you are too uptight

I know I know, it happened two weeks ago. It's funny, I haven't heard too much discussion about the prize lately and I think it just goes to illustrate my thoughts just that much more. I should preface this by saying as a Christian, most would say that I lean heavily conservative. I didn't vote for the president, but I feel nothing but goodwill towards him. The burden of leadership is not an easy task, particularly for the sincere of heart, which I believe he is. There are probably a plethora of things that we disagree on, but as a Marine I know that I could, and would, give my life for him.

With that at the fore, congratulations to President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize! I think it is a wonderful and deserved award. It is my hope that the prize money (which you have reportedly donated to charity) is blessed by God and your fame a testament to His glory. This was my initial reaction to the news of this honor being bestowed him.

Unfortunately, there are a good number of critics who can't seem to celebrate another being honored. Funny, just weeks prior a certain Mr. West had to butt in and speak his mind about awards being unfairly given to the wrong person. Ironic, the President's label of West as a 'jackass' was nearly celebrated and universally lauded by all. In a similar event one man was given an award which was immediately criticized by critics everywhere. Polls were done, bumper sticker slogans splashed on the news and people became angry; for what?

More people remember the entertainment award winners (VMA, Oscars, Emmys, etc) for years (generations?) in comparison to the Nobel Peace Prize. Why is it so upsetting that President Obama won a prize that you didn't even know came out in October until 3 weeks ago? Why do you critics care? Is it so difficult to just put your biases aside and congratulate a winner?

Mr. West apologized, but is still considered a jackass by many. Perhaps Mr. West's label should be slapped a bit more firmly on those critics who cannot be humbled into graciously recognizing President Obama's and apologizing for their overtly political and illogical actions.

As for the argument that the President has done nothing; give it rest. He is President of the United States of America. There have only been 44 of them, so I'd say he's in fairly prestigious company. He's done a bit more than you just by getting there and certainly influenced more people. My guess is that you couldn't name one bill that he has introduced and helped pass not for lack of the evidence, but due to a lack of your interest.

All in all, it comes down to this. Stop being so damn uptight, and give your President props. He did what you will never do. (in the 1 in 6 800 000 000 chance that you receive the Nobel Peace Prize next year, congratulations)

1 750 000 000 + Wisdom + Church ≠ Love

There are few things the world talks more about than love. It is a simple word really; easy to spell and even easier to shout! It rolls off the tip of the tongue of young and old alike, the drunk and the sober both talk of it, and a quick Google search reveals 1,750,000,000 results – approximately 1,500,000 more than a search for porn. The word is everywhere, but those who know and experience it are few. And so we search for it. Books are written, seminars are hosted and money flows. Yet all the wisdom of the world leaves us with is emotion and passion; as Pearl Jam laments: “hearts and thoughts they fade; they fade away.”¹

Sadly, professing Christians everywhere have fallen into the same trap. They desire love, but do not know where to look or how to act. To exasperate the matter, they not only desire love; they are commanded to give it. When asked what the greatest of all the laws was, Jesus replied “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”² Despite Jesus’ sacrifice, many fail to see or understand love, and so Paul exhorts Christians in one of his letters to the church in Corinth:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends.”³

And so Christians everywhere memorize this verse and act as if they love one another because they read what love is. Unfortunately, they have not reflected wholly on what Paul is saying. The Christians I talk to can always quickly recall that “love is patient; love is kind” but everything else is forgotten. The passage must be taken as a whole, or not at all. The love Paul talks about is on that is counter-cultural and focused on the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The great Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes a distinction between human love and spiritual love saying,

“Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake. Therefore human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person.”⁴

To love someone for Christ’s sake is to love them in a way that is unreasonable and incomprehensible to the non-Christian. In kindness, we put God before those we love, knowing that serving Him is the way in which we serve them. Love does not insist on its own way, it insists on Christ. Bonhoeffer continues, “Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others too, can be saved only by Christ himself.”⁵ Christians are to love others focused on their Savior, and hate what goes against God. By hating evil they rejoice in the truth.

