Duplicity

It strikes me as odd, or at least as a logical fallacy, some of the thinking that we hear in America.  We have people who are double-minded on many issues and will tap dance around and angrily deny their inconsistent thinking.  The main concept for many (and in most cases the ONLY concept) is disagreeing with the “other side”.

For some examples, I can see the logical of the “No abortion/Yes Capital punishment” stand; the infant has done nothing wrong and the criminal has.  I can see the logic in the “No abortion/No Capital punishment” stand: life is sacred, we should always fight for it.  I can even see the “Yes abortion/ Yes Capital punishment” stand: life is cheap.  But how can someone justify “Yes abortion/ No Capital punishment”: infants must die but psycopaths must be given a chance.  Does that make sense to anyone?  If so, please explain, because it is the only one of the four positions that I can see no logical support for.  Either life is cheap, its sacred, or innocense deserves a chance and guilt deserves punishment.  But newborn life being cheap and criminal conduct being something we should preserve and protect… that doesn’t hold water.

Or, as another example, celebrities like Barbara Streisand, Susan Sarandon, and others, who stand and boldly cry that the rebuilding of Iraq, the elevation of its women from property to citizens, the new freedom of worship to the Christians, Jews and (most importantly in Iraq) Shi’ite and Kurd believers, and the feeding of the starving as BAD because, well, they say its because of Bush lying, but it seems more like its because they didn’t think of it first.  I base this of the fact that these same people are up in arms that we haven’t taken action in Darfur.  I agree, the atrocities must end.  But its hard to convince me that people can believe this and not be glad that the atrocities (WELL documented and with no Republican/Bush slant) of Sadam Husein have ended.

If you believe that its wrong for those who immigrate illegally to be punished for breaking the immigration laws because they are hungry/in need of medical care/persecuted at home, why are you living in a huge, mostly empty mansion?  Bring them in, pay for their medical bills.  And explain to me, in the mean time, why those who are hungry/in need of medical care/persecuted at home but choosing to obey the immigration laws SHOULD be punished?  After all, by following procedure, they cannot come here and get a job or the care they require for some time (because the process is lengthy).  Why should they be punished?  Or more to the point, why should they follow the law?

We have so many people who are double-minded.  And I think it comes down to a perversion of love.  Love God’s way is outward focused (toward God and toward neighbors).  Love our way is inward focused (whatever doesn’t inconvenience me or make me feel bad).  Our double-minded folk want to sleep at night, so they cry for justice and equality to placate their souls.  But they want to be comfortable, so they don’t go, they don’t help, they just smile and ask others to help.  Double-minded folk don’t want to feel like killers, so they are against capital punishment; but… they don’t want to have any “complications” in their life, so they are pro-abortion.

Double-minded folk seem to be good people, often.  But clearly, they are not God’s people.  Their love is selfish and therefore inconsistent.

God’s people follow the Way.  They live the Two.  They love God and others before they love themselves (and you MUST love yourself, too!  Just not foremost).  They are good people, but they are often seen as trouble-makers because their lives point out the inconsistent and selfish views of others.  They love selfLESSly, and consistently.  They are single-minded, loving freely and purely.

So I guess the question is, where do you and I fall?  I strive to live the Two. Sometimes I fail.  What about you?  Are you single-minded, or are you inconsistent?

 

A subtle difference

Acts 9:1-3 details Paul’s commissioning to persecute Christians. Actually, it says he was given license “so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way,” he could kill them. Notice, these earlier believers “belonged to the Way.”

Acts 11:26 tells us of an important change that took place in Antioch. Here, those who belonged to the Way were dubbed “Christian.” This development is VERY important for a subtle reason.

You ARE a Christian. It is a passive state of being. I have become a Christian, like I have become 37. It happens to you, in spite of you. It involves passive receiving of the Word of God, and not much more.

When you belong to the Way, however, you are in an active state. You are engaged in following the One who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” It happens by overt life changes. It involves active living like the Word of God, actively seeking to please Jesus.

So, are you a passive Christian? Or do you actively belong to the Way?

 

Commanders intent

In the US Army, combat orders are given in a standard format called the OPORD (operational order). The order has 5 “paragraphs” that contain certain information. Paragraph 1 gives details on the current situation (both the good guys and the bad guys). Paragraph 2 tells you your mission. Paragraph 3 explains the way you will execute your mission. Paragraph 4 goes into who will support
you and what they have to offer, and Paragraph 5 explains any special procedures for communication and coordination.

What’s most interesting to me about paragraph 3 is that it always starts out with “Commander’s Intent.” That is, an overview of what is really important to the commander. The purpose of paragraph 3a is so that, should a better solution arise on the fly, you have the opportunity to take advantage of it. If you know what the commander is really after, why he/she is doing things the way they are, then when things go to heck in a hand basket you’ll still have a general idea of how to proceed.

“So what?” you say! Well, without knowing the commander’s intent, its very easy to get off target on your mission. The Bible has a word for being of target. That word is hamartia which is usually translated as “sin.”

