Criminal

Please Lord, this boy needs Jesus
Heal this child, help us destroy these demons
Oh, and please send me a brand new car
And a prostitute while my wife's sick in the hospital

Preacher preacher, fifth grade teacher!
You can't reach me, my mom can't neither
You can't teach me a goddamn thing cause
I watch TV, and Comcast cable

-Eminem "Criminal" (The Marshall Mathers LP)

So I rode my bike listening to some angry music because I was angry tonight...angry at sin. I feel better now. The truth is: this world is really effed up. Just knowing there are people out there who actually do the kind of stuff Eminem raps about illustrates an important point about the current condition of this world.

There is something terribly wrong.

We weren't ever supposed to experience this thing called suffering, but our disobedience has cost us dearly. And morals and sermons and religion and programs and good public speaking and Christian rock bands and devotions are not going to solve it. Plug your ears all you want, and stone God's prophets until the break of dawn. It doesn't make your way right. The redemptive work of Christ is humanity's only hope. We think we have God all figured out. We don't. It is impossible to please Him without faith.

The plans God has for those who love Him are beyond all measure. You cannot peg God down on a cork board. You cannot write a definitive dissertation on Him. No sermon or blog captures the fullness of His grace. He is Greater than Great and more Loving than Love. You shall have no other gods before Him. Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Upon remembering the promises the Lord has given me about what is to come and realizing that God will deliver the last blow to sin in the end, I rejoice in one thing: that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life and as sure as the Lord lives, I will meet with Him in the clouds one day.

Religion Grab Bag (2)

I always wondered about people who will absolutely refuse to receive something for free. There is a hint of nobility in wanting to avoid being a mooch, but the opposite of being a mooch is not necessarily being responsible. It's being proud.

I find that in MOST areas of life, the obvious extreme paths are the most followed but the least wise. Maybe holiness does not consist so much of refusing to do certain things but rather achieving a balance based on personal convictions built from Biblical principles. The most important message in the Bible is the atonement. Christ has paid for our sins, and we did nothing to deserve it. That's grace. Receiving something you did not earn.

Religious Act of the Week: Letting Pride Get in the Way of Receiving Grace.

So you know that you are religious if you are so proud that you refuse to allow unwarranted blessings to come your way. I've also found that people who will not allow themselves to be served out of grace will never serve others out of grace. My mind goes to Peter's interaction with the Lord when He wanted to wash the disciple's feet.

What kind of people will we be if someone must pay to receive our kindness? We are no better than a corporation with a slick marketing campaign. I believe God has called us to more than religion. There is something beyond the same old formula of "Do this to get that" that so many religions are selling.

We are God's people. We are not selling anything. The drink we have is free to anyone who thirsts. All you have to do is believe. Forget trying to pay for your salvation with perfect attendance or excellent leadership or forced smiles, and rest in grace.

And that means allowing yourself to be unexpectedly blessed by the Lord or others.

Religion Grab Bag (1)

Lately I've been thinking about repentance and its necessity in the life of a Christ follower.

Around most people I'm pretty quiet, but on paper, I have kind of a big mouth. Anyone can sound like a big shot by throwing around terms like sanctification and relevant. Vintage this and vintage that. Look at me, I have a serious looking thumbnail photo!

But the truth is, the only thing I can really say for sure about myself is that I have one side of me that wants to do three things: hate people (F#&* you!), fornicate (F#%* me!), and own the world (F%@* my job!). If that sentence offended you, I think my private blog would give you a stroke.

Even after becoming a Christian, the flesh is not obliterated. It's simple math really. If I feed that side of me, it grows. I then commit selfish acts against my neighbor, whether indirectly or directly. Mostly indirectly. I think that's the worst kind of sin because no one ever calls you on it. You can get away with murder if you slowly drive someone to suicide.

Then I have another side of me that wants to please my Father.

Two sides. They are always at war. I am at war with myself.

Paul was too, though. In fact, if you are not at war with yourself, how can you call yourself a saint? Those who are being saved have the Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit that challenges us to change. The Spirit points out our hypocrisy. If that doesn't cause some inward turmoil, you are either Jesus Christ or someone who has committed the unforgivable sin. Stephen accused his murders of "always resisting the Holy Spirit."

So here's the religious act of the week: Avoiding evidence of hypocrisy.

