“I am so blessed!”

This cute catch phrase echoes through the halls of churches and private schools. It usually means “Let me brag a little bit about my recent accomplishments.” When you hear this, you either have just heard or are about to hear about someone’s new house, new car, wonderful marriage, recent promotion, or sudden acquisition of unexpected funds.

Jesus called people blessed, too, but some of His “blessings” are a little weird in our culture. Take a look.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Who are the poor in spirit? In Jesus day, they were the people He hung out with. Prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen. Common, everyday people with mounds of sin heaped high. They were people the religious establishment had rejected. They loved God and wanted to grow closer to Him because they knew how much they needed Him, but they were turned away at every point by the self- righteous.

In our day, they are the woman who has had an abortion, the pregnant teenager, the homosexual, the alcoholic and the man with the tongue ring. They are the ones who sit at the back of the church and don’t talk much. They come because they want to know God, but they don’t feel like they belong. You might look down on them, but strain yourself and get to know them, they might have a much deeper faith than you.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Think about someone who is truly in mourning. I picture a widow, who just lost her husband of 50 years. She’s broken, when she closes her eyes she sees his face and when her eyes are open, she can’t control the tears. She is hopeless and miserable and she can’t get it together. If you see her, you certainly wouldn’t call her “blessed.”

When Jesus talks about mourners, he is likely talking about people who mourn over their sin and over their personal failures. These are the people who are hard on themselves, who beat themselves up over minor failures. These are the folks who can’t forgive themselves. They may not be right in the depth of their self-hatred, and their tendency to blame themselves may be counterproductive, but you cannot ignore their understanding of the depth of their need for Jesus. He promises they will be comforted. Those who mourn for their sins are the only ones who truly understand how badly they need to be rescued from those sins. They are also 100 times more thankful for that rescuer. Their personal pain, the very failures that keep them awake at night provide the groundwork for the true blessing of loving their God.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The meek. The patient, the passive and the peaceful are promised the earth itself. It is not given to the go-getters, the name-droppers, or those who call undue attention to themselves. Ironically, Jesus calls a group of people blessed who would never dare to boast about being blessed. This particular group would either be the type who wouldn’t have much, or who would give material possessions away easily. If they felt they were blessed, they would be unlikely to tell anyone about it, but instead quietly thank God for giving them what they know they don’t deserve.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

It isn’t those who think they have it all figured out, it isn’t those who already consider themselves righteous, it is those who hunger and thirst, who are desperate for love and redemption and who know they are hungry and thirsty and that God satisfies. Again, we see that it is the desperate and needy who are considered bless.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.”

The people who give to others and who try to put others before themselves are called blessed. So often, the people who go around claiming “blessings” are the ones who did all they could to take from others, push others under the bus, and adopted a “me-first” attitude. That works in this world and has made a great many quite wealthy, but Jesus says true riches are given to those who show mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Pure in heart here is more than just a moral purity. This one is about motives. People who give so they can boast or make a name for themselves don’t give from a pure heart. The pure in heart are those who do good, not with an ulterior motive or because it gives them something to boast in, but those who are concerned with their own motives and try to do good works out of a genuine love for God. These are the people who come to God with broken hearts to be purified, not the ones who come to him with arrogant pride and feel that God somehow owes them for their goodness.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

In a world where getting what you want often means backbiting, office politics and all out war, those who are called blessed are the ones who strive to avoid conflict and who try to compromise. Creating conflict can get you power, property, money and success, but it doesn’t resemble God. Those who resemble God are the peaceful and those who seek to resolve conflict rather than perpetuate it. Once more, we see that the ways of the world are not the ways of God. The peacemakers are called blessed, but they are often walked on. Isn’t it ironic that what is profitable on this earth is not profitable in eternity.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Persecution is not something the average person would consider a blessing. When we count our blessings, we don’t typically include this on the list. Afterall, if you are truly persecuted, you could lose your family and your life. Persecution in this sense though means to be persecuted because of your relationship to Christ. To be persecuted for this reason shows evidence of a life focused on God. Such a life is considered to be blessed. The shift in thinking here is profound: those who are persecuted are powerless. It is the powerless and not those in power who are called blessed.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in Heaven.”

To be reviled, persecuted, and lied about shows contempt and hatred for a person or idea. The unpopular and hated are blessed. Those who stand for what they believe in and are not blown by the winds and moods of the masses are called blessed. Those who choose the long and hard road instead of the easy ride are considered better off.

Why are all these groups of what we would call today “nobodies” considered “blessed?” Because God is a long-term God. He is the God of the Big Picture. You may feel blessed because you have a BMW, but your biggest blessing may come from it’s being totaled, your being paralyzed and learning that you are utterly dependent on God for even your next breath.

