Who Am I, Really?
It is often quoted, “You are what you eat.” But I am not a tuna sandwich or a quesadilla. Perhaps what we eat gives us the energy to be who we are, but it is not who we are. Rather, it is our thoughts and beliefs that make us who we are. We do not name ourselves according to our culinary preference, but we proudly tell others the names that display what we believe. Our church group (what we believe about God), our political leanings (what we believe about how to help our country), our sports team (what we believe about that team—namely, they are great)—these are the things we talk about to indicate who we are (as well as other things, like occupation)
However, our beliefs are as complex as our thinking, and at times we say we believe something that contradicts what we believe about something else. And we also will say that we believe one thing and do another. I can say that I believe that people should be nice to one another, but if I found out my neighbor took my television without my permission then I might not be so nice to him. My wife would then point out the contradiction between what I say and what I did, and I will explain it to her: “You see, I think that we should generally be nice to each other, but if someone takes something from me, then I don’t have to be nice.” The reasoning may or may not be valid, but I only came up with the reason to excuse what I did. The reality is, what I said I believed originally—“People should be nice to each other,”— is different from what I really believed— “I will be nice to others as long as they are nice to me.”
Given that what we say we believe is so often contradicted by what we do, how do we know what we really believe. I say I believe in Jesus—but do I really? And how do I know? I think that if I make statements of belief—“I believe that Jesus is Lord”, that will be enough. If I know something, “Jesus rose from the dead” or “Airplanes are safe,” does that mean I believe in it?
Evaluating What We Really Believe In
Jesus recognized that often what we say and what we believe are two different things. This is why he gave us a test to find the true character of a person—what they really believe in, whether they are really good and bad. Jesus said, “We know a tree by its fruit. We know that a tree is an apple tree because it bears apples. And we know that a fig tree can’t produce pears. Even so, we know what a person is really like by their actions and careless speech.” (Matthew 7:16-20 and 12:33-36). Thus, we know what people really believe by how they behave in certain areas in life.
Below are six areas that, according to Jesus, indicate what we really believe. If we follow God in these areas, then we can say we believe in God. But if we do not, then we must believe in something else—for our actions are a mirror of our hearts.
Actions
As shown above, what we do with our lives—our work, our response to stressful situations—that’s what really shows who we are. We can say that we love God, but the question is, how do we show it? Sometimes the best way to determine our character is to imagine that a stranger who has never seen us before is presented with a videotape of our whole lives, with the sound off, so they can’t hear our own explanations of our lives. How would that stranger evaluate us? What would characterize us? If we stole, we would certainly be characterized as a thief. But we more often than not excuse ourselves, not wanting our actions to determine who we are—“Sure, I get drunk occasionally, but that doesn’t make me an alcoholic.” “Yes, I have hit my child in anger, but that doesn’t make me a child abuser.” Yet Jesus said that a person shows truly whether they believe in him as to whether they do what he says (Luke 6:46-49)
Wealth
Jesus says that what we do with our money and possessions indicates where our heart is, thus who we are (Luke 12:34). A person can say, “I believe that God will heal me,” but then why does he spend so much money on medicine? A person can say, “My comfort will be in heaven,” but then why does she surround herself with comforts on earth? If we want to see what a person really believes in, we can look at how they spend their money—that will indicate what they think to be most important in life. Jesus said that if we want to show that we believe we will get to heaven, then we need to take a substantial amount of our wealth and give it to the poor—not necessarily the church, unless they are serving the poor (Luke 12:33; Acts 4:34-35)
Words
As we said above, a person can say one thing and do another. But Jesus said that we should pay attention to people’s careless words—the statements they make when they didn’t have time to plan it out. Often that’s when people’s pride and anger and selfishness flare up. If we are planning a statement, that can be one thing we say, but the statements we use when we are being thoughtless and carefree—those are the words by which we will be judged, for those are the words that show what we really believe and so who we really are. (Matthew 12:35-36)
Security
At times we all feel insecure. We are often struck by anxiety and we don’t know where to turn. Where we do turn in those moments of crisis indicates what we trust in or who we think will pull us out of our fear. Perhaps we will turn to a family member—especially if they are wealthy—or a friend. Perhaps we have a habit or addiction that we think will make us feel better. Perhaps we have nothing we can rely on but our anxiety, but we say, “How I wish I had this or that”. That is what we really rely on, the person or object we truly believe in. But Jesus tells us that in our time of crisis, the one we can always count on, the dependable one who we can trust in is God. (John 14:1; Luke 12:30-32). To “believe in” God doesn’t mean to have the correct doctrine, it means that you will count on him in a time of crisis. So whatever we turn to in crisis, that is our real god.
Attitude
God makes it clear that he wants us to treat everyone according to their well-being. He wants us to do what is good for everyone we meet—whether that person is an evil person or a good one (Luke 6:27-36; Galatians 6:10). We can make a list of who we actually show care for and who we do not. “Yes, I try to help this person whenever I can. This person, though, is a dolt and so I avoid then when possible. I like to assist this kind of person, but this kind I detest and wouldn’t even give them the time of day.” By this test, then, we can often see what limits we place on our belief in God. We believe in God and in his ways when we are around certain people or situations, but in other ones we do not. If people respect us, that’s fine, we can believe in God in that situation. But if someone cusses us out, then we find it difficult to believe in God. For we know that we will be rewarded according to our love, not our doctrinal beliefs.
Promises
We often make promises and commitments, from appointments to projects we agreed to work on. Sometimes we do not even have a promise to do something, but we have a “social contract” with our family, in which our behavior is determined. And there are many things that we “believe in” that we commit to do, whether it be prayer or a favor for someone at church or visiting a sick person in the hospital. But what we believe in is not found in the promises we make, but in the promises we actually keep. We may “believe in” prayer and make a schedule for us to wake up a bit early to do it. But, when the time comes, we find that we actually believe in sleep more than prayer because the snooze button is hit until the prayer time has vanished. We may “believe in” visiting the sick, and so promise to do it, but when the time comes we find the television too alluring, showing that we believe in our comfort and rest more. Jesus said that we must fulfill our promises and so display our faithfulness, for what we do shows what we believe. This doesn’t mean that we are able to keep all our promises. Sometimes emergencies come up. But we must remember this, whatever we chose to do, that is what we really believe in. (Matthew 21:28-31)
Repentance
One last thing to note—Jesus is a firm believer in changing one’s ways. We know he believes in change because he forgives people their sin. He displays his belief of changed behavior by accepting those who have repented. Even so, if you evaluate your true beliefs and determine that you haven’t really believed in Jesus, it is not too late to change! Jesus said he will give you his Spirit and he will help you repent from your old life and begin to believe in Him anew! Pray for God’s grace and you will begin to truly believe in Jesus, not just in words, but in your whole life. In that way you will be a new creation, created by God to do actions in light of Jesus!
Evaluate your actions, and determine what you really believe!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Cramming For The Final Exam
The final day is coming!
There are many Christians today who want to keep quiet about Jesus’ coming, about the fact that he is coming to judge the world with all of his warrior angels, that he will be accompanied by all the saints and gather every person—living or dead— on the earth to judge them (Matthew 25:31-33; John 5:25-29). We do not know when he is coming, only that he could come any time. We see signs and possibilities all the time that his coming could be right around the corner. The question is, are we ready?
The final day is like a final exam. We have studied and worked hard all of our lives, but we still aren’t sure how we’ll do on the last test. We will be tested on everything that we’ve learned—but are we really ready? Can we cram in the last few minutes, in order to pass? Is there a bribe we can pass to the Examiner, to make sure we pass?
But the real question is: What is on the test? We need to know what will be on the test, so we can pass. If we pass the test, we will have great joy and reward from God. If we fail the test, we will live in eternal torment. So what is on the test is exceedingly important—it means life or death for us. So how can we be prepared?
