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To Those Who “Love Jesus”

I read and hear a lot from people who “love Jesus”. I wonder about this, because then I read and hear things that don’t match up with loving Jesus. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” Some of the things I see from those who claim to love Jesus are, to be quite frank, violations of His commands.

I’m not just talking about those whose life seems to be characterized by drunkenness, immorality, profanity, and a general who gives a f*** attitude. I see it in those who are judgemental, who are self righteous, who are racist, who ignore the poor and oppressed, who think that just because they go to the right church, use the right version of the Bible, and know all the right words, have it made.

Jesus called us to follow Him, to be His disciples. A disciple is one who will do anything to be like his master. The ancient Jews had a saying, “Follow a rabbi, drink in his words, and be covered with the dust of his feet.” That meant to follow him so closely that the dust he kicked up would cover them. That’s what it means to follow Jesus. To be so close that we are covered with his dust. The early believers were first called “Christians” as a derogatory term because the culture was calling them “little Christs”.

Maybe the reason the culture rejects “Christianity” is because they look at the “little Christs” and think, “If these people are really like Jesus, I don’t want anything to do with them or him.” Can we blame them?

It is past time for those who claim to love and follow Jesus to be serious about what that means. It means that we are willing to do whatever it takes to be like Him. It means reading the account of His life and teachings in the Gospels and the teaching about how to flesh this life out in the rest of the New Testament. It means being willing to give up my dreams and passions in return for God’s dreams and passions for me. When Jesus walked on water, Peter was willing to get out of the boat and risk drowning to be like his Rabbi. How willing are we?

There is a revolution growing in the body of Christ. A new Reformation. God is doing some great things. Join us.

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Real Life

A little bit ago, Rachel posted a picture of Piper Palin spitting on her palm so she could wet down the cow-lick in her brother’s hair. It’s a cute picture and has even made it onto late night TV.

What struck me about that picture was how, in the midst of all the hoopla of a political convention, real life happens. Sometimes we get so wrapped in the things we are doing that we forget that life is going on all around us. We tend to get tunnel vision and think that the “big thing” that we are doing is the most important thing on earth. This is true whether we are involved in politics, making money, or even doing “church” work.

It has been said that at the end of our lives, no one will say, “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” I think that is so true. Most of us will look back over our lives and wish we’d developed relationships with those around us, even with those in our own families.

I wonder if we will stand before Jesus and hope he will be impressed with the churches we have built, the doctrinal debates we have won, the systematic theologies we have constructed; only to hear him say, “Yes, but how many of your neighbors did you really get to know? How many times did you give to me by relating to and serving one of the least of these? Did you help your family grow in their faith? You missed a lot of the abundant life that I came to give you because you were consumed with all the “great” things you thought you were doing for me.”

Let us never forget to live.

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TGIF

Does it seem like the presidential campaign has been going on forever? Now all the state office candidates are running their mud-slinging ads on TV. I’ll be so glad when November 5 comes and the ads, blogs, e-mails, etc., will be gone.

Here‘s a great story.

Tim Hill has an interesting take on the election.

Alan Hirsch answers an important question.

Are you a faith blogger?

Brother Maynard takes on the church leadership culture.

Len at NextReformation talks about “church”.

This has good potential. (HT: Jonathan Brink)

This is amazing!

Michael Spencer is a reductionist?

This just isn’t right. (HT: Scot McKnight)

Internetmonk does an interview with Julie Neidlinger about leaving church.

Good post on textual criticism. (HT: Conservative Reformed Mafia)

Paglia on Palin. (HT: Bob Hyatt)

Camille Lewis takes a look back.

It looks like God is going to be making some changes around these parts. We’ll see what happens.

Have a great weekend!

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World Vision Opportunity

For those of you in the Charlotte, NC area, World Vision is presenting World Vision Experience: AIDS at St. Johns Episcopal Church September 12-15. The church is located at 1623 Carmel Road in Charlotte. You can find more information here.

If you don’t live in the Charlotte area you can find out if the tour will be in your area by going to this site.

