self righteousness, and presents in stark relief what Christianity looks like when redemption and grace is missing and replaced by self righteousness camouflaged as “Biblical morality”. It is not enough for people like Ms. Schlueter to speak disparagingly about preachers and churches, or to demean the ordinations and callings of pastors and elders, but she and others must investigate the moral failings of ordinary young women in the midst of a difficult situation and pile on with her caustic rhetoric regardless of the circumstances.

Some of these bloggers, if you can believe what I am going to share, actually subscribe to secular news outlets that give them daily e-mail reports, some with key words like “pastor” or “church” or other catch phrases so that each morning they receive secular reports about the moral failures of others. And when things like a pastor from Nowhere, USA is caught in adultery comes to their attention they immediately can spread it and add their self righteous editorial about the state of evangelicalism, excluding their own piety of course. And if you read the interview juxtaposed with Ingrid’s post you will see a mischaracterization, not to mention the “stick your nose in other people’s business” foundation of the post. So the internet can provide the perch from which anyone can write as if they had authority and divine direction, even when the love that should cover a multitude of sins is absent.

I cannot tell you how repulsed I was to read her self serving mischaracterization of that interview. She is absolutely obsessed with everyone else’s business, and shows no compassion whatsoever for hardly anyone. Her blog is a demonic tabloid. In reality, her post about Bristol Palin is nothing more than a lie and could even be legally slanderous. I preached strongly against premarital sex, but when my own daughter became pregnant before she was married our entire faith community gathered around her to forgive and restore her. No one had to tell her she had sinned, but “a bruised reed will He not break”.

As a father, I cannot put into words what I would have felt if some woman had used our family heartbreak as a launching pad for her vicious attack blog. Ingrid continues to reveal the depth of her self righteous darkness and she is without feeling for those she castigates.

Let it be known, without compassion and mercy there is no Christianity, just a hollow moral construct that self righteously suggests the heart of the one who judges is much better than the ones she castigates. Christianity is infinitely more than a set of moral commandments that are policed within the community by the modern midnight riders of the spiritual Klan, enforcing their own legalism by the outstretched tentacles of their viperous electronic tongues.

It has become apparent that these teachers of the law are deconstructing the very faith once delivered to the saints with every bit as much diligence as are some who reject some cardinal tenants of the faith itself. It has become a rejection of the cross, every bit as deceptive and deadly as those who reject the substitutionary essence of that cross. These moral storm troopers delight in the failure of others and are only too happy to inflict additional wounds to those who have fallen, and that, my friends, is demonic at its core.

Let us not be deceived, what some are projecting is not Christianity, it is a modern day revelation of the parable of the publican and the tax collector. Just because one seems outwardly moral, and goes to church to sit and revel in their own righteousness, and just because one checks all the doctrinal boxes on the theological test, does not mean that person is living out the Christian faith.

Discussing issues, even in uncivilized verbiage is unfortunate but understandable. Even attacking certain preachers with adolescent and ignorant labels and phrases is fleshly and carnal. But attacking, lying about, and using the sins and failures of young men and women to further your own twisted hubris is unconscionable and does despite to the Spirit of Christ. God’s Spirit is searching for a bride for God’s Son, and like Eliezer He draws this bride with gifts of mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love, not a judicial construct that not only condemns the future Mrs. Isaac, but publishes her sins with an effervescent editorial that makes her as unattractive as possible and elevates the publisher as the owner of the tree of good and evil. There is nothing in that carnal “ministry” that remotely resembles the ministry of reconciliation, and in fact it works as the opponent of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So go ahead all you who desire to rid the culture of all unpleasantness and sin through the capture, tagging, and mounting of those sins on your blog room wall. Many continue to hunt for the sins of others, and with the skill of a taxidermist you preserve them as discernment trophies and invite as many visitors as possible to view the success of your transgression safaris. Go ahead and keep exhibiting your psychotic behavior by receiving daily secular updates on the sins of the world with which you can whisper that same gossip into the ears of your eager readers, presented with your own garnish of hyperbole, judgment, and twisted mischaracterizations.

All of you who do these things are working for the kingdom of darkness, not the kingdom of God’s Dear Son.

A Spiritual Mea Culpa?

What do your eyes see?

San Francisco – Some see Sodom, others see a mission field
Homeless – Some see a nuisance, others see compassion
Liberals – Some see the enemy, others see just an opinion
Economy – Some see panic, others see an opportunity
War – Some see victory, others see tragedy
Gays – Some see sin, others see redemption
Politics – Some see the answer, others see the problem

What does the world see?

The Church – Some see hate, others see love
The Church – Some see judgment, others see forgiveness
The Church – Some see self righteousness, others see humility
The Church – Some see law, others see grace
The Church – Some see an organization, others see an organism
The Church – Some see people, others see Christ

But what hardly anyone sees is a plethora of personal mea culpas emanating from within the body of Christ. No brokenness, no humility, and no spiritual responsibility. The fault of the spiritual condition of this land lies with the liberals, or the gays, or the music, or the government, or Hollywood, or anyone and anything other than at the feet of the Lord’s own people.

Is it not time to issue a blanket mea culpa that states, “Oh Lord, we have sinned, and we bear the responsibility of living in a dark world with a bushel securely placed over our light”?

The Soiled Landscape of Redemption

The Soiled Landscape of Redemption

In this modern world of technological advances and the marketing of the finished product, the church has become far too antiseptic, bleached, and spiritually unblemished. We have orchestrated a presentation that undermines the message of redemption and in many ways presents a mirage, even a lie. I read a comment this past week that stirred my innermost being.

The man said, “Our churches do not have enough blood on the floor, the blood of both wounded sinners and the Savior”.

Think on that statement, that indictment. Instead of a redemptive slaughterhouse, we have become a museum for the approval of the righteous, when in fact we should be a crimson lighthouse that attracts the wounded and provides them a place to bleed as well as a place to find the blood from which to heal. We spend much energy to project an image of wholeness and perfection, believing that is what attracts sinners. But most times that is exactly what drives sinners away, for by that image they are repelled as they shrink back in the reality of their own profound imperfection and sin.

We have hung drapes of morality that keeps the light of redemption from shining through and opening the hearts of the lost. Many people feel the necessity to get cleaned up before they can even consider becoming a believing follower of Jesus Christ, and we have encouraged that perception by the clean and pristine image projected by our spiritual communities. Sinners, demonstrative and open sinners, were drawn to Christ in His incarnation, and yet we continue to be aloof and insulated in our micro-communities of conservatism, moral causes, and our assembly lines to church membership.

But the process of redemption has always been messy. Think on the cross and see the gruesome visage and scarlet body, hanging and writhing in agony over the soiled landscape beneath this figure draped in horror. There is nothing antiseptic here, nothing that presents a neat, little package waiting to be opened beneath Rockwell’s Christmas tree. This is the soiled landscape of redemption, arrayed in all its gory glory, and lifted up for all to breathe in the smell of sweat and to behold the ghastly vision of a tortured God. This is the crimson mirror in which we see both ourselves and the love of God, but this mirror is smeared with the treachery of humanity mingled with the divine embrace of redemptive love. Messy, repulsive, and captivating.

And this event died and was resurrected and slipped the boundaries of Golgotha and spread around the world with energy and power. The hearts of sinners heard the story and saw this cross, and by revelation and the message of grace they were introduced to Hope. Could it be possible that they were included on that day of redemptive death? What must they pay and how clean must they become before they approach the power of its forgiveness? What is required before the crimson door swings wide open for them? Tell us dear believer, tell us what tribute must be paid to gain such grace.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Only believe, truly believe. That is everything.
What kind of love is this that offers itself without demanding a dowry? What kind of redemption requires such unimaginable sacrifice from its Author but offers its eternal benefits simply by faith? And by the millions they have come from every corner of the world, filled with the baggage of sin and the wounds that accompany those transgressions. As they come the landscape is soiled with the oozing wounds of their own hopelessness and the overflowing blood of the Son of God. Those that have already walked through the Door should rejoice in the scarlet flow that both messes and cleanses its new recipients. The redemption process is messy indeed as sinners go forward and fall back, and as their wounds heal and are reopened, and as their past and present imperfections and sins continue to soil the ecclesiastical atmosphere. The journey of the church is filled with the messiness of believing sinners and the redemptive slaughterhouse of the blood of the Lamb.

