I knew the guy as a neighbor in the area, but Keith had no idea what was going on.  “Friend of yours?” Keith asked nervously looking at me.  I smiled and said, “I’ll handle this.”  I just looked at the guy and said nothing.  I’d heard this before, and I’d hear it again, but this was a first for Keith, so I wanted him to hear it all.  You see, my neighbor is a devout atheist, and as much as I enjoy speaking about my faith in God, he enjoys mocking it whenever he gets the chance.  As he gets no-where with me personally, he often inserts himself into conversations when I am in public and talking with others.  Kinda rude and annoying, but I figure its a free country, and Keith needs to hear this.

My atheist neighbor, let’s call him Joe-Bob, proceeded to quote the Bible where it says, “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.” – Luke 6:30.  Joe-Bob began to make all kinds of outrageous demands as well as asking for our wallets, keys to our cars, and everything we own.  “If you’re really a Christian, Jesus commands you to do these things in the Bible.”  I stopped him right there.  I’ve tried talking with Joe-Bob before, but he’s of the mind that no explanation is ever good enough, so I didn’t even bother.

I called him by name and said, “If you want to take my wallet and money and everything I own, you are welcome to try, but know that I am going to be dialing 9-1-1 in the next 10 seconds telling them that someone is trying to rob me.”  That’s when Joe-Bob went on a rant, saying how he knew it, we weren’t really Christians, and that we were all (all two of us?) a bunch of hypocrites and on and on until I finally said, “5″ and then “4″ as I pulled out my cell phone and was actually going to dial 9-1-1 so he could yell into the microphone.  He just started walking away after that waving his hands and muttering things I could not really understand.

Keith looks at me, “What was all that about?”  I went straight to the point.  “What do you think of what he said?”  Keith doubted such words were even in the Bible, but I took him inside, opened a Bible, and there they were.  Keith was rather speechless, as I imagine most Christians are when confronted by such lunacy.  Let me pose the question to you now.  How would you have explained what happened to Keith and the verse in the Bible?

Too often, we are tempted to simply dismiss the charges made by atheists without ever seeking the truth from God’s Word because we are afraid the truth might be something we don’t like.  However, if we understand a few things about God up front, we need not fear.  God is not the God of confusion or lunacy.  If we are God’s children, then we assume first of all that God’s heart toward us is good.  Second, from that perspective, when we hear or see something about God that doesn’t sit quite right, then either our perceptions on the situation are incorrect, or our interpretations of events are incorrect.  In the end, a righteous God does not sin, so we must try to align ourselves with God first.

I talked with Keith about the circumstances surrounding the passage when Christ uttered those words.  Jesus was speaking to many groups and factions (Pharisees, Zealots to name two) of the Jews in the open air, in their land, during a time of Roman occupation.  Rome was the law, and the Jews of that period were an occupied people under invasive Roman government control.  Whatever the Romans wanted, they took, and for their part, the Jews saw the Romans as the enemy.  Take a look at the middle-east today to see how well that culture tolerates any kind of occupying force!

To keep things simple, in Christ’s directives in Luke 6: 27-36, Jesus starts out with “Love your enemies.”  Jesus was wise and would never have said anything publicly against the Roman government, but here the Jews would have translated “enemies” as “Romans”.  As Jesus goes on, you can imagine how well the Jews would have received the message (not so well and somewhat begrudgingly if you ask me) but the principle Jesus was preaching was this – do not escalate a bad situation.  In those verses, Jesus gave some very precise examples as a guide to do just that.

Jesus does not specify Romans as enemies, but the context of the situation provides clarity of purpose and intent to His words.  When you understand “Romans” as “enemies” and the situation of the Jews, the passage makes perfect sense.  Still, there is a principle here that we can also learn from regarding our own enemies – do not escalate a bad situation!  Does that mean that we should roll over and allow someone like Joe-Bob to rob us?  Just think about it, and simple logic will tell us “Of course not!”  However, if Joe-Bob was a Roman and I a Jew in Israel during that time period, I could not call 9-1-1 for help, and in fact, any response at all would just make an already bad situation even worse.

The principle of non-escalation of a bad situation does not mean Christians should not defend themselves within the scope of the law.  As we live in a completely different society and world today, Joe-Bob is going to have to keep his hands off my property if he wants to stay out of jail, and you, my fellow warrior-poet in Christ, are free to respond to any assault within the limits of the law.

But.

