God, Football, and the First Amendment

I read a news article about a Georgia high school forbidding certain Christian statements and Bible verses being painted on banners that the cheerleaders made for the football team. (School bans Bible Verses) Having played football and served as a coach for 20 years, I have seen my share of cheerleader produced banners. Most of them are wonderful and inspirational. Occasionally they cross the line, like the one that encouraged our team to “Castrate Trinity” the opponent for the night. What it gained in poetic flow it lost in the details of the encouraged activity. But such was not the case at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. Instead the banners said things like, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me in Christ Jesus” (Philippians) and “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline” (II Timothy).

The problem arose when someone who loves Jesus raised a concern. According to the law of the land, since the cheerleaders are a school sponsored group serving at a school sponsored event, they could not “promote” a particular religion with the clearly Christian sentiments. So the cheerleaders had to stop making and displaying those kinds of banners and resort to the more typical ones encouraging determination and teamwork. I assume they did not call for the other team to be castrated or even circumcised.

But a law that applies to the cheerleaders does not apply to the fans. They can say whatever they want on their banners. As a result this town of 9,600 people now has not one but dozens of Bible verse banners at every game. Of course there are also lots of banners about not being silenced and not be ashamed of Jesus. So in one sense by following the law they went from one banner about their faith to dozens. I think that most people following Jesus would think that the added number of Bible verses was a good thing. The more scripture people see and read the better.

Of course there are some people who are furious with the person who raised the concern about the banner. Some of the reactions are less than charitable. What they don’t understand is that the woman who raised the concern was trying to do the school a favor and save them from a law suit that was sure to come someday from people who really objected. It would be a law suit that the school would certainly loose. You really can’t have cheerleaders at a football game holding up a banner about Jesus for the team to run through. Imagine if by some twist of fate most of the cheerleaders happened to be Hindu and they made a banner that said “Shiva is our strength, He will destroy our Opponent”. I suspect that lots of Christians would freak out over that. Well there is that old saying about something being good for the goose as well as the gander. Jesus said something about loving your neighbor as yourself.

What is appropriate is not that the cheerleaders, but that private citizens exercise their first amendment rights and make whatever banners they want. One of my deeply held convictions is that for far too long Christians have leaned on the government and government related institutions to help prop up and promote our faith. Arguments about prayer in school and “In God We Trust” on our money fall into that category as does cheerleader produced banners. The idea of being a Provocative Christian is that our lives are such a compelling witness for Jesus that we don’t need such artificial supports for promoting Jesus. According to 1 Peter 3:15 people should see the hope we have in our lives and be provoked to ask us about the reason for it. So I like the fact that the Christians of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School are relying on their on ability to witness and not that of the cheerleaders.

What I find a bit disconcerting is that the banner production and overwhelming displays have taken on a defiant tone. It seems motivated more by outrage that the cheerleaders have been silenced than out of a love for God and neighbor. Unfortunately that is usually what motivates many Christians to start speaking out for their faith. We get outraged at some perceived injustice to our faith, some supposed removal of rights we think we have, and we react just like an indignant world reacts. We protest.  For starters I am not at all convinced that such displays and protests really lead anyone to ask about the reason for the hope we have in Christ. In fact I think most people who don’t follow Jesus are more put off than brought in.

So while I am glad that the proclamation of the faith has not been left to a cheerleader produced banner that a group of teenage football players run through and tear to shreds at the start of a game, I am concerned that we still haven’t gotten it right on how we should proclaim Jesus. I am thinking that having hope in the face of economic downturns, cutting the lawn or shoveling the snow of the widow next door, sitting for hours with the person grieving a death and simply being a strength with your presence, inviting international students to your home for Thanksgiving Dinner and using the opportunity to tell about being thankful to Jesus, these are the things that will change the world for Christ. But I forgot, it is easier to let the cheerleaders make banners, and if that fails we will make banners and hold them up in a crowd of other people with similar banners and be certain we are standing up for our faith and showing what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

