No strings attached

So many of us will authoritatively say that we are saved by faith and not works.  It’s something we are ingrained with.  It’s not about what you do, but what you believe.  Frankly, it is what makes Christianity amazing.  We don’t have to do anything to get to God, but he does the work to get us to Him. That’s a special, rare, and wonderful love.  Though you may be able to say clearly that you’re not saved by what you do, I wonder if you live by the idea.

I think I operate in a way that calls into question whether I really believe what I say. Whether I really live as if it is not what I do that saves me.  Now, before we get too far, let me make it clear, that I’m not advocating a life lived where anything and everything is done because God forgives all.  It is a twisting of the Gospel to commit sin knowing God can forgive it all.  What I am saying is I have an easy time claiming I play no part in my salvation, but I have a hard time living that way.

I try to help God out.  I will act as though God will love me more if I do the right things and live like I should.  Sometimes I even act as if God will not love me unless I’m doing the right things.   These lies so easily infiltrate my brain.

“God doesn’t love you. Look what you just did.”

” I better clean my life up, so God will look at me highly.”

“God can’t associate with someone like you when you’re acting and thinking like that.”

Even theology will work against me.  I believe it’s true that we all deserve death for what we have done. That’s clear throughout the Bible. We all sin and we all deserve death.  I know this to be true, but I have a problem moving beyond this.  And the Gospel is exactly what moves us beyond that.  Instead I will hear lies that will tell convict me and tell me I deserve less.  At least until I fix parts of my life and start following God better.

This manifests itself in things that are good for me to do, but the problem many times lies in my motivation for doing these things.  I will pray harder, read the Bible more, go to church, talk about God, read about God, help the less fortunate, do good deeds, and all kinds of things.  But SO many times I do these things to win the favor of God.  And I never realize how ridiculous that is.  I already have the favor of God.  The verse that God keeps bringing to me is Romans 5:8.  God shows his love to us in the fact that Christ died WHILE we were still sinners.  WHILE I was still in rebellion.  It wasn’t when I finally got it right that God loved me or currently loves me.  He loves me anyway.  And thank God for that fact, because I could never get to the point when I would win the favor and love of God.  I will never deserve it.  But hear me clearly.  He still loves me.  He still loves you.  Immensely.

So yes I still strive to be a better man, to get closer to God, and love others around me.  What I need to learn and live by more is that NONE of these things get me closer to the love of God.  It’s so easy to say.  You may be reading this right now and wondering why I’m writing on such a basic principle of Christianity.  And you’re right, but I believe so many of us say it so easily, but live otherwise.  My fear is the Gospel and gift of God is missed.  If I act as though what I do will win the favor of God and bring me his love, do I really believe the Christ saves me?  Or have I now changed the Gospel and twisted it a different and terrible way? To where I now believe I have to play a part in my salvation?  Because that won’t work.  That is not the Gospel and faith that God tells us we need to  have.  And more importantly it’s not he beautiful one that God  has laid out.  The picture God paints of love is so much more gorgeous.  God paints a picture of love that loves when the other person in the relationship fails.  That’s ultimate love.  No strings attached.  If we believe we need to get right before God loves us, we are attaching a string to God’s love.  We are making God’s love conditional. That is so much less beautiful.

Please. Don’t just read this as a simple statement of Christianity.  Take a look at how you receive God’s love.  Do you act as though you need to do something for him to love you or even look your way?  What are the motives for your good actions?  Are you trying to win God’s love? Our actions should always be a response to the love we have, not a way to get it.

God loves you.  Accept that wonderful fact without conditions.

Is God a Toilet?

Is God a Toilet?

 

One you run to when sick.

Flushing away your waste without complaint.

A blessing to all, but seldom thanked

Welcoming the foulest.

No butthole is too big.

One throne fits all.

Ahhh.