Paul’s directive to be patient and kind should not be misunderstood! The two should not be done without truth and a desire to see Christ glorified. Confession, admonishment and discipline are all vital components of truth and, therefore, love. Without those things, any love that is professed is merely an exaggerated form of politeness. Christians are warned not to be lukewarm⁶; but instead understand that their God is a divisive one⁷. Their adherence to the one true God and His will is bound to drive away many, just as showing love to an enemy “heaps coals upon his head.”⁸ Too often Christians do not desire confrontation or disagreement and allow sin to not only creep into their community but also control their own lives. They must find such great joy and hope in the truth that they hate evil and wrongdoing. Without that hatred, they have no love. This is perhaps the most difficult part of loving others. Relationships are built without an understanding of what the purpose or reason for them is. The purpose should be to glorify God, but this is rarely a reality or thought as relationships are usually entered into with a desire and purpose of self-gratification. While gratification certainly is one of the rewards of loving one another as God calls us to do, making it the reason for our relationships leads the type of human love which Bonhoeffer speaks about. Such love is temporal, incomplete and unsatisfying.

Instead Christians are called to love endlessly; enabled by the love they have for Christ The passion and love Christians have for God should naturally translate into serving one another. Paul encourages the church in Philippi to serve as Christ who “took the form of a servant” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.” If Christ is the focal point of love, then service will naturally be a part of acting out the love. Service is often self-righteous and takes a large amount of effort and calculating. “True service is a lifestyle.”⁹ Richard Foster makes the distinction in this way:

“True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service. Where a difference is noted, the true servant is often drawn to the small service, not out of false modesty, but because he genuinely sees it as the more important task. He indiscriminately welcomes all opportunities to serve.”

When Christians love Christ first and then others through that love, they love in a “naïve, unpsychological [sic] and unmethodical”¹⁰ way. The secret as to why and how they love is Christ. As their love for him grows, showing love in that way is an integral part of their life that they cannot shake off or get rid of.

Only through loving the Christ is such a life of love possible. His is a love which requires nothing of the loved; but instead gives the loved an opportunity to love. His love was not motivated by anything his chosen had done or decisions they had made; but was instead pure and endless. John Cobb Jr puts it this way:

“Love is, on the one hand, the only salvation of the spiritual man and, on the other hand, unattainable by his own efforts...We love only because we are first loved. In this way, and only in this way, can the spiritual man genuinely and purely love.”^­11

Christian love is motivated by nothing other than the love of Jesus. A man Christian man does not love his wife and Christ, but instead loves Christ and as a result of that love he loves his wife. The more he loves Jesus, the greater the love he has for his wife. Such love is a purer and more perfect love; it is beyond human understanding and reason. Without placing Christ ahead of his wife, he is unable to love her completely. This is true for all relationships: husbands and wives, neighbors, co-workers and friends. This love is the only love that is timeless and meaningful, and it is because it is rooted in the only unchangeable and perfect God.

Just as God’s service to us drives us to eagerly serve him, so also should Christians serve one another. They must help others and extend love with a “simpleness and humility rather than out of great analysis and calculation which is often motivated out of a desire to glorify” their own self. Failure to love Christ first will result in an unsuccessful attempt to serve one another because the simpleness and humility is lost due to mankind’s natural tendency to glorify its self. This is the greatest way that Christians fail to love and the biggest problem with churches. They fail to love and serve others because they do not love God or understand His love for them.

It should also be understood that part of loving is being loved. Often times Christians enjoy talking about themselves and what they do so much that they deny the reality of their own brokenness and need to live in humility. We forget that Christ “loved the church”¹¹ and that we are supposed to love and serve him in return. Jesus gave himself up for us, expecting us to give ourselves up to him. As one pastor put it, “Jesus isn’t looking for an hour of your time, a day of the week or even your weekend. He doesn’t want your money or your car or your house. He wants and requires all it. He demands your life!”¹² If Christ demands to be served, should Christians not expect to be served as well? Often times they forget that part of loving is allowing others to serve them. This should not be the case, but they should instead freely delight in allowing others to love as Christ does! Love must be given as well as received. This is most evident with persons who are suffering. People like to serve others who are suffering or are disabled, but the down and out are rarely given the opportunity to love and serve in return. In doing this Christians do not love them, but instead hate them! This is one of the many ways that Christians submit to one another as they are called to in Ephesians 5.

