I have often thought of this story found in John 8 and thought that it may be the most important passage that begs us to reflect upon our own lives.
For anyone who doesn't know, the religious leaders catch a woman in the act of adultery and they bring her to Jesus in an attempt to find another excuse to accuse Him. They remind Jesus that the law says she should be stoned to death. Jesus tells them, ok, whoever of you is without sin can throw the first stone. The religious leaders all leave the scene. Jesus, the only sinless one present, tells the woman that He doesn't condemn her, she should go and sin no more.
I think it shows us three different groups we might fit into, and I think we can probably find ourselves in all 3 at some point in our life. What can we learn from each group?
1 - The "sinner" -- We've all been here. The wages of sin is death, and we've received a pardon. Consider the gratefulness this woman would have felt in this moment immediately following a horrible shame and fear filled situation as she receives the grace of Jesus. It is good to remember where we have come from and thank God often for His grace and mercy on us. It was the greatest love that Christ died for us while we were still His enemies.
2 - The religious -- The Pharisees are always the bad guys in the Bible, but oh how often I have been them, or I run into people standing in their shoes? Self-righteousness is such an easy trap to fall into. How quickly we can forget that we too were sinners and Christ saved our butts. We turn our nose up at people who don't do the things we do, or do the things we do not do. We love to cry out for their blood. We love to see those who do wrong get what's coming to them. Oh the hypocrisy! I would recommend that we all examine our own attitudes often to see if we are falling into this pit. The world won't see our love if they first see our judgement and spite.
3 - Jesus -- Of course we all want to think that we'd be like Jesus in this story. Jesus sees our hearts and He knows the hurts and lies that have assaulted us. He wants more than anything to restore us to our created ideal. Justice for Him is to see us healed and delivered from the enslavement of sin. He was the only one in the story that had the right to stone her, but He chose to love on her instead. We never hear what happened to her, but I would guess that her life took a drastic turn after that incident. I want to be the person that loves people that do things I don't do, things I don't think are right. I want to see past the surface and see the heart. Jesus sees our golden centers and He calls us up into that path. We, as His disciples must learn to do the same. The world has enough hurt and judgement and hate, we don't need to add to it. The kindness of God is what leads us to repentance. Let us strive to be more like Jesus.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Heroes, villains, courage, and morality
The other day at work I was asked a question by one of my teammates. Basically, what is the appeal of Superman if he's invulnerable and you already know he'll win any fight? It took me a minute to be able to answer that question, and I've continued pondering many rabbit trails off that main thought. I will share some ideas with you.
I think about the kind of movies I seem to enjoy the most. They are the ones with superheroes, or just regular heroes. Stories of someone who stands up and chooses to risk it all for the sake of others. With the supers obviously the risk seems smaller, but it's still inspiring.
Superman is fairly hard to kill or even hurt, so what risk is he taking? This brings me to something I've been noticing in the movies that I am still chewing on. The villain will often allude to the fact that the love the hero has for the people is his weakness. That doesn't sit well with me because love is the greatest thing of all. Love is the ultimate source of power, not weakness. But still there is a truth in what the villain is pointing out. He has no scruples. In his quest to win, he will destroy anything he can in order to hurt the hero. He begins to throw buses at civilians because he knows the hero will rush to save them and give him a chance to escape or get another advantage. The hero must always be mindful of the people around him and that slows him down and distracts his focus. An interesting conundrum. It is fun for me to ponder situations where the right choice isn't always clear. To choose your priorities in the moment can be difficult.
The other issue that I find the most fun to explore, is that of morality. Right and wrong are not always black and white. The most interesting stories to me are those which explore the grey areas. Man of Steel SPOILER following. ...................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. There was some controversy about this movie when at the end Superman killed General Zod. They argued that Superman was supposed to be good and not kill anyone. It was a good dilemma, but I think he did the only thing he could do. The man clearly stated that he would continue killing humans until he was stopped. Is it moral to allow that in order to not kill this one man? ................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... .......... ....................................................................................... ..........................................................................
I also think about the Machine Gun Preacher, a real man portrayed in a movie by Gerard Butler. He went to Africa because he learned of how the rebels were taking children and turning them into soldiers. This is possibly the most horrific thing happening in our world today. He took his skills from his past as a pretty bad man and he went after these evil soldiers. Some would accuse him of being a murderer and not a Christian. I don't know. This is a hard one. We want to say what Jesus said, turn the other cheek.... but that isn't going to end the problem, you'll just end up dead most likely. Then the children would still be taken. Is this "preacher" a hero or a villain? Still chewing on that one. Again we have the issue of priorities. Is it more important to protect children from that much harm or to not kill one evil man?