 

- Micah Bournes (Poet)

Humble yourself

Have you ever seen kids one up each other?  ”I can throw the ball past that tree.”  ”Well, I can throw the ball through that tree.”  ”I 3,000 legos.”  ”I have 4,000.”  ”I have a million.” “I have a bazillion!” “I have infinity legos! They reproduce themselves!” “I have infinity times 2!  It’s not even possible, but it happened!” We do the same things all the time too.  ”Dude, I busted my arm playing basketball the other day.” “Aw, I remember this time when this guy undercut me and I landed on my face.  Lost a tooth.  See this one’s fake.” “Yeah, once I lost these two teeth in a kissing contest. Girl got too excited.” Or if it’s not about out physical ailments, it can be about our accomplishments, or kids.  We even brag about our pets.  We don’t even have to use words.  We can buy things to one up each other.  Anyone have an iphone? Industries, especially the electronic ones, rely on the fact that we will continually and consistently try to make ourselves look better.  We do it all the time without even thinking about it.

The desire to lift oneself up is one of the things I play off all the time when I’m working with youth, whether in ministry, or the teaching I do.  Usually one of the best ways to build a bond with students is to get them talking about themselves. We all want to know we are worth something.  We are all trying to prove ourselves one way or another.  One of the hardest places for me to accept my failure is in my marriage. I always want to know I’m a worthy husband.  Yet, I also fail quite a bit.

I was reading Luke today and came across a parable of Jesus where he speaks to this issue.  He says if you are invited to dinner, don’t take the place of honor, because inevitably, someone more distinguished will show up and then you will be humiliated when you have to move publicly to the lowest position.  For the Brian Regan fans out there, think of going to a party with Neil Armstrong. So, Jesus says instead to take the lowest place, so you will be asked to move higher.  Then you will be honored.

This goes way beyond dinner parties, but to the core of who we are.  We are sinful, deplorable people.  But yet, we are always to trying to prove ourselves.  Not just to other people, but to God.  We are always trying to rid more sin from our lives, and do more charitable work, or whatever we can that we think will help our status before God.  We are hoping to win his favor.  Matt Chandler (pastor in Dallas) says that we are always thinking God loves the version of you two years from now, when we have all that down. And he emphasizes the point that God loves you NOW!  AND NOT BECAUSE YOU ARE WORTHY! But God shows his LOVE for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, emphasis mine)  God didn’t wait until we got it right.  Well, he couldn’t.  Because we never would on our own.

And that’s where I think this parable ultimately takes us.  Yes, we learn about our interactions with other people, but ultimately I think this parable leads us to think about taking the lowest position before God.  Then, He will say to us, “Friend, come here.”

I had a conversation last week where I said that we are sinful and terrible people, and one of the people I was with frowned at the comment.  It made me think about the perception that people have about themselves and the human race as a whole. I think many people want to believe they are good and do believe they are good.  We don’t want to believe we are inherently evil.  But we are.  In fact, one time the human race was so disgusting to God, he destroyed it minus Noah and his family.   ⁵ The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  ⁷ So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:5-7)

Understanding our sinful nature is key to being able to come into God’s presence.  Look what happens to the man who exalts himself in the parable.  He is brought low.  How can God forgive you if you don’t think you need to be forgiven?  How can God give you the help you need if you don’t understand you need help? Just after this parable, Jesus tells another parable that illuminates this more.  He tells of a master who has a great banquet.  He invites many people, but they come back to him with all kinds of excuses about not coming,  So, the master invites another group of people.  The poor, crippled, blind, and lame. How do you think these people view themselves?  They are the lowest of low in the city.  And yet, from a humbled position, the master invites them the banquet.

You’re a sinful person.  You don’t just lie occasionally, you’re a liar. You don’t have moments of weakness, you are weak.  And you need God.  You need him to bring you forgiveness and righteousness (a churchy word often left undefined that I would define as doing things the right way, God’s way, which is to lift Him, and all He is about, up.  Kinda long, but I think we always throw the word “righteousness” around and many people didn’t know what it means.  At least, I didn’t.  Sorry for the sidetrack.).  If you don’t realize this, it will be shown to you at the end.  And it will be a sad day.  You can’t save yourself, you have to put your hope in God.  Jesus’ name means “God saves”. God’s love for YOU is so BIG, that he conquers your sinful self, provides his son as a sacrifice for your punishment, and gives you his son’s righteousness, so that THEN you are worthy.  Humble yourself and God will lift you up.  And then you can hang out at the banquet forever. “There’s a big, big yard, we can play football!” (Audio Adrenaline reference!)

You can’t do it.

I get so bothered when I hear many of the messages that are told to us by the culture and world around us.  Many times these messages are even thought by many to be good things for a Christian to believe.  One I hear a lot is that you can do anything if you put your mind to it.  I was watching the opening Christmas day games and Lebron James was speaking at a school and telling the kids to keep their dreams alive because they can accomplish them.

Now, I’m not against being positive and pushing people to understand their worth.  In fact, it’s important to understand the place we play in the story God is doing.  He uses people to accomplish his plans.  As Paul says,

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 

Romans 10:14b-15

So I get being positive. But we are kind of setting people up for failure with this message.  And I’m not thinking about the kind of failure that we see on American Idol.  Some kid comes before the judges and sings something that burns your ears and makes you cringe.  Then we see clips of them crying when they get rejected, or cursing all over the place, because they were told they were awesome, when it was a lie.  It’s cold and mean to set someone up for that failure, and I’m not down with that.

But as bad as misidentifying your gifts are, there is a bigger problem made when people believe they can do things on their own.  With enough effort.  You may even be agreeing with me at this point, but I bet you, like me, still subconsciously believe this message’s lies. I operate like I have the power to control my life all time, but I don’t.  I try to overcome sin by my own might and try harder.  But I need God’s help.  And this builds an even bigger problem.  I subconsciously believe that if I myself can conquer my sins then I am fit to be in God’s presence.  But once again, what makes me fit to be in God’s presence is God’s work and not mine. We are taught all the time to believe that we come to God by faith, but the message the world tells us and we believe all the time is that we can do it by our own power.  You can’t.  Not even faith is your own.  Our favorite “by grace through faith” passage in Ephesians also mentions that faith is not of our own, but a gift of God, so you can’t boast.  God gives you faith, God restores you, God protects you, and God brings you to Him.  You can’t do this on your own.  You can’t strive harder to get to God.

Keep your dreams alive is ok, but know this message is not fully true.  First, Lebron has extreme skill, gifted to him by who?  Himself?  Did Lebron decide to grant himself the body with the skill to play fantastic basketball?  No.  Did he practice?  Oh yes, he may have fanned they flame of the talent granted to him, but recognize who gave him that talent.  God.  Lebron can in no way determine he will get to the NBA by himself.  In the same way, we can in no way strive our way to God.  He alone will save and you can do nothing to ensure it.  You can fan the flame of faith, but God is the one who will bring you close.  You can’t strive your way closer.

This message of determinism in America is rampant and it pains me to see.  You may think I’m oversensitive to it and it doesn’t do much harm, but I believe we see it so much without correcting it and it has crept into our thoughts without us knowing it.  Stop spreading lies and be courageous to tell the truth.  You cannot do things on your own will.  Especially coming to God.

No Vacancy

Well, I believe I may return to blogging.  I went off the grid there for a bit, but I miss perusing my mind through a blog.  I gave up blogging for a bit, because everything on my mind had to do with the directions God was taking me, but not everyone was able to know that information yet.  (Meaning mostly that the church I was working at did not yet know of my plans to leave.)  So I quit blogging for a while. But let’s be honest here, I was also probably just being lazy.  I dropped Twitter for the most part too, and some of Facebook. There were some good reasons, but in the end a lot of it had to do with my laziness.

