Our days are limited. This is no secret. But I can’t help but wonder what messages the modern church is sending the rest of the world with some of the windmills we choose to chase. We don’t seem concerned about working for a Kingdom that is “not of this world.” In fact, most of us seem to spend our 80 or so years with our eyes focused on the matters and concerns of an earthly kingdom.
What is the ultimate point of your faith?
Is it your conservative values? Is it gay marriage? Abortion? Is it your morning “quiet time” ritual? Does your faith become weaker or stronger depending on which politician wins the next election? Is the right to bear arms a cornerstone of your faith? Is the construction of a mosque at ground zero an important factor in how you worship at your church?
Where does loving your neighbor factor into your faith? What about feeding the hungry and clothing the poor? How much time do you spend forgiving others and approaching situations with a forgiving spirit? At the end of your life, when others look at the faith you professed, what will the point have been?
“God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” –Jesus
Perhaps I am just discontented with Christian radio, but for the last few days I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to find a Christian radio station that I can stand. At the moment, I am only finding what I can classify as “Christian Top 40” stations. They don’t play anything deep, and they seem to only have a playlist of somewhere between 15 and 45 songs.
By deep, I mean music that causes me to reflect and meditate on God. What I am getting from these stations, however, is a feel-good non-challenging form of Christianity. This might inspire most people, but I’m not the type who draws inspiration from platitudes about God simply for the sake of inspiring the listener.
The other type of Christian stations I am finding play slow and depressing dirges, designed to make listeners feel unworthy. I’m a bit of a curmudgeon, but these songs are a bit over the top, even for me.
Am I being overly picky, or has anyone else out there noticed these bizarre trends in Christian music? Does anyone know of an Internet radio station that plays the sort of deep Christian music I am craving? If so, please tell me.
I’ve been turning this around in my mind all day, so I’m posing the question here. What are you most looking for in life, an answer or a savior?
It seems the Christian community has for a long time presented itself and Jesus as an answer, The answer, no doubt. Andre Crouch even wrote a song titled “Jesus Is The Answer.” But I’m not so convinced the world is looking for an answer.
From all my conversations with both Christians and non-Christians, it seems people are not as concerned with the answers to “What should I do?” or “How should I live?” or “Am I doing the right thing?” as they are with finding a place of refuge or restoration.
Put another way, a chronically-ill person is more interested in a cure than in an answer to “why?” or “what is wrong with me?” A homeless man is more interested in food and shelter than in finding out “why is there a divide between rich and poor?” A child who scrapes his knee is more interested in stopping the bleeding than in a lesson in not falling.
Yet, for years it seems the Church has focused its attention on lessons in not falling and in quibbling about right and wrong, good and bad. We are so concerned about having the right answer all the time for every situation that I can’t help but question whether or not we are pointing to the Savior.
I’m not sure the world is searching for answers, but I am certain we are all searching for a Savior. Your thoughts?
I wanted to see “Lord Save Us From Your Followers” when it first came out last year, but for a variety of reasons, I never quite made it to the theater. Last night, my church held a public showing of the film, and I must say I regret all of my excuses for not seeing it earlier.
The movie was convicting to say the least. Toward the end of it, I was fighting back tears. This is unusual because Uncle Luther simply does not cry. But you don’t care about me— if you care at all— you care about my thoughts on the movie.
The Gist: Christian culture and secular culture are often at odds, but nobody is communicating. In fact, the sharing of worldviews and faith ideas have degenerated into a shouting match where everybody’s screaming, but nobody’s listening. To get to the bottom of this, Dan Merchant dons a white jumpsuit covered in popular Christian, anti-Christian and political bumper stickers and canvases the country talking to people about their thoughts on Christianity.
One of the discoveries he makes is that Christians are oblivious to the surrounding culture and how they are perceived. They are also particularly oblivious to the fact that “the world” which they espouse hatred for, seems to have a much better handle on who Jesus is than the church crowd does.
Eye-Openers:
At one point during the movie, Merchant hosts a Family Feud-style game show that pits the Liberal Media Elite against the Christian Conservatives. Not only did the liberals come out ahead, but the Christians were completely unable to see outside their own bubble to understand the culture. To test this further Merchant did the game show again with college students, thinking perhaps it was a generational issue. The young Christians lost hands down, and their non-believing counterparts rattled off a series of answers to Bible-based questions.
We have so tarnished our faith that when people here the word “Christian” attached to an event they immediately think it is a conservative, racist or anti-homosexual event.
Despite our tarnishing of the word “Christian,” we have not tarnished Jesus. People still identified Him for His love and forgiveness, and were able to name His good works.
We have seriously wounded the homosexual community and done serious damage that would make even the staunchest fundamentalist weep were we to realize the depth of the pain we have caused our fellow human beings.
Christians need to apologize more. We who have forgiveness need to do more than offer forgiveness, we need to beg those we have hurt to forgive us.
Other observations:
Tony Campolo is a lot cooler than I thought he was.