It’s been about a week since my last post, so let me fill you in briefly on where I am right now. Last week it became obvious that my wife’s Crohn’s Disease is going to prevent her from returning to full-time teaching. If the complete lack of energy doesn’t stop her, the immuno- suppressants the doctor is recommending will.

So… my wife has quit her job and mine doesn’t pay nearly enough to afford all of the medical bills. Right now we’re more than a little scared. It feels like we’re standing paralyzed at the edge of a cliff deciding whether or not to jump or be pushed.

Do we have faith? Surprisingly yes. We both know God led us here, and did so for a reason. Obviously there is something to be gained from this precarious place.

And hope? This is fleeting. The whole situation seems so hopeless, but from time to time, one or both of us will manage to look on the bright side. Mostly, we feel numb.

We’re right in the middle of something that is likely to forever shape us and we have no idea what it is or what is to come. It’s one thing to tell someone to “hold on to Jesus” or to “have faith.” It is another thing to actually live it out day to day, to go from holding to clinging because otherwise you know you will fall and fall hard, or to have faith simply because it is all you have left.

I’m learning over and over that when I have nothing left and feel at the end of my rope, I stand face to face with Jesus. He’s all that’s left when my struggles have overcome me. There’s a certain amount of freedom there, because I know I don’t have to fight the battle alone and that it isn’t my battle to fight. Of course, that doesn’t mean I will walk away without my fair share of bumps, bruises and deep gashes.

“God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.”

-Joel Osteen

“I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.”

-Isaiah 45:7

“It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It’s God’s will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt.”

-Joel Osteen

“Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?”

-Amos 3:6

The differences in these sets of quotes is striking. I picked Joel Osteen quotes, not because I have a particular problem with him, but because he happens to be one of the most popular preachers in America right now. He is also one of the leading teachers of what many people are calling “the prosperity gospel.” The gist of it is that God wants to bless you financially, and if you live a good life, do good, and think positive thoughts, God will show you favor. You will find yourself wealthy and influential because this is what God wants for you.

Well, doesn’t he? I’m certainly not going to say that God doesn’t want to bless us. And as for prosperity, the Bible does mention it: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” -Jeremiah 29:11. This verse has gotten quite a bit of play lately. What these prosperity pastors don’t tell you is that just prior to this verse, God has told Israel of His intent to bring the world to its knees so they will realize their great need for a Holy and eternal God.

The point of this often misquoted jewel is not to tell us that God has a particular interest in fattening our wallets, but that His plans are always good. His plans may bring us through struggle and calamity, but they will always make us prosper in the big picture. That means we may have a prosperous faith and a life that makes a difference, but an empty bank account. God is quite literally the only blessing human beings ever need and He knows that even if we don’t. That means that in His economy, “prosperity” has a different definition. True prosperity is anything that brings us closer to the God we desperately need. We need a relationship with our creator more than we need air. We don’t always want that, but God is concerned with what we need, not what we want.

If your child had a deep desire for a new video game system, but they were making C’s in school, you probably would decide not to give them what they so deeply desire because it would distract them from their deeper need. In the short term, they might hate you or think you don’t love them. You know that in the long-term, your decision is right and good and will benefit your child more than the instant gratification they were chasing after. God does the same with us.

First century Jews had a hard time identifying Jesus as the Messiah. He wasn’t what they expected. Their interpretation of Scriptures left them expecting a King who would come with a conquering army, destroy the Romans and set up a new kingdom on this earth. They were looking for a conquering warrior who would solve their momentary struggle and improve their political situation.

In some ways, a lot of Christians who believe this prosperity gospel are doing the exact same thing. They are expecting a God who will make them financially successful and meet their short- term needs for money and property. The problem is, when bad things happen, we want to deny that God is responsible. We’ll go and blame the devil or society or our boss or our spouse for our predicament.

What if God’s primary concern isn’t our happiness? What if He is trying to teach us something? What if He is giving us a challenging situation to mold us and to build us into the person He wants us to be? What if our definition of prosperity is entirely different than His?

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
-Psalm 25:3-9
I can’t stand waiting.

I get impatient in long lines at the grocery store. Traffic infuriates me. I’ve been known to stand pensively in front of a microwave tapping my fingers on the counter because thirty seconds just seems like four days sometimes. I have a brand new laptop, it is by far the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. It isn’t fast enough though.

I’m a journalist. My days are deadline-driven. I’m not accustomed to waiting. You can imagine how hard it is for me when I’m facing challenges in life to wait for answers that don’t seem to come. When God reminds me that life moves on His time and not on mine, I don’t know how to handle it. Do I pray more? Read the Bible more? Twiddle my thumbs and watch TV until whatever is supposed to happen does?