I love stories of people who have courage and stand up for what is right. How they go about it is the thrill of the story. Some do it with violence, which gives us an intriguing moral question.... some do it by simply standing up in rebellion against corruption. They stop doing what they're told, they come up with new ideas and they lead others into a new way. Each time I leave a hero movie, be it Superman, Captain America, Divergent, or most recently The Maze Runner, I am inspired to be more courageous, to stand up for what is right, no matter the risk.
Every situation calls on us to pull from our moral foundation and that is why I spend so much time pondering. It is best to know what you believe before you're in a situation. When adrenaline kicks in it's too late to decide what you believe. I believe God's word is true. I believe that He gave us a code for right and wrong, but in the grey, we have to rely on Holy Spirit to guide our choices. He built us to live an adventurous life running alongside Him as He works in the Earth. I was born to be a hero...... and so were you! Will you accept the challenge?
I think about the kind of movies I seem to enjoy the most. They are the ones with superheroes, or just regular heroes. Stories of someone who stands up and chooses to risk it all for the sake of others. With the supers obviously the risk seems smaller, but it's still inspiring.
Superman is fairly hard to kill or even hurt, so what risk is he taking? This brings me to something I've been noticing in the movies that I am still chewing on. The villain will often allude to the fact that the love the hero has for the people is his weakness. That doesn't sit well with me because love is the greatest thing of all. Love is the ultimate source of power, not weakness. But still there is a truth in what the villain is pointing out. He has no scruples. In his quest to win, he will destroy anything he can in order to hurt the hero. He begins to throw buses at civilians because he knows the hero will rush to save them and give him a chance to escape or get another advantage. The hero must always be mindful of the people around him and that slows him down and distracts his focus. An interesting conundrum. It is fun for me to ponder situations where the right choice isn't always clear. To choose your priorities in the moment can be difficult.
The other issue that I find the most fun to explore, is that of morality. Right and wrong are not always black and white. The most interesting stories to me are those which explore the grey areas. Man of Steel SPOILER following. ...................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. There was some controversy about this movie when at the end Superman killed General Zod. They argued that Superman was supposed to be good and not kill anyone. It was a good dilemma, but I think he did the only thing he could do. The man clearly stated that he would continue killing humans until he was stopped. Is it moral to allow that in order to not kill this one man? ................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... .......... ....................................................................................... ..........................................................................
I also think about the Machine Gun Preacher, a real man portrayed in a movie by Gerard Butler. He went to Africa because he learned of how the rebels were taking children and turning them into soldiers. This is possibly the most horrific thing happening in our world today. He took his skills from his past as a pretty bad man and he went after these evil soldiers. Some would accuse him of being a murderer and not a Christian. I don't know. This is a hard one. We want to say what Jesus said, turn the other cheek.... but that isn't going to end the problem, you'll just end up dead most likely. Then the children would still be taken. Is this "preacher" a hero or a villain? Still chewing on that one. Again we have the issue of priorities. Is it more important to protect children from that much harm or to not kill one evil man?
I love stories of people who have courage and stand up for what is right. How they go about it is the thrill of the story. Some do it with violence, which gives us an intriguing moral question.... some do it by simply standing up in rebellion against corruption. They stop doing what they're told, they come up with new ideas and they lead others into a new way. Each time I leave a hero movie, be it Superman, Captain America, Divergent, or most recently The Maze Runner, I am inspired to be more courageous, to stand up for what is right, no matter the risk.
Every situation calls on us to pull from our moral foundation and that is why I spend so much time pondering. It is best to know what you believe before you're in a situation. When adrenaline kicks in it's too late to decide what you believe. I believe God's word is true. I believe that He gave us a code for right and wrong, but in the grey, we have to rely on Holy Spirit to guide our choices. He built us to live an adventurous life running alongside Him as He works in the Earth. I was born to be a hero...... and so were you! Will you accept the challenge?
Monday, August 11, 2014
Hollywood Suicide
Today broke our hearts as we heard the news that one of our favorite funny men apparently took his own life after a battle with depression. We are all saddened by this tragic news.