Although many people make many grandiose claims of knowing how to help us through the Final Exam, there is only one person who has already passed through it, so he KNOWS. That is Jesus—he has already been tried by men and God, and God declared him righteous. Jesus knows what the judgement is going to be like, and he knows the reward. No one else has had this experience like Jesus, because no one else has been given their final reward already. So let’s listen to him, and let him tell us what he knows about the judgement day:
Content of the Final Exam: Our lives
a. We will be held account for every action and speech, no matter how unimportant seeming
The first principle of judgement has to do with the content. What will be examined? What is the content of the test? We need not carry pencils around or be gathering up bits of knowledge. The fact is, we are taking the final exam every day. Jesus says, it is our whole lives—our words and deeds (Matthew 16:27; John 5:29). Not just our lives in a general way, but a specific sifting, looking for every single pertinent act or word—no matter how small or carelessly spoken (Matthew 5:22, 28; 12:36). We may think that a single action is too small to be noticed, or that something is just “small potatoes” to God—but God is concerned about every small step, and will hold us account to it all.
b. Anything we repent of in Christ we will not be accounted for
This sounds so harsh of God, to not overlook anything. But God is a God of mercy and forgiveness, not of judgement. He doesn’t want to condemn us unnecessarily. So he gave us the Giant Loophole to judgement: the Cross of Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross, we will not be judged for our sins. We have only two requirements: we must commit ourselves to Jesus, so the cross will wash away our sins. Secondly, we need to repent of our sins. Any of the sins we repent of in Christ, under his authority, will be wiped away and completely forgiven—if we would only repent. We need to depend on Christ and His Spirit to lead us into repentance, and then all the evil things we have done will be cleansed, never to be spoken of again. More importantly, these things will not be brought up on the judgement day. (Ezekiel 18:30; Luke 13:5; Luke 17:4)
How to get prepared for the Test : the principles of judgement
The next question then is: How will God look at our lives? Does he have a list of secret sins that no one knows about that he will insist that we have all repented of? God is also merciful in his examining of our lives. There are three basic principles that he will follow in looking at us.
c. However you treat the Lord, that is how you will be treated
First of all, He will examine closely how we treated Him and His Son. And however we treated Him, that is how He will treat us. Did we praise Him before others? Then he will also praise us. Or did we curse his name? Then he will also curse us (Matthew 10:32-33). Did we take his word seriously and listen and obey him? Then he will listen to our cries. Or did we disregard his commands and teachings? Then he will also not listen to us, and our needs. (Zechariah 7:13; Matthew 12:50; Luke 11:28). Were we completely devoted to God, serving him with a single mind? Then he will be devoted to us and reward us. However, if we were not devoted to him, but desired other powers before Him, then he will not be devoted to us, but punish us. (Matthew 5:8; Judges 10:10-13). Thus, to pass our Final Exam, we must treat the Lord as he deserves.
d. Whatever you give to others, that is what you receive
The second principle that God will use in examining our lives is an extreme version of the Golden Rule—However we treat others in our lives, that is how God will treat us on the judgement day. Do we treat others with mercy, with concern for them and their ultimate benefit, giving others what they need? If so, then the Lord will treat us with that same merciful care and give us what we need (Matthew 5:7). Do we forgive others’ of their weaknesses and take the difficulties they give us without any harm back to them? Then God will treat us with forgiveness and care (Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 6:35-37). Do we treat those with lowliness around us with care and assistance—then we will get such assistance from God when we are lowly before Him (Matthew 25:35-40). On the other hand, if we judge and condemn others, then we will be judged by God (Luke 6:37). If we hate our enemies, and treat them wickedly—with insults and threats— then God will visit evil—insults and punishments— upon us (Matthew 5:22; I John 4:20). If we cause others to sin, and show no care for their needs, then God will throw us in prison and show no compassion on us (Mark 9:42; Luke 12:45-46).
e. Whatever you receive from others, you will receive the opposite
The third principle that God will examine our lives with is one that isn’t thought of as much, because it seems to have little to do with things under our control. However the principle is clear: However we have been treated by others, especially while doing God’s will, we will receive the opposite. It is assumed in Jesus’ teaching that anyone who is truly following God and his ways will face opposition, oppression and anger from those who oppose God. Thus, if you are struggling with oppression or hatred against you; if you are suffering because of poverty or injustice; if you are in terrible circumstances in life because of following God; if you are disenfranchised or outcast—Jesus says then to be glad! Because God will reward us so greatly in heaven, that all of this life will be but a distant memory (Matthew 5:3-6, 10-12; Luke 6:20-23; Luke 16:25; Luke 14:7-11). On the other hand, if we are greatly praised by everyone—even God’s enemies; if we live in comfort and entertainment all the time; if we are considered important and take the opportunity to command many for our own good—then God figures that we have had enough of the good life. We have sought out salvation on our own, worldly, terms, and so have rejected his salvation (Luke 6:24-26; Luke 16:25; Matthew 6:1-5). Again, we may feel—how can I control what circumstances give me? But it is clear, if we follow Jesus’ way completely—confessing Jesus publicly (even if it is not acceptable), sell our possessions and give to the poor, reject the ways of our family and friends—then we will gain much disrespect and even hatred. So we can control it somewhat.
f. The more you have, the more is required of you
God is not severe with us, but he is completely just. If we know much of God’s will and desires, he will judge us more severely. However, if we do not understand much of God’s will, God will show us mercy, according to what we know. That doesn’t mean that he won’t judge us according to the above three principles—he will. But the severity of the judgement will be lessened if we don’t understand it all. (Mark 4:25; Luke 12:47-48)
The last thing we need to remember about these three areas of examination by God—we need to pass in all three areas. If we do not repent in any one of these areas, then we will fail our exam. We must seek to be completely devoted to God, completely merciful to others’ and always lowly before others. If we fail, then we repent. But if we reject any of these ways, we reject our hope of success on judgement day
What are the grades?
g. It is eternal satisfaction, or eternal torment
Perhaps this seems too difficult, too other-worldly for you. But remember the cost that is at stake—it is your eternal soul. Our lives right now are but a small, paltry thing. It is little for us, compared to all eternity. Eternity is forever—that’s not just a long time, it is the real Reality. A bit of suffering or self-control or repentance for a few years on earth—maybe sixty, maybe twenty years, whatever you have left—is nothing compared to a thousand years, a million years, a hundred billion. The numbers of eternity are so large, that you can realize that our current life—in comparison—doesn’t even exist. And we have a choice—follow these principles and gain eternal life and joy and contentment (remember, this is FOREVER), or ignore them and face eternal torment—unhappiness, suffering, fear, frustration. These are the consequences (Matthew 25:46; John 5:29; 3:36)
It isn’t too late!
Perhaps you think that it is hopeless. But God is so merciful, so kind, he is willing to bend over backwards to help you pass the Final Exam. All you have to do is ask. He has already given his Son to die for us, so we can be delivered from judgement—won’t he give us more so we can make it the rest of the way? Of course! He promises to give the Holy Spirit—the Helper—to anyone in Christ. He will give us all the resources in heaven and earth to help us pass. All we need to do is ask, and allow Him to give us the help to pass!
Judgement Day is serious, But God is merciful
There are many Christians today who want to keep quiet about Jesus’ coming, about the fact that he is coming to judge the world with all of his warrior angels, that he will be accompanied by all the saints and gather every person—living or dead— on the earth to judge them (Matthew 25:31-33; John 5:25-29). We do not know when he is coming, only that he could come any time. We see signs and possibilities all the time that his coming could be right around the corner. The question is, are we ready?
The final day is like a final exam. We have studied and worked hard all of our lives, but we still aren’t sure how we’ll do on the last test. We will be tested on everything that we’ve learned—but are we really ready? Can we cram in the last few minutes, in order to pass? Is there a bribe we can pass to the Examiner, to make sure we pass?
But the real question is: What is on the test? We need to know what will be on the test, so we can pass. If we pass the test, we will have great joy and reward from God. If we fail the test, we will live in eternal torment. So what is on the test is exceedingly important—it means life or death for us. So how can we be prepared?
Although many people make many grandiose claims of knowing how to help us through the Final Exam, there is only one person who has already passed through it, so he KNOWS. That is Jesus—he has already been tried by men and God, and God declared him righteous. Jesus knows what the judgement is going to be like, and he knows the reward. No one else has had this experience like Jesus, because no one else has been given their final reward already. So let’s listen to him, and let him tell us what he knows about the judgement day:
Content of the Final Exam: Our lives
a. We will be held account for every action and speech, no matter how unimportant seeming
The first principle of judgement has to do with the content. What will be examined? What is the content of the test? We need not carry pencils around or be gathering up bits of knowledge. The fact is, we are taking the final exam every day. Jesus says, it is our whole lives—our words and deeds (Matthew 16:27; John 5:29). Not just our lives in a general way, but a specific sifting, looking for every single pertinent act or word—no matter how small or carelessly spoken (Matthew 5:22, 28; 12:36). We may think that a single action is too small to be noticed, or that something is just “small potatoes” to God—but God is concerned about every small step, and will hold us account to it all.
b. Anything we repent of in Christ we will not be accounted for
This sounds so harsh of God, to not overlook anything. But God is a God of mercy and forgiveness, not of judgement. He doesn’t want to condemn us unnecessarily. So he gave us the Giant Loophole to judgement: the Cross of Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross, we will not be judged for our sins. We have only two requirements: we must commit ourselves to Jesus, so the cross will wash away our sins. Secondly, we need to repent of our sins. Any of the sins we repent of in Christ, under his authority, will be wiped away and completely forgiven—if we would only repent. We need to depend on Christ and His Spirit to lead us into repentance, and then all the evil things we have done will be cleansed, never to be spoken of again. More importantly, these things will not be brought up on the judgement day. (Ezekiel 18:30; Luke 13:5; Luke 17:4)
How to get prepared for the Test : the principles of judgement
The next question then is: How will God look at our lives? Does he have a list of secret sins that no one knows about that he will insist that we have all repented of? God is also merciful in his examining of our lives. There are three basic principles that he will follow in looking at us.
