Did you know that the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality? They grace the entrance to many driveways throughout the state of South Carolina and for some reason they are supposed to be our way of saying welcome. I’ve never understood this. Take a look at the pineapple. It looks like a barbed hand grenade. The spiky little fruit doesn’t necessarily scream hospitality to me.
Anyway. I’ve bee thinking a lot about the church lately. Not a specific church, but the church in general, all of us. In 1 Timothy 2:15 Paul describes it as, “…God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” This portion of a verse has had my mind spinning for a few weeks now. When I set what the church currently seems to look like, what it stands for, next to the words, “the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth”, I can’t help but feel a little foolish.
First of all, these are just my thoughts. I am in no way an expert on the church, I’m 24 years old for crying out loud, these are just observation, mostly questions.
I’m not a big fan of bashing the church. I’ve heard people say, and even myself at one time, “I love Jesus, I’m just not down with the church.” I’ve learned that this is a contradiction. Whatever you do in the name of Jesus you do as the church, whether you call it church or not. When I read through Scripture I find that Jesus seems to be quite fond of the church, even despite its weaknesses and failures. He refers to it as His bride. Most grooms are pretty fond of their brides and probably would take offense at people bashing them. Girls can be very critical of other girl’s weddings, even if it is one of their closest friends. After its over you can hear them talking about what they liked and what they didn’t like, that sort of thing. It seems to be the liberty of the bridesmaid to be critical of the brides wedding. Here’s the thing, we’re always the bride in this story and never the bridesmaid. The church should be something fought for and not against. There is only one hope for this world and it’s not the republicans. It’s not the democrats. It’s not liberals, or conservatives, or even the United States. Nope, it’s not Oprah either. It’s God’s household, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. It seems to me that either you’re just adding to the noise, or you’re doing something about it.
With all that being said when I look at the church right now after reading Paul’s words in 1Timothy, I have to wonder if we have it right. Is this the pillar and foundation of the truth? We’re approaching Easter and I saw on the news a local church getting ready for their Passion play and I couldn’t help but ask, “Is this the best way to communicate what happened at Easter?” I don’t know. It just seems that we so often do a little dance, sing a little song and hope people pay attention. Or there are other churches who are definitely cutting edge, who know how to put on a good show that is very appealing, and very creative, but it sometimes feels like a corporation, or just a good show.
I just see one of two tendencies, both in myself and in others. Either we whore the church out in order to build a kingdom for ourselves, or we enslave it to dusty traditions that really aren’t effective anymore.
Its when I read those words, “the pillar and foundation of the truth”, it just really makes me want to be sure my heart is right. How much of what I’m doing is about me? How much of it is about communicating the realest of realities, the deepest of truths, something that is supposed to change everything?
Church isn’t about buildings, strategies, methods, or rock shows. It’s about people. My little experience with church planting here in the states makes me wonder about a lot of church planter’s motives. A lot of times people plant a church because they are unhappy with the church they’re in. It’s not the way they think church should be done, the music’s not loud enough, or whatever. So they decide to go plant a church where they can do things the way they want to. Then what happens is the church seems to attract other people who are unhappy with their church and how loud the music is and there you have it, a church is planted. Really? I wonder if it starts with a heart for a group of people. I hope to plant a church that reaches those who haven’t been reached. Who have never had the opportunity to complain about how loud the music is.
We have to be careful with how important our identity is to us as a church. I get a little nervous when things are said like, “This is who we are”, or, “This is what we do.” Are we supposed to have an identity? Doesn’t Paul say, “I become all things to all people?” If we’re to have an identity, there it is. Compromise the Gospel? Never. Do what it takes to reach those who haven’t been reached? Yes.
One more thing and I’m done. I promise. I can’t help but wonder, “what if the church was united?” I get really excited when I think about that. What if we weren’t so isolated? What if we understood the idea of the universal church? What if we were organized? We could honestly change the world. Our differences are pretty lame aren’t they? I mean compared to a bleeding world that is looking for something to put their hope in.
I’ll close with this beautiful passage of scripture from Romans 15 and then I’ll be done. “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
The Heart of the Matter
There’s really no cute way to start this, no interesting way to capture your attention. This is just it. This is what I’ve been steamrolled with for the past four months. I can’t escape it, I can’t avoid it, I can’t live without it. God is real and He loves me.
Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship. Go ahead, pull out the t-shrt. We’ve all heard it before, we’ve probably said it numerous times, but it’s so profoundly true. To follow Jesus isn’t about submitting yourself to a religion, it’s about entering into a relationship. We say this though as if it were something that makes it easier to follow Jesus. Almost as if all we have to do is say that and “poof” we have a relationship with God and nothing has to change. It’s our answer for everything. “Why do you Christians do this, or don’t do that?” “Well it’s because it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” Booyah. Now who can I high five on my team? It seems that we’re so comfortable saying this, but do we really know what it means? Has it impacted the way our lives are lived?
There’s this rich young guy that has an encounter with Jesus. I can’t help but picture him as a Tom Brady-like character. You know, the kind of guy who seems to have everything and all you want to do is mess his really cool hair up and make some crack about his shoes. Maybe that’s just me. But in Mark chapter 10 this guy whom we all would assume has it all together runs up and…falls at the feet of Jesus. He doesn’t tug Jesus’ shirt and ask if he has a few minutes to spare, he doesn’t send him an e-mail, or say, “So, I have this friend who has this problem.” This man runs up to Jesus and he falls at his feet and he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you see what I see here? This is a guy that’s tired, worn out, broken, defeated. Whatever he’s been doing isn’t enough. We learn later that supposedly he’s been keeping the rules like a good Jewish rock star should his whole life, but its not working. In the words of Bono, “he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.”
After asking him about his obedience to the rules, it says that Jesus looked at him and loved him and then told him to go sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and then to come follow him. This was basically Jesus telling this guy to put the commandments into practice. The two greatest commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This would have been demonstrated by giving what he had to the poor and then to go follow Jesus. Normally I would read this and be like, “Woah Jesus, settle down, can’t you tell that this guy is broken. Aren’t you being a little harsh?” That’s before I read Jesus’ command through what he says in verse 21. “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” What Jesus was doing was in no way harsh. He was offering him a way out. He was attempting to rescue him from religion.
He was trying to earn eternal life. Not live in it. Jesus would later say that eternal life is to know the Father. This was the most compassionate thing Jesus could do. Stop trying to earn it. Quit subscribing to a list of do’s and don’t’s, quit trying to present yourself as ok, quit following a set of rules, and…follow me.
The commandments that God gave to His people Israel were never meant to be just a set of rules that they were supposed to follow because God wanted them to. It was how they would actually be able to know God, how they would enter into a relationship with him. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
These commandments should find there home in our hearts, not our minds. They are a way of life, a way of communication. Rob Bell points out that what is really going on here is God is entering into a marriage contract with His people. This is what is expected of you, and this is what you can expect of me.
His commandments are not meant to restrict or suffocate us. They are meant to guide us into life, the way it was meant to be. God says in Deuteronomy 30, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” He says later in the chapter, “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…” It almost seems as if God is pleading is chapter 5 of Deuteronomy, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever.” God desires us to obey so that we can experience life abundantly, as Christ would put it, the way life was meant to be. Life filled with love, joy, peace, compassion, forgiveness, grace, and truth. God is real, and He loves me.
This is where obedience is born. What I do and what I don’t do is not just about me following the rules, but it’s about me communicating to God that I love Him, and that His way is right. My disobedience is betrayal. Let that word sink in. It’s not necessarily God’s rules that are broken, but it’s His heart.
Think about it. We find the resurrected Jesus standing with Peter on a beach only a few days after Peter has denied Jesus three times. What is the question Jesus asks Peter? It’s not, “Are you sorry?”, or “How are you going to fix this, make this right?” He asks, “Do you love me?” And that’s always the question we are presented with. Do we love God?
Why do I say all of this? I think its because we miss out on so much, everything really, when our faith is nothing more than a bunch of stuff we know. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 says, “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.” What we… know? What can we know about a God that has no limits? You finish right where you started with Him, infinitely behind. But we can love Him. We can be in a relationship with Him.
So right now. Stop. Be devastated by the fact that there is a God and that He loves you. Right now He fills up the space in the room you are sitting in. He is there. He is in the air you just breathed. He holds you together. Be quiet. Listen. He’s there. Right now. Acts 17 says that in Him we live and move and have our being. God is real, and He loves you.
Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship. Go ahead, pull out the t-shrt. We’ve all heard it before, we’ve probably said it numerous times, but it’s so profoundly true. To follow Jesus isn’t about submitting yourself to a religion, it’s about entering into a relationship. We say this though as if it were something that makes it easier to follow Jesus. Almost as if all we have to do is say that and “poof” we have a relationship with God and nothing has to change. It’s our answer for everything. “Why do you Christians do this, or don’t do that?” “Well it’s because it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” Booyah. Now who can I high five on my team? It seems that we’re so comfortable saying this, but do we really know what it means? Has it impacted the way our lives are lived?
There’s this rich young guy that has an encounter with Jesus. I can’t help but picture him as a Tom Brady-like character. You know, the kind of guy who seems to have everything and all you want to do is mess his really cool hair up and make some crack about his shoes. Maybe that’s just me. But in Mark chapter 10 this guy whom we all would assume has it all together runs up and…falls at the feet of Jesus. He doesn’t tug Jesus’ shirt and ask if he has a few minutes to spare, he doesn’t send him an e-mail, or say, “So, I have this friend who has this problem.” This man runs up to Jesus and he falls at his feet and he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you see what I see here? This is a guy that’s tired, worn out, broken, defeated. Whatever he’s been doing isn’t enough. We learn later that supposedly he’s been keeping the rules like a good Jewish rock star should his whole life, but its not working. In the words of Bono, “he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.”
After asking him about his obedience to the rules, it says that Jesus looked at him and loved him and then told him to go sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and then to come follow him. This was basically Jesus telling this guy to put the commandments into practice. The two greatest commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This would have been demonstrated by giving what he had to the poor and then to go follow Jesus. Normally I would read this and be like, “Woah Jesus, settle down, can’t you tell that this guy is broken. Aren’t you being a little harsh?” That’s before I read Jesus’ command through what he says in verse 21. “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” What Jesus was doing was in no way harsh. He was offering him a way out. He was attempting to rescue him from religion.
He was trying to earn eternal life. Not live in it. Jesus would later say that eternal life is to know the Father. This was the most compassionate thing Jesus could do. Stop trying to earn it. Quit subscribing to a list of do’s and don’t’s, quit trying to present yourself as ok, quit following a set of rules, and…follow me.
The commandments that God gave to His people Israel were never meant to be just a set of rules that they were supposed to follow because God wanted them to. It was how they would actually be able to know God, how they would enter into a relationship with him. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
These commandments should find there home in our hearts, not our minds. They are a way of life, a way of communication. Rob Bell points out that what is really going on here is God is entering into a marriage contract with His people. This is what is expected of you, and this is what you can expect of me.
His commandments are not meant to restrict or suffocate us. They are meant to guide us into life, the way it was meant to be. God says in Deuteronomy 30, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” He says later in the chapter, “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…” It almost seems as if God is pleading is chapter 5 of Deuteronomy, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever.” God desires us to obey so that we can experience life abundantly, as Christ would put it, the way life was meant to be. Life filled with love, joy, peace, compassion, forgiveness, grace, and truth. God is real, and He loves me.
This is where obedience is born. What I do and what I don’t do is not just about me following the rules, but it’s about me communicating to God that I love Him, and that His way is right. My disobedience is betrayal. Let that word sink in. It’s not necessarily God’s rules that are broken, but it’s His heart.
Think about it. We find the resurrected Jesus standing with Peter on a beach only a few days after Peter has denied Jesus three times. What is the question Jesus asks Peter? It’s not, “Are you sorry?”, or “How are you going to fix this, make this right?” He asks, “Do you love me?” And that’s always the question we are presented with. Do we love God?
Why do I say all of this? I think its because we miss out on so much, everything really, when our faith is nothing more than a bunch of stuff we know. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 says, “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.” What we… know? What can we know about a God that has no limits? You finish right where you started with Him, infinitely behind. But we can love Him. We can be in a relationship with Him.
So right now. Stop. Be devastated by the fact that there is a God and that He loves you. Right now He fills up the space in the room you are sitting in. He is there. He is in the air you just breathed. He holds you together. Be quiet. Listen. He’s there. Right now. Acts 17 says that in Him we live and move and have our being. God is real, and He loves you.
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