Al Franken is also a lot cooler than I thought he was.
Jesus and politics don’t mix. He is so far above and beyond our pithy political squabbles.
Our political squabbles are pithy in comparison to the love of Christ.
We cannot continue to condemn people on moral issues while embracing greed in our own lives.
We who are known for our literalism don’t take Jesus literally when He says “Man cannot serve both God and Money.”
Reccomendation:
Every Christian needs to see this movie and take its message to heart, but be prepared to be convicted.
I’m a little late getting to this. In fact, I haven’t posted a single blog over the course of the entire holiday season. I’ve been a little consumed with the “stuff” I got for Christmas. Just keeping it real, folks. Anyway, I’m going to wrap up 2009 the same way I did 2008, with the top 9 posts of 2009 across all First Hand Ministries websites. Here they are in absolutely no order:
GOD HELPS THOSE WHO (CAN’T) HELP THEMSELVES:(from badasschristians.com) I’m not a subscriber to the phrase “God helps those who help themselves.” I’m also not a big fan of the church’s “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality. This post is a reminder that neither phrase is found in the Bible.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT ANXIETY?:(from realfaith.blog) I wrote this blog when I was overcome with fear about something small and silly. It’s a simple list of encouraging Bible verses, but it has probably received the most traffic this year.
GOD’S CHISEL:(from teensite.net) This isn’t original content, but it is by far the most inspirational video I’ve seen on the web this year.
MISSING THE POINT:(from Jesus1st.Net) This little semi-poetic piece looks at the gap that often exists between the teachings of Jesus and the issues modern Christianity is most concerned about.
MENTAL HEALTH: THE CHURCH’S DIRTY LITTLE DEMON:(from badasschristians.com) Pearce, a guest blogger, shared her testimony about how the church she grew up in mishandled and misread her problems. Her testimony should make all Christians stop and think twice about how they feel about issues of mental health and psychology.
GOD IS NOT SHOCKED:(from real.faith blog) Do we really believe God is sovereign? Than why are we always so offended and outraged?
10 CHRISTIAN PHRASES THAT NEED TO BE EXCOMMUNICATED:(from real.faith blog) I received so much flack for this one. This was supposed to be a humorous post, but a bunch of my “brethren” took it too seriously. Some were upset because some of the phrases I picked as overused are actually found in the Bible (this doesn’t mean they can’t be over-used to the point where they lose their meaning, but that is just my not-so-humble opinion.) Others didn’t like that I used the word “excommunicated.” Some lightly chided me for not picking their most annoying Christianese phrase. Based on the feedback, I’ll probably have to write something like this again. Stay tuned.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
-Psalm 139:13-14
“The clothes make the man.”
“If you look good, you feel good.”
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
“We can Photoshop that out.”
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
The stark contrast between our culture and God’s design is amazing, isn’t it? We buy new clothes every season based on fashion trends. We dye our hair and invest untold millions in makeup and cosmetics. Some of us have even been caught Photoshopping acne off our children’s faces. We look in the mirror and we’re never happy. We’re either too fat or too thin, too young or too old, too light or too tan, too puny or too grotesque.
I don’t know many in this day and age who look in the mirror and say, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made! God, your works are wonderful!” To do so, would seem vain or narcissistic.
Of course, if we’re giving God glory and even thanking Him for the awesome way He has fashioned us, we aren’t vain at all. The way we commonly live our lives is of far greater vanity.
We place our appearance in our own hands. We deny God’s role in uniquely designing each of us and take it upon ourselves to fashion ourselves in the image of what the rest of the society calls “attractive.”
We pour untold amounts of time, energy and money into our appearance just to make ourselves cheap imitations of true beauty.
Well, anyhow, that’s my two-cents on this passage. Now, if you’ll excuse me— I need to go drop off my dry-cleaning and get my hair styled.
Where could I go to escape from you? Where could I get away from your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.
If I flew away beyond the east or lived in the farthest place in the west, you would be there to lead me, you would be there to help me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me or the light around me to turn into night, but even darkness is not dark for you, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
-Psalm 139:7-12
I’m not ashamed to admit it. I try to run from God.
I love God’s church, and I know I’m supposed to love the people of God, but too frequently, I find myself running from both— and in doing so, I run from Him. I run from reading my Bible. My growing Internet addiction and desire to be entertained by the flickering of my TV screen are simply more appealing to me.
I also run from prayer. I have a hard enough time trusting people, let alone trusting a God I can’t see. Praying, in my view, is a dangerous sport. If I ask for patience, I might just be given a situation that will build patience. If I ask to have a closer relationship with God, I figure God might just eliminate some human relationships in a painful and unpleasant way to get me there—or I might find myself with a rather unsavory illness that will make my relationship with God all the more important.
Yet— despite all of my attempts to escape— there stands a carpenter from Nazareth. Whatever road I run down, regardless of which direction I turn, that old Galilean beckons me. “Where are you going?” He says. He puts His hand on my shoulder and leads me back, “Come with me, and learn my love. Learn to put your Trust in Me.”