c. However you treat the Lord, that is how you will be treated
First of all, He will examine closely how we treated Him and His Son. And however we treated Him, that is how He will treat us. Did we praise Him before others? Then he will also praise us. Or did we curse his name? Then he will also curse us (Matthew 10:32-33). Did we take his word seriously and listen and obey him? Then he will listen to our cries. Or did we disregard his commands and teachings? Then he will also not listen to us, and our needs. (Zechariah 7:13; Matthew 12:50; Luke 11:28). Were we completely devoted to God, serving him with a single mind? Then he will be devoted to us and reward us. However, if we were not devoted to him, but desired other powers before Him, then he will not be devoted to us, but punish us. (Matthew 5:8; Judges 10:10-13). Thus, to pass our Final Exam, we must treat the Lord as he deserves.
d. Whatever you give to others, that is what you receive
The second principle that God will use in examining our lives is an extreme version of the Golden Rule—However we treat others in our lives, that is how God will treat us on the judgement day. Do we treat others with mercy, with concern for them and their ultimate benefit, giving others what they need? If so, then the Lord will treat us with that same merciful care and give us what we need (Matthew 5:7). Do we forgive others’ of their weaknesses and take the difficulties they give us without any harm back to them? Then God will treat us with forgiveness and care (Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 6:35-37). Do we treat those with lowliness around us with care and assistance—then we will get such assistance from God when we are lowly before Him (Matthew 25:35-40). On the other hand, if we judge and condemn others, then we will be judged by God (Luke 6:37). If we hate our enemies, and treat them wickedly—with insults and threats— then God will visit evil—insults and punishments— upon us (Matthew 5:22; I John 4:20). If we cause others to sin, and show no care for their needs, then God will throw us in prison and show no compassion on us (Mark 9:42; Luke 12:45-46).
e. Whatever you receive from others, you will receive the opposite
The third principle that God will examine our lives with is one that isn’t thought of as much, because it seems to have little to do with things under our control. However the principle is clear: However we have been treated by others, especially while doing God’s will, we will receive the opposite. It is assumed in Jesus’ teaching that anyone who is truly following God and his ways will face opposition, oppression and anger from those who oppose God. Thus, if you are struggling with oppression or hatred against you; if you are suffering because of poverty or injustice; if you are in terrible circumstances in life because of following God; if you are disenfranchised or outcast—Jesus says then to be glad! Because God will reward us so greatly in heaven, that all of this life will be but a distant memory (Matthew 5:3-6, 10-12; Luke 6:20-23; Luke 16:25; Luke 14:7-11). On the other hand, if we are greatly praised by everyone—even God’s enemies; if we live in comfort and entertainment all the time; if we are considered important and take the opportunity to command many for our own good—then God figures that we have had enough of the good life. We have sought out salvation on our own, worldly, terms, and so have rejected his salvation (Luke 6:24-26; Luke 16:25; Matthew 6:1-5). Again, we may feel—how can I control what circumstances give me? But it is clear, if we follow Jesus’ way completely—confessing Jesus publicly (even if it is not acceptable), sell our possessions and give to the poor, reject the ways of our family and friends—then we will gain much disrespect and even hatred. So we can control it somewhat.
f. The more you have, the more is required of you
God is not severe with us, but he is completely just. If we know much of God’s will and desires, he will judge us more severely. However, if we do not understand much of God’s will, God will show us mercy, according to what we know. That doesn’t mean that he won’t judge us according to the above three principles—he will. But the severity of the judgement will be lessened if we don’t understand it all. (Mark 4:25; Luke 12:47-48)
The last thing we need to remember about these three areas of examination by God—we need to pass in all three areas. If we do not repent in any one of these areas, then we will fail our exam. We must seek to be completely devoted to God, completely merciful to others’ and always lowly before others. If we fail, then we repent. But if we reject any of these ways, we reject our hope of success on judgement day
What are the grades?
g. It is eternal satisfaction, or eternal torment
Perhaps this seems too difficult, too other-worldly for you. But remember the cost that is at stake—it is your eternal soul. Our lives right now are but a small, paltry thing. It is little for us, compared to all eternity. Eternity is forever—that’s not just a long time, it is the real Reality. A bit of suffering or self-control or repentance for a few years on earth—maybe sixty, maybe twenty years, whatever you have left—is nothing compared to a thousand years, a million years, a hundred billion. The numbers of eternity are so large, that you can realize that our current life—in comparison—doesn’t even exist. And we have a choice—follow these principles and gain eternal life and joy and contentment (remember, this is FOREVER), or ignore them and face eternal torment—unhappiness, suffering, fear, frustration. These are the consequences (Matthew 25:46; John 5:29; 3:36)
It isn’t too late!
Perhaps you think that it is hopeless. But God is so merciful, so kind, he is willing to bend over backwards to help you pass the Final Exam. All you have to do is ask. He has already given his Son to die for us, so we can be delivered from judgement—won’t he give us more so we can make it the rest of the way? Of course! He promises to give the Holy Spirit—the Helper—to anyone in Christ. He will give us all the resources in heaven and earth to help us pass. All we need to do is ask, and allow Him to give us the help to pass!
Judgement Day is serious, But God is merciful
Israel and God's People
What is Israel?
“Israel” was originally the God-given name for Jacob (Genesis 35:10). At the same time, it is the name given to the nation that Jacob was initiating through his faith in God and his children (Genesis 25:23; Exodus 19:6). Israel was consistently used as a name for a political entity that was established by the God of the earth, Yahweh (II Samuel 7:23). Thus, “Israel” is both a political entity, as well as a religious one—the nation established by God.
God’s promises are for Israel
The focus of God’s promises are for his people, whom he calls Israel (Psalm 105:10-11). Israel is the children of Abraham, the descendents of Jacob, who has Yahweh as their God (Exodus 3:15). God has taken these people and delivered them from the nations and established a government through Moses (Exodus 6:6). God also give them a land, called Palestine or Canaan (Psalm 135:10-12). Then he gave Jerusalem (also known as Zion) to be their capital, which was the center of his presence on earth (I Kings 8:1). Then God allowed many other ethnic groups to be a part of his people—and they were all called Israel (Deuteronomy 23:7-8). God has promised this people, Israel, to have a much larger land, to be prosperous, to have justice, to be secure from all the nations surrounding them and to eventually rule the whole world. God’s people, Israel, will receive this freedom, this salvation (Isaiah 14:1-4).
God’s promises are not for all of Israel
Throughout Israel’s history, portions of the population of the political entity, Israel, has been unfaithful to God (Jeremiah 3:1-11). God has not taken a blind eye to the false worship of his people, but has rejected anyone who is devoted to another god or those who are rebelliously disobedient to the true God (Jeremiah 5:23-29). God did not give the rebellious Israel his promises, but rather discipline and judgement. Ultimately, God says, those in Israel who are rebellious against him will receive none of the promises. Thus, not all who are a part of the political entity, Israel, are a part of the promised people of God, who is also called Israel (Isaiah 65:11-17).
The leadership of Israel is often rejected by God
Israel’s leadership is not always right before God, and in fact, often they have been so evil that God had them removed (I Samuel 15:26). The standard of God in his law is the basis for upholding or rejecting leadership. If a leader in Israel acts rebelliously against God, then he is punished (I Kings 16:7-13). If he repents, the punishment is limited to just discipline (I Kings 21:20-29). But if he continues in rebellion against God, then he is removed. If he oppresses others, serves other powers or leads his people in disobedience to God, then he is set aside as an unworthy ruler of God.
Modern Judaism is not the background of Christianity
People often confuse the people who are today called “Jews”—both the ethnic group and the religious group—with the biblical concept of “Israel” or ancient Judaism. Ancient Judaism is obedience of God through the law of Moses, and it is centered on the priesthood of the sons of Aaron and sacrifices. When the temple was destroyed in 70AD, not to be rebuilt yet in 2000 years, that Judaism was destroyed. No one was able to strictly obey the law of Moses, for so much of it had to do with a tabernacle or temple, which no longer existed. From this, two kinds of Judaism emerged to determine how God’s people were to live without a temple. One kind is called Rabbinic Judaism, which reinterpreted Mosaic law to be practiced without a temple, and specified certain kinds of interpretations of Moses that was beyond the biblical text. This is the basis of modern Judaism. Those who are called “Jews” today are the children of those who adopted the practices of Rabbinic Judaism—which only became ethnically focused through centuries of separation from other nations. The other form of post-temple Judaism is now called Christianity. The most popular form of Christianity that emerged is the Gentile form, but the original form was deeply connected with Ancient Judaism (Matthew 5:17-18). However, Rabbinic Judaism has little to do with the Judaism that Christianity emerged from.
Modern Israel is not the promised Israel
Ancient Judaism is based on the governmental contract that God made with Israel through Moses, called the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 24:1-12). Christianity is based on the governmental contract that God made with the followers of Jesus called the New Covenant (Luke 22:15-20). Rabbinic Judaism is based on the teachings of Rabbis that followed the Pharisaic governmental assumptions. All three of these have two things in common: they are governmental systems (such as a constitution with a body of laws), and they are based on the faithfulness of every member of the society and government to God. Modern Israel, although it borrows the name of the ancient government, has only this in common with the ancient government—that it assumes that its citizens are mostly made up of children of Abraham. But Modern Israel is established by a modern, secular constitution. It is ruled by people who are not faithful to the living God. And its laws are created by man, not established by God. It allows the breaking of the ten commandments, while it punishes some who are trying to live right before God. If Modern Israel could be called “Israel” at all, it is not the Israel of the promise, and it must be set aside before God will once again rule over the land of promise.
