What if?

  

Recently I was reading a book that asked a pretty insightful question about our churches today.  If a spy were to enter your church just to see what was going on so that they could report back to someone else, what would they be able to report back?  Would they comment on the type of music, how the people sit and group themselves, how they talk to each other, or what the message was about?  Or would it be something else?

Apparently back in the ancient Roman times, a certain emperor was nervous about this new "Christian" movement so he did just that:  sent spies out to see what these people were doing.  One of the spies reported back to him with this simple comment:  "Behold, how they love each other!"

Would that same thing be said about us today?

We live in an age where countless people are searching for answers following events such as the massacre of police officers in Dallas.  It is even tempting as Christians to question why events like that happen, and to an extent, why we have to live through things such as this.  Yet people around us do examine how we respond to things such as this, along with normal difficulties in life.  What makes the Christian response different from the world's response?

Many people are familiar with the story from John 13 regarding the time when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  His guys had been walking all day in sandals and were reclining at the dinner table with him on the evening before he was to be murdered.  Probably with some dismay, he noticed that no one had washed their feet nor had they volunteered to do that for others.  The feet, after all, are the dirtiest part of the body.  So being Jesus, he simply stood up without a word, grabbed a towel, and one by one, went around the table to wash the feet of each of the disciples.

After doing this, he commented:

 12 “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.

He also said in the same chapter:

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

How his words should challenge us!  While you and I tend to look for things we can do, projects to complete, visible, tangible activities in our communities or among peers that we can do to point to Jesus, the man Himself was pointing at something else.  He said that our love for each other will prove to the world that we are His disciples.  Our love.  The way we love.  The actions we do to each other that are tied to that love.  The way we serve one another.  The way we provide for each other's needs.  The way we care and show regard.  The way we treat each other equally no matter what.  So while the observer might not choose to believe in this Jesus guy, our actions should tell the story to them that we believe He is who He says He is, and that we are followers of His.   In fact, our love and its associated actions should be radical compared to what the observer has seen in the world.

What do your actions toward others say about your beliefs regarding Jesus?  Could someone accuse you of showing radical love to other Christians, or to people in general?

The Apostle Peter later expanded on this idea by saying:

22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.[d] Love each other deeply with all your heart.[e]

All too often these days, the Church doesn't meet the standard that Jesus and Peter described.  And to my own shame, I realize that many times I have not met that standard either.  We have become too adept at forming factions, fighting with each other, or criticizing each other.  And perhaps even worse, we've taken the step of isolating ourselves from others even when we go to church.  We may attend and listen to a message, but we avoid talking to others and avoid anything resembling community.  When we go home, we stay at home and don't go out.  When we do go out, we only spend time with those whose beliefs match ours, not with people who don't believe.  Many nowadays don't even frequently attend anywhere because they feel they can worship the Lord anywhere, yet when they are out there, they don't worship!

Several years ago I had a Sunday School teacher who asked all of us to turn to look at our spouses and tell them plainly "you are not my enemy."  Church, your enemy is not a fellow believer!

You may be thinking that you don't participate in arguments in the church.  You don't criticize others and you aren't part of some group.  But what does your Facebook wall, Instagram or Twitter feed say?  What story would your text messages to others tell us about you?  If we overheard your conversations with others, what would their content tell us?  So many of us have taken to social media now to criticize each other incessantly.  Like it or not, there are Jesus followers on both ends of the political spectrum, yet some of us will give an intense critical rant online regarding feelings about Trump, Hillary, Bernie, the political Left or Right, while at the same time remaining silent on the things of Jesus.  Others have posted incendiary things regarding the incident in Dallas.  I've seen numerous posts recently proclaiming something to the effect of "if you don't believe like I do, then go ahead and unfriend me now."  That blanket statement appears to apply to everyone including fellow Christians.  Brothers and sisters, it isn't supposed to be this way!

What If?

So what if it were different for us?  What if Christians as a whole were to take these ideas to heart and were to truly act differently?

Peter continued his earlier thought by stating:

 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

There is a lot buried in this small passage.  What if we chose to no longer be deceitful to anyone?  Deceit involves concealing or misrepresenting the truth.  Have you ever done that to a neighbor or coworker?  Your kids?  Have you withheld facts to lead someone to a conclusion you wanted them to reach.  That is deceit.