We live in an age of Christianity that not only fails to show love, but grossly misunderstands how to love. All of creation desires love more than anything else, and who could know or display love more than those who belong to the Living God? Christians need to wake up and love as it has been revealed to them and as they are commanded to do.

Before the Throne of God Above

Before the throne of God above

I have a strong and perfect plea.

A great High Priest whose name is Love

Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on His hands,

My name is written on His heart.

I know that while in Heaven He stands

No tongue can bid me thence depart.

 

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end of all my sin!

Because the sinless Savior died

My sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me.

 

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,

My perfect spotless righteousness,

The great unchangeable I Am,

The King of Glory and of Grace,

One in Himself I cannot die.

My soul is purchased by His blood,

My life is hid with Christ on high,

With Christ my Savior and my God!

Written by an Irishwoman by the name of Charitie de Cheney Lees Smith Bancroft (now that’s a name!) the lyrics of this incredible hymn have been captivating my mind all day – and I hope it continues to for some time!  How much joy can a mind comprehend?  The lord of lies and deceit prods, pulls and pushes me to despair; yet I can consider it pure joy!  Trials and temptations come while he repeatedly beats me, Christ’s assurance is true.  The Righteous One looks on Him and is satisfied with me!

Look at my Savior, my righteousness is not my own, but His.  He is King and has pardoned me, He is unchangeable and I am free.  No tongue can curse me, there is no greater Judge.    My joy is complete, my self overwhelmed!  My God loves and His glory endures, I am made strong in His presence because of the One who lives through me. 

My joy is in Christ my Savior and my God!  All of you stand and sing, for He is great and worthy of all praise!  O praise Him and know that He is Good!  He has made an end to our sin, and we are free.  Can the joy of that be matched?  Can it be understood?  Is it not so moving or overwhelming that you do not weep with gladness?  Or shout in proclamation?  God is satisfied; are you not?

The God I Worship

The following is an excerpt from a blog (http://vanillatea.blogspot.com/) which frequently raises hoopla in my room due to its many wild theological propositions, embracement of heretics and obvious manipulation of scripture:

---

"The God I worship doesn't cause illness. He doesn't like watching suffering because it's some kind of divine plan.

The God I worship doesn't cause illness; He heals.

He hurts as we hurt. He asks us to heal the hurt of others. He sends His Spirit to empower us to fight brokenness.

Because the world isn't right. And God didn't plan for it to be this way.

So it terrifies me - it terrifies me - when people say, "God gave me cancer", as though they've accepted that.

God didn't give you cancer.

Cancer is part of the world's brokenness. And God wants you to join Him in fighting it.

God didn't even cause your home foreclosure. You know what? You might have put yourself in a bad situation. Or greedy banks might have done something stupid. But the system of economic recession which is hurting people andcontributing to brokenness isn't part of God's plan."

--- 

Ma’am, your god is limited by your desires and understanding, and I beg of you to repent and believe in the God of all Creation, the Unchanging, Holy, Wise and Perfect Lord and Savior.  Your god is false, and you are its prophet.  The Christian God is Sovereign.

You, “you speak as one of the foolish women would speak!”  The Christian God allows and purposes suffering so that He might be glorified.  The Christian God causes illness to “happen so that the work of God might be displayed.” He is so incredibly gracious allowing us (Christians) to suffer in the shadow of all the disciples who have come before.  He wills suffering so that we might be able to understand His will and desire Him more.  We suffer just as Jesus, His twelve apostles, Paul, and all of Christianity has suffered.  We are promised suffering, trials and tribulation by scripture.  The Christian God knows and sees all, bringing suffering, pain and illness and we praise Him for His Sovereignty and Goodness.  The Christian God gives and takes; all we have and are, is for Him.  “Shall we receive good from God, and not evil?”

Praise God for the maturity of those who recognize their suffering as an opportunity to love and worship the Lord! 

