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, one of the few things I can really say for sure about myself is that I have this 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 like clockwork. If I feed that side of me, it grows. I then commit selfish acts against others, whether indirectly or directly. Mostly indirectly. 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. But I digress.

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

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

Paul was too, though. In fact, if you are not at war with yourself, Who are you at war with? Those who are being saved have the Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit that provokes us to change and points out our hypocrisy. If that doesn't rouse some inward turmoil, you are either Jesus Christ or someone who has committed the unforgivable sin. Jesus himself said that the world hates him specifically because he points out its evil, and Stephen accused his eventual 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 intentionally seek out people or gods that will not point out your obvious sins, after which you will proceed to ask them how you can be more pious. Perhaps they commit the same sin or maybe they fear you, but those around you will never make you feel conviction. They were chosen to make you feel good, not to help you grow.

I have to mention this too. It is extremely easy to do the religious act of the week when other people have already tied their faith to you. Institutions of religion love to promote (and give a shiny name tag to) people that aren't ready. I have first hand knowledge of this... the system in which you saunter 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 purpose in life. Then comes the misbegotten feeling of value and the power addiction. We're conditioned to trust in what important religious PEOPLE say rather than what our Creator says about us.

So forgive me if I pray 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. Can one honestly weigh the difference in sin between self-righteousness and outright paganism?

Bottom line: People who get inflated...pop. There's no spiritual future in avoiding the truth of Romans 3:10.

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 classwork, 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.