You know you are religious if you find people that will not point out your obvious sins and ask them how you can be more pious. Perhaps they commit the same sin or maybe they fear you, but the people you hang out will probably never make you feel conviction because you've been very selective when choosing them.

It's not just your friends though, it's every situation that causes you to confront your sin. You avoid it like Egypt avoids sick pigs.

I have to mention this too. It is extremely easy to do this when other people have already tied their faith to you. Christians love to promote people (and give them a gold name tag) that aren't ready. I first hand knowledge of this. So on you go up the ranks, ignoring every chance to slow down and look in the mirror. You feel important not because God loved you first, but because some PERSON says you are worthy. Some PERSON gives you your self-confidence. Then comes the power addiction. We're taught to trust in what important religious PEOPLE say about us rather than what our Creator says about us. What a crock.

I'm praying just as much for my friends that are going to Christian colleges as I am for those who are going to secular schools. False teachers are everywhere.

And people that get inflated...pop.

Speaking of which, I decided to go ahead and make these thoughts a blog entry because I came to Panera Bread to work on some marketing homework, and I ended up sitting next to five obese religious women who have been talking about food for the entire hour it took me to write this.

Where's Ehud when you need him?

The Reciprocity Norm

I've officially been a student of marketing for about 5 weeks now, and I enjoy it so far. Who knows if I will use this degree for anything other than a wall space filler (most of the major changes in my life have been because of some random turn of events instead of applied talent or skill), but who cares. I like learning. It helps me impress strangers.

It's quite fascinating how many principles of marketing are reminiscent of my previous ideas of what Christian living was. Enter, the reciprocity norm. (If you continue reading, you will be automatically billed a marketing curriculum tasters fee of $50)

The reciprocity norm is the invisible goblin hiding behind many sales tactics. It states that individuals are motivated to give back to those who have given them something. This principle anticipates and sustains itself on the customer's feeling of guilt after receiving something (no matter how useless) for free. The key word there is "guilt." Some examples would be businesses that throw parties for their customers... a free rock concert at the Gap or maybe a pancake breakfast for a newly formed paper company?

My question is this: what place, if any, do marketing tactics such as these have in the body of Christ? The Bible encourages us to not hide our light from the world but to put it on display. We are told that true religion is visiting widows and orphans. A great promise of the Lord is that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through God's people. Thus, we have been commissioned to go about our daily lives looking for ways to bless those around us, but a crucial piece of the puzzle that still needs to be placed is our motivation. Are we doing good to receive or are we doing good because we see our Father doing good?

The corporate world forms marketing strategies to build its own kingdom. The customer is king only because profits are king. Without customers, buildings will be closed down and staff will lose their income. Ultimately, the whole economy suffers when big businesses fail to defend their kingdoms. This seems logical.

But is the Church just another corporation that is reliant on pew fillers to keep its lights on and its coffee shops running? Are not major denominations mourning because church BUILDINGS are closing in America at an alarming rate? Why should we tie our faith to such things? Should the people of God be just as reliant on a marketing strategy as the Starbucks down the road, or should we be trusting in something other than the reciprocity norm...

What if we stopped trusting in the power of guilt, and started using no marketing strategy at all? Condemnation has no place in the forgiven, yet there are legions of God's warriors as far as the eye can see that are buried under a sea of guilt for not giving enough or praying enough or reading enough to please their master...excuse me, pastor. It breaks my heart seeing people in a church who are surrounded by other people, but completely isolated unless they forfeit their dreams to take their place in someone else's.

To quote Pink Floyd, "All in all it's just another brick in the wall."

I've seen the depression in the eyes of my brothers and sisters. Christians are prisoners in their own communities. Instead of being free to be forgiven and to dream big, their God-given individualism and creativity is muzzled by guilt. American Christians are depressed because their legs are being cut off so they can fit into a vision that was never their responsibility.

(Hey teacher, leave them kids alone!)

Exit, rant.

There is a good chance that I'm being over dramatic, but that's the beauty of grace. Jesus didn't die for me so I could repay him with my good ideas. He doesn't need the reciprocity norm to do good. I know, because everyday I learn more things I can't do without His intervention. So naturally I want to be like my Father and do good not to receive a payment, but because God loves me without reason.