The true Israel of promise
Today, the true Israel are found among those people who are faithful to God (Romans 4:13). Jesus demonstrated this faithfulness through his ministry and through his death on the cross (Hebrews 12:1-2). If anyone is to be faithful to God, they must follow the way of the ancient saints and Jesus—they must be ready to lay down their lives for remaining faithful to God (Hebrews 11:1-12:4). They must not hand themselves over for a political entity that will eventually be set aside for God’s kingdom (Acts 5:1-20). Rather, in every way, in all their lives, with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, they must be faithful to God (Mark 12:28-34). Then, no matter what nationality they are, no matter what ethnicity, not matter what language they speak, they are a part of the true Israel (Revelation 5:9-10). God has not set aside Israel for the church—rather, he has expanded Israel to include people of every nation and kingdom who, through Jesus, have remained faithful to him (Romans 11:17).
The Israelis are still most important to God—and the true Israelis are those who are faithful to God through Jesus. Not those who just claim God as theirs, not those who just proclaim the name of Jesus, not those who just cry out to God for help, not those who just study God’s word, not those who just rely on Jesus’ death to save them. (Isaiah 1:15-20,29:13-14) Rather, those who have followed the true way of Abraham, the true way of Jesus, the true way of Israel—the way of enduring faithfulness, obedience and love of God no matter what suffering one must endure to get it (Romans 5:1-5). Those people alone will obtain the promised Israel of God.
“Israel” was originally the God-given name for Jacob (Genesis 35:10). At the same time, it is the name given to the nation that Jacob was initiating through his faith in God and his children (Genesis 25:23; Exodus 19:6). Israel was consistently used as a name for a political entity that was established by the God of the earth, Yahweh (II Samuel 7:23). Thus, “Israel” is both a political entity, as well as a religious one—the nation established by God.
God’s promises are for Israel
The focus of God’s promises are for his people, whom he calls Israel (Psalm 105:10-11). Israel is the children of Abraham, the descendents of Jacob, who has Yahweh as their God (Exodus 3:15). God has taken these people and delivered them from the nations and established a government through Moses (Exodus 6:6). God also give them a land, called Palestine or Canaan (Psalm 135:10-12). Then he gave Jerusalem (also known as Zion) to be their capital, which was the center of his presence on earth (I Kings 8:1). Then God allowed many other ethnic groups to be a part of his people—and they were all called Israel (Deuteronomy 23:7-8). God has promised this people, Israel, to have a much larger land, to be prosperous, to have justice, to be secure from all the nations surrounding them and to eventually rule the whole world. God’s people, Israel, will receive this freedom, this salvation (Isaiah 14:1-4).
God’s promises are not for all of Israel
Throughout Israel’s history, portions of the population of the political entity, Israel, has been unfaithful to God (Jeremiah 3:1-11). God has not taken a blind eye to the false worship of his people, but has rejected anyone who is devoted to another god or those who are rebelliously disobedient to the true God (Jeremiah 5:23-29). God did not give the rebellious Israel his promises, but rather discipline and judgement. Ultimately, God says, those in Israel who are rebellious against him will receive none of the promises. Thus, not all who are a part of the political entity, Israel, are a part of the promised people of God, who is also called Israel (Isaiah 65:11-17).
The leadership of Israel is often rejected by God
Israel’s leadership is not always right before God, and in fact, often they have been so evil that God had them removed (I Samuel 15:26). The standard of God in his law is the basis for upholding or rejecting leadership. If a leader in Israel acts rebelliously against God, then he is punished (I Kings 16:7-13). If he repents, the punishment is limited to just discipline (I Kings 21:20-29). But if he continues in rebellion against God, then he is removed. If he oppresses others, serves other powers or leads his people in disobedience to God, then he is set aside as an unworthy ruler of God.
Modern Judaism is not the background of Christianity
People often confuse the people who are today called “Jews”—both the ethnic group and the religious group—with the biblical concept of “Israel” or ancient Judaism. Ancient Judaism is obedience of God through the law of Moses, and it is centered on the priesthood of the sons of Aaron and sacrifices. When the temple was destroyed in 70AD, not to be rebuilt yet in 2000 years, that Judaism was destroyed. No one was able to strictly obey the law of Moses, for so much of it had to do with a tabernacle or temple, which no longer existed. From this, two kinds of Judaism emerged to determine how God’s people were to live without a temple. One kind is called Rabbinic Judaism, which reinterpreted Mosaic law to be practiced without a temple, and specified certain kinds of interpretations of Moses that was beyond the biblical text. This is the basis of modern Judaism. Those who are called “Jews” today are the children of those who adopted the practices of Rabbinic Judaism—which only became ethnically focused through centuries of separation from other nations. The other form of post-temple Judaism is now called Christianity. The most popular form of Christianity that emerged is the Gentile form, but the original form was deeply connected with Ancient Judaism (Matthew 5:17-18). However, Rabbinic Judaism has little to do with the Judaism that Christianity emerged from.
Modern Israel is not the promised Israel
Ancient Judaism is based on the governmental contract that God made with Israel through Moses, called the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 24:1-12). Christianity is based on the governmental contract that God made with the followers of Jesus called the New Covenant (Luke 22:15-20). Rabbinic Judaism is based on the teachings of Rabbis that followed the Pharisaic governmental assumptions. All three of these have two things in common: they are governmental systems (such as a constitution with a body of laws), and they are based on the faithfulness of every member of the society and government to God. Modern Israel, although it borrows the name of the ancient government, has only this in common with the ancient government—that it assumes that its citizens are mostly made up of children of Abraham. But Modern Israel is established by a modern, secular constitution. It is ruled by people who are not faithful to the living God. And its laws are created by man, not established by God. It allows the breaking of the ten commandments, while it punishes some who are trying to live right before God. If Modern Israel could be called “Israel” at all, it is not the Israel of the promise, and it must be set aside before God will once again rule over the land of promise.
The true Israel of promise
Today, the true Israel are found among those people who are faithful to God (Romans 4:13). Jesus demonstrated this faithfulness through his ministry and through his death on the cross (Hebrews 12:1-2). If anyone is to be faithful to God, they must follow the way of the ancient saints and Jesus—they must be ready to lay down their lives for remaining faithful to God (Hebrews 11:1-12:4). They must not hand themselves over for a political entity that will eventually be set aside for God’s kingdom (Acts 5:1-20). Rather, in every way, in all their lives, with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, they must be faithful to God (Mark 12:28-34). Then, no matter what nationality they are, no matter what ethnicity, not matter what language they speak, they are a part of the true Israel (Revelation 5:9-10). God has not set aside Israel for the church—rather, he has expanded Israel to include people of every nation and kingdom who, through Jesus, have remained faithful to him (Romans 11:17).
The Israelis are still most important to God—and the true Israelis are those who are faithful to God through Jesus. Not those who just claim God as theirs, not those who just proclaim the name of Jesus, not those who just cry out to God for help, not those who just study God’s word, not those who just rely on Jesus’ death to save them. (Isaiah 1:15-20,29:13-14) Rather, those who have followed the true way of Abraham, the true way of Jesus, the true way of Israel—the way of enduring faithfulness, obedience and love of God no matter what suffering one must endure to get it (Romans 5:1-5). Those people alone will obtain the promised Israel of God.
Judge With A Right Judgment
None of us want to be judged. We don’t want people to think that we are bad people, or to assume we have evil motivations. At the same time, we often judge others in the very way we do not want to be judged. We make assumptions of others and think badly of others, sometimes even if we do not have evidence for it. And every time we make a negative assumption about someone, we are placing ourselves over them as judge and jury—and we might even sentence them if we have the chance. Of course, Jesus has much to say about judging, but some of it may be surprising to us.
Jesus says that by whatever standard we judge, we will be judged by God. (Matthew 7:1-2)
We are all being judged by God, but unlike us, God is completely just. To be just to us, God will judge us not only by His standard, but by the standard that we think is right or wrong. If we live against the measure of right and wrong we use on others, then we are hypocrites. This means that whatever principles we use to judge other people, God will make us stand against as well. If we judge other’s because they interrupt or are sarcastic, then we will be judged if we interrupt or are sarcastic.
Jesus says that we should not judge by our own standard, but God’s. (Mark 7:6-8)
To prevent us from being judged unnecessarily, we should not think that another is evil, unless they break God’s standard, not our own, or even our society’s. A person might be rude or difficult to be around, but we cannot determine that they are a “bad person” unless they rebel against God’s standard. (To see what God’s standard is, read the tract, “What are sins against God?”)
Jesus says to be aware of our own misconceptions. (John 5:39; Isa 40?)
We think we know what is true and right all the time. But our minds are weak—sometimes we remember things that didn’t happen and sometimes we forget important things about another person. We don’t often understand why someone did something inconceivable to us, although we are often ready to put a negative spin on it. We need to recognize our weaknesses and double check what we think we know, especially if what a person said or did doesn’t make sense to us.