If it was possible, what would  a “Christian” Nation look like?  How would it be ruled?  Would it be Theocracy?  Would there be room for other religions?  What sect of Christianity would make the rules?  Would it be a Theocratic Democracy (is that even a real type of government?) Would the government be weak or strong?  Would Christianity be legislated from the top down or would new societal norms dictate the actions of folks?

How would we view and treat the poor?  In a Christian nation, who would be the oppressed and how would we deal with them?

Would we have a military?

How would corporate entities be viewed?  What would their rights and responsibilities to society be?  Would the business of America be business?

What do you think?  How would society have to be changed to make our nation a Christian one (or is it already?)  How would our government change or stay the same?   Do Christians even have enough interest in this world to worry about such things?  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Oh, and here is the article I talked about: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/28097-the-rise-of-christian-libertarianism

All of us know stories of devastation.  All of us know someone who has suffered greatly, and some of us have stories of our own that would sunder the hardest heart.  In the moments of great despair, there is no greater problem in the world at that moment than the one we face, precisely because of its proximity and nearness to us, because its effects are immediate in our lives, and because for the rest of our lives we will always have an easy path to that moment and relive and feel everything all over again.

Whether we hear of such stories or live through them, the inevitable question comes: “Why?”  In the case of children or innocent victims, we often ask “Why would a loving God allow such bad things to happen to good people?”

It is a tough question, and one worth considering.  There are many who would point to these exact moments in life as though they were proof that God is not real, or that if God is real, then He is a heartless, careless God.  While we as Christians with a firm faith in God do not accept such judgements, even I must admit that I have sometimes in the silence of my soul pondered why such things happen.

In another familiar story mentioned last week that makes a great example is the story of Cain and Abel.  We are all familiar with the actual story, so I will not retell it here, but suffice it to say that we would all agree that God knows everything and therefore knew of Cain’s murderous intent before the crime was committed.  On the other hand we have Abel.  Abel had done nothing wrong, in fact, God was pleased with Abel.  The death of Abel was not a judgement of God regarding sin in his life.  In the end, we also know that God could have easily prevented the murder, but did not.

With such knowledge we must go where the unbeliever goes . . . God knew, God could have prevented it, but God did nothing to stop it.  Why?

One hard fact that we all must understand is that we are not physical beings.  This is crucial, because this understanding opens up a larger picture of what is going on.  With a word, God from the spiritual realm spoke and everything we take in with our senses was created.  The world and universe we know is but a fraction of reality.  Some few men in the Bible were privileged enough to see into this spiritual realm, but suffice it to say that the spiritual reality is far greater than the physical one, and things that happen in the spiritual realm affect the physical world we see.

Another hard fact, is that we are spiritual beings with the shroud of a physical body, and we are called to fight in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  II Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

As in battle, when there is victory, there are results, but also when there is no victory, there are consequences.  The battlefield is in the hearts and minds of men, and there where we wage our war, God has given us free choice, thus God will not interfere.

Cain lost at least one spiritual battle before murdering his brother.  God does not condemn Cain, but tries to encourage him to do better.  Instead, Cain loses the spiritual battle of the heart and mind, and the consequences of that loss result in the murder of his own brother.

You see, when we lose the spiritual battle for our hearts and minds, there are consequences, but they need not all be so dire as murder.  Bad attitudes, back-biting, resentment and anger, and a whole list of consequences can be found in Galatians 5:19-21.  Read the list, and if you see any of these things true for you in your life, then rest assured, you are losing spiritual battles somewhere.  If you are the victim of such things, then others around you have lost spiritual battles, and your proximity to them can mean that you endure some of the consequences of their failure on the battlefield.

Galatians also lists results of victory in spiritual warfare in 5:22-23.  See, we often pray for the fruit of the Spirit as though it is a gift that God simply grants, but that is not how fruit is born.  Fruit is a result of a process.  Win the spiritual battles in your life, and the fruit of the Spirit will be yours, and not just for you.  For as every victor celebrates a victory with others, so your life can become an inspiration for others around you with every spiritual battle you win.

You were given a sword, armor, and a shield for a reason.  Defend yourself, my fellow warrior.  You are called to fight.