You’re Already Dead if You are Following Jesus

One of my favorite books of all time is Band of Brothers written by Stephen Ambrose. It was turned into an award-winning mini-series on HBO. The story followers Easy Company of the 506th Battalion of the 101st Airborne division from their time in training in Georgia, to D-Day in Normandy, all the way to the capture of Hitler’s mountain retreat, The Eagles Nest. One of the threads in this true story follows a young private by the name of Albert Blithe. Following D-Day private Blithe is clearly shaken by the death and destruction that is taking place around him. He becomes very tentative and uncertain. He is clearly dealing with the fear of death. A somewhat cold and harden lieutenant by the name of Spears tells Blythe that his problem is, “You don’t know that your already dead. Once you accept the fact that you are a dead man, there is nothing to fear”. The private considers those words and eventually comes to grips with that reality and begins to do his job as a soldier with confidence that can only come from having nothing left to lose.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was also in Europe during World War 2. He was a pastor in Germany who opposed Hitler and was eventually arrested. Just a month before the end of the war Hitler personally ordered the execution of Bonhoeffer. Prior to that execution Bonhoeffer is quoted as saying that Jesus “Bids us to come and die”. Bonhoeffer, like private Blythe learned an important lesson. It is the lesson found in these words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24-26

²⁴Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. ²⁵“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

So much of what we do in life seems designed to protect our lives or enhance them in some way. I am speaking not just of our physical lives though that is true enough. Instead I am speaking of our lives even in the less tangible sense of our dreams, hopes, image, comfort, reputation, and pleasures. We spend so much time and effort trying to acquire and hold on to the things that we think make life worth living. Some of those things are tangible, our house, car, corner office, trophies, or relationships. Some of them are less tangible but no less real and alluring. They include things like fame, respect, power, security, or a host of things that are in our “bucket list” that we feel we must do before we die in order to make life complete.

In the face of this massive effort to hold on to our lives Jesus makes it shockingly clear that when we try to acquire and protect such things in our life, even our life itself, what we really end up doing is loosing our life. We can spend eighty years chasing after such things but as Solomon said it is chasing after the wind. The way Jesus put it is that we can gain those things and end up loosing our soul. In the end we will have neither the life we chased nor the life He offers.

There is another option. That is to consider that we have already died. The life that seeks after all the things of this world must be put to death. The sign of such a death is that we have decided to follow Jesus and have hefted our cross onto our shoulders. In the first century, any man seen carrying a cross was a dead man walking. His life was already forfeit. He was breathing and moving but he was a dead man. Jesus is calling us to carry our cross everyday. He wants us to consider this life as dead, to give it up, to release it. It is only in such a posture, that of a follower slumped under the weight of the cross, that we will find the freedom to truly live. In such a position we have nothing to lose.

Private Blithe learned this and it freed him to become the soldier he needed to be. The irony for Blythe is that shortly after embracing the truth that he was already dead, he volunteered to be on point, the first man out front on patrol. It was the most dangerous place to be. He was shot and that was the last any of his comrades saw of him. The book and mini-series report that he died of his wounds a few days later. Private Blithe’s family was rather surprised to hear this, considering that he in fact survived and eventually became Master Sargent Blithe who twice signed up to reenlist in the Army, made over 600 parachute jumps, was awarded a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts. Today he is buried in Arlington Cemetery. Once he accepted that he was already dead, Albert Blithe lived more than more people ever hope to.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew this and it freed him to serve Jesus no matter what. Bonhoeffer opposed Hitler and Nazism from the beginning. He was part of the underground church that worked hard to follow Jesus even as the Nazis tried to restrict and even kill some of them. In 1938 he was back in America and urged by friends to stay there and not go back to Germany. Perhaps the most famous quote of Bonhoeffer is this, “Jesus bids a man to come and die”. Bonhoeffer know that he had to go back to the people of Germany and serve them, even if he die. On April 9th, 1945 Adolf Hitler had Bonhoeffer hung. But in the years between 1938 and April of 1945, Bonhoeffer had the freedom in Christ to live a life that became a legacy and inspiration for millions. He could only have done that if he had already considered his life forfeit for Jesus.

What are you holding on too? What in your life are you clinging to in fear and desperation? The sooner you are willing to release that and give it up to God the sooner you will be free to experience life as never before. In some way, by considering ourselves dead we become truly alive in Christ. The angst that hovers over so many people, the backdrop of uncertainty and discomfort over life, death, and the future, is torn away when we truly take up our cross and become dead men walking. Jesus said that the grain of wheat only truly comes to life when it first falls to the ground and dies. How ironic that we only truly experience life when we first die to ourselves and take up the cross of Christ.

