I grew up in a time when church frequently included special gospel meetings that featured a guest preacher imploring over the course of a week to get right and reap the rewards of heaven or certainly go to hell. Night after night the message and volume would escalate until a satisfactory number had responded to avoid the punishment of hell.
As a result, my upbringing most of my Christian life has been spent figuring out what “get right” means. My relationship with God was shallowly based on a set of rules based more in the tradition of my recent ancestors than the Word and Spirit. It took a couple of family tragedies and a tour to combat for me to reevaluate and search for a deeper foundation [Christ] for my relationship.
The struggles of my God relationship search came flooding back as I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us in which he presents a compelling case for a deeper method of personal, peer, and subordinate motivation. I was struck with how closely the history of motivation parallels the Bible story and my story.
“Christians are horrible, they are so mean.”
Not only is this sentiment too common today, but these were the words I heard from one of our varsity basketball players this morning. We had just finished a win over a Christian school who’s crowd began a personal verbal attack on the player over perceived rough defense. The 15 year-old player was left reeling from a crowd of adults screaming at her. As I overheard her talking to her mother on the phone, the words of dissappointment stung with each syllable.
“Christians are supposed to be the best, but they are the worse.”
Unfortunately this was the second Christian school in as many days who had behaved in a similar manner. I must confess my own behavior has not always been exemplary during close and heated games. The words this morning stung because it brought home how much my behavior represents Christ, too often in a negative way.
The United States went through a phase of t-shirts, bracelets, and other Christian merchandise that challenged us to ask”What Would Jesus Do?” or “WWJD?” when confronted with a decision. Apart from the superficial nature of t-shirt Christianity, I wonder if we would have been better served challenging believers to “LLJD” or “live like Jesus did.” I’m sure there was no room in Jesus’ life for screaming at a 15 year-old basketball player no matter how hard the foul.
The Bible is at times so grand and the plot so complex it’s sometimes difficult for most of us to gather details about God’s will for us. We rely on scholars and theologians to interpret passages but because of disagreement among scholars we are forced to choose which we feel is most correct. That’s why it’s good to take an overview of the scriptures to discern the context; I describe this view as a “helicopter view.”
During my time in the Army, situations on the ground became much clearer when viewed from a position that permitted a view of the entire operation, not just one small perspective on the ground. This was done by finding high terrain, using unmanned arial vehicles (UAV), or jumping in a helicopter and seeing first hand the big view. This helicopter view is important when studying single scriptures to better understand the intent of the writer at that time to the recipients. The same can be said concerning the complete collection of biblical collection of writings. So what’s the story?
Picture God in your mind…
If you’re like most of the people I’ve asked, you probably thought of some combination of a man in a gray beard floating on a throne in the clouds or a scowling judge glaring down from his judgment bench. Both are totally wrong. God has a presence in the world today, and how we see Him will determines how we see ourselves and how we see others.
Before we can establish how to see God today we need to explore how he was seen in the past. Bible accounts paint a picture of a God who made himself visibly present; initially for His benefit an eventually for ours.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day….” (Gen 3:8 NIV). I love to imagine what it was like in the garden of God when He physically walked among and enjoyed the beauty of his creation. To think about enjoying the presence of my creator in the unsurpassed beauty of his newly created earth is overwhelming to me.
In the garden that day Adam and Eve could not be found because they were hiding from God. They knew they had disobeyed and were ashamed of themselves and their appearance. This was the moment that separated us from God, but also set into motion a plan to redeem his creation and reestablish the perfection of His dwelling place. From that moment on God manifested Himself in various forms.
In my last post I outlined how through Christ we bask in the light of God and become the avenue of redemption for God on this old earth. Our mission is to let the light of Christ reflect from our lives so that others will follow. In doing so we are preparing for the day when “the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it” (Rev 21:26 Our primary purpose is to live and build the glory and honor for God on that day. This drives our worship, mission, and life.
But we take our Light for granted WAY to often. It’s tempting to focus on the prize at the expense of our mission to build the glory and honor for God. One of the most convicting songs written and performed by the late Keith Green:
The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church can’t fight, cause it’s asleep in the light,
How can you be so dead, when you’ve been so well fed,
Jesus rose from the grave, and you, you can’t even get out of bed,
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead, come on, get out of your bed.
What a rallying cry for us. We are blessed with the comfort of eternal life and guidance from God through the Spirit. Put it to work.
I laugh every time I watch this Pixar short film but it is a great illustration of the unintended consequences that come from the exclusion of people who aren’t exactly like us. God loves ALL people and calls his children to include everyone in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ even if they don’t fit the mold we are used to.
The book of Acts presents a beautiful picture of early Christian believers and their natural desire to be together. The model then was clearly not just a Sunday morning assembly but a model of assembly together, focusing on each others needs and praising God as one.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47 NIV)
I attended a small town congregation on Sunday and there was a good 20 feet between groupings of family and friends during worship, not as I imagine when reading Acts. If you are a new Christian, seek out a church family who love one another and worship as one every chance they get. If you are part of a congregation that on Sunday mornings resembles a doctor’s office waiting room during flu season, don’t leave – be the one to bring people together. A healthy Christian community focuses on assembling together not just on the assembly.
I recently had a discussion with a congregational leader who was bemoaning the prevalence of sports in the lives of our church youth. The leader believed our youth should spend more time in church than on the field. It’s almost as if we must choose to be a Christian in the confines of an assembly building or not at all. My response is a close look at the scriptures. The truth is, Christ intended for his follower to be disciples and spread the gospel everywhere at all times. A practical Christian will:
1. Go into the world. To spread the gospel we must go.
2. Serve as Christ’s ambassador. Ambassadors serve in foreign lands
3. Go where our gift influences the most. Don’t compartmentalize your faith into church and world.
4. Use every gift from God. What ‘s your gift? Use it to spread the gospel.