Let us guard our fellowships against the spiritual hygiene that bleaches the crime scenes and pretends everyone is fine and only moments from perfection. Our atmosphere must be filled with the blood of wounded sinners and the blood of the Savior, and our invitation must be centered on redemption over judgment. We must not place spiritual throw rugs in our midst so as to avoid the messiness that inevitably comes with shepherding imperfect sheep and loving wandering goats. So often believers are concerned when the unconverted are attending our church, when in fact that is the New Testament way. Jesus knew and allowed one twelfth of His eldership to be unsaved and loved him nonetheless.

Living and spreading the message of redemption is a messy business that bids sinners to “come and dine” and allows God to separate the sheep from the goats. And make no mistake, if you desire your church to present a “Leave it to Beaver” ambiance you can construct such a fiction and gather a collection of museum curators. But if you desire to present and live the Person of Jesus Christ, and if you are going to sound a call to all sinners from every genre of transgression, and if you will joyfully minister to the wounds of human beings both self inflicted and otherwise, then your ecclesiastical landscape will be significantly soiled with sin and redemption mingled in your midst.

There is no other way, the landscape of redemption is always soiled.

The Ministry of Being Wrong

I was born again in March of 1975. In 1976 I began Bible college at a conservative school affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I learned many wonderful things at that school and appreciate the years I spent there. It was in those formative years that I learned the core doctrines of the faith and I learned how to study the Word.

But in those days most conservative evangelicals were taught not to think outside the box and to be suspicious of most conversations that contained any unfamiliar thoughts or ideas. And we were very suspicious of any emphasis on humanitarian works since our reasoning was that they diluted the message and came dangerously close to a “social gospel”. The fundamental system of how the church was to function was etched in stone and most everyone fell in line with it. It was so simple back then as we reclined inside the well worn parameters ranging from the King James Bible to our mandatory short hair and everything in between.

And with all our rigidity we created a self fulfilling spiritual martyrdom, and we felt so proud to be different and verbally persecuted, supposing we were favored by God. Sure we loved Christ and His Word, but there was an ecclesiastical clique that constructed an artificial wall of separation that Jesus never intended. In reality, in our genuine attempt to please God we had set up a New Testament law that in many ways abrogated grace and cultivated self righteousness. We did not mean to, but we did.

And now those of us who lived out those days are still around in this spiritual climate, and we are faced with some searching issues that demand perspective and honesty. That is not to say that the dangers of spiritual and Biblical departure are gone because they will always be with us, but it is to suggest that the church of the living God could be, MUST be, entirely more expansive in its revelation of the person of Jesus Christ. It is pitiful to pat ourselves on our backs because we lift up Christ in our pulpits while the dark and blind world sees and hears very little of Jesus lived out in His followers.

I would now suggest some tangible things about which I was wrong.

I was wrong for criticizing lost sinners. Back in the fundamentalist heyday we were accomplished at preaching against rock stars, movie stars, and an array of public sinners who provided much sermon fodder and elicited many a self righteous “amen”. We would castigate people like Madonna or Elton John or the movie star activists, and when I think about that type of self serving ungraciousness I realize that I was wrong. God’s love understands what sinners do and what condition they are in, but His example is the cross. His answer wasn’t to come into the world to condemn the world, no, He came so that the world through Him might be saved.

This issue goes all the way back to the Anita Bryant crusade against homosexuals and the church championing her as a hero of the faith only to see her own marriage crumble in divorce. Churches would hold youth record burnings with the latest “out of the closet” rock star becoming the target, and all the while we had our ears and eyes on moral targets and not on Christ Himself. This type of "attack Christianity" galvanizes the base but leads us all astray and veering far off the redemptive journey set before us by our Redeemer.

We do a disservice to Christ and His message when we take cheap shots at the unbelievers, regardless of who they are and what they do. It breeds self righteousness and denigrates the concept of grace wherein we all stand. Our message is the everlasting gospel and our motivation is love, love for Christ and love for the sinner. We need to teach about sin in our midst, but we need to march outside the camp with a banner of loving redemption unfurled before us.

I was wrong for being political. Perhaps no other issue has clouded the greatness of the gospel and the concept of justification by faith than the church’s participation in politics. During the 70’s there arose many religious right organizations whose expressed purpose was to change the morality of a nation through political leverage. Millions of unbelievers have gotten the idea that to be a Christian you must be moral, and specifically you must be aligned with certain issues like abortion and homosexuality. While those issues may be pertinent within the church, they are the spiritual carts before the horse among the lost.

In many ways the church has projected America as God’s new Israel, and patriotism has become a tenant of discipleship. Supporting conservative causes has become a part of Christian moralism, and in fact this view has led the church to join “forces” with a range of denominations including Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, conservative Judaism, and all sorts of organizations that we would not agree with spiritually but cooperate with morally. This, as Paul noted, sends an uncertain sound and even projects a works based Christianity.

And it isn’t just those issues that have ecclesiastical sway, many believers project a conservative view of the government’s monetary policy, foreign policy, and many tangential issues that again are not germane to the gospel of Christ. We cannot be spiritual Martha’s, always worried about earthly issues that cannot be solved at the ballot box, no, we must walk in the footsteps of Mary and sit before the Savior and learn of Him. The government is in God’s hands, we must be about our Father’s business.

I was wrong for downplaying humanitarian issues. I came to believe that feeding the poor, helping the sick, and generally reaching out to people’s earthly needs were unattached to the gospel and minimal in God’s redemptive economy. I failed to see the importance and the attached spiritual revelation that good deeds can have when passionately invested in people and accompanied with a redemptive fragrance that unmistakably comes from Jesus Christ. I sincerely believe I have missed many opportunities to walk through doors that would have been opened by a more fervent outreach to people in need, motivated by God’s eternal love.

I now wonder how I could have been so blind and entrenched. Why could I not see that helping and ministering to people’s physical needs was a partner in the proclamation of the everlasting gospel? Maybe it was because we were always so worried about the “social gospel” that we eschewed the notion of worldwide humanitarianism energized by the love of God and ushering in the life changing message of the Risen Christ. We were so reactionary in those days, and we cultivated a climate of the “defense of the gospel” when in reality it was often just defensiveness.

No one can be saved without faith in Jesus Christ, that is clear throughout the New Testament, but we have become so obsessed with avoiding the social gospel we have sometimes become blind to binding up the wounds of people first and allowing the Spirit to open their hearts to the Savior later. Loving and prayerful process has given way to pigeon holing and windshield tracts. All of such attempts to spread the gospel are legitimate and necessary, but meeting people’s needs are our calling as well.

I was wrong about doctrine. I believe doctrine, which just means the study and organized expression of God’s truth, is important. Without doctrine, based upon the written Scriptures, we would have chaos. And it is no secret that there are always doctrinal aberrations that range from unorthodox all the way to rank heresy. So the core elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings concerning salvation by grace through faith are vital to the health of the body of Christ. But so often we have elevated the side issues of doctrine to a status they were never meant to have, and even used portions of doctrine as artillery toward others and self righteousness toward ourselves.

Everything we know, every truth that has been revealed to us is completely by grace through the illumination of the Spirit and surely not the spiritual prowess of our intellects. And yet we sometimes act as if we are the protectors of the Holy Grail and that we ourselves have sought and found God’s truth and have been assigned to protect it from the hordes of doctrinal barbarians. To be sure there are always movements and teachings that seriously change Biblical understandings of truth, but our calling is overwhelmingly a redemptive offensive and not protectionism.

And just a quick perusal of church history reveals a host of brothers in Christ whose doctrinal teachings were anything but satisfactory. Wesley brushes with legalism; Finney veers significantly off course; Luther carries over some Roman Catholic views; Calvin changes the nature of the atonement; Graham quotes the pope; and almost the entire catalogue of former and present evangelical preachers had their own doctrinal idiosyncrasies at best and variances at worst, but yet they were brothers in Christ and used of God. So the core doctrines are vital, but all the rest are not fellowship breakers and most assuredly not an excuse for careless and ungracious attacks .

