Posts Tagged: grace

Christianity — 2 Comments
13
Jun 09

The Myth Of A Christian Religion, Part 2

myth-of-a-christian-religion-blogGregory Boyd makes the claim: “…religion doesn’t save people. Religion, in fact, may be one of the the greatest obstacles to being saved.” Heresy? I don’t think so.

Being a former atheist (as was Boyd) I can say to Christians that embrace religion, that it is your love of your religion that actually helped keep me away from Christ. Seriously, when it becomes more about words and judgment rather than love & grace, who in their right mind would be interested in joining that club? Once I did come to know God, religion did get the best of me--at first. However, as I’ve matured in my faith and grown in understanding who Christ Jesus is in me, I have been able to break free of religion and lend a voice to those that see it as idolatry and something that distracts one from knowing the true Jesus.

Don’t you know that when you take a stand and cast out someone that has committed adultery, or someone that struggles with alcoholism or a gay man or woman, then in essence you are trying to abandon them for the sake of religion. Jesus was known to be gossiped about by the Pharisees because he was seen dining with prostitutes and tax collectors (who were considered as enemies of Jerusalem at the time). Jesus shuns religion through every gospel account in the Bible. This put him at odds with those that felt the law was more important than the love of others.

Think about this. Is Christianity really meant to keep us in bondage to laws, or is it about sharing the love of Christ with others in selfless ways so that one day they may come to know our Jesus too? As Ghandi said in regards to Christianity:

    “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Look around you…look in the mirror…can you see the truth in the above-mentioned quote?

Boyd describes the struggle with religion as: “…religious idolatry is particularly resistant to the Kingdom of God. It’s no coincidence the main opposition Jesus faced in establishing the Kingdom came from the guardians of the religious status quo.” He goes on to say, “To establish and manifest the beautiful Kingdom in his day, Jesus had to revolt against religion. To advance and manifest the beautiful Kingdom today, we must do the same.”

Gregory Boyd contends throughout the chapter The REVOLT Against RELIGION that religious people get Life (yes, capital “L”) from their religion, and not from the one who is the actual giver of Life. For them, it has become more about religion than about Christ and his kingdom. Do you truly understand the message Jesus was telling those around him during his ministry here on earth?

  • From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” --Matthew 4:17
  • As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ --Matthew 10:7
  • Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ --Luke 10:9

It’s about the kingdom of God, not about how closely we can follow legalistic rules and judge others as they try to do the same. Don’t you know that Jesus was crucified because even though he followed the Jewish law to the letter, he was seen as a threat to the kingdom of God because of his love radical love for others and the authority in which he spoke? It was the religious people of his day that tried to squash a revolution of love for fear that they would lose power and become ineffectual. That even though it was the religious that brought charges against Jesus and eventually celebrated their hand in his crucifixion, we still cling to religion in idolatrous ways. When we do this, are we really Christians that are following Christ, or are we following the Pharisees. Is it time for some of us to repent, for no matter how we try to cling to religion to give us worth, the kingdom of God is near?

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church / church relevance / life / ministry — 1 Comment
9
Jun 09

We’re only human

Continuing with the theme of 80′s songs from yesterday’s post, I had a song stuck in my head the past two weeks, but didn’t know why. Last Sunday I was able to connect the song Human by The Human League to a thought I had and it all started to make sense to me.

Ministry is a tough calling. Seriously--as my friend David Macer pointed out to me--I wouldn’t wish this responsibility on anyone else. I’m not saying this to draw sympathy, but it’s just a simple fact. Think of this: If an NBA coach fails miserably and is fired, there are several teams usually waiting in the wings to snatch him up and look to him as their next savior. If not, then he’ll always find a team willing to hire him as an assistant coach or some college will drool all over him to coach at their school and bring his resume of NBA experience with him. Or how about this: David Carradine, the actor, is currently being scandalized in the news because he may have committed suicide in a Thai hotel last week. There are rumors that he may have died trying to use some dangerous auto-erotic technique for his gratification. The scandal doesn’t hurt the actor, it merely draws attention to him and causes people to now go back and watch his work all over again. Same thing was true of Heath Ledger we he died under suspicious causes--everyone flocked to see the movie he was making at the time of his death.

Now, think about someone in ministry that has some scandal or failures brought into the public spotlight. Does it cause people to want to know more about their work and build them up in conversations? The opposite is actually true. People speak negatively of the person in ministry and run as far away from them as they can to distance themselves from the one who stumbled. Is that fair?

Realistically, when one accepts the call to enter into ministry they must also accept that they are going to be held to a higher standard. Scripture supports this and I think it is acceptable. However, what happens when someone imperfect is being held to the standard of perfection? In my opinion it will always lead to failure. Sometimes tiny, almost negligible failures and other times big, massive failures that cause damage and pain to a lot of people. We in ministry bear a huge burden on our shoulders. It is up to us to give that burden to the Lord and seek wisdom, strength and perseverance in our faith through our Lord. Only then can we weather the storms, follow the right path, seek the righteousness of God’s kingdom first.

Being in ministry can never be associated with living a life of perfection unless the minister is known as Christ Jesus himself. He was the only perfect person ever to be embodied in human flesh.

News broke two days ago that Gary Lamb, a well-known and gifted minister of the gospel revealed that he had an affair with his assistant and subsequently stepped down from his role as senior pastor of Revolution Church in Canton, GA. Pastor Lamb, just like you and me, is only human. As the lyrics of Human from The Human League state:

    I’m only human
    Of flesh and blood Im made
    Human
    Born to make mistakes

    I am just a man

    Please forgive me

Isn’t it time that we realized no matter what our expectations are, that pastors/ministers are human just like you and me, born imperfect just like you and me, and should be allowed to be forgiven just like you and me? I say we eliminate the double standard that causes ministers of the gospel to be struck down and despised because of their short comings. We are to follow Christ and not a man. We are called to be together as the church of Christ, not the church of Gary Lamb or Dave Ingland or Rick Warren or Joel Osteen. As the church, we are to move in grace and mercy, rebuke others as necessary and help restore others back to putting God first in their lives. When people fall, we are called to help give them a hand up regardless of whether they are an alcoholic, bank teller, sanitation worker, or a pastor. To abandon someone when they need people of strong faith surrounding them is a ridiculous idea to me. As the church, we of all people should recognize the forces of darkness surrounding us in this world and rise above our personal feelings and judgment and support those that have spent time serving the Lord just as we would our brother or sister or best friend.

Hoping you’ll join me in prayer for Gary Lamb, his family, Revolution Church in Canton, GA and all those affected by this situation. God will prevail and this will be used for his glory in some way. I’d rather pray with God than against him.

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Bible / Christianity / God / life / people — No Comments
8
Oct 08

Choices…One Christian’s Perspective

After responding to a comment from my friend Charles on my previous blog post, I was reminded of a conversation I had that was about making wrong/bad decisions and failure. I figured I’d post some thoughts and see how everyone responds.

When it comes to making choices as a Christian, I am not one to really put a lot of merit into the choices made by others. It’s way too easy to be pious and superior and say that anything going against God’s standards/commandments is a sin and I as a right-standing Christian must rebuke (speak against or reprimand) them. The first error in this is that I am not right-standing and am in absolutely no position to judge anyone. Second, I believe that as humans we will be subject to making mistakes and should be allowed the opportunity to learn from them. As a child, hearing from a parent not to touch a hot stove sounds reasonable, however some inherent part of us will want to know what it is like to touch that hot stove. If the child goes against his/her better judgement and touches the hot stove and gets burned, now the sensation of pain will be a stronger deterrent to ever repeating that action than the spoken words of their parent.

Pastor Steven Furtick wrote in his blog:

“I don’t mind those I lead making mistakes. In fact, I prefer it. If they’re not making mistakes, they’re probably not playing to win.

I just want you to make new mistakes. Different mistakes than you made last time. Mistakes that reveal a new level of effort, or a new frontier of endeavor.”

I agree with that. Mistakes are inevitable. People should be encouraged to challenge themselves and be open to make mistakes. It’s through those mistakes that we can reflect and learn what not to do and seek ways to make better choices in the future. However, let me state clearly that I don’t condone people making decisions to experiment with illegal drugs or dangerous sex practices just for the sake of seeing whether they like the experience, and if not, chalking it up to a bad choice not to be repeated again.

I’ve had many successes in life and lots of days to enjoy the fruit of my labor, but in retrospect, I wouldn’t have been able to know even a small percentage of that unless I had failed miserably or learned the hard way during the journey of life. For those of you in my generation, I’m kinda of an example of one who learned from the streets and not through countless college degrees; a student of the school of hard knocks :)

As Christians, we live under grace, therefore we should offer grace to others, just as God offered it to us.

Hebrews 4:16- Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Are there mistakes in your past that keep repeating themselves? Mistakes that were never overcome with a positive experience? No matter how long ago it was, it’s never too late to turn it around! Don’t be hard on yourself or be quick to condemn others for making a wrong or bad choice. We all have done it, and we’ll all continue to do it.

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