Despite my worries and my lack of faith. In spite of my struggles with whether or not God is really good, without regard to any of my doubts, Christ finds me and brings me back. I have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and that is a good thing, because the choices I make when I try to escape the grace of God are just bad for me. What I think is a good move or a wise choice—often causes me ten times more pain than if I stayed put and let God lead.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. –Psalm 139:6
“God works in mysterious ways.”
“His thoughts are not our thoughts.”
“God’s ways are not our ways.”
These oft-quoted (and absolutely Biblical) phrases tend to come to mind during a time of personal struggle or deep tragedy, but just as the verse quoted above, they speak to a far deeper truth.
Our mind is finite. It has boundaries. We have a mental capacity and a cap on the knowledge we can attain. God, on the other hand, is infinite. He is the creator of all knowledge and the origin of all wisdom.
We have been on a quest throughout our entire existence to try to figure out ourselves, our world, our universe and our God— and try as we may, regardless of the answers we come up with— our collective knowledge will always add up to a tiny blue dot on an infinite canvas we can neither fully see nor fully grasp.
God’s knowledge is so high above ours that it goes beyond all we can fathom—and yet, what does Psalm 139 tell us about the focus of this omniscient God’s thoughts? It tells us that He has searched our souls, that He knows when we sit and when we stand, that He knows what we’re going to say before we say it, He knows what we do and He knows where we are.
This amazing God with all this infinite knowledge chooses to make the business of the creatures on this tiny blue dot in an alarmingly large universe His business.
Not only is the knowledge of God too wonderful and high for us to attain, His knowledge of every one of us is much loftier than we could ever grasp.
I know I cannot comprehend the knowledge of God. I know how finite I am. But if the knowledge of God is something I will never be able to wrap my mind around, the love of God is even more puzzling. I cannot understand why a God so great and mighty and above all things would bother with a poor, helpless sinner like me. It reminds me of the lyrics from an increasingly popular song titled “My Savior, My God” by Aaron Shust:
“That He would leave His place on High
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange,
So once did I,
Before I knew my Savior.”
“You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” –Psalm 139:5
I have control issues.
A number I don’t recognize called my cell phone twice today. When I called back, it was a jewelry store employee who promptly hung up on me when I asked who from a jewelry store could possibly have business with me.
I spent the next half hour doing a reverse lookup on this unlisted number in a vain attempt to figure out where the call came from and why.
I don’t do well with situations where I’m not in control and unfortunately, I don’t get to control much in life. I don’t know how atheists do it. I’d be in a loony bin within a matter of weeks if I believed the entire universe was just a random mess with no order to it.
For neurotic control freaks like me, the above verse is quite soothing. On days when all I see is chaos, God reminds me that He is in control and that His presence is everywhere. Not only that, but His hand is upon me.
That’s comforting. The hands that created the universe also hold me. The hand that is responsible for both calamity and blessing also keeps me within Its strong grip. The hands that shaped mountains and planets like clay also shape my path. The hand that holds the keys to the Kingdom and molds the course of history also guides me in times of indecision and trouble.
I can’t always be in control—but I am always held.
“Before a word is on my tongue, You know it completely.” –Psalm 139:4
Perhaps this clever tactic would keep Uncle Luther from saying whatever pops into his mind.
This will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog, but if there’s one aspect of my personality that’s likely to get me in trouble, it’s my sarcasm. I love a good wisecrack, and given the chance to be serious or go for the quick joke, I’ll choose the joke 80 percent of the time.
When I read this verse, I often think; “Lord, if you know what I’m going to say before I say it, why don’t you stop me? If you did, I’d get into less trouble and I’d probably have more friends.”
I have a hard time putting the brakes on from the time a thought enters my mind until it leaves my mouth. When I was a child, a large majority of the spankings I received were related to my being a smart-aleck. Consequently, as an adult, I tend to stay quiet in social settings. Oh, I have quite a few funny thoughts and observations, but I hesitate to verbalize them for fear of being ostracized.
God knows every word before I utter it. He even knows the words I choose not to speak. He knows my thoughts. How embarrassing! He knows my thoughts about others. He knows my thoughts about myself. He knows my thoughts about Him. God, forgive me. If my words are filthy, sardonic, cruel and offensive, how much more are my thoughts? My Lord, do you have to look? Can you close your eyes?
At the same time, there is comfort in this verse. When I speak and offend a friend, or even a stranger, or my not-so-gentle readers, it is usually because my words were taken the wrong way. God is the only one who truly knows the intent of what I say.
Despite my tough exterior and my “I don’t give a rip” attitude, at heart I would never want to cause harm to anyone. I would never knowingly say anything to intentionally hurt someone. I’ve had to explain that to more than a few friends over the years. It is comforting to know that there is Someone who knows the intent of my words completely.