Where Jesus and Moses Meet

I recently spent three days in Egypt doing leadership training for 500 Egyptian pastors and business leaders. During my last night there my hotel overlooked the Nile River. I was reminded once again that Moses took a little float trip down this very river as a baby, nearly 4000 years ago. I later visited The Cave Church. It is a Coptic Christian Church that is literally carved out of a huge grotto beneath a sandstone mountain. There are numerous reliefs carved into the mountain side, one of which shows Joseph, leading Mary and her baby Jesus on a donkey. They are walking by the Pyramids in the relief. In that instant I was reminded that both Jesus and Moses spent their infancy in Egypt.

As I scanned the various other reliefs at the Cave Church I can across a full size cross with a replica of Jesus breathing his last breaths. Another connection between Jesus and Moses filled my mind’s eye. It was the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus met both Elijah and Moses before his death. In that event the long dead Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus as Peter, James, and John looked on in wonder. The speculation has been that those two great prophets were bringing some strength and consolation to Jesus before he went to the cross.

So I began to think of all the parallels between Moses and Jesus.

1) Moses lived in the glory of Pharaohs house and left it as a result to trying to serve his people; Jesus lived in the Glory of the Father and left it in order to serve us

2) Moses has an encounter with God in the Wilderness prior to beginning a ministry of freeing his people; Jesus had an encounter with the Father in the wilderness when John baptized Him prior to beginning His ministry to free His people.

3) Moses went up on the mountain to receive the Word of God; Jesus delivered the Word of God in the Sermon on the Mount

4) Moses led a group of people to freedom yet they often grumbled and complained wanting to go back to the familiar comfort of slavery; Jesus leads a group of people to freedom yet we often grumble and complain about how hard it is to follow Him and we go back to the comfort and familiarity of our sin

5) The people Moses led were convinced that they were not strong enough to enter the promised land even though God had already parted the Red Sea and provided Manna from Heaven; Jesus leads followers who often lack faith that He will do as He promised in spite of the fact that He has done so, countless times in and numerous ways in the past

6) Moses prayed for the success of his people even though they often rejected him; Jesus prays for us constantly even though we often betray Him

7) Moses had people spread the blood of a lamb on the wooden door posts in order to save them from death and release them from slavery in Egypt; Jesus was the Lamb whose blood flowed down on the wooden post of the cross in order to save us from ultimate death and free us from captivity to our sins

Even with these parallels and the many more I can not even think of, there is still this key distinction. Moses was a man called by God to serve fellow man. Jesus is God, come in the flesh as a man to give His life as a ransom for many. We know that God loves us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Reba, Reincarnation, Recycling, and Redemption

Reba McEntire is an amazing talent and an inspiration on many levels. Please don’t take this as a personal attack on the Country and Western icon. But among the list of her many talents, theologian is probably not near the top of the list. Why do I say that? It comes as a result of reading some comments she made in a recent interview. (Reba interview) In the interview she affirms a belief in reincarnation which comes as something of a shock to most people due to her clear statements of faith in God and having grown up in the Bible Belt of America. Reba said, “People said I can’t be a Christian if I believe in reincarnation, but I always felt God loves us so much He’d want to recycle us and not just throw us away”.

There are at least two things seriously wrong with what she says. One is simple from a Biblical point of view. The other is more subtle but perhaps more profound. As to the first thing. The Bible is clear that reincarnation is not part of God’s plan. Hebrews puts it this way; ^“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Hebrews 9:27,28. We don’t die and come back and die again and come back again. Just like Jesus died once, we die once.

Part of what is fascinating is that like many westerners who embrace reincarnation, Reba sees coming back again and again as a good thing. In the article she muses that maybe she is part Christian, part Buddhist. The problem is, Buddhists don’t see coming back again and again as a good thing. Just like Hinduism which also has reincarnation, they are trying to escape this life. In their system the world is nothing but pain that we are trying to escape and reach Nirvana. If you come back reincarnated it means you failed. No Buddhist wants to come back. They want to escape this reality.

The more profound part of her statement actually has to do with the implied view of God’s love and what eternity with Him would be like. Somehow the notion is expressed that once we die, we are just a throw away. Apparently it would be far more environmentally friendly on a cosmic/spiritual plane for God to “recycle” us. Like most westerners she misses the point that God does not recycle us, He redeems us. The Bible teaches that eventually Heaven and Earth will become one. God will restore creation to its intended purity and restore us to a right relationship with Him. His love for us is so vast and overwhelming that far from simply recycling us, He redeems us to be His people and to walk with Him again in the Garden.