I was wrong about love. The church has carefully crafted a counterfeit love that masquerades as the love of God but is in reality a self serving conscience salve that is no more the love of God than our love for sports. All believers know we are taught to “love the world” as God did and “love one another” as God commanded, so we are aware that we must project some teaching concerning these issues or risk being “unbiblical”. But if we are honest and sincere, and if we willing to let the Spirit speak to our hearts with conviction and discomfort, we will see that what we preach, and certainly what we practice, seriously misses the Scriptural mark concerning love and even exposes the love we teach as Biblically flawed and spiritually diminutive.

The love of God that we are called to emulate and practically illustrate is violently sacrificial and selfless, and when demonstrated in the power of the Spirit it must stand forth as incongruous to earthly love and a conduit that draws the saint and sinner alike to Christ. How is it that the body of Christ can claim to be walking in the power of God’s love and yet be so unnoticed and unremarkable in the midst of such a selfish and unloving generation? Why were sinners, so blatant in their sinful lifestyles that they were ostracized by society, drawn to Jesus? Why was a woman who practiced a sinful sexual lifestyle bold enough to approach Jesus with her worship, and yet sinners are driven away from our churches?

Where is the “God so loved the world that He gave” kind of love today? We were always so worried about rubbing shoulders with the world that we withdrew from them and in so doing projected a God that exhibits an aloof disdain rather than a gregarious love. We were more concerned with reputation than redemption, more concerned with acclamation than salvation, and more concerned with earthly separation than spiritual emancipation. We were reserved in our love even among ourselves, and if we cannot love each other with abandon how can we claim to love the sinner? In the end, we loved our ecclesiastical constructs more than we loved God and His Word.

There were other things about which I was wrong, and most assuredly things about which I am still wrong, but I ended on this one since if you are wrong about God’s love you are wrong about everything.

Grace for Gays

Tonight as I watched the television movie called ‘Prayers for Bobby” I again entered into a place of many emotions and many uncertainties. It is a true story of the Griffith family, and specifically their son named Bobby. Bobby battled with same sex attractions and held them secret for years, fearing his religious parents would not understand and might even reject him. He was right, they did not show him any compassion and eventually he could not endure the inward struggle and he jumped off an overpass, timing his jump to collide with a tractor trailer.

I completely admit that the Scriptures and the obvious physiological distinctions make it clear that God’s design was between a man and a woman. But what is not so clear to me is how we as the recipients and sharers of God’s grace should interact and reach out to those who cannot deny what they feel. Who would choose to force themselves into that attraction at the expense of losing your family, your church, and eventually your life?

I have no idea why that lifestyle seems to have become more prevalent in today’s world. Perhaps it is because most had to suppress it in former generations, or maybe it is because the continuing revelations of Adam’s sin are becoming more pronounced in these last days. I do not know, and neither does anyone else. But I do know that pat answers are easy and safe, and I also know that the church has for generations relied on our systematic theology, confident in the fact that we all agree on this particular sin.

It is exactly that safe haven that has kept us from a dangerous journey to hold open the door of grace through Jesus Christ, and allow the Spirit to move where He desires. I have been a Christian for 34 years now, and I know one thing for sure – everyone is a practicing sinner, and everyone practices sin they know is sin and sin they refuse to admit is sin as well. To be sure there are homosexuals who are now living a heterosexual existence, some with growing families and some are even preachers. To what extent they battle those same sex attractions probably varies with the individual, but I am sure many do.

But what kind of inward torture would drive a person to jump in front of an oncoming truck? Have we no compassion, and can we show no sympathy for their situation or are our theological positions enough to insulate us from experiencing their pain? And exactly what requirements are necessary before one can believe on Christ for redemption? How many sins do we have to forsake before we can approach Him, and must we be aware of how God views the entire catalogue of our sins before we can become a legitimate believer?

And during this movie, and I’m sure a scenario that is lived out in thousands of cases, Bobby heard his family and others refer to gay people in the most demeaning and unloving way, his grandmother even suggesting they “line them up and shoot them all”. And these people claimed to be believers and followers of Jesus. And the lineage of these callous people continues today with a complete array of invectives ranging from “Sodomites” to “bath house deviants” and all the rest. And we have to ask ourselves this question, are grace, mercy, and love incongruent to our Biblical beliefs about sin? I do not mean just informing a gay person about his sin, but exhibiting those spiritual fruits to someone in spite of their lifestyle.

No one should practice sin as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. But I have come to this conclusion, only practicing sinners will enter eternity under the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My heart grieves to watch a 20 year old young man leap to his death because he has been rejected by almost everyone he loves and within that experience he has come to violently hate himself.

That surely cannot be New Testament Christianity.

Unchristian Effects of Eschatology

Many evangelicals believe, and Scripture seems to support this view, that God has not forgotten the Jewish people and will offer redemption to the remaining Jewish people at the last days. That is not to say that the unbelieving Jews of today are any more saved than the unbelieving Gentiles, they are not. But there are numerous Scriptural glimpses that reference the 70 weeks prophesied by Daniel as a template in which God redeems the remnant left in the final chapter of ecclesiastical history. I am one who believes that as well.

But let us take a harder look at what that has come to mean against the backdrop of what that means Biblically. We as Christians, like the Apostle Paul, should have a love for the Jewish people since their forefathers were used of God and indeed provided the human vehicle through which Messiah was to come. We cannot ignore the fact that John the Baptist, Mary, Peter, James, John, all the disciples, Paul, and most of the believers on the Day of Pentecost were all Jews. The Church of Jesus Christ was birthed from the loins of God’s people, Israel. We should be grateful and have an earnest desire for their souls.

But our love for the Jewish people should not be understood as giving the nation of Israel a carte blanche support for all that it does. That same nation in the Old Testament was many times acting in rebellion towards Jehovah and even practicing idolatry, and this modern nation has for the most part rejected God’s Son. God’s people on the earth today are the redeemed congregation of Jesus Christ, those who by faith in His gospel have been born again and grafted into the Everlasting Vine. Romans chapter 11 is very clear that when Israel as a people were cut off, the church, primarily made up of Gentiles, was grafted in. Paul does make a mention of a regrafting in of the Jews, which could very well refer to the last days redemption.

But even though our eschatology includes some miraculous intervention by God for the remnant Jews, that must not allow us to show favoritism for them which sometimes causes us to show less compassion for their enemies and relegate those enemies to a subordinate position in God’s redemptive message. There is no Jew or Gentile in Jesus Christ, and outside the atonement there are only sinners with ethnic labels, but still just sinners. God loves and died for the Palestinian in the same way He loves and died for the Jew. There is no difference, and our view of eschatology must never mean that we show partiality in the affairs of the nations and to any one ethnic group.

The unfolding of these last day events are in God’s hands, and although reading the eschatological tea leaves may be in some way encouraging, they cannot be seen as authoritative. Matching Scriptural prophecies with current events is a profoundly non-exact science. We as western evangelicals have been taught to take Israel’s side on almost every issue since that is the side that God is on. That is unchristian but for no other reason than that God takes no sides, He calls everyone to come and take His side, which of course is in His Son.

When the church openly gives a blanket of approval to Israel, and with it teaches a divine favor to today’s Jews, we misrepresent the gospel and obscure the heart of God. In fact, we as believers should not be entangled with the affairs of this world since it only leads to confusion and strife over opinions and political perspectives. And just as we should show no preference to Jewish people, neither should we have a hint of anti-Semitism. Any hatred of any people or person is substantively unchristian and must be soundly rejected by each follower of Jesus Christ. We should show love to friend and foe alike, and our love should be authentic and with no respecter of persons.

But in some camps the pro-Israel fervor is so intense that unbelieving Jews are welcomed to speak in the pulpit of the church. Pastor John Hagee has had several unbelieving Jews speak from his pulpit, simply because they were Israelis. This is deeply unfortunate and outside the context of the New Testament, and reveals how an unbiblical support for the nation of Israel can produce a confused version of the gospel, teach believers to join with unbelievers on spiritual issues, and most of all give the wrong impression to unbelieving Jews that they are spiritually safe and in God’s favor, the last being the most grievous of all.