To avoid sin, we must know THE Commander’s intent. Our Paragraph 2, as Christians is well known, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV).

Without the intent of God, this mission statement becomes a numbers game. Or worse. Too many “Christians” take this Mission Statement as “take God out to the world.” The problem with this interpretation is that it assumes that God is not already out in the world! It assumes that we are God’s keepers, and that we’ve got to go get the heathens and bring them into the sacred space of the church to meet the Lord.

But Jesus gave us a very clear Commander’s Intent. He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV). We are to share God in love, not power (that’s God’s part). We are to love people to Christ, not to fill seats!

The difference is attitude. If we remember the Commander’s Intent, then we don’t preach at people from a “superior” position. If we don’t assume that we are “taking God to them,” but rather that they already know God, they just don’t realize it, then we approach them differently. If I alone know God, nothing you say matters, it’s deception anyway, so I’ve got to ram God down your throat and tell you how you’re definitely going to Hell unless you listen to me. (Not very attractive, is it?)

BUT, if I assume that you know God, you just aren’t aware of it, I dialog with you. I listen to what you have to say, looking for those clear God experiences, so that I can show you the God you’ve always known. I help you to see, in cooperation with you, not in spite of you.

If I love you, I’ll listen to you. If I listen to you, I’ll hear how God is around, in, and involved with you. That builds not only your faith, but mine. Are you listening? I am (now!).

 

Who’s your clothier?

Colossians 3, in The Message Remix 2.0, it says this:

12-14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

Too often, IMO, we choose other designers for our wardrobe. Tall Skinny Kiwi even confessed (in a brilliant piece) that sometimes he dresses like a pagan. Sometimes, the devil is really in Prada! When we let Calvin Klein, Polo, Izod, Guess, etc. be our primary wardrobers, we often find that we are not dressed in compassion, kindness,
humility, quiet strength and discipline. Sometimes, yes, but not quite as often as we like to think.

In this God focused life, we don’t care so much what we wear, but how we wear it. That is, we don’t seek to impress, but to serve. Jesus, if you will recall, dressed to serve. He even told us, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest
among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.”

That’s the backwards ways of the Kingdom of God. The first are last, the greatest are the servants. It sounds absurd until you try to live it — then you truly find that the greatest fulfillment comes from emptying yourself. The greatest joy for yourself comes from seeking joy for others, and not for yourself. The greatest love truly is laying your life down for others.

So today, I’m going to make sure I put on my best clothes. I’ve got my compassion shirt, my kindness hat, my humility pants, my shoes of quiet strength and my belt of discipline. I’m going to put my coat of love on over it, and I’m going to get dirty. I’m going to serve people today. Not for myself or my joy, but for God. Today, I will live my life for my Creator. How about you?

 

Blessing others THROUGH stewardship

I read a good post over at The Philosophical Pastor, regarding living right. She recommends a book (I haven’t read it, but plan to), that calls for “downsizing” our lives. Evidentaly, consumerism is dying. ‘Bout time! We don’t need so much stuff pushed down our throats!

After reading her blog, I checked out http://www.freecycle.org/, to see what it was about. What a great idea! God has entrusted us as stewards of creation. As I’ve said before, when Dad gave you the keys to his car, he didn’t expect to get it back trashed! Quite the contrary for most of us, he expected to get it back washed and vacuumed!

This program at http://www.freecycle.org/ is a great way to take a step in helping to keep God’s creation clean. Free-cycling is based on the idea that “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” I am issuing a call to my church for someone to step up as a coordinator for the Frederick, OK, branch of this wonderful group.

Maybe then we’ll have more of this:

And less like this:

I, for one, have heard too few preachers talk about caring for our world. You don’t have to LOVE “Mother Earth” to want to care for the Father’s creation! To borrow from Dennis Miller, pardon me while I rant here, but, why aren’t we more concerned with caring for the gifts that God has given us? Genesis 2:15 tells us our purpose in God’s creation: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

Note: God did not put us in His creation to abuse it, deforest it, strip mine it, pollute it and dump our refuse into it! He put us here to “take care of it”. Sure, we’re not in Eden anymore, but we are still to care for the earth.

End rant.

Anyway, http://www.freecycle.org/ seems like a great idea, and a timely mission.

 

…and a happy New Year!

Here’s wishing to all of ya’ll a bright, wonderful new year full of God’s light and love!

I’m not going to write too much today, just two links:

first,The Philosophical Pastor has a nice idea about resolutions;

and, second, one or two of my own thoughts on resolutions.

I hope you resolve to enjoy them!

 

Merry Christ-mas

May God be very present in your life, and may all who read this receive His blessing.

Amen

 

Dashing through the mud

Well, there’s no snow here in Oklahoma, at least not in Texoma, but the recent rain HAS made the roads a little treacherous. And there is no doubt that this is the season to be dashing.

