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LET YOUR GENTLENESS BE KNOWN TO ALL

04 Saturday Jan 2014

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One of the biggest struggles I face in my Christian walk is sharing the Gospel with a gentle, loving spirit.  When someone makes a comment challenging what I believe, I immediately begin to feel angry, frustrated and anxious as I anticipate what they might say or how they will react to His message.  I knew I had a lot to overcome before I could effectively obey God’s command to share His plan of salvation with “the whole world”.  To begin with, I have a fear of talking to people about anything! Over the last four years, I haven’t grown very confident at effectively sharing my testimony, explaining God’s plan of salvation and why we need Jesus.  As I continued to struggle to master the art of “witnessing,” I recalled a book I read after I first became a Christian titled Learning Evangelism from Jesus by Jerram Barrs. Who better to learn evangelism from than Jesus Himself?! The book looks at a number of encounters Jesus had with religious leaders, the Jewish people and other unbelievers and how He handled each situation. As I reviewed the book, I was reminded that the root of my problem is not so much my inability to control my emotions as much as it is a problem of pride and lack of mercy for the lost. 

Deuteronomy 4:29 – “But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul.”

For most of my life, I let pride keep me from God.  Pride kept me from listening to sincere Christians and reading the Bible without constantly objecting to its words.  It was only after I began to earnestly seek Him that my pride took a back seat to my desire to find out who God really is.  I was blessed to have a few Christians in my life who shared their experiences and knowledge with patience, love and gentleness.  I didn’t have anyone belittling me or “assaulting” me with their knowledge or religious practices.  They answered my questions and suggested material to read after I talked with them.  Now that I have committed my life to Christ, my job is to share His message and I must do it in the same way these people shared with me, remembering that most may not be ready to hear what I am trying to tell them.  They are waiting for me to say or do one thing that reinforces all the negative things they have come to believe about Christ’s followers.

Luke 18:14 – “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

For the past three years, Christmas has brought a fair amount of anxiety to me as I watch and listen to Christians lamenting our culture’s efforts to remove Christ from our observance of this holiday and deciding to prove their love for Christ by insisting everyone use the phrase “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.”  This year I read the most disheartening post yet in this battle.  It read: “Merry Christmas.  I hope this post offends as many people as possible.”  I suppose on the one hand this message could be interpreted as the sender wanting as many people as possible just to read it and remember that Christmas is about Jesus’ birth, knowing many are offended by Him.  But rest assured most unbelievers will only use it to confirm the widespread belief that Christians believe themselves to be “holier than thou,” self-righteous, and uncaring.  No, a conscious effort to offend is not the way to convince them to seek God.   Before I found Christ, a message like that would have strengthened my resolve not to be involved with people who had such an attitude.  It saddens me that Christians resort to such tactics and people jump on the bandwagon believing they are fighting a valiant war for their Savior.  But offending people is not how Christ taught us to fight His battle and we must always hold up Him up as our example.

Luke 18:9 – “Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else”

I heard Hank Hanegraaff say this past month in a discussion about Christmas in today’s culture: “Pagans are going to fulfill their job description.  The question is will Christians fulfill theirs?”  Our job as a Christian is not to constantly remind unbelievers that they are wrong.  Our job isn’t even to reclaim December as the month to celebrate Jesus’ birth.  Our job ALWAYS is TO LEAD OTHERS TO CHRIST by sharing the Gospel message.  If we were to consistently do that, December could become the month Jesus’ birth once again becomes the main focus.  Those we help find Christ will realize they have been wrong through our testimonies and acts of love towards them, not through phrases meant to offend.  We have to remember where unbelievers are and stop expecting them to behave like believers.  We must guard against pride and a critical spirit.  Jerram Barrs reminds us who Jesus will hold accountable for wrong motives (Learning Evangelism from Jesus): “We do not see Jesus condemning the sinners in the world; rather, He condemns the leaders of God’s people with His severest words.”