Often, I find myself worrying. Worrying begets stress and stress begets weakness, illness and misery. Waiting is by far the worst feeling in the world.

Yet, over and over again in the Bible God commands waiting and patience. He says things like, “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still? How do you do that? Just sit still and know that someone else is driving the ship? Where are we going? Why? Do we have to? Are we there yet? How much longer?

When I was a kid, we used to pack into the car once or twice a year and make a 10 hour trek to Virginia to visit my grandmother. Grandma’s house was great. The town she lived in was a bit boring, but the house always smelled of home-cooking and I knew when I arrived I would be greeted with that smell and with the warmth of her house. But the drive often overshadowed the destination. I hated that drive. I would read until it made me dizzy, and listen to music until I got tired of music, and somehow that still left a balance of about five hours of sheer misery cooped up in a car that seemed to be shrinking with each mile.

Waiting means frustration. It is a slow march forward, in most cases uphill. I don’t think I know anyone who is OK with waiting. Most of my friends don’t get frustrated with microwaves like I do, but I’d venture to guess that on the big issues, most people don’t suffer waiting easily. It could be a medical diagnosis, a cure, an elusive job, a baby or a long-awaited check. Waiting is painful and it isn’t easy.

But God frequently positions us at different stages of life to wait. In the Old Testament we’re told to be still. In the New Testament, we’re told to abide and rest. The Israelites waited in slavery for 400 years and then again for 70 years in exile. The wait from Eden to the coming of the Messiah spanned thousands of years, and the wait for Christ’s return has continued for 2,000 years. Waiting is necessary, but the answer to why, isn’t really given.

Maybe it is to teach. Maybe it is to refine and build up. Maybe it isn’t for us at all, but to the people around you who watch and are inspired by how you handle the uncertainty. One thing’s for sure, whatever the reason for the wait, you will have to suffer through it without knowing the end result or the reason. You might find out once the matter is resolved, but there’s a chance you may never know the reason. The only comfort I can take from that, is that I’m in good company. The Bible does give us a bounty of others who found themselves in a position of waiting.

Imagine you arrive late to church one morning and quickly slipping into a pew next to a friend in the back. You notice fairly quickly that something is strange. You can’t understand a word the preacher is saying and it isn’t because you’re in the back of the church. He is speaking passionately, and hammering a point home, but he’s speaking in another language – and he isn’t stopping.

After about 10 minutes you lean over to your friend and whisper, “What is this all about?” Your friend whispers back, “Before the sermon started, he announced that from now on he would be delivering all of his sermons in Aramaic, because that’s the language Jesus spoke.”

That’s well and good, but last you checked, nobody in the congregation spoke Aramaic. You bear with it for a while because you want to be obedient to your pastor and be a good Christian, but after about three weeks of going to church and not understanding a single word, you give up and sleep in on Sundays. Afterall, if the point of the sermon is to communicate God’s truths, your pastor certainly isn’t meeting anybody’s needs by speaking a nearly dead language.

Far-fetched? Perhaps. But there are a considerable handful of churches that do this week in and week out. I say considerable handful because this is a relatively small group, but not an insignificant group, particularly in the South. These are the folks who believe the King James version is the only valid English translation. In fact, some members of this group even go as far as to say the King James version is divinely inspired, even above the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.

If ever there was a sacred cow in need of becoming a hamburger, this one is premium quality. This is a subject that has much debate surrounding it and both sides of the issue have a wide array of arguments. Being that this is a blog post about sacred cows and not a dissertation on translation techniques, I’ll spare the details relating to how the King James was translated, printed, and the textual arguments for and against. I want to focus on the obvious, or at least what seems obvious to me and why I am calling the King James version a sacred cow.

Do you know anyone who speaks 15th century English? When you are at work conducting business, has a client or colleague ever uttered these words: “This selfsame day, we shall hasten to make ready our covenant with one another.” Probably not. It isn’t completely unrecognizable, but it is archaic. It is not effective communication.

What makes the King James only view problematic is that people are putting an old translation on a pedestal that is, in my opinion, higher than God. The New Testament, for example, was written mostly in common Greek – the vernacular used by the average Roman citizen. If God didn’t desire to deliver His message in an archaic form, it is incredibly doubtful that He would choose to preserve His message in an archaic form. Also, if God wanted it in 15th century English, why not just send Jesus during the 15th century and have Him speak English?

Instead, the timing of Christ’s coming was perfect. He came when the Romans had colonized and established a common language for commerce. He came at a time when the Romans had built roads connecting the entire empire. He came at a time that would be perfect to reach the maximum number of people in a world- changing manner. It would appear from what we see in the Bible that God’s primary concern was healing a broken world and communicating His message to all people.