What if we chose to get rid of all unkind speech? People are going to disagree with your political views and your viewpoint regarding Dallas, guns, political leanings, sports teams, and even what kind of food is the healthiest.  Your online posts are highly unlikely to change their minds on any of that stuff.  While my personal stance is to not wade into those things at all because they lead nowhere, you may feel differently.  But I challenge you to weigh your words against the standard of kind speech.  Is what you are saying helpful, gentle, tentative, and respectful?  Does it convey love for the recipient, or does it place blame or condemnation?  The one and only important issue at stake in this world is this:  how does that person feel about Jesus?  Are you, in posting or saying something that is incendiary, shutting someone off from listening to your message about Jesus?  Think about that for a minute.

What if each day Christians as a whole "craved pure spiritual milk?"  That seems to me to indicate a daily practice of prayer, reading the Word, and thinking on the things the Lord is saying to you.  If you're spending that kind of time with the Lord, I believe you and I can face just about anything the day throws at us.

The Apostle Paul gives us perhaps even more sobering words for this generation that you and I need to consider here:

Philippians 2:3-4New Living Translation (NLT)

3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

What if the Church were to regularly, actively do these things, particularly in thinking of others as better than ourselves?  What effect would it have on an America that is now deeply divided?  What effect would it have on an American culture that is suspicious of organized religion and is reluctant to commit to following this Jesus guy?  I suspect that if we regularly thought of others as better of ourselves, we would speak differently, act differently, make social media posts differently, and probably spend our time differently.  We might even hang out with a different group of people than we currently do!  What if we embraced our role as builders and peacemakers?

One way to view the role of a Christian in this world is that of an ambassador.  Ambassadors represent the interests of a country and ultimately a king, and they live among another people and do that every single day.  You and I are people of another country, and our homes and businesses are the embassies of that country.  What effect would it have if we all were to start thinking of our daily work and the places where we spend the most time in those terms!

Would it then be said about us "Behold, how they love each other!" or "how they love people!"  Like it or not, this is our work in this world, and it is hard.  We are called to love our fellow Christian brothers and sisters, and we are called to love the people in this world, our neighbors, meaning literally everyone around us.  In fact, I believe the Lord will keep us here to do that very thing until He determines that it is time for us to go.  We have been given a job, and that job is relatively simple but extremely challenging:  love people with the same love that Jesus showed.  Now we have to go do it.

It has been hammered into me over and over again that the only way to proclaim the Gospel is by sharing the Good News about Jesus with those around us, and we should do that.  But we can't forget that Jesus lived the Good News.  And the Good News is that people, all people, all undeserving of grace, are freely given forgiveness for sins and aren't subject to the consequences of them if we will just believe that Jesus took the punishment for us and rose again.  While Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled it once and for all, He lived it day to day during his 3-year ministry when he healed the sick, forgave the sinner, counseled with those on the wrong path, and taught the way to life.  What would be the effect on this country if you and I would just do that, and stop our coarse, foolish, and unhelpful talk?

I hope this makes my fellow believers think about their actions and words this week.  It is time for us to stop acting like the rest of the world.  It is time for us to begin acting as Peter described in 1 Peter chapter 2 as "living stones" and "holy priests."  Let's fully embrace the role of ambassador this week.

Cynicism and its Antidote

To become cynical is to experience a poison that runs through your bloodstream and sucks the very life out of you.  Joy is gone and replaced with sadness and hardness.  Excitement and anticipation are replaced with depression.  Anger sets in and the person tends to withdraw from others.  When it is at its worst, it seems that all hope is lost.  For a Christian this is probably one of the sorriest outcomes because it can affect everything that the person does.

The last few months I have lived out this type of cynicism which seems to have set in from a constant barrage of things in my life which have gradually sapped strength and left me feeling empty.  There have been plenty of things to include in the list:  things at home with the kids, things from work, things through our church, broken relationships, dysfunctional relationships, too much to do, being unable to meet the expectations of others, and being unable to achieve the expectations I have for why we are in the Pacific Northwest.  These things have come in a steady stream, wave after wave, and have helped me to realize that while I used to think of myself as a rocky cliff being battered on the seashore, I'm really a sandcastle being washed away.

The reason this has set in with me begins with my relationship with the Lord.  Everything begins and ends there for the life of a Christian.  When we are walking in relationship with Him, life isn't easy by any means but it is bearable.  When we are not walking in close relationship, the strength we think we have is sapped.  Some churches out there seem to teach that as you get closer to the Lord you yourself get stronger, more invincible, more powerful, and even more prosperous.  That has not been my experience and isn't supported by the Bible.  What I see is that the further you go down the road with Him, the more you need Him.  One could even say you become weaker because He becomes the source of life in you, that "bubbling spring" that Jesus talked about whose source isn't in yourself but in Himself.  While that source is everlasting, you have to drink from it constantly and continually or you will find your strength gone.  That is God's way:  to put to death all of yourself as you live the rest of your life.