Recently I have been doing ALOT of dashing. I taught myself MS Moviemaker as I edited our Church’s Christmas movie (instead of a live play, we filmed our kids). I preached at another church besides my own. I’ve been to three Christmas parties, helped a friend move, taken the Women’s Fellowship out to a restaurant in another city, taken a group to Chickasha (about 2 hours on way!) to look at their famous Christmas lights, been to a board meeting, an elder’s meeting, a minister’s meeting AND did all my own Christmas shopping.

This morning, I had to wonder who the beautiful woman in my bed was, and realize it was my long lost wife! Well, it FEELS like its been years since I’ve seen her!

But as I take some time out, I realize that its very easy to miss Christ while celebrating Christmas. Herod was so busy trying to do his thing that he missed Christ (THANK YOU, GOD!) Caiaphas was so busy trying to take care of his business that he missed the Messiah. For centuries, men and women have allowed themselves to get so busy that they’ve missed the Messiah.

Maybe there is more wisdom than we know in stopping to smell the roses. Maybe their sweet scent is the aroma of God’s love. I wonder if this is where Paul was going when he wrote, “14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NIV)”

Jesus says that when we reach out to those in need, we meet Him; when we greet those we usually ignore, we greet Him. Jesus says that when we give of ourselves to those who lack, He is there. Don’t believe me, read Matthew 25.

Why, then, is it that we rush around so much focused only on where we are going, and missing the people who need us, who need love, who need Jesus. Why don’t we make the time to celebrate those lives, or the creations of God that are all around us?

Today, I’m not going to go dashing through the mud. Today, I’m going to stop and smell the roses. What about you?

 

Lucha con El Dios

Sounds exciting in Spanish, don’t it!?!

So, Jacob, after fleeing for his life and his life (first life was figurative, second is literal), comes face to face with his past. A moment of crisis, a true change in character is coming to completion.  Jacob, the man who always ran away, has now run toward his past.

Esau remembers that Jacob got both the birth-right AND Isaac’s blessing.  Esau was not happy.  But, Jacob has changed.  He has been tricked, and realized that its not funny.  He has been shrewd and he has become responsible.  As he wrestles with his past, along comes God.

Some will argue that Jacob’s wrestling was metaphorical.  Some will argue that he really did actually and truly wrestle with God.  All I know is that he came away limping, take it for what its worth.  The point is, Jacob came to a moment when he had to choose, revert to the old or embrace the new Jacob.

And so, he wrestled.  He grappled.  He held on to God, he clung to his God, he tried to pin down his God.  In the end, God was bigger than him, and walked away, but not before Jacob was blessed.  Not before Jacob was made new.  Not before Israel moved on with his life.

Israel can give us a good lesson.  As we come to that moment of crisis in our own lives, that moment when we find we are running headlong into the problems we avoided years ago, we must choose — grow into God, or shrink back to self.  We need to wrestle with God.  We won’t win, but, if we hold on, we might just find a blessing.

Wrestling with God may or may not be a physical activity.  Sometimes it takes the form of sparring with the guy in the office that just ticks you off by breathing.  Sometimes it takes the form of facing that ex who broke your heart.  Sometimes, we need to realize that part of the message of Matthew 25 is that we find Jesus in the cold, poor, hungry, sick, imprisoned and hurting people of the world.  Sometimes we realize that these people don’t always LOOK cold, poor, hungry, sick, imprisoned or hurting.

So, luchadors, its time to get your stretchy pants on!  Its ok to do it in your room when you grow up!  Grab your mask!   Get into the ring!  Love the unlovable, and pin yourself. Grab God, and hold on for the blessing.

Lucha con El Dios!

 

Why American Christians can’t speak to foreigners

Michael Spencer, The Internet Monk, writes a compelling article inspired by some of the international students he teaches:

“And I doubt, very seriously, that they will be Christians. Not because I haven’t tried to live, teach and preach the Gospel. I have, and will continue to do so as will all of the Christians on our campus.

I doubt they will become Christians because they are seeing American Christianity, and it’s far more American than Christian. They’ve helped me to see my own cultural religion, and it’s been a disturbing revelation.

When they attend chapel, they frequently hear moralistic preaching. Their own Confucian and Maoist culture gives them morals and moralism, and produces a far more moral person than their typical American peer. They hear sermons on being a good person, staying off drugs, not having sex and staying in school. They were doing all this when they came here and will do it when they leave.

They see American Christians without a Bible most of the time. We have few spiritual disciplines and are hungry and thirsty for the things our culture values more than the gifts and callings of Christ. They hear us talk about Jesus, but the Jesus we talk about is not compelling enough to cause us to live truly sacrificial or revolutionary lives. I’ve noticed this with other Asians as well. When they hear us talking about our religion, they expect to see the same holiness and devotion they see in Buddhist monks, but in American Christians they simply see another American, with a slightly different set of consumer interests. Same American. Different t-shirt slogan. Our spirituality is clearly inferior.”