I have heard and read many disturbing comments from professing believers concerning the events in the Middle East and I believe it grieves the heart of Christ. Let me say that any nation has the right and responsibility to protect its citizens, however that is not the concern of the church neither is it our message. Here are some comments I want to share and address from some who are active and professing believers.

“Kill as many of those Palestinians as possible and we’ll all be better off.”

“If innocent women and children get killed, so be it.”

“When 9/11 happened they danced in the streets, so let them die now.”

“I have no compassion whatsoever for any of them.”

These quotes do not come from the Aryan Nation or some KKK member or even some atheist, these are direct quotes from an active evangelical Christian who made them on a Christian blog. And those are only a sampling of the overt, much less the latent, unchristian attitude that is spawned by seeing the world through the eyes of politics and not the redemptive eyes of Jesus Christ. This attitude seems to flourish when we, because of our eschatological views, approve of everything Israel does and have almost no awareness, much less sympathy, for the incredible suffering being endured in the Middle East. Israel has a right to protect itself to be sure, but we as a believers have a divine responsibility to show love and compassion to everyone without regard to nationalism, ethnicity, or how they might play in the unfolding of the end times.

Brothers and sisters, the coming events are in the hands of Almighty God, our calling, our commission, and our privilege is the sharing and living of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that message is without partiality and without respecter of persons to every human being on the face of the earth. The future will take care of itself, the present is calling. Let us show forth Jesus Christ in a genuine revelation to every nation that will cause sinners to say, “We’ve never seen it in this way!”

What is a Christian?

What is Christianity and what is a Christian. Those questions seem so easy, so time tested and so well defined two thousand years removed from the life and death of the Author and Founder of our faith. But there is much disagreement, and in fact rancor, concerning the answer to those two basic questions which should by now be settled but in reality continue to have a widening cross section of definitions. Let us examine the issues that surround what is Christianity and what is a Christian.

What is Christianity? That question must be answered fully within the context of who is Jesus of Nazareth. The exclusive source of authoritative information on this question comes only from the written Scriptures we call the “Bible”. All other supposed references are counterfeit and should not be given any weight, except those that add support to the Scriptures themselves. The postulate is this: If Jesus was God in the flesh and was sent to provide salvation for sinners, but He did not leave a clear and well articulated revelation concerning Himself and His mission, then how productive can it be to those who are in need of His redemption? The answer, of course, is that He did both – He came to die for the forgiveness of sins and offer eternal life, and He indeed left a written revelation of Who He was and what He did.

So a Christian is a sinner who has believed that Jesus was the Son of God, died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, and rose from the dead. This sinner has embraced by faith Christ Himself as His only redemption and has decided to follow Him in his life. Christianity is the true collection of these believers and not the visual, organized, and labeled denominations which can contain a mixture of outward professors and true believers. Only God can accurately discern that important difference.

There is much debate on what outward manifestations, both in quality and in quantity, substantiate and give the assurance that a sinner who speaks words of faith is actually born again into Jesus Christ. There is also vigorous debate on what a person has to believe to be considered a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. These two main issues continue to divide the community of believers to varying degrees, ranging from friendly disagreement to fierce rancor and judgment.

Now many draw certain doctrinal lines in unmistakable detail while others seem to have vague and uncertain lines. There are arguments about the role of repentance, the immediacy of conversion, baptism, church membership, predestination, tongues, and a laundry list of other issues both core and subordinate. There are certain issues that most evangelical believers feel are absolute and without room for compromise which include the deity of Christ, the substitutionary core of the cross, the bodily resurrection, and even the authority of the Scriptures. And these issues define Christianity at its foundation since a person can be profoundly committed to a caricature of Christ and not the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth. Truth is important, and levels of compromise usually breed more dangerous levels of compromise which can eventually lead to complete falsehoods.

The purpose of my article will begin to unfold at this point since I will not be dealing extensively with these articles of faith but of the life which projects and obeys Christ and His Word. The general understanding of how a Christian reflects Christ, separate from verbally sharing the gospel, centers on love, forgiveness, kindness, and other similar attributes within that same interactive genre. There are many unbelievers who exhibit such generous traits among the community of humankind, so it becomes more difficult to distinguish a gracious believer from a gracious unbeliever. But is should be expected, even assumed, that a genuine follower of Jesus Christ would live a life of graciousness, love, and impartial and universal hospitality. And to be fair, all of us fall embarrassingly short of that goal but some have become blind to that goal in and of itself. And that is the centerpiece of this post.

How can we as committed Christians, dedicated to following and emulating the example of the Incarnate Master Himself, roam about the community called humanity with an arrogance and erudite dismissiveness that does not reflect the essence of Christ’s life, to say nothing of Christ’s cross? The hollowness of ungracious and disrespectful words only create the echo of an unspoken paradox that not only is incongruous to our faith, but is indeed counter- productive to Christ’s overall mission and profoundly misrepresents the Redeemer Himself.

I have disavowed the arena of politics for many reasons, however one good reason is the lack of respect and graciousness the candidates afford each other. Throughout the primaries there are lies, innuendos, malice, rancor, gossip, character assassination, personal attack adds, and many times an obvious display of distaste among the different players, only to be externally swept under the carpet after the nominee is chosen, and the viewing public is supposed to accept the mirage that they have always had a deep affection for each other. It is that kind of disingenuous metamorphosis that has led many to define politics as only a platform for self aggrandizement and permeated by manipulation without much real substance or truth.


But the body of believers known as the church should not mirror that political mess. How can we tell the world we love each other when many times discourse is filled with rancor and attacks and with an obvious lack of respect for the other? And when people read Christian blogs that contain malice, wounding sarcasm, self righteousness, and a stream of demeaning rhetoric that leaves the issue and attaches itself to a human host with the intention of draining the God given life out of them, are we not mirroring the political process and calling it “Christian”? No one who engages in such behavior can claim to be doctrinally pure or Biblically faithful since the Scriptures are replete with admonitions of humility, grace, mercy, and the cornerstone – love.

There are these days many doctrinal truths that are being questioned and even dismantled, but in the midst of all of that there are other, more unrecognizable and clandestine truths that are being abrogated and dismantled. These are the core issues of Christlikeness that extend far beyond the average systematic theology library, these are the actual issues of the very life of Jesus Christ being translated through the prism of a believers life. It is surely not enough to pass a theology test and claim that in and of itself showcases the Savior in our lives, because the dark and unregenerate world knows nothing of Biblical theology, but just as the thief on the cross recognized, the world understands love, forgiveness, and supreme humble sacrifice for others.

The church continues to fracture concerning God’s Truth, however we who hold to the core elements of that truth must not ignore other truths as a way of substantiating our faithfulness to these selected and foundational truths. Like the builder who establishes a concrete and sure foundation for his house, but then proceeds to build upon it with paper mache, so are we if we align ourselves with the foundational truths of Christ and His redemption and then present them upon a platform of smugness, personal rancor, and an ambiance of self righteousness. In many ways that suggests that God’s truth needs our help and without the addition of our oratorical malice that truth lacks the power it needs.

“Speak the truth in love” is our command, and these backyard blog brawls must be rejected even when the truth that is promulgated is pure. The finest steak covered in arsenic sauce must not be eaten and arsenic covered by steak must similarly be avoided. As a follower and representative of Jesus the Christ our mission is to both spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and live the life of Jesus Christ as well. Both are not only partners, they must be Siamese twins, each completely dependent on the other for life.

Let us be ambassadors for Jesus Christ in word and in deed, to His eternal glory.

Politics - What Have We Learned?

And so ends the protracted presidential election season that runs practically for two years but usually begins much earlier. A freshman senator with only two years of national experience has been elected as president, and even with his youth and inexperience he has proven to a formidable candidate with an unusual degree of intelligence, patience, and political acumen. Regardless of our political persuasion, we can pray for his safety and that we as believers can lead a “peaceable life”.