Recently I had to take a break over the weekend so that I could just be alone with the Lord.  I went off to the mountains by myself just to sit with him and to talk.  Those moments are always very powerful because I'm removed from all of the noise of life.  And if there is one major criticism I have with American culture is that there is too much noise in life.  We will devote every waking moment to getting things or achieving things or doing things, bringing ourselves to utter exhaustion.  And as we go deeper into this pattern we rarely look up to see that we are only building a sandcastle that will be washed away by the rising tide.  We are blind.  And so for me my cure for blindness and deafness is to go away to the mountains to just listen to what the Lord has to say.

I reached the peak of a mountain that gave perhaps the best panoramic views of the North Cascade mountains that I have ever seen.  For a while I just sat there to take it in, remembering that all of these things were created by the Lord's own hand.  It is magnificent when you think about it all.  You examine the ridge of a particular mountain, looking at the seeming randomness of its shape, the plunging cliffs, the spotty trees on its side, the snow and glaciers, and think about it being all part of a grand design.  And not just that!  It was designed for our use and enjoyment.  Man is unable to make anything so beautiful as I saw on that day.

On the mountain I confessed to the Lord that I had become cynical.  I saw it in my attitude.  I heard it in my voice as I talked to people around me.  I recognized it in my morning quiet times which had become little more than a time of sitting and anticipating all of the problems of the day.  I simply asked the Lord to draw the cynicism out of me as poison is drawn from a wound.  I know that if you are bitten by certain snakes or spiders, the venom has to be literally pulled from the wound, and I believe cynicism is that way too.  It has to be pulled out, removed, and discarded.

The Lord brought to me a few passages from Psalms on that day which brought healing and were a reminder of who He is.  Here they are.

Psalm 145:13-19
The Lord always keeps his promises;
    he is gracious in all he does.^[b]
14 The Lord helps the fallen
    and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you in hope;
    you give them their food as they need it.
¹⁶ When you open your hand,
    you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.
¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in everything he does;
    he is filled with kindness.
¹⁸ The Lord is close to all who call on him,
    yes, to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He grants the desires of those who fear him;
    he hears their cries for help and rescues them.

Psalm 146:5-8New Living Translation (NLT)

⁵ But joyful are those who have the God of Israel^[a] as their helper,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God.
⁶ He made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and everything in them.
    He keeps every promise forever.
⁷ He gives justice to the oppressed
    and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
⁸     The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
    The Lord loves the godly.

 Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted
    and bandages their wounds.

Psalm 147:10-11

 ¹⁰ He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse
    or in human might.
¹¹ No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him,
    those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

So here I read about the Lord helping those bent beneath heavy loads (Psalm 145:14), that He is close to those who call upon him in truth (v 18), that he rescues (v 19), that He frees prisoners (Psalm 146:7), opens eyes (v 8), lifts up those who are weighed down (v8), heals the brokenhearted (Psalm 147:3), and that he delights in those who put their hope in His love (Psalm 147:11).  Each of those were nuggets of truth that I needed at that moment.  Each of them provided an antidote to the poison of cynicism.

I don't know what burdens you are carrying at this moment.  What I do know and what really matters is that you were not meant to carry your burden by yourself.  And I also know from experience that many of the burdens on us are things we have laid on ourselves due to expectations of American culture, our workplace, or others around us.  If you will just come to a place where you realize how weak you are and how unable you are to carry that burden, you are on the path to genuine healing from the Lord Himself.  He is mighty and He is powerful and He knows all things.  But He does not usually assert himself on someone who doesn't want help or outright refuses it.  He will allow us to discover our need for Him and then, only then, will He come to the rescue.

I came down the mountain that day on a road to being healed from a cynical attitude.  Had you been with me on that day you would not have heard a voice from the clouds, and you wouldn't have seen someone who looks like a person but had the appearance of lightning.  Even so, I know that the Lord was there in that moment, and He will do the same for you if you will just stop and take the time to talk and listen to Him.

A church planter here once advised me to have a quiet place I can run to in the tough times to go be with the Lord.  I think that advice rings true for all of us.  You also need a quiet place to go and be with the Lord and to hear from the Healer and the lover of your soul.  So if you find yourself in the middle of a busy time and feel as though your life is being choked off, or that you are drowning in all that you have to do, take some time to go be alone with the Lord.  Get to know Him in those moments.  You will find a God who won't condemn you, drive you further into the ground, or further hurt you.  He is the one about whom it is said "will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle (Isaiah 42:3).  To the weak reed and flickering candles out there, go to him to be restored!

Psalm 46:10New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God!
    I will be honored by every nation.
    I will be honored throughout the world.”