I don’t fault Reba at all for her ideas. They are becoming more common all the time. I place the blame on those of us who claim to follow Christ. We have not understood or promoted the Biblical teaching of God’s love being a redeeming love. When we have it has only focused on being forgiven of personal sin. But redemption is so much more. All creation groans in expectation of the day when God will set things to right. It will be a day when sin, and pain, and sorrow, and suffering are no more. It will be a day of rejoicing, and dancing, and delighting in God our King. That is how much He loves us. He loves us so much that He sent His only son to redeem us and the world. He will in fact make us New Creatures and not a recycled retread.

Provocative Christian Living: Crossing the Racial Divide

Recently former President Jimmy Carter made the accusation that the opposition to health care reform, including the outburst by South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson is motivated by racism. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html On the other end of the spectrum there are many who are saying that racism plays no part what-so-ever in that debate or other disagreements with the president. My strong hunch is that both positions are overstated in the extreme and as important as the particular political issues are, they are not my main concern.

What all this turmoil has done is forced me to ask the question, “Where is the Body of Christ when it comes to racism?” To put it another way, “How would the tone of American life and politics be different if the church had been consistently living out the radical biblical mandates of loving your neighbor and having a concern for the oppressed, no matter their race or ethnic background?” Maybe even more simply, how would the world be different if followers of Jesus Christ really lived and interacted with one another as if we really were the brothers and sisters in Christ that Jesus calls us to and the Bible says we are?

You need to understand that I come to this as a white guy whose family moved out of the city at the height of the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s. We did it for one very clear reason; to make sure I did not have to be put on a bus to go to school with black kids. We were a part of the massive white flight migration from the city to the suburbs. Oddly enough I spent most every Saturday and most days during the summer with black people. Starting at the age of ten and for the next three years I worked at my fathers business. He owned a car dealership and I washed cars, swept the shop floor and ran errands. Most of that happened back in the shop were I worked alongside seven or eight black men and a teenager named Kenny. It was okay for me to work with them, but not go to school with them. So you can well imagine that I did not grow up in a family that was open to ethnic diversity or crossing any racial divide.

But then I came to faith in Christ and all of life began to change. One of the most dramatic changes was that in the first two years of my Christian walk I was mentored by a black man named Howard Perdue. I wrote about Howard in a previous blog. http://provocativechristian.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/provocative-obedience-the-high-cost-of-loving-jesus/ Howard not only shaped my ability to tell others about Jesus, he helped me learn to love someone very different from myself. He helped me to see the truth of what Paul said in Colossians 3:10.11 ^“and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” If you are a follower of Jesus Christ then you have a bond with every other follower of Christ. You are family together and it doesn’t matter what ethnic background you come from.

Last night I had the privilege of experiencing a bit of what Paul must have envisioned as he wrote to those first century Christians in Colossae. I was at a dinner hosted in a home of a close friend. There were ten of us around the table, five white Americans, two black Africans from Sierra Leone who have recently become U.S. citizens, a black couple from Ghana in western Africa, and a white South African who grew up in the harshest years of apartheid. For three hours we shared a meal, laughed together, prayed, wrestled with serious issues of life and in the end wondered how soon we could get back together and do it all again. I wish that the world could have had a looking glass that miraculously allowed them to peer into that dinning room and see what the Spirit of God had created.

People talk about wanting to change the world so that people will be kind to one another and get along. Jesus prayed that the world would know that we are His followers by the love we have for one another, regardless of being black, white, rich, poor, young or old. The world has never really experienced that as a widespread, long-term reality. In fact many are convinced that it is impossible. But it is not. Jesus prayed for it to be so. Last night I was blessed by it. When we cross the racial divide we show the world the power of the Gospel. We demonstrate the reality of the Holy Spirit who binds us together. That truth sounds out like a trumpet call of victory and celebration and it announces the King of Glory who is Lord over all.

Everyone Wants a Piece of Jesus

Having taught several courses on World Religions I find it fascinating that people strongly object to the Christian doctrine that Jesus is the only way to heaven. It is especially curious when you consider that other major religions have included Jesus in their systems. In some cases they seem to revere Jesus as much as, if not more than many Christians.