The leader of the women’s ministry at my new church talked about this verse at a Bible study last weekend, and what she said has stuck with me. We can’t know the frame of mind of the Israelites as they camped their last few nights in the wilderness. But peppered throughout the book of Joshua are the instructions “Be strong and courageous.” You don’t need to be admonished to do those things if you’re not in the least afraid or uncertain. So chances are, they had some butterflies. They were gearing up to move into a land owned by someone else, that they knew they’d have to fight for, and oh yeah, in the morning they were going to somehow walk through a river to get there.

Had they let their fears control them, they may have stayed camped out across from the promised land, receiving none of the blessings of their inheritance and losing an opportunity to show God’s greatness. But they obeyed, so they got to experience the wonder of waters rushing back from the Ark of the Covenant so they could walk through on dry ground.

God is working in us, on us, and around us all the time, but he does his greatest works through us only when we swallow our fears, walk to the rocky edge of our comfort zone, and step out. Hebrews 11 is a laundry list of people doing impossible, uncomfortable, and inconvenient things in obedience to God, but if that’s too remote to resonate for you, there are modern tales of inconvenient obedience all over the place. Francis Chan, Jen Hatmaker, David Platt have all written about whole churches doing it. Those one or two people you know who actually fast every now and then? They might be doing it. The kid at Burger King who says God bless you when she hands you your lunch might even be doing it.

If I’m comfortable in my life, perhaps I’m ignoring a call to do more. Maybe writing the occasional FS blog post is a skinny little pigeon type of sacrifice, when I’ve got a stable’s worth of overweight lambs in the backyard, if you get my drift. I stand at the door of my stocked pantry and complain when I can’t decide what snack I’m in the mood for, and nearly 1 in 7 people worldwide are going hungry. I want to shine for Christ among my family and friends, but I’m too worried about what they’ll think of me to say too much about it.

Crossing the Jordan takes guts, even when it’s something as seemingly simple as starting a conversation. But  when the Israelites did it, God went in before them, stood among them as they walked, and followed behind them when they reached the other side. He’ll do the same for us if we’ll only obey.

My daughter has been given a few responsibilities around the house.  For this she gets an allowance of $1.25 per week, and included in these responsibilities is the daily task of feeding the dogs and checking to make sure they have water.  Should she fail to feed the dogs even once during the week, she forfeits her allowance for the entire week.  Some may see this as a bit heavy handed, but I am trying to teach her consistency in self-discipline, and the idea that failure to hold up her responsibilities will have great consequences.

If she doesn’t feed the dogs, then the dogs who depend on her, the dogs who have done nothing wrong, would go hungry.  (To be sure, I’d feed them myself, but only after she has gone to bed.)  She might forget, and in fact, even if she remembers I have told her that she does not have to feed the dogs if she does not want to, but the dogs will go hungry if she does not, and she will get nothing for an allowance at the end of a week.  She will not be reminded of her responsibilities.  The choice is hers.

So far, she has had a few close calls, and maybe one day she will slip up and forget, but the knowledge of leaving hungry dogs outside to suffer for her own actions has made an impact on her.  What is more, the idea that she could do a whole weeks worth of work to lose it all at the end by forgetting has her leaving notes to herself, reminding herself to feed the dogs.  She is learning a lot of lessons here.

It may not seem fair to some that she should lose her whole allowance if she misses feeding the dogs once at the end of a week, but consider this; we can go our whole lives building a reputation, and lose it all in a moment.  I also believe we lose a lot more than just our reputation when we choose to do what is wrong.

I believe God has a plan for our lives, and His hand of providence is ever willing to bless us along that path.  We can choose to stay on that path, or we can choose to stray.  The choice is ours.  God will not be there hovering over us to remind us that sin is going to have consequences, we simply must choose.  Whether we like it or not, choosing to sin will abort God’s hand of providence in our lives as we kick off a chain reaction of events that sends us off of God’s plan for our lives.

A striking example of this exists early in Scripture where, in Genesis chapter four, Cain chooses to abort God’s plan for his life.  Notice how God never intervenes, even when it will cost Abel his life.  Cain always has a choice in his actions.  In the end, Abel is murdered, the parents suffer the loss of a child, and Cain is marked for life.  Even today we think rather poorly of the first child born into this world, because he had a choice, and because he chose to abort providence the earth would never grow for him ever again.  Genesis 4:12a “When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength;”

The good news is, you may choose to abort providence in your life, but God is not without mercy.  Your life may have strayed far from God’s plan, but God is in the reconciliation business as well.  This is one aspect of God that many Christians I know love to embrace for themselves, but detest when God shows mercy on others who have wronged them.