I spent some time during the last month talking with a man who claimed to be a believer but all he could tell me was how wrong God has been, how he doesn’t need God to tell him what’s right and wrong, and all the errors and crimes against humanity he finds in the Bible.  Each time I knew I would be talking to him, I found my anger and anxiety rising.  It occurred to me that I needed to learn how to handle this situation calmly and in a way that communicates respect.  This man needed to know that my primary concern is that he comes to a right understanding of God not to argue and get him to admit I’m right and he’s wrong.  Until I can present the Gospel as Christ did, God cannot use me to reach others. I began asking God to remind me of where I was before I surrendered to Him and who I am without Christ. 

Philippians 4:5 – “Let your gentleness be known to all men.”

I also realized I was trying to develop my skills at sharing the Gospel under my own power – forgetting I can rely on the Holy Spirit. Before interacting with this man, I prayed.  I prayed during the conversation and God kept bringing encouraging thoughts to my mind:  it’s OK if I don’t know an answer; it’s OK if the conversation ends and I don’t feel I’ve changed his mind; I am only planting seeds; only God can bring in the harvest.  God brought appropriate Scripture to my mind that might help him see God’s true character.  I allowed God to “proofread” my responses and found myself replacing a LOT of words that reflected pride, sarcasm, arrogance, anger, even shock at some of the things this man was saying.

Isaiah 55:11 – “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void,”

I never got a response from the man after my last message so I don’t know how effective I was or if my words helped him understand God better.  But I know that as long as I speak the Truth in gentleness and kindness, my efforts are never in vain.  I pray God can use my words to lead this person to Him, but, if I blew it in some way, I know God can overcome that.  I do know He used the experience to teach me how to serve Him better.

1 Corinthians 8:1,2-“…Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.  The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. “

Sharing God’s Word is what I am called to do to help bring others to understand their need for Jesus.  I do not share His message to demonstrate my knowledge about Him.  I don’t share it to be “right.”  I talk to unbelievers for one reason only – in hopes they will seek Christ. 

Jerram Barrs: “…if I have a hard heart toward the unbelievers and sinners around me, then it is a certain sign that I do not have a good understanding of my own sin and unbelief, nor of my own need before Jesus for His continual mercy and forgiveness.”

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WHEN “MERRY CHRISTMAS” BECOMES A STUMBLING BLOCK

11 Monday Nov 2013

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I love Christmas.  It’s my favorite holiday.  As I think about what we are celebrating, it never ceases to amaze me:  the Creator of the universe enters our world and takes on human form.  He begins His time on earth as a baby born of a virgin.  Our faith rests on believing Jesus’ virgin birth as a true historical event. As Christians we are to share the fact that God dwelt among us as a man with as many people as possible and Christmas provides a great opportunity to do that.  Jesus as a baby is easier to talk about than Jesus the man.  In the movie Talladega Nights, Bobby Ricky (played by Will Ferrell) proclaims “Baby Jesus is my favorite Jesus” to his dinner guests.  My guess is that’s how most people feel. Baby Jesus is safe.  Baby Jesus is a symbol of peace on earth, goodwill toward man.  Those messages are much more appealing than the things the adult Jesus stands for.   

There is one seasonal phenomenon that has started to rear its ugly head that needs careful thought:  Christians insisting that “Merry Christmas” is the only permissible phrase to be used this time of year.  In our zeal to insure Jesus is kept in the spotlight, we declare that “Happy Holidays” won’t do.   A couple of years ago, there was even an online effort encouraging people to boycott stores that refer to this time of the year only as the holidays.  In defending this stance, we claim we are trying to keep Christ in Christmas.

Matthew 28:19 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

As a committed follower of Jesus, we are to be conscious of how our behavior affects others, making sure it reflects Christ.  Every word we utter should be measured to insure we do not turn non-believers away from Him.  No matter the season, we must strive to show others’ His love.  Christmas provides an opportunity for talking to others about Jesus as we celebrate His birth, but focusing on telling everyone “Merry Christmas” with no regard to what they might believe is short-sighted.  It can also be regarded as a form of Phariseeism.  Just as the Pharisees wore their phylacteries on their forehead and long fringes on their robes to show others their religious position, wishing others Merry Christmas is merely an outward sign of our religion.  God isn’t concerned about outward signs.  He cares only for what is in our hearts.