Islam holds Jesus in such high regard as a major prophet that it teaches that he was in fact born of a virgin. It also teaches that he DID NOT die on a cross. The reason for this is that it is believed that Allah would never allow such a revered prophet to suffer the indignity of the Cross. That is some amazing respect for Jesus.

Hinduism teaches lots of different things about Jesus. Depending on who you talk to or what you read he can be an Avatar, or incarnation of the God Vishnu. Or he might be some other form of a god come into the world. At the very least he is a spiritual master/teacher.

Buddhism also holds Jesus in high regard. Many see Jesus as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened one who instead of immediately proceeding to Nirvana, sacrificed himself by staying around on earth to show others the way to enlightenment. That is a highly revered position in Buddhism.

It is interesting that you don’t find the leaders of other religions being co-opted in this way. For instance, there is no mention that I know where Hinduism holds Mohamed in such regard. And certainly Islam has no place for Buddha as a profit. Far from it. The opposite would be the case.

So what is it about Jesus that everyone wants a piece of Him but few are willing to admit that Jesus claimed to be and is in fact, the only way to heaven? My speculation is this. The Bible tells us that God has placed within each of us an awareness of the truth. We are told that creation itself speak to us of God and His truth. ¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:18-20

Those verses make it clear that what we have done is repress the truth about who God is and gone our own way, to our own peril. But truth has a way of bubbling to the surface. I think people want a piece of Jesus because there is a recognition, deep down inside, that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But to accept that full on is too threatening, too radical, to provocative. So instead we sanitize Jesus and fit just enough of Him into our system to feel good about it.

But before you go off feeling all self righteous and holy because you haven’t done that, think again. In what ways do you fit a piece of Jesus into your life and not take all of Him full on? I know I do it in my life and I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t have at least some area in their life that they keep Jesus out. Do you like the Jesus who welcomed little children into his midst but really don’t want the Jesus who was angry in the Temple and cleared out the money changers? Maybe it is the other way around. You like the wild, forceful Jesus but have trouble with the gentle and mild side of Him. Maybe you like the Jesus who argued with the religious leaders but aren’t so keen on the Jesus who said, “take up your cross and follow me”.

You see we all can be comfortable with a piece of Jesus. But Jesus made it clear that He intends to be Lord of all. That means every nook and cranny of our lives. That means that we come under His Lordship completely and totally. It means that we love Him with our entire heart, entire mind, entire soul, and entire strength. We hold nothing back from Him, because in going to the Cross, He held nothing back from us.

When Are You In Church?

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:20

If a few followers of Jesus are gathered together in His name and He is there as He promised, doesn’t that mean by definition that you have “The Church”? If the church is the ekklesia, the Greek word for those who are called, then whenever we have a few followers called out by Jesus and gathered with Him, then we have Church. Church is not about where you meet. It doesn’t matter if you are in a cathedral or a cottage, and huge auditorium or a humble home, a public community room or under a tree. The location is not church. The church is those who have been called by Jesus and gather in His name. So not only are you in church when you gather with any other believers you ARE the church when you are with another follower of Jesus.

So what does it mean of you are in church whenever you are together with other believers? It means at least a few things that come to mind. First of all it means that you are to always be about worshiping God. We usually think that we “go to church” in order to worship God. Well if you are “in church” whenever you are with one or more followers, then your actions should be worshipful. Paul tells us that when we come together, ¹⁹Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:19-20). Gathering together, no matter the place or occasion,  should always be an act of worship in which our gratitude and love for the Lord comes through.

Secondly it means that we should be demonstrating the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17:21,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. One of the most common excuses people use to not be a Christian is that we can’t even get along with each other. Romans 12:18 says, ^“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”. Being the church together means that we must, absolutely must, defer to one another, submit to one another, bless one another, guard one anothers back, and serve with and for one another.

Thirdly, if we are the church whenever we gather then we must each fulfill our part in the church. Paul speaks of the Church as the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12. HE makes it clear that each person in the Body has an important part to play. Just as the hand, eye, ear, mouth, foot and, nose all have a part to play, so every follower of Jesus has a part to play. There is no room in the Body of Christ for an appendix that can be removed without being missed. When you gather with other followers of Jesus, you are needed. Your prayers are needed. Your experiences are needed. Your song is needed. Your testimony of what God is doing in your life is needed. If you fail to bless the rest of he Body with what God is doing in you then the whole body suffers.

