DEAL WITH YOUR OWN BROKENNESS:

The first task for the redeemed

"Just because it's not 

all about you, 

doesn't mean it's not

about you at all"

~ Sandy Gross, author of You Are Potential

My friend Sandy Gross and I, the author and teacher I quote above, were once part a conversation, held at her house, with a mutual friend who is now deceased.  Our friend, Glenn Rogers, quoted Isaiah 42:3 and then said the Holy Spirit had been showing him the most amazing things about it.

"A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;"

Isaiah 42:3 

When God makes us born again, a new creation, born of God's Spirit, what we were before, broken by our sins and the sins of others, doesn't simply evaporate.  When God speaks of the future work of Jesus in Isaiah 42:3 the matter of our damaged past is presented.  The coming of Jesus, his teaching, works, the beatings leading to his death, burial, and resurrection don't simply lock away our pasts for us.  It is true Jesus really has done everything necessary for us to be free, but that doesn't cut off the past for me, at least not in my thinking.  The problem isn't what Jesus has accomplished, but, rather, what I believe.  2 Corinthians 4:16

 2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." 

Romans 12:2

Jesus has indeed accomplished all the work needing to be done, for us, but we must put what Jesus has completed into our minds and thereby into the fabric of our lives.  Our bruised souls and the smoldering ruins of our lives can't merely be shoved under the Church's carpet.  I like what a Christian counselor said recently, "If you bury something alive, it has a tendency to dig itself out and come after you."  When we bury secrets they don't stay buried.  It's our secrets, our deep shameful pasts which hold us back from believing Jesus and allowing him to come and enable us to deal with what is in the dark past. 

Sandy also talks about the matter of unbelief.  Unbelief is not simply about a refusal to believe something.  Unbelief in us is much more a matter of attempting to hold opposite and competing beliefs.  I may have allowed someone in my past to convince me I am totally unlovable, but God tells me, "God so loves the world (Lonnie), that he sent Jesus."  When I allow both pieces of data to inform the way I think and live I've entered into the state the Bible calls, "being double-minded."  We're told in James 1:18 that a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways.  

For years I was so mad at my fellow Christians.  I was continually thinking, "You (Church) have an eternal relationship with the one true God, and you won't give it!  The Church has become so good at putting up a facade in front of their own brokenness that I couldn't see they were just as broken as everyone else.  The Church can't give the eternal relationship with God, because that relationship has broken down.  Christians can't reach, with the life transforming love, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ to gay people, hooker people, drug addicted people, hardcore drunk people, spouse abusing people, and the like, because the Church doesn't really have that relationship themselves.  

So come out of the church closets and come into the light of Jesus Christ.  We are broken, and so let us come out and be what we are.  In the light Jesus can truly begin the work of freeing and redeeming us.

"Shame is one of the enemy's greatest weapons.  He wants us hiding and passive."


"Christ pursues the shamed."

~ Chris Woods

Church leave the shadows of secrecy, and confess your brokenness.  The world around us knows we are broken, because we've showed them all we can ever do is either condemn them or simply accept sin.  What we, the Church, cannot do is overcome sin, because of a breakdown in our relationship with God.  I think it would be much better to come out and confess brokenness then to have the world drag us out into the open.  

The good news is that Christ will be with the Church, because Jesus pursues the shamed.

For more information and real help:  http://www.renewingme.com/

WHAT DID JESUS SAY? WHAT DID JESUS TEACH?

DISCIPLESHIP 

In John 8:31-32 Jesus tells us exactly; precisely; dead on the mark what makes a disciple and the end of what discipleship brings into our lives.  

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

(NIV)

Be, think, and do what Jesus teaches, this is what Jesus is talking about when he tells us, "hold to my teachings."  As we think, be, and do what Jesus teaches we are true disciples.  As we practice being true disciples THEN, and only THEN "...you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."  Knowing the truth is contingent upon being, thinking, and doing what Jesus teaches.  Additionally, knowing the truth means being, thinking, and doing what Christ teaches without ceasing.  