Cutting Phase

In the past year I have been working out pretty faithfully, and I am happy with the results. I'm no Hugh Jackman, but I've gained a considerable amount of muscle compared with what I had 4 years ago. I'm about 185 lbs today while I was about 165 my sophmore year, and much of it is muscle. It feels good, but if you know anything about building mass with a work out program, you know that in order to gain muscle you must gain a percentage of fat along with it. This is called the "bulking phase" of a workout plan. You eat a ton of protein and food and lift a ton of weight to stimulate muscle growth. Once you've gained a significant amount, you enter the "Cutting Phase." This is the phase that involves a lot of cardio to shed all of those excess fat cells that came with the muscle. The result is a healthy, lean muscular look.

I think a similar principle can be applied to our spiritual growth. God takes us through seasons that give us extraordinary insight into His Word, whether it be through a sermon series or a Bible class or a good book. We grow immensely, but along with our spiritual muscle comes excess fat or bad theology. While these pounds were probably necessary at the time to allow us to grow comfortably, you know that you'll be better off if you burn that fat.

My college years served to enlighten my mind to the Christian's role in God's plan. This past year has expanded my awareness of the Lord's role in His mission on this earth. I've concluded that the Lord is so powerful and so worthy of our trust that there is little reason to worry about personal inadequacies with regards to serving Him. Also, I've learned to silence the voice in my mind that tries to make me feel guilty when I've done nothing wrong. Even better I've removed many idols from my life, including ones that were occupying the high places. This is all good, spiritual muscle.

Yet along with that growth has come with some false ideas. I've learned to rely on the Lord so much that I might be losing sight of what he may be waiting for ME to do. In previous posts, I've talked a bunch about having a willingness to do nothing and replace our ambition with faith. This is all well and good, but when the Lord calls you to actually DO SOMETHING, you should have no argument.

Needless to say, I believe the Lord has recently challenged me to start a cutting phase: the depression has got to go.

I've allowed myself to live life in an attitudinal rut for quite a while now (especially at work), and just recently I've seen that it is all my fault. I've allowed self-pity to sneak in to my life. When I should be exhibiting Christ to people around me, I've been acting like a sissy girl about my circumstances. That evidences a lack of faith, and communicates a false message that our attitudes should be subject to our feelings. My life has been preaching a false gospel.

No one can control their feelings, but we can control how we respond to those feelings, and I have let my feelings run me right over. Though Jesus was a man well aquainted with the sorrows of life, I do not believe he was the unrelenting downer of every group he found himself in. At some point we have to rise up against our feelings and take responsibility for our attitudes.

Enough with the whining. No more complaining. I have been reminded that I alone hold the keys to my spiritual vitality. God's not going to appear in front of me and do some kind of dance to jar me from my grouchiness. It is completely up to me how I respond to my circumstances, and I feel that I will not make it to the next step until I learn that every day is a gift and should be lived to its fullest potential.

The thing about cardio is you just have to do it. Don't think about it, just start running. Get on that stair stepper and start sweating! Like Nike says... Just Do It. Perhaps this will serve as a fitting theme to the next couple of months for me to shed this fat.

Never Wrong to Love

John 15:12 (New Living Translation)

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

When you are child trying to do the right thing, there is little confusion about what is right and what is wrong. Your parents or teachers or policemen do the thinking for you, and they set the rules. Those kids who disobey are the bad ones, and the good ones do as they're told. Life isn't easy, but at least it's simple. Then you grow up.

All of the sudden decisions become much more complicated. When you were younger, if you didn't know what the right action was you could ask your nearest authority figure, and they would help you. If you do that now, you're likely to get caught up in a cult or scandal of some sort. In fact, there are no authority figures near you unless you make them an authority. You're an adult. Now you choose what is right and base it on whatever you want (if you live in America). Even if you choose to use the Bible as your authority because you believe it is the Word of God, there are still many complicated decisions to be made. This is evidenced by the verse in Philippians:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Phil. 2:12,13)

Once you decide in your heart to believe that Jesus' sacrifice is your only hope for salvation, there is the matter of the rest of your life to be dealt with. A number of questions result, beginning with this one:

"I believe that Jesus died in my place so that I can be saved and rose again. NOW what am I supposed to do?!"

I once believed that there is a simple answer to that question: Find a Bible-believing church to go to once a week. Pray and read the Bible every day. But how can I give that direction to new Christians when I know people who do those things and are not bearing fruit at all? I can no longer in good conscience deal out those pat answers. The real question is: should I be answering these questions at all? None of the current spiritual questions I have now can be answered with a simple cliche, so why should I think cliches will solve my friends' problems? Lately I have withholding my opinions on what people should do, even if their word choice is indirectly begging me to tell them. I've been refusing to condition them to rely on me rather than Jesus. We'll see how that works out in the coming months. I may be in for some correction.