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Autopsy

The subject is dead. The history of the dying is as follows:

Twenty or thirty years ago, the subject had opportunities to broaden horizons and take actions to ensure long term flexibility and health. Like many others, the subject preferred to continue making the same lifestyle choices that were good during the early years, but that had outlived their usefulness. The subject not only refused to make needed changes, but began to speak out against those who did change and refused to work with them in the community. I believe this is the point when the subject began to die.

As the years went by, the subject became further entrenched in the old ways, even as life and vitality continued to wane. Friends and family members began to leave and find others to spend time with. The subject began to shrink and muscles began to atrophy. A form of dementia set in and the subject began to withdraw and close out the rest of the world, only opening the door to the occasional visitor. Visitors were few and far between, and those who did come quickly realized that the subject’s ways of believing and acting were not for them.

The old caretaker retired, and a new one arrived with dreams of revitalizing the subject. What the new caretaker and the subject’s few remaining friends didn’t realize was that the subject was already too far gone. Due to a lack of action, the muscles had deteriorated to the point where some of them had actually disappeared. This caused some of the internal organs to also lose function and die.

The subject was placed on life support in an attempt to keep certain functions working. These functions were seen as essential to the caretaker and those still gathered around the subject. What they didn’t realize was that the way these functions were performed, even some of the functions themselves, were actually contributing to the subject’s demise.

During the last few years life continued to drain out of the subject. Even the children, whom the subject professed to love, stopped coming around. Many of the ones who worked so hard to revitalize the subject have gone elsewhere.

The subject was declared dead on Sunday, September 8, 2008 at 11:00 AM. Artificial life support will probably continue, but any real life is gone.

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TGIF

We enjoyed a nice weekend visiting my sister and her family and going to the beach. It was a four day work week, but it was busy. On Tuesday I had to help break up a fight between two sixth graders. It’s amazing how strong two boys can be when they’re really angry at each other.

I have a lot of stuff rattling around my head, but nothing to put in writing yet. So, I’ll just give you some of what others far wiser than me have written:

A Time To Laugh thinks back to the good old days(?)

Molly drops the F-bomb.

Rachel has finally picked a side in the political debate.

Bob Hyatt is feeling a bit of a chill.

Jesus Creed asks a good question about elders.

Kamp Krusty ranks ministries.

Jeff McQ has some good pics from Gustav, and asks about the kids.

Brother Maynard list ten movies to make us think.

How the entering college freshman class is thinking. It makes me feel old. (HT: Brother Maynard)

Good shopping site. (HT: Tall Skinny Kiwi)

Emergent Village has a blogologue going on between Bill Easum and Tony Jones. It begins here.

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TGIF

This was the first full week of school. I’m tired and looking forward to the long weekend. I didn’t watch much of the Democratic convention, but I am glad to see the day when a person of color can be nominated by one of the major political parties. Vote for Obama or not, it is an historic time.

And now, what you all have been waiting for. The links of the week:

Philip at The Thinklings writes a letter.

Randy Smith has some good thoughts on “old people”. (HT: Jared Wilson)

Tall Skinny Kiwi has a good post on blogging.

This is heartbreaking. (HT: Brother Maynard)

Is your church like this?

Anthony Smith is going to vote.

If Jesus had a blog.

Good poem.

Michael Spencer has some good questions.

imonk thinks we should take Frank Viola seriously.

More “me too” from the Christian subculture. (HT: Richard Wagner)

Camille asks what’s left and right.

Barb has some questions for leavers.

Enjoy the long weekend and please pray for the son of a former co-worker of mine who broke his neck in a diving accident. The doctors repaired the break but still don’t know if there will be permanent paralysis.

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The Bible

In Eat This Book, Eugene Peterson describes how the King James Bible is still a best seller almost four hundred years after its initial publication, even though the English in the King James is a far cry from the English used in twenty first century America. I wonder why.

I’ve heard all the talk about the KJV being a best seller because it is the only translation that is God’s inspired and preserved word. I don’t think that’s the reason at all.