If you are ever tempted to sin, take a moment to realize you have a choice here.  You can choose to do what is wrong, and God will not come down from heaven to stop you.  Regardless of how awful your sin might be, God will not intervene.  You must fight that spiritual battle yourself, but know that if you lose that spiritual battle and give in to temptation, there will be vast and unintended consequences, and you will abort God’s providence in your life.

If you are someone who realizes how far off God’s plan for your life you have strayed, there is still hope.  God is a God of judgement, but only against the unrepentant heart.  God is also a God of mercy to those who would come before Him with a humble heart.  James 4:6 “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”  Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

So this leads me to think about my class.  I am teaching on Heaven which is a subject that I am wildly passionate about.  I wish everyone was more excited about heaven, and that is one of the big goals of the class for me.  However, only God can provide eyes,  ears, and hungry hearts to hear His truth.  This has lead me to pray like this, “God please, please let me interpret and teach your word faithfully.  Please, please, please give your people ears to hear and eyes to see your truth from Scripture.  More than all of this, God, please forgive your sinful servant.  Please, dear Lord, may I not be a impediment or speed bump on the path to your Gospel truth.  God, please help a straight Truth come from this crooked man.”

I have been more fervent in this prayer than any in a while (teaching Sunday School is scary), and yet as I look at my prayer, it applies equally as much to how I act as a husband, father, friend, and general witness for the Gospel.  So due to that, I am trying to pray it for all areas of my life.  May He grant this prayer request for His glory, and His glory alone.

After watching the video myself, all I could think of is how many people I personally know won’t have a clue what to do with this video.  I read a website where the writer respectfully picked it apart without understanding the perspective I believe Mr. Bethke comes from, which is one of “be” not “do” when it comes to our faith in Christ, and our relationship with God.

To really understand why people do not like the video “for reasons they cannot fully articulate” you need to understand their perspective.  They are probably coming from a place in their life where all they have known as church has been a building they go to three times a week, including Sunday school, to learn about God.  They are comfortable in the walls of the place they call church, and comfortable with the people they associate with and know as Christians.

For many of these people (not all), a person is only “right with God” when they conform to the standards of the Bible as they interpret them.  Anyone who does not conform is “probably not really saved” otherwise they would have been “transformed by God” into someone who will fit in with their group.  As well, they believe that you must “do” things to have a right relationship with God.  It is a “works first” perspective, whereby we can continue to have a relationship with God after salvation because of what we do.

What I don’t understand about their perspective is that many I know personally would admit that we are not saved by our works.  That only by God’s grace and through faith we are saved, but yet once saved they seem to believe that they can only continue to have a relationship with God based on what they do.

For those people who do not understand why people like the video, here is their perspective.  Church is not a building, it is the saved people of God, and they do not understand why vast resources are spent on structures when there is greater need for those resources.  The greatest message ever recorded in the Bible was not preached in the synagogue, but on a mount.

A person does not gain a stronger relationship with Christ because of what they do, they simply have a relationship with Christ because of who they are – children of God.  As a child of God, they accept that they have a responsibility to be a witness in their actions, but those actions are not what gives them value in Christ.  They already have value in Christ.  They do not have to “do” anything to have value, however, because they have value and want to “be” a Christian, their actions will flow outward from there.

In the end, for what it is worth, I simply ask you to evaluate both perspectives on their results.  Recently I have been witness to churches who are meeting in high school gymnasiums and in small groups in homes, growing enthusiastically, seeing people saved weekly, believers discipled, and reaching their community around them regardless of appearance, age, social class, or color.  These churches are the ones coming from the perspective espoused in the video, the one of “be” a Christian.

I have also seen churches who are stagnant in growth.  The people who come to church are pretty much the same people every week.  They get curious visitors once in a while, but growth is limited to the people who “fit in” with their group.  Their people work tirelessly within the walls of the church in great programs for the people who go to that church, but even they sense “something is missing” without understanding why their own church does not grow.  These churches are the ones coming from the perspective of “do” in order to attain a “higher standard” of Christianity.

As for the video, I get it.  I agree with it.  I am a Christian not because of what I do, what I do flows out of who I am.

“In Paradise there are many Saints who never gave alms on earth; their poverty justified them. There are many Saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting or wearing hair shirts; their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many Saints too who were not virgins; their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise there is no Saint who was not Humble.” (from Humility of Hear by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo

Whether or not I learn much from the rest of this book, I suppose I would do well to reflect on this paragraph every little while.