Matthew 23:27: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

I jumped right on the bandwagon of letting everyone know that December is the celebration of Christ’s birth.  I was determined to put Christ back into Christmas.  I was a real soldier in the fight to re-claim December for Jesus.  I wore my “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” pin and responded to “Happy Holidays” with “Merry Christmas” believing I was standing up for my Savior.  One day I wished someone a Merry Christmas and her response was, “I’m Jewish.”  She smiled and wished me a Merry Christmas, telling me she hoped I enjoyed the holidays.  Her response showed much more love than I had been willing to show others.  While my hope is that all will come to know Christ, the reality is that many are not there yet.  If I am to be used by God to win people over, I have to demonstrate His love, just as this woman had done.  I showed no love for the lost during the time I was celebrating God’s great love for me. 

I Corinthians 8:11-13: “…when you … wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”

That brief conversation could’ve turned out much worse.  I was fortunate to have encountered a forgiving, tolerant Jewish woman who understood the holiday she celebrates during this time of the year is not that of the majority.  She was gentle in her correction of me.  I realized my insistence that Christmas be the only holiday recognized only demonstrates to others that I care very little for them.  It disregards the fact that many people do not know Jesus as their Savior.  My “Merry Christmas” message wasn’t about winning them to Christ – it was all about me.  It was more apt to be a stumbling block, moving them farther away from considering my faith as I shoved it onto them, showing little, if any respect for where they are spiritually at that moment.  I realized that lady was one of Christ’s lost sheep and I did nothing to draw her closer to Him with those two words.

The real spirit of Christmas is becoming more like our Savior in the spirit of selflessness.  Showing respect for others’ current belief only strengthens the chance they will consider Jesus.  As I shoved Christmas down the throat of every shop clerk and holiday shopper I could, I did not understand how selfish my crusade was.  My priority was MY belief, MY holiday.  I was not thinking about how disrespectful I was being to anyone who was not a follower of Jesus.  This was about as far from selflessness as I could get!  I heard a well-known teacher and preacher tell about his trip to India and he began talking about the need for the man he was visiting to go pray at his mosque.  I expected the Christian to use the opportunity to teach something about Jesus, but instead he agreed to accompany the man to the mosque.  I was quite surprised!  He didn’t object, didn’t use the situation to proclaim how wrong the other was in his beliefs.  He simply showed respect by allowing their meeting to be interrupted by the man’s religious practice.  He went on to tell how the incident helped their friendship grow as the man was more willing to listen due to the respect he had been shown.

Galatians 5:14: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

I thought about how I felt during my December “crusades” when someone wished me “Happy Holidays.”  I was offended.  I realized that is probably the reaction a non-believer has when I insist they have a “merry Christmas.”  Right or wrong, the fact is different people are celebrating different things at the very time we celebrate our Lord’s birth and we must recognize that.  Jesus meets us where we are.  He doesn’t require we clean up our act before He will extend His grace to us.  And He is our example of how we are to treat people. 

So what are we to make of businesses that have gone the way of the generic holiday?  Well, they have a business to run and they are trying to provide goods to anyone who might walk into their store.  “Happy holidays” covers everyone.  There are a number of different holiday celebrations during December:  Hanukkah is being celebrated by the Jewish people, Kwanzaa is celebrated by many African Americans, Eid Al Adha by Muslims, Festivus, a tongue-in-cheek holiday idea introduced on the TV show Seinfeld, has even been taken up by atheists!  Consider how a Muslim will appreciate your acknowledgment of Eid Al Adha, or how a Jewish family will cherish your card wishing them a Happy Hanukkah.  Your respect for their religious beliefs will open up many more opportunities for a discussion about Jesus. 