But watching and listening during this entire political narrative has showcased many things. The fact that an African American has been elected as president in a nation where only forty years ago he would have been denied equal rights is amazing and speaks well of the racial progress that has been made here. As long as men are still fallen racism will exist, but tens of millions of white Americans cast their votes for Barak Obama which many people thought would never happen, at least not yet. To his credit Obama ran as a candidate, not a black candidate, which in the end was what many white people were looking for.

And within the political contest there was of course the usual back and forth, the rough and tumble of political seasons. Gossip and name calling, insinuation and character assassination, old stories and new ones, were a few of the aspects of a campaign that replaced substance with slogans and themes. Joe the plumber, change we need, not ready to lead, and chants of “yes we can” were much more effective than detailed plans of future action, which judging by previous presidential campaigns, are mostly worthless promises that will fade after the election. Ah yes, the satisfying ambiance of an American presidential election that has wasted over a billion dollars with travel, campaign adds, and a general strategic plan to manipulate the electorate to vote for the particular candidate. And throughout the process, we revel in our freedom that allows us to be manipulated not realizing that usually the candidate with the most money wins. Curious, no?

But what about us as believers? What have we seen during this campaign that would distinguish us as followers and imitators of Jesus Christ? Was our speech seasoned with grace and our attitudes clothed with humility? Did the church treat Barak Obama with respect and honor, even while disagreeing with some of his moral issues? And even though many of us would not consider him to be born again, could we rejoice in his journey which led him from very difficult circumstances to be where he his? Were we as believers able to be a shining city on a hill which projected the light of God’s grace in the midst of the carnal turmoil and the ungracious cacophony of political rhetoric? Or for the most part, armed with our moral righteousness, did we blend in and participate with a tangible collaboration with unbelievers?

I have heard the most unchristian and ungracious verbiage from believers this year, including many that are usually humble and gracious otherwise. Speaking as if they are speaking for God, many have been unkind and judgmental in their castigation of “liberals” which is a derisive term meant to project people as socially immoral and economically socialist while being unbiblical silent about the redemptive love God has shown for those very people. It begins with an unbiblical “love” for this country, and escalates into an entirely unredemptive discourse during election cycles. And believers by the millions will listen to carnal murmurers and complainers called talk show hosts who accumulate wealth by attacking others mercilessly. Is there anything less Christian?

Although I am decidedly non-participatory in politics, I could never vote for someone who espoused abortion, that would seem to me to trump all other issues. However the body of Christ has rejected being quiet and prayerful, exercising their right to vote in a demonstration of faith and obedience to God while remaining faithful to His commands about being humble, gracious, and being conduits of reconciliation. Instead the “religious right” has embraced Biblical morality and joined in the roar of the political war, and jettisoned the imitation the life of Christ and the sacrifice of the cross. The profound message of the gospel is sacrificed upon the altar of national morality, which usually is only given lip service by politicians whose biblical morality runs a fresher course in election years.

Where is the gospel in all this? And I recognize it is difficult for believers to extricate themselves from such a mess since we have been told since birth that the political process is our duty and Christians must be “engaged”. Well, we are not just engaged, we are now married to a process which represents the accuser to a much greater degree than it represents the Heavenly Father. In reality, the essence of Christianity, believing and imitating Jesus Christ, has been lost through a redefining and what it means to follow Christ which is now centered primarily on the righteousness of our moral views and not the painful crucifixion of our entire lives. We refuse to be defrauded or maligned, and we will retaliate with force and self righteous portrayals of our moral and economic enemies, including nasty and hurtful labels and a general dismissiveness of all their accomplishments. Some will even go so far as suggesting that our opponents are anti-christ..

It continues to be a disgusting display of rancor and unchristlike behavior that is counter productive to the gospel and the spiritual life of the church. And speaking from experience, I know what it is to feel nothing but disdain for people like Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, and men like Barak Obama because I used to be caught up with politics. It seems to squeeze out the worst in people, and the evil one has succeeded in hiding the light of the church under the bushel of partisan politics. Can we not see, as well as feel, that our attitudes and speech are not emulations of Christ? Have we become so “politically active” that we have become blind to our own spiritual wretchedness as we mimic the unredemptive discourse that always fuels the political debate? The hypocrisy of our own candidate is minimized while the hypocrisy of the opposing candidate is maximized which illuminates the overwhelming hypocrisy within our own hearts.

I would suggest that all believers take inventory of the spiritual productivity of participating in the political process. But if you still feel an obligation, should we not do it with a different and unique spirit that is remarkable with the general context of that process? Shouldn’t Christians use the political season the preach the gospel “in season”? Should we not vote with humility and a profound sense of God’s sovereignty and protection? And in the midst of strife and attack, shouldn’t the church be participating in that unfortunate spectacle with the message of reconciliation and not with adding to the partisan strife? Call me old fashioned, call me an ostrich, but I believe that politics can and should be used as a vehicle for lifting up Christ, not for the continuing mirage that suggests that carnal mess accomplishes God’s will.

Should Jesus tarry, perhaps in 2012 we as believers can be used of God to spread the gospel to the lost hearts of people who must be by now hungry for change in their own lives. Up till now in political seasons we have only offered them the cotton candy of political elections whose “hope” dissolves soon after the final vote is counted.

A Monster Called Racism

One of the most astonishing and wondrous spectacles in the history of America, and even the world, has been the assimilation of the black race into mainstream America. I will attempt to illuminate only a few of the barriers that were placed in their paths, as well as the overwhelming odds that were against them. And then I desire to suggest that overt racism still exists in America, but hidden racism is much more prevalent. And, sadly, there is still racism within the Church of Jesus Christ as well.

For the most part the black race was introduced into America via the hulls of slave ships, and similar to the Germans dividing Jewish families, many black families were separated and sold to different slave owners. Many were forced to mate with strangers like a bovine attempt to construct genetically superior specimens. Many were used as concubines to say nothing of the free labor they provided. The black man was stripped of his leadership and even manhood, and the fruits of that are evident today. The horror of slavery on a personal level remains a savage mystery.

What I am describing is not just some antiseptic event in history, it was as evil as evil can ever be. Hundreds of thousands of slaves died from all sorts of diseases and starvation, many cast overboard before they even arrived in America. Many wished they had died on the trip. To describe the horror of those ships is impossible, and to understand the pain and suffering and abject fear that was foisted upon those people cannot be comprehended, and in fact, most people never pause long enough to ingest such thoughts.

The evil that man is capable of committing upon his fellow man is breathtaking, and most of us do not wish to learn about the shame of our slavery except as an answer on an American history quiz. Many whites feel very uncomfortable discussing the slavery issue because they fear some will paint the entire white race with culpability. I did not cause or participate in slavery personally, but that is no excuse for me being ignorant about that human exploitation, especially as it is tethered to some of the issues in the black community and family structure.

Hundreds of thousands of white men died attempting to preserve the institution of slavery, while many white men died attempting to preserve the union and by extension abolish slavery. But it would be a exageration to claim the nation's motives were completely pure. And when the slaves were set free, the government did precious little to provide vital ways to assimilate them into mainstream American society. To the contrary, they were ostracized and persecuted and separated from the general white population. Segregation had replaced outright slavery, and the national shame continued in a different form. Demeaning names were invented to further diminish the personhood of blacks, to say nothing of them aggressively being prevented from being full fledged citizens.

The government turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the continuing plight of our black neighbors. They were denied the vote, they were denied employment, they were denied adequate schools, they were denied justice when murdered, and in general many treated their dogs better than they treated the black race. The hatred and prejudice and in fact overt and malicious racism continued. Who can forget black women and children, as well as men, being beaten and attacked by police dogs because they marched to bring attention to their sub-citizen treatment? And many “white” evangelical churches practiced and preached racism from their very pulpits, some even teaching some tortured Biblical principle of God marking the black race with a curse.

And so through the difficult decades, slowly but surely, this relentless and resilient race of former slaves have gotten up time and time again and plowed forward in a society that never wanted them in the first place. To be sure there were rabble rousing blacks that were counter productive to the civil rights movement, but just as all the rest of us they were not perfect and foresighted. But some gave their lives so that others may see that “dream”, and so we come to today.