I was only fourteen years old when the man who fathered me walked out the front door of our house, never to return as “dad” again.  By the time I was 18 years old I was pretty sure I’d never go to church again, and if I ever did, it would only be to make my kids go because back then I just felt “church is for kids” and there wasn’t anything about the Bible anyone could teach me that I didn’t already know.

Today, I am married with two children, and God is a greater part of my life than He has ever been before, yet still the past haunted me.  My father was verbally and physically abusive, and for years I have asked the questions many people ask about how God could allow such things to happen.  Sometimes I come across some truth that helps, but for many years I simply held God at a distance without ever even realizing it.  God was God – powerful, almighty, and omnipotent – that was it.

Up until recently though, I never could latch onto my part in the relationship I had with God.  I had a great head knowledge of who God is, I started my prayers with the words “Dear Heavenly Father” and could even talk about being a child of God without ever understanding the relationship I possessed.

The other day, while reading “When God Whispers Your Name“, I came across these words: “You may get your looks from your mother, but you get eternity from your Father, your heavenly Father.“  The words “heavenly father” struck out at me, challenging me, and my attention focused on the next words.  “By the way, he’s not blind to your problems.  In fact, God is willing to give you what your family didn’t.  Didn’t have a good father?  He’ll be your Father.”  The book then quoted Galatians 4:7 “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

I am reminded by the prodigal son, who once he recognized he was not even worthy to be called a son any longer, came back home only desiring to be a servant in his father’s house, only to have his father embrace him and reclaim him as a son.  Then it dawned on me that for years now, I have been struggling with coming to God as a son, because of my own past.

My own father rejected me and rejected any attempts at reconciliation later in life.  His refusal to be a father had spilled into my own perception as a child of God.  I could serve God, but I could never seem to accept my relationship as a son of God.  To that end, my life had been focused on serving God.  Serve God in the choir, out on soul-winning, visitation, teaching a Sunday school class, in missions work, being an usher, working in the Children’s ministry, oh I had the title of “servant of God” down pat.  The problem is, that is where for so many years I had been taking my value.

As a worker in the secular world, you only have value to your employer if you produce.  Stop producing on the job, and soon your boss will stop producing a paycheck.  Your value is in your ability to serve the interests of your employer.  However, in my family, my daughters’ value is not tied up in what they do around the house.  In fact, for the first few years of their life, productivity meant either cleaning vomit off of myself or changing a smelly diaper.

Because they are my children, they have value.  Period.  That’s it.  The only thing they need to do to realize that value is claim their title as my daughters, and accept my unconditional love.  They do not need to earn my love.  They are my daughters whether their performance is good or bad.  I love them because of their relationship to me, not because they are productive or do well.  In my mind, they will never lose value.

However, if they ever refuse to accept my unconditional love, because of some personal shame or guilt they feel, then in their own mind they would lose that value.  Just like the prodigal son, their only recourse in their own mind may be to try to earn value once again by being a servant.  This is where I found myself, and it was at this point I began to realize my value to God is not in being a servant, my value to God is in being a son.

If you have come to a point in your life where God does not feel so much like a heavenly Father anymore, maybe you need to take a step back and ask yourself, are you trying to be His servant or His son?

Luke 3

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (ESV)

As I was reading this parable a couple of things occurred to me.  The first is that the tree isn’t expected to bear fruit without the work of the vinedresser.  The second is that there seems to be a limit to how long the master will wait for the tree to become useful.

Who is the vinedresser in your life?  Is there someone who is spreading…well let’s call it fertilizer and giving you the spiritual sustenance that you need?  Are you helping someone else to grow?  I don’t think that as Christians we can really be alone and expect to grow in our faith and our work.  We need help and we need to help each other.

The other thought is a little scarier to me.  While I am waiting around trying to figure out what the Lord wants me to do, time is running out.  I know that I have a tendency sometimes to sit back and wait for answers, to pray and be still and listen, but not to act.  I think that the parable is a warning that God won’t wait forever on us.  This is why the vinedresser is so important.  The vinedresser takes responsibility for the tree.  He doesn’t want the tree to be destroyed so he does the work necessary to give the tree the best chance of bearing fruit.

What do you think?  Are you being a vinedresser to someone?  Are you doing everything you can to help those around you bear fruit?  If not, what can you do that will help others?  What can others do to help us?