One way of thinking about this issue of church is this. We are not about doing church or going to church. We are about being church. Being those “called out” by Jesus to follow him everywhere, everyday. You don’t go to church any more than you go to family. You are church just as you are family.

Provocative Bible Verses: Cutting Off Limbs for Jesus

⁷“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! ⁸If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. Matthew 18:7-9

I remember preaching on this verse as a young pastor and during the sermon I noticed a man in the audience who I knew had some issues with mental illness. I thought to myself, “If he misunderstands what I am saying, this could get ugly, really fast”. What I didn’t need was for this young man to mistake a provocative illustration by Jesus as a command for extreme self-mutilation. Fortunately the young man did not rush out and cut off a hand or gouge out an eye. But then again, as far as we know, nobody in the entire history of Christianity has actually done this. Of course there was the church father Origen in the 4th century who apparently castrated himself, but that was all about wanting to be eunuch for God and a different issue all together.

The tragic fact is, most people go the other direction. Most people completely ignore this verse. It seems that once we decide that Jesus is not asking for us to donate our limbs, digits, or other body parts in the name of holiness, we take a collective sigh of relief and decide there is no need to ask further questions.  We decide what Jesus did not mean by these words, but we don’t bother to ask “What did he mean?” Okay, so now I am asking. What did Jesus mean when he said it is better to cut off a limb and enter eternal life minus a body part than to enter hell physically whole. The answer is simple. It is the application of the answer that is difficult.

Simply put, Jesus is saying that anything that causes you to sin and therefore negatively impacts your relationship with God should be removed from your life. This is such a serious issue that even if it is your own arm or eye you need to get rid of it. If we assume that Jesus was using hyperbole, which He often did, then what is the application? It shouldn’t take long for any of us to answer that. Just ask yourself, “what seems to regularly trip you up in your relationship with God?” Now there are some easy and obvious things. If sex in movies has a way of dragging you down then maybe you need to cancel your premium channel subscription. Sure you would have to do without the other movies offered but there are ways of seeing those without opening yourself or your family to something that would be harmful.

The traditional list of sex, drugs, and other vices is usually where people go with this. But let’s consider some non-traditional options that are far more insidious. For most people in western culture and in growing parts of the rest of the world, materialism is having a huge impact on our relationship with God. When it comes to your house for example, is it a source of pride for you? Has the desire to “move up” in the world by being in the right neighborhood with a house you really can’t afford, put you in a position of financial risk AND caused you to be further from the Lord? Maybe you are attached to your pride, or arrogance as much as you are attached to your eye or arm? Are you attached to your comfort and pleasure as much as to an ear or a leg?

The point is, anything that you love more than you love Jesus has the potential of destroying your relationship with God. It requires a great deal of honest reflection and inner searching of your attitudes and actions. This is not an easy thing to do. It means being willing to ask yourself some hard questions and facing the consequences. Those consequences can be difficult because we are facing the loss of something that is precious to us. What must happen is that Jesus and our relationship with Him must be more precious than anything, even and eye or an arm.

Seeing The Gospel Transform a Nation

Today I felt like I was observing history in the making. I was one of over two hundred people who gathered for the African Forum on Religion and Government just outside Nairobi Kenya. The Minister of Information from Liberia spoke about how Jesus is changing that nation. He was followed by the Vice President of Kenya who shared a similar story of his nation. But the highlight, without a doubt was the President of The Republic of Burundi, Pierre Nikurunziza.

To understand why this was so compelling and inspirational you need to know a few things. First, President Nikurunziza is the first democratically elected president of that country to be in office longer than three months! His father was a member of parliement and governor who was killed in 1972 when 100,000 other Burundians were killed in a rampage of ethnic violence. In 1993 civil war erupted, again prompted by ethnic division. In the ensuing war between ethnic Hutu and Tutsi, five of his siblings were killed and he escaped death when his car was riddled with gun fire before he got out an ran away. Estimates are that upwards of 300,000 Burundians lost their lives in the civil war. That is a staggering number in itself but even more so when you consider that one out of every 25 Burundians died in that war. If a similar percentage was applied to the USA then we would be talking  about over 11 million dead. The impact of that much death in a country is beyond comprehension.

Since becoming president four years ago, Nikurunziza has worked on a principle of reconciliation prompted by his deep love for Jesus Christ. The result has been the disbanding of the rebel factions and their inclusion into the army and police force. There is such a unity within the army that the Burundians are now serving as peace keeping forces in at least three other African countries. The president said, “We have a responsibility to bring to others, the peace that Almighty God has brought to Burundi”.