I could never vote for a pro-choice candidate, but that is not what I am addressing here. We now have a black Supreme Court justice, a black woman as Secretary of State, we have had a black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, black cabinet officers, and currently a black candidate for president. Millions of white people have now actually voted for a black man for president, and that should make us proud. I could not vote for Barak Obama, but I see in him Dr. King’s dream of equality, and his rise to national prominence is a testament to the magnitude of change that continues to happen in our culture.

I, though, have heard Christians who bear the “conservative” moniker make ever so delicate statements that slightly reveal a latent prejudice still breathing in evangelicalism. The white ears of America were listening intently to see if Obama would exhibit some “Jesse Jackson” type of rhetoric, while many black ears listened to see if he wouldn’t say those same things. In the end, I think this exceptional young man has carried himself well and has been uncommonly balanced when it comes to race. He hasn’t rejected the sordid history of the treatment of blacks, and yet he has had the courage to chastise his own race. He has walked a tightrope that frankly seemed impossible to navigate only a few years ago.

I would exhort all of us who name Christ as our Lord to pray for Barak Obama even if you cannot vote for him. There are still natural brute beats lurking among us who would gladly assassinate him, and even knowing that, he and his wife have still taken on that dangerous challenge. Racism is a monstrous sin that cannot have any place in either our lives or our hearts. All of us see another race as different, but we cannot allow that to translate into prejudice of any kind. I support no candidate, but both McCain and Obama are heroes of different sorts.

If we as believers cannot support Obama as a candidate, let us openly show him love and respect for representing an incredible journey of a race that began in the hulls of slave ships and now is running for the highest office in America. I for one appreciate the magnitude of this achievement. It is time for the church to rise up and show the gospel in the midst of a carnal battlefield in which hatred has made more than a cameo appearance. Our calling as followers of Jesus is a significantly different path than the one this current political atmosphere has generated.

Let us appreciate the racial benchmark of this election, but let us show compassion and intercession for the salvation of the ones we must disagree with on moral issues. They are the Mary Magdalene’s of our culture, and we, like Jesus, should shine the light of redemption and love so that against the backdrop of an ugly mess, we might shine forth as lights in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Barak Obama’s salvation is infinitely more important than his political career.

For what shall it profit a man if he is elected President of the United States and loses his own soul? God have mercy on him and may the Holy Spirit use believers as a colossal gospel light that breaks through politics and impacts sinners for the kingdom of Almighty God.

Taking a Painful Inventory

Several hundred years ago Christians from different parts of the world left all they had and set sail for America. It would be a rugged lifestyle and the challenges would be legion. But by God’s grace they established a spiritual beachhead from which God would grow a part of His body. Many missionaries would then go out from whence they came and circle the globe with the message of the everlasting gospel. God has used the church that dwells in America to bring many sinners to Himself and glorify Himself even to the uttermost parts of the world. There probably is not one section of this darkened world that has not felt the anointed footstep of a messenger of the gospel who came from America. This is not in any part a testament to America, this is the Lord’s doing and is it not wonderful in our eyes!

But as the years progressed something happened to God’s church in America. We began to learn the way of the heathen, and we allowed our children to be reared by the culture and not God’s Spirit through us. The fruits of a Christian became redefined and diluted, until anyone who has ever mumbled some words about Jesus is considered a Christian. The depth of commitment has dwindled down until the spiritual life of a church member represents a part of his well rounded American existence. We are no longer considered different in any way, and because we have polluted ourselves with politics we are now considered right wing moralists instead of amazing vessels of God’s gospel grace.

Our families continue to burn down and we continue to attempt to douse them with empty buckets of sexual instruction and a list of “how to” teachings designed to bring us earthly happiness. The call of a career drowns the still, small voice of the Spirit’s call to missions, and doctors and lawyers are exalted above an unknown cleric working for a missionary organization in Ecuador. God’s ways are not our ways and yet we pretend to know His ways with mathematical certainty. We read God’s Word as if it was about us, and we treat it as a manual for happiness instead of a blueprint for holiness. Instead of the Word being sacred it has become an earthly tool leading to earthly success.

The church continues to jettison the Son of God as an aside, being understood as the Savior but not as a present Lord whose grace is so powerful we cannot but help speak the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. We draw men with earthly promises while hiding the Lord Jesus among words of cultural confusion because Biblical words are deemed outdated and irrelevant to this fast paced evangelical community. Waiting on the Lord now means waiting in the line to buy Christian concert tickets. This generation knows nothing of the term “prayer closet” much less the reality and glory that once manifested in such holy places. We minister in the seen and neglect the ministry of the unseen.

It was said of the young and gawky Evan Roberts that no one could define the source of his power since he was not a great orator or even pleasant to see. It became apparent in his twenties that like a great iceberg, his ministry was significantly more in the unseen world than in the seen. To minister in the unseen is foreign to the church today, we spend five minutes praying for a two hour service and leave contented when in fact God’s unmistakable presence never showed. For every tear shed in a Sunday morning gathering there are a thousand laughs and smiles, even if the plight of the unregenerate is taught.
It may too late, and yet we could cling to Samson and how God used him mightily at his end, even though it was own sin and disobedience that led to his blind bondage. We party too much, we play too much, and in we posture way too much. The reality of the theology we profess has become dammed up and kept from permeating our souls and lives for all to see, and we are blind to it all. Preachers tell us how great we are and how pleased God is with our half-hearted devotion to Christ, and we believe them. And these same preachers have become wealthy by teaching heresies and dipping deep into the pockets of the blind listeners as well as stealing God’s money openly and with hubristic relish.

We hold National Days of Prayer as if God hears that formalistic cry coming from the lips of idol worshipers mixed with Christians as well. That is not prayer, that is hollow ceremony that worship the shadows of days instead of bowing before the Savior Creator in humility and broken repentance. Words without actions only indict, they are carnal issues of the heart that are constructed according to the wisdom of the flesh and not the uncomfortable revelation of the Spirit Himself. Religious formality and pageantry has replaced rooms of sweaty intercessors prostrated in elongated sessions of beseeching the God of all Living to come and bring repentance and righteousness. And our ears are comforted with the theology of our spiritual standing before God and closed to the conviction of God’s Spirit exhorting us to practical holiness and desire.

Fun is free while sacrifice is at a premium. We hear messages on how to fix our earthly lives and not our spiritual walk, and yet we claim to be followers of Christ. The Christ of Scripture had nowhere to lay His head and He warned those who desired to follow Him to count that cost, but today we have formulated an American Christ who desires us to enjoy all the hedonistic accoutrements that the heathen enjoy as well. And in the midst of a lifestyle that cannot resemble anything about Christ we claim a committed followship of the Biblical Jesus.

We use the first two years of our conversion experience as a history lesson of past dramatic changes instead of how the dramatic changes that continue today began. We seek to see how much of the behavior of the world we can participate in without technically becoming sin, and even if we do avoid certain outward sins we become prideful and legalistic about it. We seem to be much more passionate about stacking the Supreme Court than we are about pleasing the Supreme Judge. The evangelical church in America has redefined the abundant life to mean grabbing all we can of this world with the paramount goal of achieving happiness.

We have become as a wild ass, snorting the air and frolicking without restraint, and now we have jumped the Lord’s fence and are grazing in the pasture of the heathen. Where did we leave the shepherd, and where did we begin to shepherd ourselves? The situation is desperate, and yet our church houses remain dark at night during the week. Where are the calls for fasting? Where are the calls for solemn assemblies seeking repentance? Where are the tears? When will we see preachers come to the pulpit so drawn and weary from all night watches and deliver their souls not just their sermons? Where are the shepherds who count their lives as nothing in hopes of gaining the approval of heaven?

Is it too late? Is there no room for repentance, and has judgment been dispatched without the possibility of mercy? Have our eyes become so blind that we cannot and will not see our own spiritual situation? There is still a season for God’s people to become explosively serious about Christ and His kingdom once more. There is still a season for an awakening that sees the fields of the world as one and obeys the Spirit’s call to go. There is still a season of grace wherein God’s people can examine their own lives and allow the Spirit to circumcise our hearts, melt the ice, and baptize us once again with fire from heaven’s altar.

