Restoring Grace

I received a very nice compliment yesterday.  I got an email off one of my articles that said, “Dear Sir, I read your article and you are a lousy Christian.”  Actually, I was honored to be addressed as a lousy Christian.  I mean come on, after writing articles for over two years, finally someone got it right???

Here is the straight realization, the “stadium pitch” if you please.

God has no intention of honoring a religion founded in His name or His Son’s name that openly decries and undermines the very principles that the movement was founded on some 2,000 years ago.

Jesus did not die on a cross for the remission of worship music, the doctrine of eternal security or self-appointed/self-anointed religious activity.  He did not come live among us to teach us the importance of denominational isolation.  Jesus definitely did not teach us to be divided, stress out our pastors, gossip about church leaders, bemoan the youth director and be general stinky pooh-pooh heads.

As we keep borrowing money to erect houses of worship, all dedicated to a God that clearly says He does not dwell in temples built with human hands, we continue to pave paradise while building our parking lots.

Christians making millions off selling music, worship seminars, C/D’s, book ad of course, massive “events”, promising healing and a special anointing of God if you only pledge that “seed gift” today…. Really???

I just got an email by an author whose book is titled, “The Second Coming of Jesus Christ: Oil, Terrorism and Nuclear War”. Are you kidding me? Is this the face of Jesus and His followers?

Christianity is building and building and building, yet not producing.  It has sadly become a religion dedicated to its own growth and not the growth of the people it claims to serve.  It keeps getting bigger, as in more swollen, but truly is three miles wide and one inch thick.

Come out of your holes, people!!! God is not a religion, Jesus is not a device to access fire insurance.  Jesus offers a radical life, not one dedicated to self-importance, but a life of powerful transformation.  He invites you to come out of the world of protected religious activity and engage in a vibrant and intentional journey with Him.

The journey with Jesus is about Paradise.  It is about experiencing God here on earth and bringing that consciousness into the now.  The more we build, the more we cover up Paradise.  The more we make our doctrines more stable and easy to follow, the more we cover up Paradise.

It’s time to tear up the pavement and start going off-roading.

Most Christians I meet have a saved soul and a lost life.  They sense the move of God in times past, they pray for His help in the future, but haven’t communed with Him in the present now.  They have lost the intense drive, passion and desire of bringing the Kingdom of God into the present now.

The way I see it, The Beginning is Near!

Come out of your holes and embrace the fact that God doesn’t need our denominations, our Sunday come-to-meeting days, and our religious activities.

Come out of your holes and realize God loves you as you are and there is no way to earn His love or pay Him back.

Come out of your holes to engage the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God that will take you on unexplainable journeys, often heading out without knowing where you are going.

Come out of your holes and admit that God is unpredictable and He uses the strangest of people, methods and ideas to reach into a world that has only one true need: God!

Come out of your holes and see that air conditioned churches don’t equate to transformation: lower mortgage payments do-feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty-clothe the naked-that equates to God’s Kingdom.

Come out of your holes and with clarity observe that there is no such thing as “Christian T-shirts”.  There are, however, people living without clothes.

I disagree with the email I got yesterday.  I am not a lousy Christian.  I am just Another Kind of Christian.

And, I know you are too…

David

From the early stages of the Christian faith, opponents claimed the faith was wrought with divisions and chasms of belief.  Even as early as the 2 Century, challenges to the Christian faith were marred with statements like “they cannot agree amongst themselves” and “they must soon take up separate residences because they cannot even stand to be around each other”.

In his book, “Why the Jews Rejected Jesus”, author David Klinghoffer simply states, “In the Bible, an imaginative person can discover proof of just about anything”.  So has been the Christian faith over the centuries.

No more is it present that today.  Christianity by in large is no longer known by it’s leader, Jesus, but by the churches and movements.  These movements can also be outside the churches, with Para-church ministries and programs taking focus away from the actual practice that Jesus taught His followers to observe. 