Suicides and drug overdoses seem to be happening more and more often in Hollywood. This is the 4th I know of in less than a year of people who are still working, on top of their game so to speak. They aren't has beens, they aren't down and out. They are "successful" people. I'm thinking of Cory Monteith, Lee Thompson Young, Philip Seymour Hoffman and now Robin Williams, all within the last year. I don't recall this ever happening this much all at once. It begs the question: Why?!?
I think the obvious one is that money and fame don't bring happiness, but I think we all know that. I began to dig deeper, and this is something that came to mind and I believe it applies to us all. I hope that my words will touch hearts where there is pain and bring a bit of hope.
These celebrities are known world wide and adored by fans, loved even, you might say. But is it really the love that is needed? I am a big fan of movies and stars, but when I say I love one of them, what am I really saying? We love how they look (which they know they can't hold onto forever), or I love this character or that character. We love them for who they pretend to be or for things that are fleeting. This phenomenon applies to us all really. How often have we 'put on a face' or acted how we thought was required just to "fit in" and "be liked" ? I think we all realize at some point that those people don't really like us because that's not us. When I become what you want me to be so that you'll like me..... you don't like me. You like who I pretend to be. We feel more and more lonely and unloved the more we pretend.
Loneliness is a huge issue among us humans. We are surrounded by people and yet we are lonely. Only when we are able to be real with the people in our lives can we really begin to believe we are truly loved. I know that I have felt lonely most of my life. I knew there were two sides to me and I didn't know how to make the real one come out around the people I called friends. I love being around people, and I often am, but I still feel lonely all the time. The people don't really know me. It's not really their fault, I have so many walls around my heart "protecting" me, they can't really find out who I am.
I remember a time many years ago when I contemplated driving my car off a cliff. Not so much to die, but to see if anyone would come visit me in the hospital. That is a sick way to think!! That is not healthy! Thankfully I never did it. How do we know who are friends are? How do we know who really loves us and who has a selfish agenda? If it's hard for us, imagine the multiplication in Hollywood! They have people all around who want to be their friends, but who is real and who just wants to share in the fame and fortune? How can they ever really know? I can see why they may be the loneliest people on the planet. Laughing on the outside, crying on the inside. It makes me so sad to think how empty they must be without knowing if they are truly loved. It makes me sad for all of us who don't know if we are truly loved by anyone.
But there is hope! I met someone 2 yrs ago that broke through those walls and convinced me that I was loved for exactly who I am. She loved me unconditionally at my worst and helped me to see that Jesus loved me too. He wasn't disapproving of me or mad at me for anything I'd done. I've grown a lot these last 2 yrs, the real me has come to the surface much more often. :) The more I hear from Papa God about how He made me and He likes me the way He made me.... the more comfortable and confident I am in who I really am. I am so grateful to have finally been able to see that I have a Creator who loves me for who I am, it makes everything that much easier. If He likes me..... who cares what anyone else thinks? He is my hope. He is my source. He is my Creator, my friend, and my love. He's not some imaginary friend in the sky, He has shown Himself to be so real and so good in my life. In Him I have it all. I still feel lonely a lot, but when I stop and connect with Him, it all fades away and I have joy and life again. Jesus really is the source for Hope and Love. Without Him, we only get a glimpse of what is available. I know that I was blown away when I began to just taste of His goodness and how much love He had for me. I didn't even know it was possible!! No matter what you are facing..... there is always Hope, and His name is Jesus.
Suicides and drug overdoses seem to be happening more and more often in Hollywood. This is the 4th I know of in less than a year of people who are still working, on top of their game so to speak. They aren't has beens, they aren't down and out. They are "successful" people. I'm thinking of Cory Monteith, Lee Thompson Young, Philip Seymour Hoffman and now Robin Williams, all within the last year. I don't recall this ever happening this much all at once. It begs the question: Why?!?
I think the obvious one is that money and fame don't bring happiness, but I think we all know that. I began to dig deeper, and this is something that came to mind and I believe it applies to us all. I hope that my words will touch hearts where there is pain and bring a bit of hope.
These celebrities are known world wide and adored by fans, loved even, you might say. But is it really the love that is needed? I am a big fan of movies and stars, but when I say I love one of them, what am I really saying? We love how they look (which they know they can't hold onto forever), or I love this character or that character. We love them for who they pretend to be or for things that are fleeting. This phenomenon applies to us all really. How often have we 'put on a face' or acted how we thought was required just to "fit in" and "be liked" ? I think we all realize at some point that those people don't really like us because that's not us. When I become what you want me to be so that you'll like me..... you don't like me. You like who I pretend to be. We feel more and more lonely and unloved the more we pretend.