I was in church last night and we looked at the passage where the Innkeeper said he had no room for Jesus.  The question was asked if we often say the same thing to Jesus.  That we have no room for him.  How easy is it for us to get wrapped up in our lives and not have any room left over for Jesus?  How often do we say that we will get to Jesus after one period of time or another?  That’s kind of what it’s been like for me.  Blogging was a way for me to think through things and process.  But I would never quite get around to it.  I slowly have let many things distract me from spending time with God, working through his word, thinking, and resting.

One of the easiest example for me is when I wake up in the morning.  I usually intend for some time praying and reading the Bible, but I will set it aside to do after I take MJ out, or after I eat, or after something else.  So many times I get distracted and miss the opportunity completely.  It’s not that I don’t love Jesus or  the Bible, but I will try to do it later.  When I have more room.  And you know, that never seems to work.

It’s not just devotional time either.  There are many times when I say that I will get around to God later.  Or when I have more time, room, money or whatever. Whatever it is God is leading me to do, I can find excuses to why they should wait.  And they can easily seem like godly excuses.  Like, waiting until I have enough time to give God full attention.  Or waiting until I have this education, so I know more.  Or waiting until I’m more familiar with things.  Whatever the case is, I know I don’t follow God all the time I would like.  What kinds of things get in the way of you making room for God?

I hope to make room for God.  To follow whenever he calls and not make excuses.  That is a big reason for our move to Seattle. Hopefully I will make room for more reading, resting, and blogging.  Love you guys.

Can you gossip with politics?

Laying in bed last night my brain was thinking.  Can you gossip with politics?

A good definition I like for gossip is talking with someone about a problem that can do nothing to help fix it.  Wow.  Ok.  I think that hits way too many conversations I have. Complaining to someone about someone else.  Talking about how you think things should be done differently by someone else.  I think that happens a lot.

And gossip is dangerous, because it isolates and creates bigger gaps between people rather than bringing them closer. Sides get farther apart because sides aren’t coming together to talk through issues and have good brainstorming sessions, thinking sessions, and healthy problem solving.  All those good things are side stepped to have one-sided conversations that don’t help things get better.

So I continue to thing about the many times I’ve gossiped.  It happens in relationships I have, at work, at church, in families, with friends at the gym,and more.  And then…I think about politics. I wondered can talking about politics be considered gossip?  Are we helping the situation when we engage in these conversations or widening the gap between the sides?  Is it possible that politics has become so two-sided because of rampant gossip?  How would God call us to engage in conversations about politics? 

What are your thoughts?  Can you gossip with politics?

I don’t care…but I do

I just had an interesting interaction with a coworker.  There are many times in which I say I don’t care about things. My coworker has taken the times that I have said things like this to mean that I don’t care about anything.  And out of that arose an interesting paradox that I haven’t fully thought through until now.

See, actually I don’t care about a lot of things, but do care at the same time.  It seems to not make sense, but let me explain.  I’ve spent more time than I would like worrying about how things will work out.  Hoping that I’m doing things correctly.  I admit, many times these fears are motivated by pride.  I’ve gotten way too stressed about failures.  Sometimes they are small failures.  Or sometimes large.  But I’ve been trying to realize more and more that in the midst of failure, God is still in control and everything will be alright.  God can still work when things seemingly have not worked out.  I don’t need to panic as if everything is lost.  So, in that way I don’t care.  I don’t care about how things work out because in the end, God is still at work.

At the same time, I do care.  I care in that I will try and attempt to do a good job.  I care about things that need to be cared about.  I care about people, pain, growth, love and other things.  I hope things go well and plan succeeds.  I try to follow where God is leading in my life.  So, I truly care in many ways, but in the end I don’t want to let these plans, successful or not, control my emotions.  I want my joy to come from the fact that God is still working, even when I don’t understand it or don’t see it.

Do you feel the same way?