Jesus says to get our facts straight. (Matthew 18:15-16)
Rather than assume why a person did what they did, we need to talk to them and ask. We cannot assume that a person is a bad person or has done something evil unless we have seen it or heard it from their own lips. If we still have a problem with someone, we should bring someone who is objective before the Lord and ask them for their perspective. But we should never take action based on our own (mis)conceptions or assumptions.
Jesus says to accept people, even if they responded wrongly in the past. (Luke 17:3-4)
If someone says that they repent from their actions, we must accept them. If someone says that we are assuming wrong motivations for their actions, we must accept their statement, unless it is a clear lie. If someone has done us wrong in the past and it seems as if they are doing it again, but we have no clear evidence and they say they are not doing it, we must not assume they are lying. Paul says that to act in love is to “keep no record of wrongs.” We must be a people who accepts openly those who have repented—not those looking for a reason to blame or attack another.
Jesus says to not make assumptions about a person based on their group. (Matthew 8:11-12)
We must not determine what someone is like based on their race, the neighborhood they live in, their family or their social group. Every person is different, and we cannot paint a whole group as evil based on the actions of one or two. Rather, we have to determine who each person is by his or her own actions and words.
Jesus says to let mercy rule over judgement. (Matthew 12:7)
There is a time to determine that someone’s action is evil. But if there is no clear evidence for it, then we are to allow mercy to make a decision. We shouldn’t judge someone based on circumstantial evidence. Nor should we see a contradiction and assume that someone is lying—let us do the work of trying to find out how they are telling the truth. Making negative judgements of others is easy, a cop out. Having mercy on others’ is hard work, but it will help us receive mercy from God.
Jesus says that anyone can change with God’s power. (Luke 15)
Jesus says that we are never to determine who someone will be in eternity. We just don’t know. If Paul, one who hated Jesus and Jesus’ people changed to be one who allowed himself to die for others’, then anyone can change and become a person who lives in God. Instead of thinking evil against those who do evil to us, we should pray for them and ask God to give them grace to repent.
Jesus said all judgment is in God’s hands. (Matthew 12:36)
If someone seems to be doing something wrong, but we can’t prove it, we must recognize that all wrongs will be judged in the final day. We do not need to search and discover every wrong every person does, for it is in God’s hands. (I Timothy 5:24)
Judge not by our own ideas or assumptions, but on God’s word and the truth.
Jesus says that by whatever standard we judge, we will be judged by God. (Matthew 7:1-2)
We are all being judged by God, but unlike us, God is completely just. To be just to us, God will judge us not only by His standard, but by the standard that we think is right or wrong. If we live against the measure of right and wrong we use on others, then we are hypocrites. This means that whatever principles we use to judge other people, God will make us stand against as well. If we judge other’s because they interrupt or are sarcastic, then we will be judged if we interrupt or are sarcastic.
Jesus says that we should not judge by our own standard, but God’s. (Mark 7:6-8)
To prevent us from being judged unnecessarily, we should not think that another is evil, unless they break God’s standard, not our own, or even our society’s. A person might be rude or difficult to be around, but we cannot determine that they are a “bad person” unless they rebel against God’s standard. (To see what God’s standard is, read the tract, “What are sins against God?”)
Jesus says to be aware of our own misconceptions. (John 5:39; Isa 40?)
We think we know what is true and right all the time. But our minds are weak—sometimes we remember things that didn’t happen and sometimes we forget important things about another person. We don’t often understand why someone did something inconceivable to us, although we are often ready to put a negative spin on it. We need to recognize our weaknesses and double check what we think we know, especially if what a person said or did doesn’t make sense to us.
Jesus says to get our facts straight. (Matthew 18:15-16)
Rather than assume why a person did what they did, we need to talk to them and ask. We cannot assume that a person is a bad person or has done something evil unless we have seen it or heard it from their own lips. If we still have a problem with someone, we should bring someone who is objective before the Lord and ask them for their perspective. But we should never take action based on our own (mis)conceptions or assumptions.
Jesus says to accept people, even if they responded wrongly in the past. (Luke 17:3-4)
If someone says that they repent from their actions, we must accept them. If someone says that we are assuming wrong motivations for their actions, we must accept their statement, unless it is a clear lie. If someone has done us wrong in the past and it seems as if they are doing it again, but we have no clear evidence and they say they are not doing it, we must not assume they are lying. Paul says that to act in love is to “keep no record of wrongs.” We must be a people who accepts openly those who have repented—not those looking for a reason to blame or attack another.
Jesus says to not make assumptions about a person based on their group. (Matthew 8:11-12)
We must not determine what someone is like based on their race, the neighborhood they live in, their family or their social group. Every person is different, and we cannot paint a whole group as evil based on the actions of one or two. Rather, we have to determine who each person is by his or her own actions and words.
Jesus says to let mercy rule over judgement. (Matthew 12:7)
There is a time to determine that someone’s action is evil. But if there is no clear evidence for it, then we are to allow mercy to make a decision. We shouldn’t judge someone based on circumstantial evidence. Nor should we see a contradiction and assume that someone is lying—let us do the work of trying to find out how they are telling the truth. Making negative judgements of others is easy, a cop out. Having mercy on others’ is hard work, but it will help us receive mercy from God.
Jesus says that anyone can change with God’s power. (Luke 15)
Jesus says that we are never to determine who someone will be in eternity. We just don’t know. If Paul, one who hated Jesus and Jesus’ people changed to be one who allowed himself to die for others’, then anyone can change and become a person who lives in God. Instead of thinking evil against those who do evil to us, we should pray for them and ask God to give them grace to repent.
Jesus said all judgment is in God’s hands. (Matthew 12:36)
If someone seems to be doing something wrong, but we can’t prove it, we must recognize that all wrongs will be judged in the final day. We do not need to search and discover every wrong every person does, for it is in God’s hands. (I Timothy 5:24)
Judge not by our own ideas or assumptions, but on God’s word and the truth.
The Seven Most Important Decisions of Your Life
What are the most important decisions of your life: Who do I marry? What lifestyle do I choose? How do I respond to crises in my life? Who is my core community?
But these decisions aren’t as important as the decisions you make before God. God has more power to change your life than a spouse or crises. These seven decisions will change your life for the better as nothing else will. If you make these decisions, it will help you make the other, less important decisions, and make living with them easier to bear.
1. Decide To be Devoted to God
“You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength.”
Not: to believe in God; to worship God on Sundays
But to: Honor God with your every breath, every movement and thought. Surrendering to God all that you are, and relying on Him to be your strength.
2. Decide To Commit Yourself to Jesus as Lord
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
Not: To believe in Jesus, to pray the “sinner’s prayer”
But to: Recognize Jesus as your king, even if no one else follows him; To obey his law, to submit to his commands, to be his servant.
3. Decide To Join a Group of Followers of Jesus
“Be devoted to encouraging one another to love and good deeds.”
Not: To be a member of a church; decide where I go on Sunday mornings
But to: Seek a group of people who love Jesus with their whole lives who you will share your life with and talk to each other about how you can all better love God and follow Jesus.
4. Decide To Live as Jesus Lived
“I have given you an example that you should do as I did.”
Not: To be nice; to see yourself as better than others
But to: Be Jesus’ representative in every situation; pray as He would pray; love as He would love; serve as He would serve.
5. Decide To Seek Out the Spirit’s Work Through You
“The Father will give the Holy Spirit to whoever keeps asking.”
Not: To get a positive spiritual experience; To receive a miracle
But to: Continually seek the Holy Spirit to do powerful works for the sake of others; Pray for the Spirit daily to work through you and strengthen you.
6. Decide To Love Those You Dislike
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
Not: To be sickly sweet to those who irritate you; To forget the mistakes of others
But to: Forgive what you remember; help the needy who have harmed you; assist everyone who has need, without exception
7. Decide To Surrender Yourself for the Sake of Others
“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”
Not: To complain about how much you have “sacrificed”; to get honor for the work you’ve done
But to: Set aside yourself—your family, your friends, your honor, your loves, your preferences, your irritations, your health, your desires, your hopes, even your very life—for the sake of Jesus and those who need you.
If you have already made all of these decisions, then the rest of your life is simply deepening your decisions, and applying these decisions to more and more of your life.
Don’t Give Yourself Just Part Of A Christian Life—Decide to Do It ALL
But these decisions aren’t as important as the decisions you make before God. God has more power to change your life than a spouse or crises. These seven decisions will change your life for the better as nothing else will. If you make these decisions, it will help you make the other, less important decisions, and make living with them easier to bear.
1. Decide To be Devoted to God
“You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength.”
Not: to believe in God; to worship God on Sundays
But to: Honor God with your every breath, every movement and thought. Surrendering to God all that you are, and relying on Him to be your strength.
2. Decide To Commit Yourself to Jesus as Lord
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
Not: To believe in Jesus, to pray the “sinner’s prayer”
But to: Recognize Jesus as your king, even if no one else follows him; To obey his law, to submit to his commands, to be his servant.
3. Decide To Join a Group of Followers of Jesus
“Be devoted to encouraging one another to love and good deeds.”