Loneliness is a huge issue among us humans. We are surrounded by people and yet we are lonely. Only when we are able to be real with the people in our lives can we really begin to believe we are truly loved. I know that I have felt lonely most of my life. I knew there were two sides to me and I didn't know how to make the real one come out around the people I called friends. I love being around people, and I often am, but I still feel lonely all the time. The people don't really know me. It's not really their fault, I have so many walls around my heart "protecting" me, they can't really find out who I am.
I remember a time many years ago when I contemplated driving my car off a cliff. Not so much to die, but to see if anyone would come visit me in the hospital. That is a sick way to think!! That is not healthy! Thankfully I never did it. How do we know who are friends are? How do we know who really loves us and who has a selfish agenda? If it's hard for us, imagine the multiplication in Hollywood! They have people all around who want to be their friends, but who is real and who just wants to share in the fame and fortune? How can they ever really know? I can see why they may be the loneliest people on the planet. Laughing on the outside, crying on the inside. It makes me so sad to think how empty they must be without knowing if they are truly loved. It makes me sad for all of us who don't know if we are truly loved by anyone.
But there is hope! I met someone 2 yrs ago that broke through those walls and convinced me that I was loved for exactly who I am. She loved me unconditionally at my worst and helped me to see that Jesus loved me too. He wasn't disapproving of me or mad at me for anything I'd done. I've grown a lot these last 2 yrs, the real me has come to the surface much more often. :) The more I hear from Papa God about how He made me and He likes me the way He made me.... the more comfortable and confident I am in who I really am. I am so grateful to have finally been able to see that I have a Creator who loves me for who I am, it makes everything that much easier. If He likes me..... who cares what anyone else thinks? He is my hope. He is my source. He is my Creator, my friend, and my love. He's not some imaginary friend in the sky, He has shown Himself to be so real and so good in my life. In Him I have it all. I still feel lonely a lot, but when I stop and connect with Him, it all fades away and I have joy and life again. Jesus really is the source for Hope and Love. Without Him, we only get a glimpse of what is available. I know that I was blown away when I began to just taste of His goodness and how much love He had for me. I didn't even know it was possible!! No matter what you are facing..... there is always Hope, and His name is Jesus.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Sin - Maybe not what we thought.
Here is the thing I wrote December 2013 - reposting here as mentioned in previous post.
(This will not be about specific sins.) I know this may stir up controversy, but I've been having my thoughts challenged lately and I wanted to just try to get them out. It may be a bit jumbled, but I just want to share my thoughts and see if anyone else wants to chime in. I'm in process. I am in no way saying the traditional thoughts on sin are wrong, so please no one jump all over me for not including that. I just want to share some other thoughts that I think may be also true. I think it's a both / and as my Pastor Norm always said. :)
I think common thought is that sin is a verb. Our actions are sinful. We do bad things and that is sin. OK, so that is true.... but I'm seeing something beyond that.
We treat sin as this huge thing and imply that if you do something wrong that God will want nothing to do with you, but yet we see Jesus (the perfect representation of God) eating with sinners and hanging out with them all the time. (Luke 15:2 for one)
But look at John 8:34 - Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin -- So now sin has become a noun, it is sort of personified here as some sort of entity that can enslave us. Also in Acts 8:23, Romans 3:9, Romans 7:8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.
Sin came into the world thru the disobedience of one man.
1 Tim 2:14 - And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
Eve didn't have the sin nature - she walked directly with God and yet when the serpent showed up, she was deceived. She was not a slave to sin, but when it appeared, she followed it. (again personified) The teaching I have heard about this incident was that she was not so much guilty of disobedience, but of following a different master. That was the big no-no.
Acts 13:39-39 tells us that only Jesus can set us free from sin, not the law of Moses. So knowing the law and keeping it doesn't keep us free from sin as some people seem to think. Also Romans 3:20,
In the context of what Jesus did on the cross... Romans 6:6 offers us our freedom from this slavery. The old body ruled by sin is done away with so we are no longer slaves to sin. Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. --- So now we have a choice.
Romans 7 offers up a discourse on being a slave to the sin living inside us and wanting to do good but failing. This is the battle we are all familiar with. We believe one thing and often find ourselves doing the opposite.
Romans 8:3 - For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. -- That's a tough one, but if you look at being born of God as a continual lifelong process, you could say that certain areas are not yet born of God.