God gives suffering.  He allows pain.  God doesn’t need anyone’s help to fight anything; He is almighty!  God’s plan is.  His will is done.  Your god is false; propagated by your evil desires and idolatry of your own morality.  The Christian God is sovereign and planned to use His suffering for our salvation; I’m pretty sure (certain) we can praise Him for the inconvenient “suffering” we endure, for He is “completing a good work in us.”

 

Justice was Denied

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

And like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

So he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.”

-          acts 8.32

 

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

Yet he opened not his mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

So he opened not his mouth

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

And as for his generation, who considered

That he was cut off out of the land of the living,

Stricken for the transgression of my people?”

-          isaiah 53.7-8

I find it interesting that we demand justice.  We actively petition God with our works, insist that all must be given a chance at salvation because He loves, and assume our righteousness.  Is it so hard to comprehend the extreme cost of the grace that is being given to us?

God demands justice, as a perfect and fair God, He must.  The Christ was denied what was right, and instead took on our sins as His own in an act so scandalous it leaves the angels perplexed.  Jesus was denied the justice that He so rightly deserved – to be glorified and made one with God.  Instead, he was shamed, hated and condemned; separated from the Father.

And so I find it ironic that we desire justice so badly.  The only thing we’ve earned is condemnation!  Hell, eternal death and suffering could not begin to cover my multitude of sins; why would I ever want justice? 

We should be left begging for mercy and praising God’s glory rather than demanding justice from a perfect and righteous God.  Consider our Savior and the torment He endured for our transgressions; do you really want justice?

Cry Out to God!

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

O Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

 

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,

that you may be feared.

 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

and in His word I hope;

my soul waits for the Lord

more than watchmen for the morning,

more than watchmen for the morning.

 

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

and with Him is plentiful redemption.

And He will redeem Israel

from all His iniquities.

 

As the famous sermon goes, “we are sinners in the hands of an angry God.”  An idea wildly unpopular in our society, we love those who love us.  We surround ourselves with false prophets who celebrate our goodness and friends who pretend we are holy.  It’s time Christians get back to the basics…

Who could stand before the one true and holy God?  He commands us in Matthew 5.48 to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Not moral, not upright, not religious – perfect. 

Why don’t we take a step back and quit attempting to justify ourselves before the Living God.  If you continue, you’re stupid and foolish. God does not need your work.  The gifts you give Him were never yours to give.  Everything is His.  If I can see past your prideful, self-righteous sham, I get the silly impression that an all-knowing, all-powerful God just might be looking through it as well.  Give it up.

Cry out to the Savior; place your hope in the Lord! He has given us mercy; His redemption is bountiful and free.  It does not end and it does not waver.  He frees us from all of our iniquities!  He gives us hope, love and freedom.  He intercedes for us, blotting out our seemingly endless transgression.  Waiting for the Lord is so much more satisfying than constantly trying to prove Find comfort and peace in His word and wait for the Lord in peace. 

The Folly of my Patience

I waited patiently for the Lord;

He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.

I cannot stress the strength of my stubbornness and the subsequent despair and destruction that I often revel in.  I often lay claim to the patience that I perfected in the military; but all too often I am merely waiting patiently for the Lord to bend His will to mine.  Thankfully, I can boast of His faithfulness and His perfect record against my foolishness.  His love and grace tear me out of the destruction I grab hold of and beg to stay part of.  My patience is for me, not for the Lord.  My cry is for my will, not His.  Yet he stands me up, braces me and makes me strong.  He bewilders me His overabundant grace, collapsing my will and making me whole.  Songs leap from my mouth delighting to praise Him; they cannot be contained.

 

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

to those who go astray after a lie!

You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

Your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are more than can be told.

Thank you Lord for giving me godly counselors!  Keep me strong, seeking to love you all my days.  Let me not turn to those who find their delight in pride and lead me to do the same.  My tendency is to Your mercy is never ending!  That others could only know it; grant me the strength to shout in joy and proclamation so that all will hear.  Have mercy on those who hate Your will, oh Lord, make them understand their folly and let their suffering in this world be easy.  May all understand that the wages of their sin is death and turn from their sin.