Not: To be a member of a church; decide where I go on Sunday mornings
But to: Seek a group of people who love Jesus with their whole lives who you will share your life with and talk to each other about how you can all better love God and follow Jesus.
4. Decide To Live as Jesus Lived
“I have given you an example that you should do as I did.”
Not: To be nice; to see yourself as better than others
But to: Be Jesus’ representative in every situation; pray as He would pray; love as He would love; serve as He would serve.
5. Decide To Seek Out the Spirit’s Work Through You
“The Father will give the Holy Spirit to whoever keeps asking.”
Not: To get a positive spiritual experience; To receive a miracle
But to: Continually seek the Holy Spirit to do powerful works for the sake of others; Pray for the Spirit daily to work through you and strengthen you.
6. Decide To Love Those You Dislike
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
Not: To be sickly sweet to those who irritate you; To forget the mistakes of others
But to: Forgive what you remember; help the needy who have harmed you; assist everyone who has need, without exception
7. Decide To Surrender Yourself for the Sake of Others
“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”
Not: To complain about how much you have “sacrificed”; to get honor for the work you’ve done
But to: Set aside yourself—your family, your friends, your honor, your loves, your preferences, your irritations, your health, your desires, your hopes, even your very life—for the sake of Jesus and those who need you.
If you have already made all of these decisions, then the rest of your life is simply deepening your decisions, and applying these decisions to more and more of your life.
Don’t Give Yourself Just Part Of A Christian Life—Decide to Do It ALL
Judgement, Cheap Grace and Mercy
· Judgment is immediate. It demands the quick decision and the sentence is as swift and demanding as a guillotine.
· Mercy is slow. Mercy takes its time, deliberating, mulling over options. Mercy is often second-guessing itself, repenting of former decisions as repentance is made known.
· Cheap Grace is careless. It cares not what the issues are, and is as swift in its decision of forgiveness as judgment is of condemnation.
· Judgment is simple. Black and white, clear cut, no recourse, no compromise. Judgment sees all situations from a demanding, no fills position.
· Mercy seeks truth—no matter how messy. It deliberates, considers, ponders, discusses—but not without a goal. Mercy plods, the tortoise who wins the race, slow and steady. Mercy understands that truth cannot be found in a headline, but in a feature article based on many interviews.
· Cheap Grace triumphs the ignorant. There is no need for determinations, deliberations or decisions. The decision has already been made—freedom and blessing for all, no matter what the situation.
· Judgment focuses on the law as a principle. “The law is a standard which once broken cannot be mended. It is the Humpty Dumpty of God. It is an ancient china doll, needing to be placed behind glass—protected, served, and loved from a distance.” But the law of judgment is cold, hard and sharp as a steel blade. Judgment claims to be for the good of society, but the only one who benefits is Judgment itself.
· Mercy loves the law as a benefit to others. The law is to “love your neighbor,” thus mercy is the heart of the law. The law is to train us in mercy, to see the Other as the beneficiary of all of our actions. Mercy considers the well-being of all—even the law-breaker. Mercy’s law is comforting, light, for it always seeks the benefit of all.
· Cheap Grace discards the law. “The law was a plaything of youth, but is to be set aside as unworthy of consideration. Grace has set aside all law, especially the law of Jesus, as unworthy of God.” Cheap Grace claims to speak for Mercy, but denies the heart of God.
· Judgment demands recompense. Judgment seeks equity to the cost of the action of the law-breaker. “You broke it, you pay for it.” It seeks a balanced account book for which each debit has its equal and opposite credit—the coin of which is blood and dishonor.
· Mercy pursues reconciliation. Mercy can lead to dishonor, should repentance be the flip side of that coin. Mercy pleads for restoration, constantly seeking an ingathering together for all the saints.
· Cheap Grace rejects cost. Cheap Grace points to Calvary and claims that all had been accomplished there. Cheap Grace ignores the man who said, “All who would follow me must take up their own cross daily.” Cheap Grace demands no personal cost, no change, no death, no discipline, and so gains no gift, no new creation, no life, no restoration.
· Judgment has no escape. Once judged, there is no exit. The sentence is irrevocable, the differences irreconcilable, the community ununitable.
· Mercy offers an out—repentance. The one who has harmed another—and so has defied the law—has an opportunity to be brought back under the law. To repent, to reconcile is the extent that Mercy demands, and will seek any way to achieve that goal.
· Cheap Grace is unconditional forgiveness. It is spiritual bloodletting—seeking to heal the patient, while ignorantly killing him. Cheap Grace sees no need to gather in, to restore, for there was no separation.
· Judgment demands payment from the lawbreaker. As the law suffered, so must the criminal. As society was harmed, so must the harmer. Judgment claims the lost deserve nothing, and so gives nothing.
· Mercy sacrifices. Restoration also has a price, and the merciful takes that price on oneself. Mercy pays whatever the cost so the sinner can be restored. Mercy groans in prayer, endures attacks, forgives debts against it, pays debts against others, sacrifices its comfort, its family, its friendships, its resources, its very life—all for the sake of the lost.
· Cheap Grace gleefully ignores cost. It is the thief, stealing from God’s honor. Cheap Grace receives no payment, demands nothing, gives nothing, since there is no debt incurred. Cheap Grace celebrates at the foot of grace delivered, but ignores the call of grace transferred to others. Cheap Grace requires nothing and so gains nothing.
· Judgment never forgets. It is the elephant of virtues. It never trusts, never believes, never forgives, never restores. Judgment says “Once a sinner, always a sinner.”
· Mercy gives the benefit of the doubt. Mercy does not forget, but allows complete restoration, a rebuilding of trust. Mercy believes in new creation, a new life, which has nothing to do with the old.
· Cheap Grace always trusts, even the hypocrite. It always believes, even the liar. It always forgives, even the unrepentant. It accepts everyone and everything—except God’s truth.
· Judgment is Satan. Judgment is the accuser of the brethren, the murderer of humanity for the sake of a bloodless law. It is the prosecutor seeking the death penalty.
· Mercy is Jesus. It is the self-sacrificer, the reconciler to God, the perfect sacrifice. Mercy is the one who said, “Go and sin no more,” “The one whom the Son sets free is free indeed,” “I have come to seek and save the lost,” “Unless you repent you will likewise perish,” “I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance,” “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.”
· Cheap Grace is the Flesh. It is self-seeking, self-upholding, self-deceptive. Ultimately, it upholds what is abhorrent to God as the will of God. They practice sin and gives approval to those who practice it.
· Judgment is a liar. It claims that God does not forgive, sees the sin and not the sinner. It denies the power of God to change the one in Jesus. It is lost, for it has forsaken the mercy of Jesus. Those in the power of Judgment will die by God’s hand—“Judge and you will be judged.”
· Cheap Grace is a liar. It claims that God’s standard is flexible, and so non-existent. It loves the lost to such a degree that it cannot be separated from the lost. It causes the lost to remain lost, and so dead. Those in the power of Cheap Grace will die by God’s hand—“Whoever does not obey the Son will not see life.”
· Mercy is the truth of God. It upholds the law, which is to love all. It demands love, even as it offers love. It demands forgiveness, even as it offers forgiveness. It demands sacrifice, even as it sacrifices. It demands purity, even as it offers purity. It demands devotion to God, even as it offers devotion to God. “Be imitators of God, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”
Mercy stands with God over against Judgment and Cheap Grace
· Mercy is slow. Mercy takes its time, deliberating, mulling over options. Mercy is often second-guessing itself, repenting of former decisions as repentance is made known.
· Cheap Grace is careless. It cares not what the issues are, and is as swift in its decision of forgiveness as judgment is of condemnation.
· Judgment is simple. Black and white, clear cut, no recourse, no compromise. Judgment sees all situations from a demanding, no fills position.
· Mercy seeks truth—no matter how messy. It deliberates, considers, ponders, discusses—but not without a goal. Mercy plods, the tortoise who wins the race, slow and steady. Mercy understands that truth cannot be found in a headline, but in a feature article based on many interviews.
· Cheap Grace triumphs the ignorant. There is no need for determinations, deliberations or decisions. The decision has already been made—freedom and blessing for all, no matter what the situation.
· Judgment focuses on the law as a principle. “The law is a standard which once broken cannot be mended. It is the Humpty Dumpty of God. It is an ancient china doll, needing to be placed behind glass—protected, served, and loved from a distance.” But the law of judgment is cold, hard and sharp as a steel blade. Judgment claims to be for the good of society, but the only one who benefits is Judgment itself.
· Mercy loves the law as a benefit to others. The law is to “love your neighbor,” thus mercy is the heart of the law. The law is to train us in mercy, to see the Other as the beneficiary of all of our actions. Mercy considers the well-being of all—even the law-breaker. Mercy’s law is comforting, light, for it always seeks the benefit of all.
· Cheap Grace discards the law. “The law was a plaything of youth, but is to be set aside as unworthy of consideration. Grace has set aside all law, especially the law of Jesus, as unworthy of God.” Cheap Grace claims to speak for Mercy, but denies the heart of God.
