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Real World Christianity Category
Christ Here
It snowed. It snowed in March in Hotlanta. It was beautiful. I love how pure everything looks when its covered in snow. It’s like Christ and how he covers our sin, but instead of heading down that path I want to go a different direction. As I stood looking outside yesterday, I saw what God had made and I saw his handy work. I get the same feeling every time I see my daughter smile.
Where do you see evidence of God and His handy work?
Doing My Part
Most of the time I feel certain that if it weren’t for other people, all of us would have a much stronger Christian walk. If that guy hadn’t cut me off, I wouldn’t have cursed at him; I’d have no problem forgiving that friend of mine if she hadn’t done such a horrible thing to me; I would easily be able to love and respect people if they didn’t act so stupid. Maybe that sounds obvious or ridiculous, but really, isn’t that how we think?
Two years ago, a speaker at a ladies’ retreat I attended talked about this propensity we have to lay the blame for our own behavior on others. She said that since we can’t control what other people do or say or think, our only concern in all things should be that we do our part. Fundamentally, her lesson was pretty much the same as “turn the other cheek,” but for some reason, the way she put it really resonated with me, and it helped me better apply that principle to the situations in which I often find myself.
For instance, if someone at my job makes a bad decision that ends up costing me a lot of extra time and effort that could have been avoided, that doesn’t make it OK for me to fume over it or to be wrathful toward that person. My job is to do my part, and my part only—which is to do my work “heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” God won’t hold me accountable for my colleague’s actions, but neither will he weigh those actions heavily when judging the rightness or wrongness of my behavior.
If I hear that someone at church disagrees with my idea of appropriate church dress, that doesn’t make it OK for me to take pains to wear what they don’t like just to make a point. C.S. Lewis would call that uncharitable behavior, and I believe Christ would, too. My job is to do my part, which is to give fair consideration to that person’s objections and then to shut up and love them as God commands, regardless of whether we agree.
Say a prayer for me that in all things I can concentrate on doing my part, and nothing more.
God’s Church – Are we bringing rubber and road together…
What is the role of God’s church when confronted with the real suffering of a fellow Christian?
Relieve that suffering? Don’t answer too quickly…
What if that suffering is for a reason? Let’s suppose God is teaching and growing that Christian through the suffering. But how are we to judge that and keep from interfering with His plan? Should we even attempt to?
But I don’t recall the Lord saying anything about withholding aid from others in the church. Am I missing something?
This is a very real and troubling question in my mind, right now, dealing with a very real and troubling situation… RIGHT NOW.
This Christian is in a destructive housing situation and has no way out on their own. It appears to be heavily interfering with their growth as a Christian. Add some mental illness in for good measure, and that is one sticky wicket.
One of our pastors is working with this person in a weekly counseling session; this seems way too circumspect an approach to me.
My instinct is to rush in and fix things, whatever I can, right now. Get the church elders together and figure out how we’re going to help! Can we not solve this? But I realize this urge is not always the wisest move.
Is our church too timid? Are we afraid to be bold in coming alongside this suffering, creating solutions instead of sympathy?
Or, are we going to hurt by helping? Is the circumspect approach appropriate? I’m not sold on it.
Where is the rest of my church? Why is no one else befriending this person in a tangible way during the week? Why aren’t we confronting our people, assigning people to get to know this person?!? Surely that doesn’t cost anything, and can only help.
This person is crying out for help to me – I can’t solve this alone – what can I say?
For now I guess I’ll trust the pastor’s take on it. But what if he’s WRONG?
Confused, befuddled and frustrated,
Dick Ness
Avoiding Suffering
I have been trying to figure out why Pat Robertson’s comments about Haiti annoyed me so much. While it annoys me that this man labels himself as a Christian and therefore a lot of people will see him as a spokesperson for all Christians. I finally came to something else that seemed to strike a cord. Every time a public Christian figure throws out a punishment excuse they are avoiding the suffering. It almost feels like they are saying that God doesn’t allow suffering he just deals out punishment against those who have sinned against him. Come on Pat lets be honest, we both know that everyone has sinned against God. Welcome to being human. People suffer ALL PEOPLE SUFFER (even Christians) and not because God is punishing them, but because we aren’t in Heaven. We are in a broken world.