The resulting peace in Burundi has allowed them to begin rebuilding the country. The focus has been on hospitals and schools. In the past few years they have built over 500 schools throughout the country and for the first time are building hospitals without having to wait on foreign aid to do it. That kind of work is also motivated by the presidents faith in Christ. There is an understanding that the whole Gospel, preached to the whole person, must include more than just an assurance of getting to heaven. If Jesus came to set the prisoner free, to heal the sick, to restore people to wholeness, then the building of schools and hospitals, the push for racial reconciliation and the efforts to bring peace to other lands are all seen as part of the responsibility of the government under the command of God.

To sit and listen to a head of state speak so openly about his faith in Christ was a unique experience. To hear him talk about how that faith in Christ, faith in the Gospel, motivated him to be a blessing to all the people of his country, not just to Christians, was an inspiration. Certainly Burundi has a long way to go. The peace is still young and as such can be fragile. In a country with a history for assasinating it’s leaders, the life of President Nikurunzizi is stressful to say the least. Pray for him. Pray for his country that it can be a model for others.

Should you really be afraid of God?

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. 1st Chronicles 15:25

That verse from 1st Chronicles is one of more than fifty times in the Bible when fearing God is viewed as a virtue. Yet for all that frequency it may be one of the most ignored, even disputed concepts in all of Scripture. Why? Experience has taught me that anytime something so commonly found in the Bible is ignored or disputed it usually is because we don’t really understand what it means.

A friend of mine writes for www.probe.org. Her name is Sue Bohlin. Recently I read an article in which she talked about four questions that you should always ask when speaking with someone who disagrees with you. The first question is, “What do you mean by that?” followed by, “Where do you get your information, How do you know its true, and What if you’re wrong”. The first question needs to be asked when people say they don’t believe in the whole idea of being afraid of God. When it comes to fearing God, most people seem to think it means being terrorized by the thought that an angry and capricious deity may decide to smack you up side the head with a lightening bold for no good reason. As a result of that kind of thinking people decide that they don’t want to believe in a God like that so they give up on the God of the Bible all together. Well I don’t want to believe in a God like that and fortunately the Bible doesn’t want me to either. God is not some spiritual version of Freddie Kruger or Norman Bates. We are not to be terrorized by Him or the thought of Him. Jesus made that clear when he so often told the disciples, “Fear Not”.

Just by taking a look at the first half of 1st Chronicles 15:25 we can be sure that we are not talking about being terrorized by God. It says “great is the Lord and most worthy of praise”. God is amazing and should be adored and honored. That’s what it means when it says, “most worthy of praise”. The whole history of God’s relationship with His people is one of Him stepping in and caring for them, meeting their needs, protecting them, being their shield and defender, their Good Shepard. God is to be praised, not run from in fear. We are told that He loves His children to the point of coming into the world in Christ and giving Himself for them.

So what does it mean to fear God? I can’t help but make the analogy with my dad. He was 6′4″ and in many ways a disciplined and sometimes demanding father. I loved him, admired him, trusted him and in a certain way feared him. I was not terrorized by him, but I did have a very healthy respect for him. He was the boss, no doubt about it. There was just something about his presence that gave me a certain amount of awe for him. When the Bible speaks about fear of the Lord, that is what it means. The word for fear in the Hebrew is the word yare. It means to stand in awe of, to revere. When you stand in front of the Rocky Mountains for the first time, when you see the Sistine Chapel ceiling, when you hold your new born child, all these things can evoke a sense of awe, wonder and reverence. When we think of God, who He is and what He has done it should cause us to honor, worship and adore Him.

With that sense of awe and reverence comes a desire to follow and obey. The desire is not rooted in a need to avoid punishment but rather it is motivated by wanting to show respect. Far to often people approach God like He is some average Joe from down the street. Certainly we are invited into an intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ. But that does not mean we treat Him like our golf partner or poker buddies. There needs to be a sense of being overwhelmed by the beauty, majesty, power, holiness and love of God. All of who God is should cause us to at times stand slack jawed before Him, speechless, overwhelmed, amazed. It should cause us to obey and follow Him because their is no other like Him. He is to be honored, respected, feared, above all gods. Nothing should demand our alliegance, worship or dedication like the Lord. That is at least in part what the Bible means by fearing God.