Jesus has more to say about being his disciple, John 15:8

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

(NIV)

(All italicized, underlined, and bold print words are my additions)

Obviously, Jesus hangs a great deal on discipleship!  True disciples bear much fruit, in the areas of being, thinking, and doing!  The question we need to ask is 

WHY HAS THE CHURCH ALLOWED DISCIPLESHIP TO FALL BY THE WAYSIDE??

There are more answers to that question then I've got room to discuss, so if you think you've got a winning answer for the question feel free to share it.  I'd like to offer something more important than the question I ask:  An answer for everyone no matter where they feel or think they are in their walk with Jesus Christ.  I can't claim authorship of the solution, and I'm fine with that.  

"In this life we cannot do great things.

We can only do small things with great love."

~ Mother Teresa

Somehow we've come to the idea, "I can't serve Christ because I'm not good enough, don't know enough, don't have a call to be a preacher, so forth and so on..."  

DO SOMETHING!  

Go to your church building and clean the bathroom

Go to a local soup kitchen or shelter and serve once or twice a week

Go to a local clothing program and serve once or twice a week

Go take elderly folks to church, shopping, hair or doctor appointments

Go take a single mother shopping, hair or doctor's appointments

Go help a single mother get the kids ready for school, church, doctor's appointments.

Find some small thing to do, serving others, and do it with great love!!  When you fall in love with the small thing you are doing God will be ready for the next thing for you to fall in love with!!

One thing I can promise you is you will fall in love with serving God, and you will never want to stop.  You will be so energized, so convinced of God's love for you and those you serve, and you will become absolutely convinced that God can overcome anything!!

Just Some Thoughts,

Lonnie

  

THE PROBLEM WITH EVIL

How can you believe in a
God when there is so 
much?

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."

G.K. Chesterton

Many years ago, when I was working in the youth department at my church, an angry young man confronted me with the problem of evil.  this was the mid 90's and he asked, "Why didn't God stop Ted Kazcynski, the Unibomber sooner?"  When he asked the question I knew, in that moment, God had a plan which would have put people in the right place at the right time.  The problem was those people, Christians, had not been where God wanted them to be. 

Jesus, in his prayer, in John 17:18, says this,  

"As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."   

We are told by the Holy Spirit through St. Paul, in Ephesians 2:10,

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." 

Jesus also says something very interesting to his disciples when he gives them what we call "The Great Commission"...

"Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me." 

Matthew 28:18 (AMP)

I've seen Christians taking stands against sinners and their sins, with nothing of value to show for decades of effort.  What I haven't seen much of is what the Scriptures teach in the New Testament:  

Romans 12:21

" Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

John 16:33

  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

1 John 5:4

"for everyone born of God overcomes the world."

(All bold print in Scripture verses are my addition)

There is a vast difference between "standing against" sin and "overcoming" sin. Overcoming sin is to utterly and absolutely defeat; destroy; completely remove sin.  All of the measures of Christians working politically, standing in picket lines, and decrying sin on FaceBook isn't what the Scriptures teach about overcoming sin.  

God sent his law through Moses, but when telling us what to do failed to make us righteous and failed to empower us to overcome, he came down bodily to accomplish his ends for himself.  When Jesus came then "overcoming" sin and the world's ways came in him.   

It's time to learn from God:  Do not stand apart from sinners, but go to them physically and bring the solution of the "good news" directly to them.  And not only do we bring the gospel of Jesus, but we bring the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, directly in contact with broken sinners.  This is how Jesus Christ taught us to carry out the business of his kingdom.  

It's time to stop worrying about the evil in the world, and time to begin BEING God's servant delivering, up close and personal, the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In other words you're gonna have to stop shouting and complaining about gay marriage and start getting into the lives of gay and lesbian people, to show them the difference of God's love.  And that's one little example of doing what Jesus taught.  Lots and lots to do, so if you've got something to say about sin, then you've got a lot of repenting to start doing, and a lot of action to start taking.   If you truly want to see God overcome evil, then find a mirror and you'll find God's first real problem to overcome.

Just Some Thoughts,

Lonnie  

TAKING A STAND AGAINST SIN?

Does God Stand Against

Sinners and Their Sins?

I was having a little conversation with a fellow Christian about taking a stand against sin.  I certainly appreciate anyone who is willing to stand up for what is right.  But I have to question the motivation for standing against sinners and their sins.  

Let me say very quickly that I hate sin.  Sin kills, steals and destroys.  The end of sin is something I desire with my whole heart.  We know from the Bible that ending sin is among God's greatest desires.  There is no way to make peace with sin.  We either accept the free offer of salvation and Lordship, of Jesus Christ or we remain enslaved to sin. As a Christ follower I cannot accept the sin the people of the world God sent Jesus to save.  

What I am questioning is how we Christians approach and deal with the sins of others.  The popular thing to do has been taking a stand against sin.  It looks good and sounds good to take a stand against sin, but does God stand against sin, and does he expect us to take a stand against sin?

John 16:33

"I have told you these things so that you may have

peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many

trials and sorrows.  But take heart, because I have

overcome the world."

What Jesus is saying is he has utterly destroyed the power of Satan and his world order.  So does God stand against sin or does Jesus overcome sinners and their sins.  See, here's the real deal:  Jesus doesn't merely stand against sin, but he overcomes both sinner and sin.  If we stand against sin, then we do nothing for sinner.  And maybe, just maybe that is the real point.  Maybe we don't want to actually deal with the sinner at all?  

There is a story in the Bible about a righteous man who stood against sin:  It's the story of Abraham's nephew Lot, in Genesis 19.  I'm sure you know the story.  Two strangers enter the city of Sodom and Lot convinces them to stay the night in his house.  At night the men of the city come to Lot's house demanding Lot send his house guests out so the men of Sodom could have sex with them.  

" Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door."

Genesis 19:6-9

Lot takes a stand against sin, and even offers to lay down his own eternal life for his house guests.  (Revisionists like to point to Lot's offer of his two virgin daughters as evidence of how evil Lot is.  What revisionists don't get is that Lot's family is counted as part of his own body.  Lot's daughters are his only hope of eternal life.  It is through his children's child bearing that Lot's life and line continue.  Lot was offering his own life and future.  Lot offered a great sacrifice and it is likely that Lot's gesture would have been understood by the men of Sodom, at least at some level).

In 2 Peter 2:7, the Apostle Peter tells us that Lot is a righteous man delivered by God from unrighteous men.  righteous Lot certainly did act righteously, but what was the end for righteous Lot?  After escaping from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, with his family, how does life end for righteous Lot?

In Genesis 19:29 Lot's wife looks back to Sodom she is overcome by the destruction of the two sinful cities and we are told becomes a pillar of salt.  In Genesis 19:30 to the end of chapter 19 we learn Lot's fate after he has been delivered by God from Sodom.  Lot's two virgin daughters, on separate nights, first get their father drunk and then rape him.  Lot's future life is carried on by his grandsons Moab and Ben-Ammi.  Both of Lot's grandsons will become enemies and thorns in the side of Abraham's line Israel.  Both of Lot's grandsons will become nations cursed by God.  What a terrible legacy for Lot.  

Lot didn't have Jesus.  Lot had only his best efforts as a mere man to stand against sin.  Opposing sinners today won't have any greater effect than when Lot did it.  We have Jesus who overcomes the world.  We have the cure for the sin sick world around us.  We are called to be winsome, offer the love, mercy, and grace of God, and walk with sinners toward eternal life in Jesus Christ.

18 Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

19 Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,"

Matthew 28:18-19

Jesus has all authority and power, so why would the Church need to stand against what Jesus has already defeated?

If you want Lot's lot in life, then by all means, continue standing against sin.  If you want Jesus lot in your life, then do what he teaches!!

Just Some Thoughts,

Lonnie

WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIANS DO ABOUT...

NOTE:  I am a Christian who holds to a traditional view of the Bible.  If you are not of the same variety of Christian, then you may be offended.  My intent is not to offend.  This post is aimed at my fellow Christians who hold to a traditional view of the Bible.  

Keep comments and discussions respectful and clean.  Stay on topic.  Do not post links in my comments section, unless you give me the opportunity to look at the link first.  If any comments violate these few simple rules I will delete them.

Gay Weddings?

This is a question I received from a friend I've been having a conversation with, about attending a gay wedding.  It is one of the best questions I've ever been asked.

His Question:

When you attend a homosexual wedding and they get to the part where the minister says, "If anyone knows just cause why these two should not lawfully be joined together, let him speak now or forever hold his peace," what do you do?

My Answer:

I would say absolutely nothing. There is nothing of or from God going on in the situation. God created marriage, for one man and one woman. The state cannot nullify God's creation and they cannot override God's power. Some guy or gal wearing fancy churchy vestments, and mouthing empty flowery sounding words, invoking God's name and calling him/herself Rev. is meaningless if God has nothing to do with it. Would you care if the state legalized marriage between elves and unicorns? You are giving weight and power to something that has none. Why are you allowing the world to tell you what is and isn't important? Why do you focus on the foolishness of the world? Why are you not heartbroken that people are broken and are widening the gulf between God and sinner, thickening the chains of slavery, and deepening the darkness people are in??

When will you quit allowing your attention to be high jacked by a bunch fairy tales? When will you stop fearing what mere men do? "OH NO! The big bad state is going to make God's marriage a joke?" I know why the world believes this stuff, but they are broken, deceived, in the dark, enslaved to sin, hardhearted, and cannot understand the truth. You are a Christian!!! You have no excuse for giving any kind of credence to this!! Please brother, stop giving the world power to push you around and start offering the cure for foolishness, brokenness, lostness. If you have an eternal relationship with God, then you have the means to walk with lost people toward Jesus Christ. Jesus is going to overcome their sin when they come to him. No more sin no more of the nonsense in their lives! YAY GOD!

WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN?

When He Says: "Do not judge?"

I saw that a friend on FaceBook liked a post about judging.  In American culture today judging has become synonymous with condemnation and therefore hate.   As a Christ follower there are so many arguments I can make against such thinking.  The problem is we Christians have very probably been far too judgmental.  Before knee jerk reacting to that, would you mind hearing me out? I think you'll really like what I have to say here, and even if you don't perhaps you'll do some thinking about it anyway.

So let's look at the text in question:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?"

Matthew 7:1-4 

If Jesus was saying this to us today he might say, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."   Jesus isn't saying, "Don't make any judgments, ever," he is saying, "Don't make snap judgments based on what you can see on the outside."   Not only that, but Jesus is saying, "Be careful that you are seeing your brother clearly, and not merely accusing him of being guilty of a sin that is really YOUR SIN."   One sure sign of a manipulating/controlling person is they accuse others of being guilty of committing the sins THEY, themselves, are guilty of committing.  

When God sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse's house, to anoint the second king over Israel, he told Samuel to pass up one of Jesse's sons because men look at the outside, but God sees the heart.  Because God sees the heart then he knows about a person's past.  God clearly sees our brokenness and what has broken us.  

I love the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it:

"Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.

By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to

the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."

Perhaps, or actually, probably, the world, when demanding we not judge them are telling us something we need to hear?  Maybe, just maybe, we need to stop judging the book covers (lives) of prostitute people, substance abusing people, LGBT people, and other sinner people we don't like, and actually READ the books of their lives (Get to know them, and their lives).  I know we need to stop letting the sins of others get us all upset and bent out of shape.  Who has greater power the sinner to sin, or Jesus Christ to save and free the sinner?  My friend Sandy Dolan Gross asked me this question out of the blue one day:

"Do we really believe the power of the fall is

greater than the cross of Jesus Christ 

to save and restore?"

If we believe that Jesus Christ defeats the world and it's sin then we should focus on God's power to overcome sin.  If we have the cure why do we go on cursing the sickness?   Why do we not simply give the cure, and let Jesus worry about the rest?  

I'll let God's word finish out this post:

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?"

Romans 2:1-4

Just Some Thoughts

Lonnie