OK - those are a bunch of passages I found to sort of get to my point. I don't think I found the one that directly said what I was thinking though. (I've been thinking on this for awhile, but for this blog I just searched sin on a Bible site)
So if sin is more of an outside influence, and without Christ we are a slave to it, then when Jesus died to set us free from sin, He went to war against this "entity" called sin. It is a deceiver who is constantly trying to trick us or convince us that God's way is not the best way. He's been at it for a very long time and is pretty good at his lies.
Bill Johnson has said that "it is impossible for a Christian to sin apart from believing a lie." That is a controversial statement to church people I'm sure, but I think it is true. If we have been born again, then the Bible says we have been set free from the power of sin, and it says we will not continue to sin if we're born of God. So is the Bible wrong? Or is our understanding wrong? If I look really closely at my life and my sins, I have to agree with Bill.
How about when Jesus was being tempted by Satan. He was offered good things, things that were meant for Him to have, but Satan offered shortcuts to those good things. He offered another path. Basically implying that God's way isn't the best way. Kind of the same thing he said to Eve.
Why do we fear the future? Because we are believing a lie that says God won't protect us and doesn't have the best plan for us. Almost always, I can see that beneath it all, the excuses, the fears, is the idea that God isn't really good. If we truly believed 100% that God is good in every situation, we would never sin. We would walk according to the Spirit as we were initially intended. God started off this whole world with 2 people in a Garden just hanging out with Him all day. They broke that by listening to another voice. Things got harder for humanity after that. Jesus restored us to the possibility of constant connection to Father.
Jesus died to claim victory over the power of sin, to give us the reconnect we needed to live the way He intended.
If all this is true, why are we always shouting at "sinners" to change their ways? They can't. Apart from relationship with Jesus, they can't change. A few will try and succeed, but for the most part, they don't have the power to break free of sin on their own.
I still sin in my life, and I am constantly in search of the truth that will set me free. I believe God enough to be convinced that His way is better than mine, but I still struggle to trust Him completely, therefore I still sin. When I do I try to see the lie, or have the body of Christ help me to find the lie. We are meant to live in community for this very reason I believe. To help each other see where we are deceived. That's the nature of deception. We can't see it. Victory comes in being connected to the body in which we are placed.
Sin is our enemy, not our actions. To win the battles we must seek Jesus and His truth instead of focusing on the sin. We give it power when we focus on it (not to mention coming under condemnation - which is not of God). I learned that the hard way, suffering for 15 yrs completely focused on one area of my life that was not ok with me. When I finally got the memo to focus on Jesus, that thing has just fallen away and disappeared!! What if we all were able to do that and help others to do it? Hmmmm.... I think that is the message of the gospel. Focus on Jesus, seek first the Kingdom, and sin will pass away and we will have the life we were meant to have. :)
Again, this is my thoughts in process. I am not claiming it to be ultimate truth, just pondering and trying to find truth. I welcome input.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Stop the War!
I try to avoid the news, it just makes me angry. So much of it these days is some LGBT issue or another. There are two sides to this issue and it's really messy. Both sides feel persecuted, both sides are angry. It's an all out brawl at this point. When will it end? I'm so tired of reading all the hateful comments coming from both sides. What is this accomplishing? Is war what we want? Or is there another way?
I was thinking on this while I was waiting for my first call last night. I wrote this on a scrap of paper:
If "Christians" hadn't been so gun-ho in the past in singling out one type of sin to pour out all their hatred upon, maybe we wouldn't be under such attack now. When you bully someone long enough, eventually they come back fists flying, and sometimes they've taken up new advanced strategies of combat.
I do not agree with Christians who wave picket signs and chant hatred and point out sin. That is not Christlike. I never saw Jesus holding picket signs in the Bible, I never saw him standing on a street corner yelling that only certain sinners were going to hell. This activity is not in line with the character of Jesus that I see in my Bible. I wish I could apologize on behalf of God for all these people who are basically just acting like jerks. I see no benefit to this type of behavior.
Now the tables have turned, the people that were once singled out for this hatred have come back swinging and are now attacking the "Christians" for their beliefs, beating them over the head with new laws and cultural standards, demanding that they comply or be ruined. I don't think this is right either. But I get it. Some will claim they are being persecuted for their faith, but I think mostly they're being persecuted for being jerks.