I love how the Bible doesn't hide the struggle of followers of the Lord to "get it right." Just look at the disciples and Israelites and patriarchs; they are constantly making mistakes even though they are in direct verbal communication with GOD. That speaks to the fact that sin can blind anyone.

This is why it is occasionally important for follows of Christ to come back to the Cliff Notes version of what is "right" to do: Love people as God loves you.

It is never wrong to love someone.

Though it is hard to breach their emotional walls...
Though it is hard to predict how they will respond to your actions...
Though it is hard to avoid misunderstanding and awkward moments...
Though it is hard to forgive past wrongdoings...
Though it is hard to separate their actions from the image of God inside of them...
Though it is hard to give them bad news when you know they need to hear it...
Though it is hard to learn their language...
Though you've tried before and failed...
Though you don't always know how...

It is NEVER wrong to love someone.

That is a clear message from Scripture that gives me comfort. Where there is a risk in a thousand areas in my life that my decisions are wrong, when I am loving someone, I can do no wrong. And this also includes loving myself rightly because self hatred is the same as hating your brother.

May God continually put us in situations that reveal our resistance to loving his image-bearers, so we can repent and be inwardly changed.

How to Prevent Snake Flu

(2 Kings 18:4) He [Hezekiah] removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

With talk of a swine flu pandemic, I feel it relevant to mention this Old Testament lesson on health. The bronze snake was first mentioned in Numbers 21:4-9 as a cure for snake bites:

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

God is not on trial here. His justice is not subject to my judgment, so I'll leave it at that about the snake punishment. I also want to make it clear that it I won't be interested in anyone claiming that the swine flu is a punishment from God for our nation's grumbling unless they some hard evidence of Divine inspiration. The interesting tidbit I want to get at here is the fact that God's blessings can easily be turned into idols by the faithless.

Looking to the bronze snake was a way God provided so the people could be healed from snake bites. I believe this is where the logo found on most ambulances comes from. The snake was a blessing from God and an answer to a communal request. The snake was a symbol of God's mercy and an opportunity for healing. Are any of these bad things? No, but what happens when you (1) forget the God that gave the snake to you (2) name it Nehushtan and (3) Burn incense to it? I believe you have just been diagnosed with Snake Flu, or its scientific name: Idolatrous Maximus. ...Idolatry.

Sin corrupts everything, even things that could have been good if we would not have been so impatient. The Bible says to "seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you." This means if you seek first your health, then nothing may be given to you. It is not wrong to want to be healthy. It is not wrong to feel sorrow when you are sick...certainly when you are REALLY sick. I am not advocating a mass disease exchange to prove that we love God more than health. But somewhere along the line these Israelites started to trust a symbol of health more than the Giver of Life.

Notice that when this happened, Hezekiah did not scold the people or give a sermon. He did not put a sign next to the pole that said "make sure you don't burn incense to this." He DESTROYED it. Are we as aware, when we come across people who are worshiping health, to know that their idol needs to be broken? You can usually tell someone who does this by how they pray (and you will hear them pray whenever they do). There is a definite air of manipulation, as if God honors prayers that would persuade your mother to let you go to mall even though you are grounded.

If you know God, you know that He is a healer and that it is not uncommon for his mercy to reach down into our sad physical situations and fix them. But if you REALLY know God, you don't care what he does as long as He is allowed to be Who He Is. Are you worshiping what you do for God? Are you worshiping what God can do for you? OR are you worshiping God as He is.

I heard a blind minister speak once (in a pentecostal environment), and I could sense the frustration in his message when he described the difficulty he encounters when Christians cannot see past his blindness to pray for other things. He told a story about how God gave him his sight back for a number of minutes and then took it away to show him that He is in complete control of the "problem." Though it may be a "problem" to many people, it can be an opportunity for God. This minister may feel a desire for his sight back, but his desire for the Lord is greater and makes the former look like nothing.

Wait on the Lord, and don't utilize self-pity as a license to sin.

What are we burning incense to that needs to be cut down? How long with we wander the desert before idols and created things no longer have our hearts? How do you prevent Snake Flu? Smash the objects in which you put faith (some of which are in high, difficult to reach places) until only Christ remains. Then you will be unmovable.