· Judgment demands recompense. Judgment seeks equity to the cost of the action of the law-breaker. “You broke it, you pay for it.” It seeks a balanced account book for which each debit has its equal and opposite credit—the coin of which is blood and dishonor.
· Mercy pursues reconciliation. Mercy can lead to dishonor, should repentance be the flip side of that coin. Mercy pleads for restoration, constantly seeking an ingathering together for all the saints.
· Cheap Grace rejects cost. Cheap Grace points to Calvary and claims that all had been accomplished there. Cheap Grace ignores the man who said, “All who would follow me must take up their own cross daily.” Cheap Grace demands no personal cost, no change, no death, no discipline, and so gains no gift, no new creation, no life, no restoration.
· Judgment has no escape. Once judged, there is no exit. The sentence is irrevocable, the differences irreconcilable, the community ununitable.
· Mercy offers an out—repentance. The one who has harmed another—and so has defied the law—has an opportunity to be brought back under the law. To repent, to reconcile is the extent that Mercy demands, and will seek any way to achieve that goal.
· Cheap Grace is unconditional forgiveness. It is spiritual bloodletting—seeking to heal the patient, while ignorantly killing him. Cheap Grace sees no need to gather in, to restore, for there was no separation.
· Judgment demands payment from the lawbreaker. As the law suffered, so must the criminal. As society was harmed, so must the harmer. Judgment claims the lost deserve nothing, and so gives nothing.
· Mercy sacrifices. Restoration also has a price, and the merciful takes that price on oneself. Mercy pays whatever the cost so the sinner can be restored. Mercy groans in prayer, endures attacks, forgives debts against it, pays debts against others, sacrifices its comfort, its family, its friendships, its resources, its very life—all for the sake of the lost.
· Cheap Grace gleefully ignores cost. It is the thief, stealing from God’s honor. Cheap Grace receives no payment, demands nothing, gives nothing, since there is no debt incurred. Cheap Grace celebrates at the foot of grace delivered, but ignores the call of grace transferred to others. Cheap Grace requires nothing and so gains nothing.
· Judgment never forgets. It is the elephant of virtues. It never trusts, never believes, never forgives, never restores. Judgment says “Once a sinner, always a sinner.”
· Mercy gives the benefit of the doubt. Mercy does not forget, but allows complete restoration, a rebuilding of trust. Mercy believes in new creation, a new life, which has nothing to do with the old.
· Cheap Grace always trusts, even the hypocrite. It always believes, even the liar. It always forgives, even the unrepentant. It accepts everyone and everything—except God’s truth.
· Judgment is Satan. Judgment is the accuser of the brethren, the murderer of humanity for the sake of a bloodless law. It is the prosecutor seeking the death penalty.
· Mercy is Jesus. It is the self-sacrificer, the reconciler to God, the perfect sacrifice. Mercy is the one who said, “Go and sin no more,” “The one whom the Son sets free is free indeed,” “I have come to seek and save the lost,” “Unless you repent you will likewise perish,” “I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance,” “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.”
· Cheap Grace is the Flesh. It is self-seeking, self-upholding, self-deceptive. Ultimately, it upholds what is abhorrent to God as the will of God. They practice sin and gives approval to those who practice it.
· Judgment is a liar. It claims that God does not forgive, sees the sin and not the sinner. It denies the power of God to change the one in Jesus. It is lost, for it has forsaken the mercy of Jesus. Those in the power of Judgment will die by God’s hand—“Judge and you will be judged.”
· Cheap Grace is a liar. It claims that God’s standard is flexible, and so non-existent. It loves the lost to such a degree that it cannot be separated from the lost. It causes the lost to remain lost, and so dead. Those in the power of Cheap Grace will die by God’s hand—“Whoever does not obey the Son will not see life.”
· Mercy is the truth of God. It upholds the law, which is to love all. It demands love, even as it offers love. It demands forgiveness, even as it offers forgiveness. It demands sacrifice, even as it sacrifices. It demands purity, even as it offers purity. It demands devotion to God, even as it offers devotion to God. “Be imitators of God, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”
Mercy stands with God over against Judgment and Cheap Grace
How To Love Idiots
“Love one another,” “Treat others as you would be treated,” “Love your neighbor as yourself” “Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful” “Love your enemy, do good to those who hate you”— Jesus was clear, that loving those around us is our most important task, apart from being faithful to God. And yet, it is funny how we often take our relationships for granted (unless we are dating someone we really like). We assume that we treat everyone fairly and with love—even though sometimes it is “tough love”—and we expect to be treated fairly in return.
However, dealing with people is the most difficult task imaginable—just ask God, He has a terrible time with it! Jesus told us that our relationships should be a major priority in our lives just because they would be so difficult to maintain! Jesus didn’t tell us to treat everyone with fairness, but with love and humility. And this means, often, that we need to set aside our own ideals and focus on someone else’s needs and goals. We cannot love if we are just thinking about being “fair” in relationships. To love we must sacrifice and reach out.
1. Meet others needs
When Jesus taught about love, he did not mean that love is a feeling, or a response, or a particular kind of relationship. Rather, when Jesus said, “love” he meant an action. To love is to act in the other person’s benefit, whatever that means. And the most basic way of doing what will help another person is to make an attempt to meet their needs. This is why when Scripture talks about Christian duty, it describes feeding the poor, visiting the sick and welcoming the stranger. Because loving means seeing the need and doing your best to meet it.
But we also need to recognize that people need more than bread and clothes. Jesus himself did much more than meet people’s physical needs—although that was a big part of what he did. Fundamentally, people feel that they have the following needs:
· Survival—Having one’s basic needs met, such as hunger, sleep and health
· Security—Feeling safe from what one fears
· Inner Peace—A sense of contentment with life
· Pleasure—Enjoyment and laughter
· Honor—A sense of being significant to others
· Society—Feeling a part of others and communicating with them
There are other needs that we have—a relationship with God, understanding significant truths, a sense of being a “good person”, but we don’t always feel these needs. The six above we feel almost every day at one point or another, and they deeply control our sense of well-being and color our perception of everything around us. When Jesus met needs, he recognized that people not only needed their “survival” needs met, but also the other ones. Especially in his teaching, he wanted people to feel secure, to have peace, to have joy, to gain honor and to be a part of a good society.
Even so, when we are looking to meet people’s needs, we need not only look at survival needs, although those are foundationally important. But we must also remember to give people respect, to ease people’s fears, to help them laugh and enjoy themselves, to just communicate with others. In doing all of this, we are loving. And all of it is acting in love.
2. Be Humble
Perhaps when you picked up this tract, you thought, “Oh good—I’ve got a lot of idiots I’m supposed to love.” However, the most important lesson Jesus taught us in loving others is “the first shall be last and the last first.” If we really want to love others, the first step is to remember that, more often than not, WE are the idiots, not the people around us. Rather than thinking, “I wish so-and-so could read this tract,” you need to take responsibility for your own idiocy in relationships. If we are really going to love, we need to be humble. How can we do that?
· If a mistake was made, give others the benefit of the doubt
· Take blame upon yourself, instead of pushing it on others
· Focus on what other’s need, not yourself
· If changes need to be made in communication, take as much responsibility on yourself as you can
· Pray for other’s blessing—especially those you are in conflict with
If we place ourselves in the giving position, then we will find that we can actually deserve the honor we might expect others to give to us—whether we get it or not. Most importantly, assume that the other person is trying to be as good and as polite as they can. You may feel that they are acting rude or badly or stupidly. But, chances are, they are not. They are just trying to meet their needs, just like you are.
3. Recognize differences in communication
Another way we can be humble is to recognize that, more often than not, the people around us are not idiots, or jerks, or rude, but they have different communication patterns than we do. If we see someone who looks like an immigrant come up to us and speak loudly in a foreign language, waving his hands, we would not think he was rude, but that he just didn’t have the same customs that we do. But if we see someone speak to us in our language, with our accent, speaking loudly and waving her hands, we would think that she is rude, or possibly have some mental problems. But some people grow up in situations in which speaking loudly (or quietly) and using expansive gestures (or using none at all) is normal, and they are just trying to speak to us normally. We do not feel that it is normal at all—we feel that it is rude, or that they have a problem with us. But often it is not that case at all. We have to take account of other’s different way of speaking.
For instance, different people have a different sense of how long one must pause to allow another person to speak. If one person expects people to talk over her, then she might not give anyone else a chance to speak, and so feel that no one is interested in what she is talking about, because no one is responding. On the other hand, another person might feel that she is hogging up all the time to speak because she won’t stop for a few seconds so they can chime in. Neither person is rude, they just don’t understand how the other person communicates.
There are many kinds of communication differences: How much space to give another person when talking, how direct or indirect one’s requests should be, what kind of touching is appropriate between people, how people should apologize, and how a conversation should begin. Instead of assuming others are “idiots”, perhaps we should try their kind of communication with them and see if they respond positively to it.
4. Respond Positively to Interactions
Every time we communicate with others, we may have as many as a hundred interactions with them in ten minutes. With everything people say to us, we are reacting—even if we think we are giving a neutral or a non-response. With every bit of communication, we either respond with them—on their side—against them or just ignoring them. In a positive relationship, up to 9 out of 10 responses will be positive. If even four out of ten of the responses one gives is offensive or ignoring the other, then the relationship is rapidly going downhill, and may never recover unless something is done.