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only…

Keeping Christ in Christmas is so much more than a phrase we utter or words we use during this time of the year.  We do a great disservice to God when we focus on these outward signs. If someone wishes me “happy holidays,” I can assume they are not a believer and should look for opportunities to share the good news with them.  Jesus made it very clear that we should not be like the Pharisees, bearing only outward signs of our love for God.  God’s desire is that we show compassion, mercy and love for others.  Wishing a non-believer a greeting that is in keeping with where they are spiritually is one way to show your respect and leave open the possibility that next year you’ll be able to wish them a “Merry Christmas!”

As the holiday season gets under way, I pray that I will remember the other celebrations taking place during this time and that I will look for opportunities to share the good news of Christ’s birth with someone ready to hear it.  But I must always remember that an appropriate greeting should be appropriate to the hearer.  I don’t want to slam the door on my ability to reach anybody – Merry Christmas should not be a stumbling block!

MY SANTA CLAUS gOD

04 Friday Oct 2013

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Before I committed my life to Christ I believed in a god I refer to as the Santa Claus god.  I called Him that because I believed God exists solely to give us everything we need to insure our lives are comfortable.  I believed that the only thing God wants from us is to love Him and to love others.  My Santa Claus god is pervasive in our culture.  Prosperity preachers assure us God wants us to have everything our heart desires.  When things don’t work out like we expect them to, many conclude God is dead or “sitting this one out.”  False teachers have reduced God’s Truth to His loving, caring attributes, throwing out all references to His wrath and judgment.  We have decided that we will determine what’s right and wrong so we don’t have to control our desires and we twist Scripture to support those decisions, asserting that God needs to change to conform to our culture.  C.S.  Lewis refers to it as “God in the dock” in his essay of the same name:

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge.  For the modern man the roles are reversed.  .… Man is on the Bench and God in the dock.”

Our world has decided we will define who God is.  We have decided that in many areas, He is just wrong.  We dismiss the idea of God’s judgment so sin becomes a non-issue.  Lewis writes in his essay that his greatest barrier in leading others to the Christian faith was “the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin.”  My own life attests to the price we pay when we determine what sin is instead of understanding God’s view of it.  I chose to believe that God loved me unconditionally so as long as I loved Him, I could do whatever I wanted to do.  Obedience was not something I felt I owed Him.  On those rare occasions when I read the Bible, I either ignored the parts I didn’t like, explained them away, dismissed them as old-fashioned, or interpreted them in a way that fit my life choices.

Adrian Rogers once said laws without punishment are nothing more than advice; without judgment, God’s laws become advice but God is not in the business of simply giving advice.  The world has decided His laws are outdated and those who choose to follow them are old-fashioned, narrow-minded and naïve.  I was happy to accept that line of thought because it meant I didn’t have to change anything I was doing.  As long as I defined God in my narrow way (loving and forgiving), there was no need for me to let go of any of the bad habits and behaviors that controlled my life.  We all know how hard it is to fight natural desires and urges.  My Santa Claus god allowed me to give in to them and the culture’s approval provided further validation.  As a result my unchecked desires for material possessions, worldly success, and intimacy determined how I was going to behave.

I was never afraid of the consequences of my behavior because I believed a loving God would rescue me from them.  Because I ignored the fact that God does run out of patience with us, that He does anger (albeit slowly) and will judge us, there was nothing in my belief system that made me accountable to Him. I never really tied the struggles I was having to my behavior; I blamed something or someone else.

I Kings 19:11, 12: “…but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”

On December 10, 2009, when I committed my life to God, it was initially a cry out to my Santa Claus god.  My “Christmas list” included my need for Him to fix everything that was wrong in my life, to show me how to cope with life, and to give me peace.  I threw in joy but didn’t see how that would be possible, given my history with depression.  But as I kneeled by the side of my bed, crying out to Him, I heard that still, small voice we are told Elijah heard.  It was real enough for this stubborn, hard-headed, skeptical woman to take note.  As I think back on it, it wasn’t demanding, it wasn’t threatening.  It was a gentle urging, a settled thought that assured me I could trust God, no matter what I would discover about Him in the months to follow.  I knew I had to decide to believe everything I was about to learn, whether I liked it or not and I made a commitment to that.   My Santa Claus god disappeared from my life on that day.

Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”

As I learned about the complete character of God, I always kept at the front of my mind the fact that I know God to be loving, good, fair and just.  Even when I don’t understand why He does certain things, I must always go back to this truth about Him and view everything through that lens.  Serving God based only on the fact that He loves me didn’t provide me with anything to hold on to when things went wrong or when something happened that seemed to contradict the fact that He is good.  I was left questioning Him and I was afraid of Him.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

I’m very careful about what I tell unbelievers and new Christians.  The first thing I want them to know is how much God loves them and that He wants the best for them.  I want them to know that He offers them forgiveness that requires they do nothing but believe in His Son.  I went to God because I needed His love and forgiveness.  But I couldn’t stay at that point.  I had to grow in my understanding of God in order for my faith to grow.   As I studied Jesus’ life, I realized that following Him isn’t always going to be easy.  I had to accept that and I can’t lead a new Christian to Christ with a lie that His path results in a cushy, comfortable life, that all it requires is to love God and others.  The first time they experience struggles and disappointments, they will want to know where God went.  New believers must know that Jesus died on the cross to save us from judgment of our sin.  Introducing my Santa Claus god just won’t cut it!

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I see my Santa Claus god in the attitude our country has about God.  We believe somehow America is a privileged country and we expect everything to be done to insure our affluent, excessive lifestyle is left intact.  We call on God when disasters strike but insist on keeping Him at bay when it comes to our principles and values, clinging to the false conclusion that He will protect us no matter what.  He does anger, He does judge and He will whether we choose to believe it or not. We don’t understand the history of God’s judgment on nations and how He has used pagan, evil nations to judge His people.  We don’t want to accept that God might be capable of doing such things.  It is helpful to read the comments written by J.W. McGarvey and Philip Y. Pendleton in their book The Fourfold Gospel, “we must be cautious how we derive arguments of our own from the analogy between God’s attributes and the corresponding characteristics of man.  …The fallacy in the argument consists in assuming that the feeling in question must work the same results in every particular in God that it does in man.”

Isaiah 60:12 “For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.”

As Christians, we know that the world is going to come to an end because man continues to turn from God.  It surprises me when Christians fret over world events.  Allistair Begg said it best (loose translation): “It’s not about politics or nations, it’s about His kingdom.”   We have to come to terms with the fact that America no longer follows God’s direction and there’s a price to be paid for that.  As believers, we know how this will end and we know we will overcome it all.  We have hope, not in our country, but in our God.

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

I love reading the Old Testament and the stories that come to my mind as I watch world events are those about Rome, Babylonia, Greece, Assyria and Egypt.  These governments controlled the world at the height of their power and nobody thought they could ever fall.  But they did.  God’s purposes aren’t going to be fulfilled by any government or nation.  Even the nation He set apart to demonstrate His love to the world failed Him! His plans will survive the downfall of any nation, including America.

In our personal lives and as a nation, we must focus on spreading the Gospel to avoid God’s wrath.  We must also understand that, as the world draws to a close, there are going to be more things that don’t look like we want them to look.  We can’t cling to a “Santa Claus” god.  That belief system will only leave us angry at God because we don’t fully understand Him.  He has warned us about how He deals with rejection and provided us with plenty of history to know that He judges and why He must do so.  We have no need to question His ways if we know His entire character.  My Santa Claus god provided me with no basis for any hope or understanding.  I had to dig deeper to find His full character:

“No life can be founded upon Christ’s teaching unless it be founded also upon faith and trust in His personality.  For this we must dig deep, for as St. Gregory says, “God is not to be found on the surface.”  J.W. McGarvey and Philip Y. Pendleton “The Fourfold Gospel”

Simply loving God and believing that was all He required of me was not only self-serving but, more importantly, it totally negated my need for Jesus.  As long as I didn’t believe in God’s judgment, I had no debt to pay and Jesus’ death on the cross was pointless.  The fact that God’s character includes wrath and judgment doesn’t mean He loves me less – it allows me to see how great His love is.  He’s provided His word to inform and guide me and knowing that He does judge allows me to see His patience, grace and mercy.

Colossians 2:14 “By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross”