A Bride without emotions?

Jesus loves the church!  The Apostle Paul depicts the church as a bride for whom Jesus died.  It is a very piercing analogy if you are married.  I have a few photos of my wedding.  At times I look at them longing for the good old days.  (I was many pounds lighter, healthier, faster, in better shape etc.)  But I long for those days for my own benefit.  Little, if any, of my thoughts are due to seeking to be a better version of myself for my wife.

When it comes to the church, how much do we do to be a better bride for Jesus?  We make plans, institute programs, use certain styles of music, dress a certain way, the list goes on . . .  The question is, “Are we doing this to be a more beautiful bride?”

More pointedly, do we realize the price paid for us to be able to be a bride?  Jesus gave His life for the Church!  How can we be so blasé about such a gift?  When we meet on Sundays, do we realize we meet because the Son of God died for us?  Do we not understand that, just as a husband and wife, there is to be an emotional connection?  There is not a day goes by that I am not perplexed by the fact that my wife still loves me.  I know who I am and all the reasons she should not love me.  Yet, she still loves me.  (I, also, am madly in love with her.)  I will admit that we have our moments when we are less than nice to each other, too.  But not once can I recall a time when I was not emotionally involved with my wife.

How, then, is it that we can come to church, claim we worshiped and walk out without being emotionally moved?

I would suggest two possibilities.  First, we truly do not understand the greatness of what Christ has done for us.  It is possible that we come without truly comprehending the amazing salvation we have in Christ.  It is possible that some of us can honestly say, “we just have no clue.”  In this day and age of cheap imitations of Christianity it is possible that we live in an environment where we attend a meeting to worship a God we do not know.  In short it may be that we are not part of the bride.  We are religious wedding crashers.

Second, is that we have become so accustomed to being served that we see that sacrifice of Christ as only fitting.  We see Jesus’ death as something we deserved and therefore come together not to Worship JESUS but to fulfill some self appointed duty to assuage our guilt.  Again, that is religion.

Friends, as we look toward Sunday and prepare to meet together.  We cannot forget that we gather to WORSHIP –that is, to assign worth and give praise to JESUS.  He alone deserves it!  People who see the Cross for what it is cannot come to worship and leave unmoved.  Check your heart.  Is it filled with love for the Savior?  Do you come to tears thinking of the Cross?  Do you get emotionally invested in the worship of Jesus?  If not I fear for your soul.

If your heart fills with Joy and Gratitude at the thought of Him who died for you.  Then do not be afraid to show it when you go to His house to Worship Him!

War for the sake of Peace!

In my last post I mentioned the fact that I do not like to fight but that I will when necessary.  I am not talking about physical violence (although there are times it is warranted) but about standing for something beyond myself.  To be clear I am talking about truth, about the Gospel.

In our culture the only thing that is taboo is declaring that there is a corner on truth and that you have it.  You can say that you have a truth, but not that you have the truth.  The only thing that is absolutely unacceptable is to declare that there are absolutes. (I’ll let you think about that one for a second!)

I am writing as a Christian; as one who believe in Jesus Christ as the only way to God.  I am writing as one convinced that there is a fundamental enmity between God and human beings.   This enmity is caused by sin.  Sin is that which leaves us shy of the perfection required to be in fellowship with God.  Sin is anything that we do or say that is not perfect.  It is everything by which we break God’s commands.  It is not an enmity because of opinion or political affiliation.  It is an enmity which exists because of the very difference between the nature of God (i.e. Holy) and the nature of man (i.e. unholy).

I also am convinced that the greatest event in all of history took place on a cross in Jerusalem.  When Jesus died it was for us while we were STILL sinners.  While we were still enemies of God He chose to make a peace offering.  Not just to bury the hatchet but to destroy it.  He made peace by sending His own Son to die for us –to be the propitiation for our sin.

The problem lies in the fact that our society disdains these truths.  Modern thought tends to run along the lines of conversations and dialogue which stress that anyone and everyone can be right.  As Christians we are called to proclaim the truth.  This is not a conversation!  While we can enter into conversations with people the intent must be to clearly tell them the truth.  We must answer their questions, and help them understand but we must not ever allow them to think that we are entertaining  their erroneous views.

We are in a war!  God desires men and women, young and old, to worship Him.  But there is also an adversary who desires all men to perish and suffer for eternity in Hell.  The two cannot be reconciled.  The core of the issue is that we really do not believe what we say.  If we did we would live differently than we do.  We would give more of our resources and time.  We would speak more boldly.    Some might argue that the issue is that we are sinful and thus unable to be used.  I agree with the principle but would argue that the sin we are guilty of is unbelief.

I would also say we are in this state because we have fallen prey to the propaganda of the enemy.  We have succumbed to the false answer to the age old question, “Yea, hath God said?”  Indeed God has said!  He spoke and then He acted in accordance with His promise.  He promised a redeemer and He provided His own Son as a perfect lamb to die in our place.  Jesus came so that we might be reconciled to God.  Jesus won the war!  Our job is to go out into the battlefield and proclaim that peace has been declared.  We do not need an uncertain and wavering conversation with people at war.  What we need is people who will fearlessly declare the truth loudly, clearly and boldly.

Will you join me?

Between Peace and Pacifism

I wanted to take some time today to clear up a misconception about me.  I do not like to fight.  I do not like to argue.  But most of all I do not like confrontation.  Some people who know me have the incorrect perception that I do enjoy fighting, arguing and confrontation.  I do not!  Now, you may ask the very astute question, “If you really don’t like those things, where did they get that notion?”  The answer?  Because I will fight, argue and confront when necessary.

There are times when you must fight.  When truth is at stake, when your family is in danger, or when you are holding on to a lifelong conviction which you suddenly realize has no basis in truth.  O.K., so maybe not the last one but for the first two, yeah, you fight.  If need be you fight to the death.

As a young man I got into a lot of fights.  I was young, impetuous and a little wild.  I went place I should not have gone to and ran into situations in which it was fight or (potentially) be killed.  I got to be pretty good at fighting.  But there was one problem.  Fighting became my natural instinct when anything I did not like came my way.  There is one more thing that you need to know to understand the situation.  I not only fought at the drop of a hat (might even drop one myself just to start a fight) but I really began to enjoy it.

I realized this had become a problem so I sought help.  Where?  Where else, a Dojo!  Yep I went and began to take classes in the martial arts.  For some of you this may not make sense but it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  My instructor had one golden rule, if you fight outside the Dojo you are not allowed inside the Dojo.  My instructor soon realized that with me that would be a tough road.  So he proceeded to beat the tar out of me inside the Dojo.  I had all I could handle and was so sore I had no time to go find anything outside the Dojo.  This did not solve my problem, though.  My instructor was kind and wise.  My training was rigorous.  But it did not help!  And then . . .

Then I learned a very valuable truth.  There are things worth fighting for, and things that are not worth fighting about.  I have chosen my terms very carefully; there are things worth fighting for and things not worth fighting about.  For some of you this is merely a semantic distinction.  You believe that pacifism is the way of Christianity.  I disagree.  Christians are commanded to live in a constant state of “Battle Readiness.”  The problem arises when we fight and argue about things amongst ourselves instead of fighting for the things that do matter.

So let me get to the point.  It has been decades since I have been in a physical fight.  But I pray that there is never a day that goes by in which I am not involved in a fight to the death.  I pray that God would grant me the means to fight against the Enemy in a way that brings Jesus glory.  I pray that when error is present in the church God grants me the courage to fight for the truth.  I pray that as I live that I would never ever stop fighting, arguing and confronting any and all things that are contrary to Scripture.  We can never be satisfied with where we are until we are in the presence of Jesus.

I can honestly say that I am tired of fighting, that I am sick of arguing, and that confronting sin is draining.  But I know that I do not have a choice.  This is my responsibility, my joy and my privilege.  My problem is that at times I have shifted from fighting for the Kingdom and turned to fighting about the Kingdom.  For those in the Kingdom with me, whom I have wounded, please forgive me.  For those who want to avoid the fight, quit cowering and CHARGE!