We are all a part of some group or another, we identify ourselves with labels. Do you ever fully agree with 100% of other people who carry the same label? I don't. The issue I would like to address here is to encourage us all to get to know people as individuals instead of making assumptions based on a particular label they carry. I know, I know, we don't like labels, but we all still do it. That person is white, black, Christian, white collar, gangster, bum..... We see, we label, we assume. Let's not pretend it doesn't happen. We just don't have to lump them all together and believe that they're all the same. Every homeless person is not a lazy drug addict that doesn't want to work. Every white person is a rich entitled jerk who has the world handed to them on a silver platter. Every Christian is not out there holding hateful picket signs. Need I go on?
I know many Christians who are wonderful loving people who are afraid to even use the term Christian because of the negative reputation that is now attached to it. It's sad. The word is supposed to mean follower of Christ, and if you actually read His story, I don't think anyone could take issue with how He treated people and what He taught. He showed us how to love and have peace in society. We need that so desperately now.
We need to get out there and love people. We need to act as Christ acted. There is no room for us to be attacking anyone for their sin. There is not one sin that is worse than any other in God's eyes. We are all sinners in need of God's love. Only God's love will set us free, heal out hearts, and change our lives for the better. That is the good news. We are not capable of earning His love or salvation, but He doesn't ask us to earn it. He offers it as a free gift. All we must do is accept His love. After that, the change just starts to happen as His love permeates our being and heals our wounds. We are not responsible for changing ourselves, so why do we think we can hold signs demanding others to do so?
Jesus doesn't hate any person, He hates sin. I wrote another blog awhile back, I think it's on my Facebook account though, I should transfer it over here. Briefly, I have a different opinion than most about what sin is. I don't think it is our actions (it can be, but I'm exploring a different side here), I think it is the evil thing that is out to destroy us. The Bible personifies sin in some places. It is our enemy, it is that thing that is feeding us lies and convincing us to do harmful things. That is why Jesus hates it, that is why He died a horrific death to defeat it. If sin is the thing attacking us, why would we feel the need to act hateful to those under attack? If they are deceived, or wounded to the point of believing that is their lot in life, how can we be mad at them? I know that I have been deceived. I know that I was wounded and I acted badly out of that place. I needed God's love to heal me before I ever had a chance at beating sin in my life. I tried for years, no success. People need Love. Period. They need to be brought into an encounter with the One who can give them that love. The rest is up to Him. If He feels the need to change them, that's His prerogative as Creator. It's none of our business.
I am pleading with my fellow Christians - stop attacking, stop defending, stop fighting. Love is the only answer. We need peace and unity, not to be "right." I think of that verse about a clanging gong. You can be right about everything, but if you don't have love, you have nothing. We need relationship and love more than anything. Sin is still sin, but it will never be defeated with hate and judgement and accusation. It's our job to love, not point out that people sin. I think we all know that already, quit beating that drum. Please.
I was thinking on this while I was waiting for my first call last night. I wrote this on a scrap of paper:
If "Christians" hadn't been so gun-ho in the past in singling out one type of sin to pour out all their hatred upon, maybe we wouldn't be under such attack now. When you bully someone long enough, eventually they come back fists flying, and sometimes they've taken up new advanced strategies of combat.
I do not agree with Christians who wave picket signs and chant hatred and point out sin. That is not Christlike. I never saw Jesus holding picket signs in the Bible, I never saw him standing on a street corner yelling that only certain sinners were going to hell. This activity is not in line with the character of Jesus that I see in my Bible. I wish I could apologize on behalf of God for all these people who are basically just acting like jerks. I see no benefit to this type of behavior.
Now the tables have turned, the people that were once singled out for this hatred have come back swinging and are now attacking the "Christians" for their beliefs, beating them over the head with new laws and cultural standards, demanding that they comply or be ruined. I don't think this is right either. But I get it. Some will claim they are being persecuted for their faith, but I think mostly they're being persecuted for being jerks.
We are all a part of some group or another, we identify ourselves with labels. Do you ever fully agree with 100% of other people who carry the same label? I don't. The issue I would like to address here is to encourage us all to get to know people as individuals instead of making assumptions based on a particular label they carry. I know, I know, we don't like labels, but we all still do it. That person is white, black, Christian, white collar, gangster, bum..... We see, we label, we assume. Let's not pretend it doesn't happen. We just don't have to lump them all together and believe that they're all the same. Every homeless person is not a lazy drug addict that doesn't want to work. Every white person is a rich entitled jerk who has the world handed to them on a silver platter. Every Christian is not out there holding hateful picket signs. Need I go on?