How deeply is the heart of the Father grieved when he sees the tepid and passionless devotion that describes so much of the church, and instead of a vibrant race, we appear to be sleepwalking through the motions. God knows that the day approaches when our faith will become sight, but He must long for us to reward Him with a supernatural devotion that sees that day as if it were here. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and without works our protestations of faith are lifeless corpses.

As Isaiah of old, we need a fresh vision of the Lord Jesus, high and lifted up, and sitting on a throne. Let us open wide our unclean lips and allow the coal from heaven's holy altar to cleanse us from the words and desires of the flesh and supplant them with the Words of the Most High and His Everlasting Gospel. Do not our hearts burn within us, and can’t we feel the Spirit provoking us to envy? Until the last trump of God, until the last sinner comes to Christ, and until we draw our last breath, God continues to exhort us to “Seek the Lord while He may be found”.

Help us, Lord Jesus.

God is Love

God is love. Think on that for a moment. The Scriptures certainly declare that God does love, but that verse proclaims that God actually IS love. Divine love is not an emotion as we humans define it, no, it soars higher than our ability to even wonder, much less capture it in earthly words. Unexpressed or unrevealed love is not love at all. Claiming to love and yet not showing it with acts of substantiation is nothing more than fond musing.

But let us meditate upon the love of God itself. God’s love is not some emotional attachment, and in fact much of the anthropomorphic allegories about God’s emotions are for our benefit and understanding. God’s love is action, and more specifically, redemption. Before the first moment of creation as we know it the Scriptures declare and we should surely realize that God knew every particle of future history as if it was yesterday’s news. So when God created, His plan was all inclusive as it pertained to us made in His image.

Curiously the Genesis account reveals no conversation where God proclaims His love for Adam, and indeed throughout the Old Testament the word is used sparingly. The fact that God loves is moot and unremarkable without a revelation that is pertinent and effectual to the object of that love. Actions speak louder than words is a divine principle that God Himself has taught to us, and at times God has proved Himself to His people. He has proved His might through many awesome deeds, He has proved His longsuffering by His mercy and vice versa, and He has proved His grace by many acts of undeserved kindness. The inherent attributes within the Godhead cannot be separated from or even examined apart from the deeds that not only substantiate and showcase them, but those deeds are God and His attributes.

Now if a husband gives flowers to a next door neighbor, does that substantiate his love toward his wife? What if that same husband gives flowers to both his wife and the next door neighbor, does his wife receive her flowers just as if she was the only recipient of his love, or is her perception of his love diluted with the removal of the uniquesness of his love toward her? Take all the creation, enjoyed by God’s friends and enemies simultaneously, does that substantiate God’s love for His people when these artifacts of creation are enjoyed by everyone and even traversed by Satan and his demons as well? Does God’s universal provision for everything living prove that He loves every creature, or does it prove God’s kindness and that this scenario is part of God’s overall plan?

In the following treatise I am going to proffer this thought as a divine truth:
The atonement is not only the greatest exhibition of God’s love, it IS God’s love and is the greatest revelation of God Himself.

I am convinced that the cross, with all the inherent redemptive qualities in open revelation as well as hidden mystery, was the event where God completely offered, showed, unveiled, and proved the existence of both His love and He as love. In fact, the cross was God’s love exhibited by the substance of its redemptive sacrifice, and all human words that attempt to shed some understanding on that event communicate enough truth to elicit saving faith, but fall infinitely short of capturing the divine substance that has always dwelt within that act.

Rom.5:8 - But God proved His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The word for “proved” means to exhibit, to introduce, or to present. God presents His love not through trees or mountains or stars, and He doesn’t use great and flowery words of devotion and emotional attachment, no, God’s love is the cross. Some human words to set the stage and outline that event are necessary, but the love that is projected in that one death by torture is unfathomable. But it is the recognition of the parameter less love that makes it sacred. The love that has always existed within the divine nature is uncovered and displayed on the cross of God’s redemption. It is not only the height of God’s love, it is the only complete revelation of that love.

All of created history has been unalterably tethered to God’s love which is the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The cross says “I love you with My love which is through My Son on the cross”. Before the cross all of God’s statements of love for His people Israel were whispers through His Word and through the blessings and earthly deliverances God had brought them through. Temporal and fleeting but with a fragrance of coming redemption they were, but the whispers of God’s actual love were ever so delicately spoken of in the prophetic annunciations embedded in the sacred shadows to be revealed in an act so surprising, so unsettling, and so perfect that only with the Spirit’s illumination can we now see the obvious perfection in the prophetic mysteries.

God’s love comes riding on a donkey in a prepared vessel still unbroken. And this love continues on a journey to a prepared place where this incarnate box will be broken and the fragrance, the majesty, the color, and the unspeakable love of God will come streaming out to paint the landscape of history in such a glorious revelation that none dare to ask if there is more. And the Author and Exhibitor of this love seals this unveiling with the word “Tetelestai!”, it is finished. This work of atonement is the depository in which God poured all His love, and all other supposed expressions of divine love not tethered to the cross are fabrications at worst and misunderstandings at best.

Eph.2:4-5 - But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are you saved)

As we see in this verse God’s love always leads to redemption. Without the offer of redemption love is hollow and nothing more than a verbal pronouncement that is void of any substance or authentication. The redemptive quickening of dead sinners is the purpose of God’s love. God doesn’t just say He loves, God shows He loves. The work on the cross is not only one in a long line of loving proofs from our Creator, it is THE proof and substance of God’s infinite love. Without the atonement and the offer of redemption God’s love would be nothing more than a kiss on the forehead as we entered hell.

Does God love those who are in hell? Without the offer of redemption still intact I would be suspicious of that love since as I have shown God cannot love except through His Son on the cross. So all who reject God’s love while still alive on this earth and go into eternity lost, they enter that eternity separated from God’s love forever, while to the redeemed “nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. I cannot see how God can love those in hell since the atonement which has not covered them is not only the vehicle through which God can love a fallen sinner, it is God’s love period. Without the cross the eternally lost are separated from God’s love forever.

Eph.5:2 - And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Even when God commands us to walk in love He includes a redemptive quality as well. Our love for others must be exhibited through the prism of redemption which flows completely from the cross as both our salvation and our example. Much of our cultural rebukes and our condemnation of certain sins and sinners does not contain God’s love since it has no redemption. Anything that is not refracted through the prism of the cross is not the authentic love of God, and to walk in love we must take up that cross and make it our own.

Since I believe Christ died as an offering for all men, and that He tasted death for every man, I believe God extends His love to all sinners before their death. This can only happen through the sacrifice of His Son, and without at least the availability of redemption, there is no divine love. The only reason that God’s wrath has not been realized upon the unregenerate sinners is because of His continued offer of redemptive love. God loves all sinners through the atonement, but once that atonement is closed and the entire company of the elect are secure, the love of God ceases to be offered to the eternally lost.

Our reformed brethren would count the non-elect as in that status upon birth and even before, while many of us conclude that is not actualized until death. Suffice to say that distinction is surely insignificant.

I Jn.3:16 - Hereby we perceive the love of God, because He laid down His life for us…

Again we see the cross of redemption as the looking glass not just into the love of God, but at the very substance and reality of that love. And when captured with, by, and inside the redemptive refuge of that love, nothing can separate us from its hold. Let me explore further the concept of separation from the love of God. Paul tells us in Romans chapter eight that no charge can be brought to God’s elect, and that when God spared not His own Son for us, well, that cannot be trumped. God’s love through His Son on Golgotha renders all the elect inseparable from the power and reality of that colossal love. And this redemptive love is God’s love itself, unable to be parsed or divided or diluted and passed out in partial form to all His enemies. A sinner is either in God’s love through the cross or he is outside that same love, there is no shallow “I love you a little” type of divine love. God’s love is pure, it is complete, it is whole, it is eternal, and it is redemptive.

The unregenerate sinner, still living and exposed to the potential of God’s gospel love, is still outside God’s actualized love but still within the possibility of receiving God’s atoning love. And as such God still offers and extends His love through the gospel to all sinners everywhere, and although they are not yet recipients of God’s redemptive love, they are offered a seat at the banquet table of God’s love through the shed blood of the Master of the banquet. It may be semantics but perhaps they are recipients of God’s offer of love and as John noted, this love is so strong and powerful, it draws all sinners simply by the strength of its residuals and aura. In essence, God loves all sinners through the cross.