I believe that the fact that the KJV is still a best seller has more to do with the way most people see the Bible these days than in anything special about the language that is used. The Bible is seen by many Christians as a depository of “timeless truths” that can be pulled out and used whenever they are needed. Some see it as a rule book for life or a sort of owner’s manual that they can go to and find rules and procedures for the things they do. Others search out promises and use them as something akin to magic words to try to get God to do what they want. Still others read Scripture out of a sense of duty, because someone told them that to be a good Christian they have to read the Bible every day.

What all these reasons have in common is a lack of desire to really let God’s revelation of himself and the story of his people get inside them. I know from personal experience that it is easy to read the Bible on a regular basis and not be changed. I’ve studied Scripture (in Bible college I got A’s on both my theology written and oral exams). I learned the inductive, deductive, and any other ductive methods of Bible study. Those things really didn’t have much of an impact on my spiritual growth. I knew a lot of information, but it really didn’t mean that much.

Peterson tells a story of an adult class at his church that was studying the book of Galatians. His purpose was to remind the people of their freedom in Christ. Peterson noticed that the class was more interested in their coffee and conversation than they were with the Scripture. This frustrated him until he got the idea of taking the Greek words of the original and putting them in modern American English. He writes that very quickly the coffee was forgotten in the excitement of seeing the revelation of God in words that they were familiar with and could understand, words that they used every day. Peterson notes that the New Testament was written in the common Greek of the day – street language.

I think the reason many people buy and read the King James is that it is in a style of English that they don’t use in their day-to-day lives, and can therefore be kept separate. It’s part of the division between “sacred” and “secular” that many have to keep God from messing with their routine. It’s also useful as a sort of “code” that only the “sanctified” can understand. (I’ve noticed that a large part of some sermons is reading the King James and then translating it into modern English so the congregation can understand).

I believe that the Bible is not a book to be studied the way one would study a textbook or manual. It is not a collection of facts about God or a book of regulations and procedures. It is God’s story of himself and his dealings in this world, of how he is building a Kingdom and restoring all things, and of how he will finally bring about that restoration completely. It is a story that invites us to enter in, to join our story with God’s story. As we enter into this story we learn, in real ways, how to become like the Savior and King the story points to.

To do this, to enter into God’s story and open ourselves to being transformed by it, we must have this story in a language we can understand and relate to. For most people the KJV doesn’t fill the bill.

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Be Blessed?

The sign guy has another one up. This one reads, “Be blessed. Stay in his favor.”

I grew up hearing messages along that line. If you want God to bless you, you had to make sure that you did things that would keep you on his good side. I remember making sure I had confessed any and all sins that I could think of before I would pray for something really big that I wanted from God. I always “searched my heart” before Communion to make sure I was “right with God” so I wouldn’t get sick or die. I lived in a carrot and stick relationship with God. The carrot was his blessing if I lived right, and the stick was missing blessings or being punished if I didn’t. Even through my teen years when I got involved in things that I shouldn’t have, I still held on to the idea of getting “things squared away with God” before I wanted him to bless me in some way.

One of the biggest things the Father has taught me over the years is that he loves and blesses me because he wants to, because I am his child. I am in God’s favor because I am in Christ. I did nothing to earn his favor, and I can do nothing to lessen it either. I sin, but my Abba Father loves me far beyond what I can understand. My performance doesn’t cause God to love me more or less. I am accepted as a son by the One who is over all, and therefore I want to do those things that are compatible with my standing. I want to do those things that bring glory to my Father and that advance his Kingdom. I don’t do those things because I think that doing them will keep me in God’s favor and bring his blessing down.

I am through with a performance based religion that keeps its followers in fear that they might knowingly or unknowingly do something that is going to cause God to take his hand off them. I am through with a religion that acts as if God can be manipulated to give favor by man’s actions.

I embrace a grace that loves me no matter what, that has already given me God’s favor, and that is forming me into the image of Jesus Christ