To imply that something bad happens to people when they aren’t Christians seems dangerous to me, because with that idea the counter is that Christians wont have bad things happen to them. And that’s the prosperity gospel which is not at all biblical. God doesn’t say we wont suffer and we should point a condemning finger at those who do. Just LOVE, that’s the best place to start. Enter into others suffering and allow them to enter into yours.
This life in light of eternity
Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.
My dad gave me a sermon series for Christmas which was Randy Alcorn speaking on heaven while at Billy Graham’s The Cove Training Center. While I have read Alcorn’s nearly exhaustive book on heaven (review), this sermon series had some great new thoughts for me on heaven.
I often get all pumped up on heaven and talk to fellow saints about how great it is going to be to have restored relationships with nature / animals or how great it is going to work and accomplish such great things in heaven. Many of them will say, “Yes, yes, but how does it apply to your current life?” Generally, I am torn between agreeing with them and other times, I point to the fact that a vision of the heaven greatly energizes Christ’s work in my life. But after the sermon series, I have an additional point to think about.
Clearly throughout scripture, there are multiple references to rewards in heaven according to the life we live here on earth. This is most commonly thought of in terms of the martyrs and appropriately so as they will hold a great place in heaven. Alcorn, however in his sermon series, points to our daily walk with Christ being a foreshadowing of the quality of our fellowship with God in heaven. I hadn’t ever really thought of it in this way, but it makes sense to me in a way that I hadn’t thought of before. Not only do I need to be living life in a Christ-like manner to gain crowns to throw at His feet, but I need to see my daily walk of prayer and time in the word as laying the groundwork for the rest of my eternal existence.
How does your eternal existence, not just your eternal destination, affect your daily life on this earth?
In the Name of Love
There are times when even I can tell that the Lord might be trying to tell me something.
I think I might be a little (or much) too prideful.
At first, it was just a couple of posts (here and here) on FS. Then we reached the chapter on “The Greatest Sin” in our study on Mere Christianity in Sunday School. Immediately following, I heard a sermon about “Looking in God’s Mirror.” Our pastor talked about how we should search our reflections and see how we truly look spiritually. He mentioned Christians who are too critical, too puffed up in their own spirituality. I thought he might be talking about me.
I think that sometimes God kind of sneaks up on you and lets a truth be shouted at you. “You have cancer” can be thought of as “peek-aboo! Your time is limited and your life should be lived for the Lord!” Other times, He just lets it build. Little post here, little lesson there, maybe a conversation that gets you to thinking. Either way, you just can’t ignore it once you know what is going on.
So now I am stuck with knowing that I harbor too much pride. It’s isn’t like I am not already trying to be humble! The problem is knowing the difference between being right and not admitting you are wrong. Knowing the difference being confident and failing to be gracious. Or knowing when just to keep my mouth shut AND my mind open.
Other sins can be tackled. You can stop the action of an addiction and then gradually the mental effects will lessen. You can avert your eyes and help with lust. You look at someone you dislike and wish them a good day. But where do you start with pride? As Lewis points out, pride is spiritual and it is “straight from Hell.” Can you will yourself humble?
There is a line that is crossed before you are falling into the sin of pride. How do we see that line when it is pride that is blinding us?
Derek Webb – Intro to “Nobody Loves Me”
Yes, yes, I am infatuated with Derek Webb it seems. But when I get convicted every time I listen to something, I feel compelled to share it. This is from The House Show and it’s him explaining the basis behind the song Nobody Loves Me. And I am amazed every time I hear it how right he is and how I still refuse to apply it in my own life.
“Flattery at its very best will encourage really nothing more in you and your community, then behavior modification. Modifying your behavior to act the way you should, to hide the things you do that are wrong, and to try to amplify the things that you do that are right.
But see here is the truth, all the behavior modification in the world will never change your heart and it can never change our communities. Jesus however, He does change our hearts and He will change our communities.”
Enjoy.
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Tithin’
We have been talking a lot about money on this blog lately. Thought we could do it once again! Saw this post by the Crunchy Con, and while I liked the post I found the comments to be especially interesting. Anytime you bring up tithing you get a whole range of reactions! I saw a couple of my own excuses in the comments, a couple of people that I thought were right on target, and at least one comment that blew my mind (I hope it was tongue in cheek.)
He was looking for responses to the 10% of net/gross. What I want to know is “What about tithing at all?” Do we still need to do it? If we are supposed to be tithing, then why aren’t we? Is tithing a minimum or a maximum? Should we be tithing and giving? Do any of you have rules that you have set for yourself or your family?
Stewardship
After a long bought of loving BMW, I told my wife a coup0le of years ago that I didn’t ever want to buy a car that started over 30,000 dollars. At the time I thought this was pretty generous but the older I get the stricter my views on stewardship become. So after coming to this decision a friend of mine told me his view was that it is ok to indulge and buy luxurious things if you are being generous with your money and have lived a life in which you were wise with what you were given.
I don’t think that conscience is something that should ever be forced on someone else, but I know this person well enough that I could push back and discuss it a little more. It came down to, if this person wasn’t in debt and was being generous with a large portion of his money, then it would be ok to spend however much money on whatever he wanted. While I see this view being lived out in a couple of people close to me, I can’t help but look at how comfortable we have it here in the US and wonder if the difference between the $200,000 and the $400,000 house or the $20,000 and the $40,000 (or $60,000) is a wise investment of what God has given. Does the doubling of money double the comfort? And at the end of the day I end with 2 voices in my head. My old boss telling me that it cost $1000 dollars for them to put a well for clean water in a village in Africa, and the Mark Driscoll quote, “God doesn’t give you more money to make you more comfortable.” What are your thoughts?
Anonymous
One of the best post I have read on Jesus Needs New PR.
the anonymous life (sex wednesday)
What the Sex Industry and Church have in common
What the Sex Industry and Church have in common
When I was a senior in college my roommate and I decided to visit the World’s Largest Adult Bookstore. Believe it or not, that’s in Nashville. I had never been to any sort of “adult” store before, so I was quite overwhelmed and intrigued and appalled that, for some people, Adult Bookstore shopping was a regular occurrence. As I walked through the front door a woman with 22 earrings dangling from various places on the left side of her cheek said “welcome, guys.” Aw, I thought, it’s just like we’re shopping at Sears, except the greeter looked like a vampire.
I was too nervous/guilty to say anything back to her. I didn’t even look at her. In fact I pretended not to hear her. I didn’t want her to remember my face and decide to wave at me if the two of us happened to run into each other at Applebees or the next time I was shopping for coffins. No Christian wants to be recognized in public as the man who frequents Satan’s Pornography Warehouse.
At the time, I was not all that experienced in the ways of filling my head with naked imagery doing things with other naked imagery. Sure, I had witnessed a couple of adult films, but on both of those occasions, I wasn’t the one who had braved sneaking into the back room of the video store and then walking up to the register and renting them. I wouldn’t have done it. It required one to be both courageous and evil on the same day. And that rarely happened for me.
As I browsed the aisles of the World’s Largest Adult Bookstore, I couldn’t help but notice the people around me. Most of them seemed to lurk around the store rather than walk. No one looked around. They hid their faces behind magazines or kept them pointed toward dark corners. It seemed everybody was wishing for the same thing, for the power to delve into their personal fetishes without being seen.
Everybody in that store other than the vampire woman would have done just about anything for the ability to be invisible and enjoy the decadence of our surroundings. To walk the aisles unseen would have made the experience ideal–to be there among the truck drivers, college students, and youth pastors as an anonymous human being.
Eventually, we got our wish–the Internet.
As the world connected online, the Internet offered people anonymity, a beautiful hiding place behind the almighty I.P. address.
In regards to online pornography, anonymous is a rather powerful tool.
In most online situations–whether it’s making comments on blogs or stalking people or checking in on old boyfriends or girlfriends or enemies, or engaging a sexual fetish of our choosing–Anonymous is a state of being that offers us the ability to “be” without the ramifications or the aftermath.
When it’s over and we’ve had our fill of whatever it is that fancies our minds and bodies, we can simply disappear and go back to our “realities.”
Christians talk a good bit about pornography and sexuality. We talk a lot about the lust part and the masturbation part and how it affects our relationships. We discuss the addictions, the guilt, and the gimmicks to help us find a path toward healing.