I know many Christians who are wonderful loving people who are afraid to even use the term Christian because of the negative reputation that is now attached to it. It's sad. The word is supposed to mean follower of Christ, and if you actually read His story, I don't think anyone could take issue with how He treated people and what He taught. He showed us how to love and have peace in society. We need that so desperately now.
We need to get out there and love people. We need to act as Christ acted. There is no room for us to be attacking anyone for their sin. There is not one sin that is worse than any other in God's eyes. We are all sinners in need of God's love. Only God's love will set us free, heal out hearts, and change our lives for the better. That is the good news. We are not capable of earning His love or salvation, but He doesn't ask us to earn it. He offers it as a free gift. All we must do is accept His love. After that, the change just starts to happen as His love permeates our being and heals our wounds. We are not responsible for changing ourselves, so why do we think we can hold signs demanding others to do so?
Jesus doesn't hate any person, He hates sin. I wrote another blog awhile back, I think it's on my Facebook account though, I should transfer it over here. Briefly, I have a different opinion than most about what sin is. I don't think it is our actions (it can be, but I'm exploring a different side here), I think it is the evil thing that is out to destroy us. The Bible personifies sin in some places. It is our enemy, it is that thing that is feeding us lies and convincing us to do harmful things. That is why Jesus hates it, that is why He died a horrific death to defeat it. If sin is the thing attacking us, why would we feel the need to act hateful to those under attack? If they are deceived, or wounded to the point of believing that is their lot in life, how can we be mad at them? I know that I have been deceived. I know that I was wounded and I acted badly out of that place. I needed God's love to heal me before I ever had a chance at beating sin in my life. I tried for years, no success. People need Love. Period. They need to be brought into an encounter with the One who can give them that love. The rest is up to Him. If He feels the need to change them, that's His prerogative as Creator. It's none of our business.
I am pleading with my fellow Christians - stop attacking, stop defending, stop fighting. Love is the only answer. We need peace and unity, not to be "right." I think of that verse about a clanging gong. You can be right about everything, but if you don't have love, you have nothing. We need relationship and love more than anything. Sin is still sin, but it will never be defeated with hate and judgement and accusation. It's our job to love, not point out that people sin. I think we all know that already, quit beating that drum. Please.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Hearsay
Let me write about a strange phenomenon I've been observing. People are much more inclined to believe some outlandish negative story they hear instead of trusting in their own experience and observation of the facts. I've been watching it happen around me as I happen to attend a large, somewhat famous church that has a lot of attackers spreading rumors about it. I know the stories are false because I've attended there for 2 years. Because of my own experience, I don't believe the gossip. It just has me thinking about where in life we have this tendency. How is it affecting us?
A woman is told by someone that her husband is cheating on her. What is her first response? Is it 'I know my husband, that is outside his character so I don't believe you are telling me the truth.' or... 'Oh no! I'm devastated! My life is over! How could this happen?!?!?' I would hope that a married couple has a good relationship based on honesty and trust, but it seems that mistrust and suspicion are often lurking, ready to pounce. How can a marriage be strong if there's no trust? How can there be love without trust?
In the case of my church, not that it's unique, it has happened to many others... People like to tell crazy stories about what happens there, and other people like to hang on every word and form opinions about the crazy people up on the hill. I've overheard co-workers talking about how creepy "those people" are, yet at the same time, there are many of them employed here and these very people love them! They think they're great and put them in leadership positions often. Do you see the problem here?
It seems our first response is to believe a negative report about things we hear. How about the news? How many of us repost instantly when we see a scary "article" shared on Facebook? How many of us actually look into it first instead of spreading fear? How many "news" magazines post horrible things about celebrities that turn out to be not true? How many of us can ever get those lies out of our heads when we look at our fellow man? How many of us are willing to trust someone after we've heard something bad about them? What if it isn't really true? How are our relationships affected by all this negative gossip we are constantly bombarded with?
In my observation, I can conclude that gossip and hearsay hold more weight than personal experience. Does that make any sense at all? I'm all for being open minded, being cautious, but I would hope people would actually look for evidence before passing judgement and believing all the things they hear.
I wonder how our relationships would change if we would stop speaking negative things about other people, if we stopped allowing others to speak negative things to us, if we trusted our own observations instead of instantly believing the stories we are told by people who have a grudge? Would it make our relationships stronger? Would it make people better? Would it reduce our stress? Would it add to world peace? I think it would.