Yet despite that, we have a group of Christians today who would like to obscure a message Christ and His disciples died to deliver. As I said in a previous blog post, the intent of the Bible was to communicate God’s message. When that communication begins to fall on deaf ears because the audience doesn’t understand the language, it is time to deliver the message in an intelligible form. Paul said to the Jews he became a Jew and to the Greeks he became a Greek. Being able to relate to the surrounding culture was paramount at the time of Christ. To uphold a middle-English translation as the only one that can be used flies in the face of what the Scripture inside the leather binding actually says. They probably don’t realize that because they can’t understand what they are reading.

Some of you might be asking, “What’s the big deal? It’s only a few thee’s and thy’s.” Is it? Let’s take a look at some obscurity you might find a bit amusing. This is from 1 Corinthians 6 in the King James.

“O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.”

What is this saying? If we read it using our modern understanding of the words, the above passage might seem a bit perverse. Now let’s look at this same passage, in a more modern translation.

“We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange — I speak as to my children — open wide your hearts also.“

The Bible deals with some very complex issues. At stake to the reader, is all that matters in life and death. When a reader either can’t understand the text at all or could easily misinterpret something because they can’t get around the language, it can be tragic, particularly when there are other translations out there, yet we have some Christians who would put a guilt trip on people for reading a different translation. For what?

Come off it. Seriously. There is no language of God. The text we have is written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. One would think that if God were concerned about the language, He would have had the original authors write in the same language. God’s concern wasn’t language though, it was content. It was communicating the message in the clearest form possible to the intended audience. If God can do it that way, we should as well.

A few thoughts for the KJV only crowd: When we send missionaries out into other countries, do they need to take a dictionary with them as well and teach the people 15th century English so that they will be able to understand the superior text of the King James Version? Also, you say that the KJV edition from 1611 is the true inspired version. How many have actually read it? Let me quote for you a familiar passage from that version. Read it and judge for yourself if it is an effective form of English to communicate God’s message to people in a modern setting.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among vs (& we beheld his glory, the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father) full of grace and trueth. Iohn bare witnesse of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that commeth after me, is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fulnesse haue all wee receiued, and grace for grace. For the Law was giuen by Moses, but grace and trueth came by Iesus Christ. No man hath seene God at any time: the onely begotten Sonne, which is in the bosome of the Father, he hath declared him.”

Let me close by telling you a couple of things I like about the King James. It’s free. That’s part of why we see so much of it. The copyright on this version expired a long time ago, so it is the one most likely to be freely distributed. It is also fairly close to being a word for word translation, which can be extremely helpful sometimes when studying the Bible. As translations go, it isn’t bad. But it also isn’t a god unto itself.

photo credit: ahhyeah

I’m getting a little tired of worship leaders. Not everything about them, mind you. They serve a valuable position in the modern church. It’s just that, singing and making music is their thing and they are passionate about it and like with anything else that folks go getting passionate about, they can take it a little far.

I can’t count the number of times that I’ve been in a church service and in a fit of excitement or inspiration or whatever you may choose to call it, the worship leader will remark, “We were created for worship. This is what Heaven is going to be like, a 24/7 worship service!”

I hope not. My throat is starting to parch just thinking about singing all day long.

I do have a point here. The worship movement has become another one of our sacred cows. We’ve narrowly defined it. We think of worship as a worship service, where there is singing, music, scripture reading and maybe a time of confession thrown in. We call that “worship” and then go on to say that this is what we were created to do. Really? The sole reason of our existence is to sing to God? That makes God sound kind of small.

Worship isn’t all about singing and offering verbal platitudes to God. Worship is anything and everything we do that gives glory to God. Every aspect of our lives should be a form of worship. You can worship God in your songs, but you can also worship God in your work, in your recreation, in what you say to your friends and loved ones, in the way you listen, in the outlook you have on life.

I wouldn’t dare speak for God, but based on my understanding of Scripture, I think it is this type of worship that really counts. It isn’t about how hard you sing or pray on Sunday morning. True worship is about the attitude of your heart.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, He told her that one day believers would worship in spirit and in truth, that true worship had nothing to do with geographic locations or times set aside for worship. A modern rendering of that conversation, might look like this.

“Teacher, your denomination says all worship services must include communion, but my church says worship doesn’t have to be confined to the church. What do you say?”

“Ma’am, the time is coming, and has in fact come, when all people will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Not in one church or another, but in all you think, say and do, day to day.”

Worship is simply glorifying God. It is not a limited or singular act. We were created to glorify God, but that includes so much more than singing, dancing and strumming the guitar.