But when a sinner rejects or dies outside redemption, the offer dies with him. And in the end, when the last sinner is saved by the grace of God’s love, the atonement is complete and the entire sacrifice on Calvary has been used in its totality to redeem the elect with none “left over” for those in hell. The potential is now closed and the door to God’s scarlet ark is now closed with only those souls saved inside. But as the verse in I John says, we can only perceive the love of God through the cross. An all powerful Creator can make a million universes with a word, and that is amazing but provides no portal into any love. He can know everything, and He can have no beginning and no end and in that we are awestruck, but it still offers no proof or demonstration of His love.

Only the cross demonstrates, authenticates, and in reality reveals the love of God. All other perceived glimpses are sparks that have come from Golgotha. All good and perfect gifts, when examined more closely, are beams streaming from God through His Son and His cross. Without the loving cross of peace, God would most certainly still be at war with all His creation, and us most especially who rebelled so profusely and so completely against our Creator.

Lastly let us consider that God is the Father of Lights in whom there is no darkness or shadow of turning. God’s love has no levels and no vacillating intensities. Imagine a match lit in the daytime in your front yard. Of course you can see the flame, but the light has little impact on its surroundings due to the diffusion of all the other lights during the daytime. But imagine that same light lit under ground in a cave without the intrusion of any outside light. That small flame stands as the only illumination in that place and it draws all eyes either to it directly or to that which it reveals. And so it is with the atonement contained in our Lord’s cross and the open display of God’s love.

God’s love through the cross stands alone as the only illumination in the midst of total darkness in this world and it draws all eyes to it directly or to that which it reveals. There is no divine love outside the sacrificial Lamb of God and it remains the only light of God’s love ever given. All acts of mercy or divine philanthropy are spiritual fingers that point to this cross, for without the atonement mankind is an object of God’s wrath, fixed in His judicial crosshairs, and soon to be judged.

There remains one and only one expression of God’s love, and that is the redemption paid for and offered through the cross. It is not only God expressing His love, it is God’s love. So the next time you meditate upon the cross, allow the Spirit to attach His very Words to this breathtaking and astonishing event...

"God is love".

Being Saved but not Being a Christian

To live is Christ...

Just what is a Christian? What does it mean to be born again, and after being born by the Spirit into Christ what should we expect coming from such a person? Of course we expect the testimonies about freedom from drugs, marriages saved, and many other large and unmistakable issues of bondage and sin. And those manifestations are all to the glory of God.

But is that it? After our lives have been changed dramatically from some major sins, does that complete the process? When Jesus said we are the light of the world was He referring to being delivered from alcoholism? When He said we are the salt of the earth was He referring to giving up cursing and coarse language? When Paul said we are epistles read of all men was he referring to our systematic theology? Just what kind of life should a believer be living in this present world?

I have found that most unbelievers never notice that we do not drink or smoke or even curse, these things have very little impact on people around us. Those issues may well be led of the Spirit in our own lives but those things are not what draws the attention of people who do not know Christ. What affects people are the relationship and interaction issues of our lives. The compassion, the love, the grace, the mercy, and the overwhelming “differentness” of our lives.

It is impossible to fully exhibit the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it has become fashionable to be content with something far less than what should be a demonstrable revelation of Jesus Christ through the prism of a redeemed sinner’s earthly life. We seem to salivate on judgment rather than forgiveness, exposing error rather than living truth, and projecting downward rather than lifting upward. We have been given the greatest and most eternally perfect gift imaginable, the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and yet we sometimes assess others with the requirements of Pharisaical law. Why are we not willing to show uncommon and remarkable grace emanating from that grace that abides upon us?

We can claim that we are saved, but at the same time not be a Christian. That is because our claims that we are saved are based upon a profession of faith in Jesus Christ which guts the fullness of the word “Christian”. The word Christian means someone who is like Jesus because of his faith in Christ. It is not limited to a one time profession which has led to our redemption but then does not lead to a lifetime exhibition of that same Lord and Savior. Hollow is the systematic theology that proves a Biblical soteriology without also tethering that same saving grace to the richness of the life of Jesus Christ reborn in the heart of a redeemed sinner.

And somehow we have provided a set of sins that suggest either a proof or doubt of a person’s authentic conversion. These are usually centered on drinking, cursing, sexual sins, and other outward exhibitions of the sins that are so often attributed to a sinner’s lifestyle. The freedom from the practice of those things should indeed mark the life of a follower of Jesus Christ, but is that all we should be? Should our lives be nothing more than a reflection of several twelve step programs or are there deeper and more profound expressions of the Risen Christ in the midst of a darkened world? Is it Biblical to shed one’s life of some major sins and then continue to live your life with the same greed, pride, self-centeredness, and a degree of disagreeableness that mirrors the same coming from those who know not the Lord Jesus?

Gal.5:22 - 23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, ...

Gaze and meditate on the fruits of the Spirit. Let us look anew at what our lives should project and remember those fruits are meant to project our Savior and Lord and not us. I realize we all have fallen short of attaining perfection when it comes to reflecting and even living these revelations of our Wonderful Lord, but in these days it seems we no longer place them as goals and have replaced them with an exam on systematic theology which many times is defended with no trace of those same fruits. And when that scenario takes place that person may very well be saved but he is not being a Christian. And so our emphasis is on being saved and not being a Christian. How sad and unbiblical and, in fact, how unchristian.

We spend much time learning doctrine which is good, but how much time do we spend learning how to be like Jesus and how to walk in His steps? How many gatherings include sessions of confession with each other about how we may have acted unlike Christ during the week? How many Sunday School classes have the title “Being a Christian” or “Being Like Jesus”? Have we come to a place in the church that we no longer even sift our words and lives through the prism of what it means to be a follower of Christ? Are we content with being pro-life and pro-family but will not address the more obvious contradictions in our words, our tone, our demeanor, our grace, and the overall inventory of what should be the discernable light of Jesus Christ among those who know and live with us - and - more specifically our "enemies"? People should be able to experience a difference in us that goes beyond a set of four or five behavioral sins, they should sense a demonstrative essence of grace and love and hope that is above our human ability to manufacture.

They should see and hear and experience the Living Christ is us, the hope of glory. And this is not just accomplished by a display of our addiction-free lives, this must come from the living waters flowing from within us. So often we can defend a particular point of doctrine, or perhaps an entire array of doctrines, and actually not defend Christ simply by the way we speak and interact with others. The Christian community is filled with hate speech and an insatiable desire to find and uncover the sins of others. In a tortured attempt to expose the sins and shortcomings of the church we now have people whose actual motive and ministry is to provide people with a tabloidesque type of journalism that recounts and rehashes and even editorializes the sins and moral failures of others. This is not Christ and this only diminishes the light we are supposed to shine.

Where is doctrinal purity in the list of fruits? And when there is disagreement among believers, should that not provide a wonderful backdrop against which we can display the fruits more perfectly? “To live is Christ” says the Apostle Paul and that should be our creed as well. We can “win” an argument or even present something that is true and yet not be acting as a follower and imitator of Christ. It must grieve the heart of God when those who profess His name speak and act in a manner that hides Who He is and disguises Him as someone else. Make no mistake, living like, not just for, Jesus is not the easy road. It requires more than just knowing doctrine, or supporting pro-life candidates, or even evangelizing the lost. The truly sincere believer who desires above all to allow Christ to live through him will find the road narrow and not well worn, he will think that some of the directions cannot be correct, and he will find the going very slow and most times only rewarding to his inner man.

Let us look in the mirror of God’s Word. And we cannot look just at our favorite systematic theologies, we must look for and even seek the most uncomfortable and self indicting words that come from the Father's mouth. A stone sculpture cannot be formed with feathers, it takes hard chiseling with a tool that is sharper and harder than the stone it is molding. If we actually desire to live as Christ, we must choose to be chiseled, choose to endure pain, and choose to be crucified. We must choose to remain silent when attacked, choose to return good for evil, and choose to remain dead when provoked.

We must not only be saved, we must be a Christian.