But it’s rare that we discuss the “anonymity” part.
Sure, it gets touched on from time to time. But I don’t think we really know or comprehend the power and lure that “being anonymous” really offers people.
And I think we need to talk about it.
Why? Because many of us find a great deal of fulfillment in being anonymous.
For some of us the ability to remain “anonymous” is the selling point to engaging porn or sexual fantasy online. Having the “thrill” of the World’s Largest Adult Bookstore in the comfort of our bedroom and getting to peruse it without fear of being seen or heard is a beautiful commodity. The “not getting caught” part is likely the only reason some of us ever get involved in looking at porn online in the first place. Most of us wouldn’t have the balls to walk into a strip club or an adult bookstore–SOMEBODY MIGHT SEE US OR RECOGNIZE US–but as “anonymous” we work up the courage to “be” and “do” anything we want online. It’s there, as an unknown and invisible presence, we get the chance to be what we believe might be “us” and experience a little short-lived “freedom.” However, “anonymity” isn’t simply about hiding. Not for all of us.
For some of us, “being anonymous” helps us find our story. Maybe it’s not our story, but it’s a story. You might be surprised by this, but not everybody engages online pornography just to “get off” or “reach climax.” Even if the “conclusion” happens after an orgasm, it doesn’t mean the journey of “getting there” was about reaching an orgasm. Some of us are looking for a story, a little excitement to either fuel our ability to live or numb us from whatever pain we’re feeling. Pornography offers an escape, and being anonymous gives us the freedom and strength to walk many paths that we wouldn’t ordinarily walk, and sometimes we find a familiar thread of a “story” that we chase after. The truth is, some of us spend hours engaging the “story.” And it’s not for the orgasm.
For some of us, “being anonymous” fuels our imaginations. While in the real world, we’re overweight and average with a small penis. In the online world, we are “SexyMan615.” He’s handsome with muscles and hung like a donkey. With this new identity we are able to go online and meet “Luscious36D,” a flat-chested middle-aged woman from Nebraska who hasn’t been on a date in years. But in our imaginations, she’s beautiful and he says the all the right things.
For some of us, “being anonymous” makes us feel at home. In the “real world” our sexual fantasies often alienate us. To mention aloud what we like and don’t like often brings embarrassment or judgment . But online, we learn that we’re really not that strange after all. We feel normal when find that seemingly lots of people are into the same fantasies that we are. And oddly, we feel less like an outsider when we’re alone in our homes chatting with people who like the same things we do or watching people engage in the same sexual activity that we want to engage. But we don’t know these people. And they don’t know us. And we like it that way.
For some of us, “being anonymous” helps us find a community. Some of us live two different lives, the one we live in the “real world” and the one live “online.” The people we “know” or “meet” in our online world often know more about us than our friends and family know. Sexual fantasy or fetishes or “issues” often create a strong bond between people. Though we may not know each other’s first names, often we feel a kinship to the “anonymous stories” of the people we meet. Whether we want to admit it or not, some of us think of it as a part of our community.
Pursuing our sexual fantasies online as anonymous definitely has its benefits: A safe place. Story. Fuel for our imaginations. Home. Community. (And a lot more.) Today’s sex industry “sells” far more than simply naked people doing things with other naked people. It sells a way of life.
And in a way, it sells the same exact things that churches sell. Sure, they do it differently. And sometimes they do it better.
“But wait, that’s not fair; the fulfillment a person finds online is plastic and fake,” some of you might argue.
And if that’s you’re argument, I certainly understand where you’re coming from. But in a lot of ways, the argument only makes the comparison stronger.
Because in reality, the porn industry has more in common with the church than some might realize.
Not only do they sell a lot of the same ideas, many of us who go to church every Sunday, do so as anonymous people. Sure, church members know our names and faces and certain parts of our stories, but they don’t really know us. We fear what would happen if they really knew us.
So parts of our lives remain anonymous, invisible to the outside world. And many of us, have become so used to hiding behind “fake smiles” and “I.P. address” that we’re okay with being anonymous. Frankly, we prefer it.
So I ask, are you living anonymously?