A woman is told by someone that her husband is cheating on her. What is her first response? Is it 'I know my husband, that is outside his character so I don't believe you are telling me the truth.' or... 'Oh no! I'm devastated! My life is over! How could this happen?!?!?' I would hope that a married couple has a good relationship based on honesty and trust, but it seems that mistrust and suspicion are often lurking, ready to pounce. How can a marriage be strong if there's no trust? How can there be love without trust?
In the case of my church, not that it's unique, it has happened to many others... People like to tell crazy stories about what happens there, and other people like to hang on every word and form opinions about the crazy people up on the hill. I've overheard co-workers talking about how creepy "those people" are, yet at the same time, there are many of them employed here and these very people love them! They think they're great and put them in leadership positions often. Do you see the problem here?
It seems our first response is to believe a negative report about things we hear. How about the news? How many of us repost instantly when we see a scary "article" shared on Facebook? How many of us actually look into it first instead of spreading fear? How many "news" magazines post horrible things about celebrities that turn out to be not true? How many of us can ever get those lies out of our heads when we look at our fellow man? How many of us are willing to trust someone after we've heard something bad about them? What if it isn't really true? How are our relationships affected by all this negative gossip we are constantly bombarded with?
In my observation, I can conclude that gossip and hearsay hold more weight than personal experience. Does that make any sense at all? I'm all for being open minded, being cautious, but I would hope people would actually look for evidence before passing judgement and believing all the things they hear.
I wonder how our relationships would change if we would stop speaking negative things about other people, if we stopped allowing others to speak negative things to us, if we trusted our own observations instead of instantly believing the stories we are told by people who have a grudge? Would it make our relationships stronger? Would it make people better? Would it reduce our stress? Would it add to world peace? I think it would.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Freedom.... To or From?
I was pondering freedom today after a brief conversation with a co-worker. It started with a mention of the Pride parade that I had seen some pictures of on a friend's wall yesterday. I was commenting on how they sometimes have gone beyond what I feel is appropriate in a public setting, i.e. nudity. I feel that they shouldn't be doing such things, and my co-worker said something about their freedom. So I was thinking....
What is freedom? I want the freedom to make choices for myself. I want to choose what comes into my "self" through my eyes and ears. I want to choose how I live my life. But so does everyone else. So what happens when what I want to do messes with someone else's life? Whose freedom wins? If Bobby chooses to smoke, and George chooses not to smoke, what happens when they pass each other's sphere? If Bobby is smoking at that moment, George's freedom to not smoke just got taken away.
I have to conclude that my freedom only extends as far as it doesn't encroach on another person's freedom. I can only have freedom as far as it only affects my life. As soon as my freedom takes away the freedom of another, I've crossed the line of polite society.
We live in a nation full of laws. How many of those laws are written solely because so many people don't understand or live by this basic principle? We've made laws that you can't smoke within a certain distance of a public door because so many smokers did not act in a way that honored the freedom of others choosing not to smoke.
We all want our freedom, but I wonder how often we consider the freedom of others. I want the freedom "to" do something, while another person may want freedom "from" that same thing. I challenge us all to walk with honor, respecting the spheres of our fellow man. Live in such a way as to not rob your neighbor of his or her freedom. It's simple really, but how many of us will step past ourselves to honor another?
What is freedom? I want the freedom to make choices for myself. I want to choose what comes into my "self" through my eyes and ears. I want to choose how I live my life. But so does everyone else. So what happens when what I want to do messes with someone else's life? Whose freedom wins? If Bobby chooses to smoke, and George chooses not to smoke, what happens when they pass each other's sphere? If Bobby is smoking at that moment, George's freedom to not smoke just got taken away.
I have to conclude that my freedom only extends as far as it doesn't encroach on another person's freedom. I can only have freedom as far as it only affects my life. As soon as my freedom takes away the freedom of another, I've crossed the line of polite society.
We live in a nation full of laws. How many of those laws are written solely because so many people don't understand or live by this basic principle? We've made laws that you can't smoke within a certain distance of a public door because so many smokers did not act in a way that honored the freedom of others choosing not to smoke.
We all want our freedom, but I wonder how often we consider the freedom of others. I want the freedom "to" do something, while another person may want freedom "from" that same thing. I challenge us all to walk with honor, respecting the spheres of our fellow man. Live in such a way as to not rob your neighbor of his or her freedom. It's simple really, but how many of us will step past ourselves to honor another?
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