Much of what Christians do and believe have little bearing on Jesus.  Their actions reflect a poor and limited understanding of the commands of Jesus.  It is not a question of the heart; I believe that most Christians want to live a life pleasing to God and to follow the instructions of Jesus.  It boils down to the kind of instructions they receive from their spiritual guides and the lack of focus and priority placed on personal study and searching.

For example, my 4-year old, Sammy, was trying to melt ice cubes in the microwave.  When I asked him why he was doing this, he said he wanted some water.  This is one way to get water, but not the best way.  He did, however, manage to clean out the glass dish in the microwave with the steaming water.

What I am suggesting here is inviting Jesus back into the faith.  He has been ousted for many years.  He is not particularly interested in your building, your songs, your worship style, your liturgy or your views on doctrinal issues.  He is greatly interested in connection.  His desire, as I see it from the Scriptures devoted to His name, is relationship and connectivity with His followers.  He wants and seeks disciples; not androids that mindlessly repeat a doctrinal stance He never taught or supported.

More to the point, our differences have caused a wedge between Jesus and people that don’t know Him.  I have no problems discussing God with people, but when the subject of Jesus comes up, the subject of Christians comes up.  Want to know the major complaint people share with me about us Christians? It is not the one we go for every time.  It is not that we fail, sin or have faults like every other human.  It is that we have those faults and still act as the judge and moral conscience of society.  We don’t love them like Jesus does. For that matter, we don’t love each other as Jesus commanded.

Here are three points I think we can work towards that will help Jesus back into our faith and practice:

1) Your truth is not the only truth.  By focusing on our differences, we focus on division.  I have sat through many debates and meetings where the cost of being right cost love.  If that is the correct standard, than God violated that standard by sending Jesus to atone for our sins.  We have never stood in the right, but God’s love overpowered His need to be right.  That, by the way is the message of Jesus, spot on.

We need to be loving and understanding towards each other.  Jesus hits everyone differently.  He stood tall with the educated, humble with the poor in spirit, well spoken with the crowds and strong in His death.  The Apostle Paul even states that when he tries to reach people with the message of Jesus, he became “all things to all men”.

2) Promote the ways that bring peace.  When I do engage people about Jesus, converting them to my way of thinking or to the Christian faith is the last thing on my mind.  A good friend once told me, “If you have them taking, you have all you could ask for”.  Solomon said in Proverbs, “Where there is life, there is hope”.  I have watched (sadly) students, churchgoers, and the mildly curious completely shut down because they asked the wrong question.  Why not allow the dialogue to flow openly?  We can promote the way of peace (shalom) by being interested participators in their lives instead of judges.  The time of the judges is past and the time of Jesus is here.  Be open and seek peace with all.  Don’t just seek peace, pursue it.

3) Study, study, study.  Then, when you are done, study all the more.  Here is why: If the Devil is in the details, than we can find Jesus in the Scriptures.  When I teach classes’ onsite at churches, I am overwhelmed by what they don’t know.  The most interesting part is this: they say they don’t talk much about Jesus because of the challenges and questions they have to field about Him. Really??? That is awesome… God is sending people to your door. 

We can never truly be disciples of Jesus-knowing His will and desire for each of us-without spending the time in deep and meaningful study.  Once a week “pep” talks (or beatings) from your pastor isn’t going to get it done. 

We also need to encourage, edify and instruct people to study and most importantly, become comfortable with the challenges of the Scriptures.  Most people are more vested in educating themselves before buying a house than preparing for eternity.

Not every Christian form, practice, church or denomination can relate to what I have written here.  If you see above the clouds on this one, go forward in grace.  But for the rest of you,  take heart. Jesus want to be known, followed, obeyed and studied.  He rewards those that seek Him. 

Let’s work together to bring Jesus not only back for His Second Coming, but back into our lives by simply following His instructions.

David-Ari