A negative response to someone doesn’t mean that you can’t disagree with them. On the contrary, two people could be having a conflict, but their reactions are positive toward each other. It is HOW they disagree. If they keep the conversation upbeat, break the heavy discussion with humor sometimes, always show respect for the other person and the relationship, then even a conflict can be a positive relationship. However, if a conversation is characterized by biting sarcasm, insults, outbursts of anger, threats, treating the other like a child, or simply ignoring what another person says, then that conversation will tear down the relationship.
In loving others, we need to work on our communication, so we always try to respond positively. This does not mean just ending the conversation on an upbeat note, but trying to communicate in a positive way throughout the conversation. This can be difficult, and we can make many mistakes along the way, but with God’s help we can do it—even to those who have hurt us.
5. Find the True Meaning behind the Words
None of us means what we say. Most of our communication is a parable of what we really mean. We often ask “how are you?”, but we almost never are looking for a doctor’s diagnosis. A husband may say “I love you,” but not at that moment feel a surge of emotion for his wife. Our child may say, “I don’t feel good,” but they might just be emotionally hurt, not having a physical ailment. Even so, quite a bit of our words have meaning that is not stated directly in the words we used.
And it isn’t only words. I could say, “My mother in law is coming to visit,” and depending on the look on my face or my tone of voice, I would communicate to you whether I liked that idea or not. But if you didn’t understand my non verbal communication—you heard disgust in my voice when I was trying to communicate with my face happy anticipation—then we will get our wires crossed and spend time trying to unravel the miscommunication.
Or we might get into a conflict with another person, and we can argue about the silliest things—whether the sky is actually sky blue or not—whatever. But if we get into a conflict, often the conflict is not about what we are directly discussing. Perhaps the argument is about how one communicates. Or it could be about a long-held ideal or dream that hasn’t been communicated yet. And the conflict could go on eternally without resolution, because the true meaning of the conflict hasn’t yet been discussed.
If the person we are communicating with understands our indirect communication, fine, no problem. However, every time we use indirect communication, we are taking the chance that the other person might misunderstand. And then we don’t understand what they misunderstood because we communicated as clearly as we could—or so we thought.
We need to do our best to get behind the simple meaning of the words. And how do we do this? We ask. We tell the other person what they think they meant by a face or an argument, and give them a chance to explain in a different way.
6. Listen Carefully
Jesus told us that we must “Be careful how you listen.” It is never enough to just listen, but we must listen in a way that communicates. Even our listening communicates a reaction to what others say. And how we listen can either meet others needs or tear them down.
If we do not look like we are listening to the other person, then they think we are ignoring them and they are not important to us. One person may expect someone to look at her when she is talking, but her partner may need to look at the floor to concentrate. Even if he can repeat everything she said, she will still not feel listened to, but ignored. When listening, we need to show that we are interested, in the best way we can, in the way the person we are listening to understands.
We might ask questions, but not too many. We might make listening “noises” like “uh huh”, but not too often. We might nod, but not too excitedly. If we do not do these things enough, the other will think that we are ignoring them. But if we do these things too much, then the other person will think that we are not trying to listen, but to take over the conversation. We must find the right balance for each person.
The most important part of listening in love is two things: First, don’t be trying to force your agenda on the other person. Let them say what they need to say. Second, do your best to give them your full attention. Because we live in a society in which everyone feels that everyone is too busy to listen, this is the best gift that anyone can give.
(Thanks to the work of John M Gottman and Deborah Tannan)
However, dealing with people is the most difficult task imaginable—just ask God, He has a terrible time with it! Jesus told us that our relationships should be a major priority in our lives just because they would be so difficult to maintain! Jesus didn’t tell us to treat everyone with fairness, but with love and humility. And this means, often, that we need to set aside our own ideals and focus on someone else’s needs and goals. We cannot love if we are just thinking about being “fair” in relationships. To love we must sacrifice and reach out.
1. Meet others needs
When Jesus taught about love, he did not mean that love is a feeling, or a response, or a particular kind of relationship. Rather, when Jesus said, “love” he meant an action. To love is to act in the other person’s benefit, whatever that means. And the most basic way of doing what will help another person is to make an attempt to meet their needs. This is why when Scripture talks about Christian duty, it describes feeding the poor, visiting the sick and welcoming the stranger. Because loving means seeing the need and doing your best to meet it.
But we also need to recognize that people need more than bread and clothes. Jesus himself did much more than meet people’s physical needs—although that was a big part of what he did. Fundamentally, people feel that they have the following needs:
· Survival—Having one’s basic needs met, such as hunger, sleep and health
· Security—Feeling safe from what one fears
· Inner Peace—A sense of contentment with life
· Pleasure—Enjoyment and laughter
· Honor—A sense of being significant to others
· Society—Feeling a part of others and communicating with them
There are other needs that we have—a relationship with God, understanding significant truths, a sense of being a “good person”, but we don’t always feel these needs. The six above we feel almost every day at one point or another, and they deeply control our sense of well-being and color our perception of everything around us. When Jesus met needs, he recognized that people not only needed their “survival” needs met, but also the other ones. Especially in his teaching, he wanted people to feel secure, to have peace, to have joy, to gain honor and to be a part of a good society.
Even so, when we are looking to meet people’s needs, we need not only look at survival needs, although those are foundationally important. But we must also remember to give people respect, to ease people’s fears, to help them laugh and enjoy themselves, to just communicate with others. In doing all of this, we are loving. And all of it is acting in love.
2. Be Humble
Perhaps when you picked up this tract, you thought, “Oh good—I’ve got a lot of idiots I’m supposed to love.” However, the most important lesson Jesus taught us in loving others is “the first shall be last and the last first.” If we really want to love others, the first step is to remember that, more often than not, WE are the idiots, not the people around us. Rather than thinking, “I wish so-and-so could read this tract,” you need to take responsibility for your own idiocy in relationships. If we are really going to love, we need to be humble. How can we do that?
· If a mistake was made, give others the benefit of the doubt
· Take blame upon yourself, instead of pushing it on others
· Focus on what other’s need, not yourself
· If changes need to be made in communication, take as much responsibility on yourself as you can
· Pray for other’s blessing—especially those you are in conflict with
If we place ourselves in the giving position, then we will find that we can actually deserve the honor we might expect others to give to us—whether we get it or not. Most importantly, assume that the other person is trying to be as good and as polite as they can. You may feel that they are acting rude or badly or stupidly. But, chances are, they are not. They are just trying to meet their needs, just like you are.
3. Recognize differences in communication
Another way we can be humble is to recognize that, more often than not, the people around us are not idiots, or jerks, or rude, but they have different communication patterns than we do. If we see someone who looks like an immigrant come up to us and speak loudly in a foreign language, waving his hands, we would not think he was rude, but that he just didn’t have the same customs that we do. But if we see someone speak to us in our language, with our accent, speaking loudly and waving her hands, we would think that she is rude, or possibly have some mental problems. But some people grow up in situations in which speaking loudly (or quietly) and using expansive gestures (or using none at all) is normal, and they are just trying to speak to us normally. We do not feel that it is normal at all—we feel that it is rude, or that they have a problem with us. But often it is not that case at all. We have to take account of other’s different way of speaking.
For instance, different people have a different sense of how long one must pause to allow another person to speak. If one person expects people to talk over her, then she might not give anyone else a chance to speak, and so feel that no one is interested in what she is talking about, because no one is responding. On the other hand, another person might feel that she is hogging up all the time to speak because she won’t stop for a few seconds so they can chime in. Neither person is rude, they just don’t understand how the other person communicates.
There are many kinds of communication differences: How much space to give another person when talking, how direct or indirect one’s requests should be, what kind of touching is appropriate between people, how people should apologize, and how a conversation should begin. Instead of assuming others are “idiots”, perhaps we should try their kind of communication with them and see if they respond positively to it.
4. Respond Positively to Interactions
Every time we communicate with others, we may have as many as a hundred interactions with them in ten minutes. With everything people say to us, we are reacting—even if we think we are giving a neutral or a non-response. With every bit of communication, we either respond with them—on their side—against them or just ignoring them. In a positive relationship, up to 9 out of 10 responses will be positive. If even four out of ten of the responses one gives is offensive or ignoring the other, then the relationship is rapidly going downhill, and may never recover unless something is done.
A negative response to someone doesn’t mean that you can’t disagree with them. On the contrary, two people could be having a conflict, but their reactions are positive toward each other. It is HOW they disagree. If they keep the conversation upbeat, break the heavy discussion with humor sometimes, always show respect for the other person and the relationship, then even a conflict can be a positive relationship. However, if a conversation is characterized by biting sarcasm, insults, outbursts of anger, threats, treating the other like a child, or simply ignoring what another person says, then that conversation will tear down the relationship.
In loving others, we need to work on our communication, so we always try to respond positively. This does not mean just ending the conversation on an upbeat note, but trying to communicate in a positive way throughout the conversation. This can be difficult, and we can make many mistakes along the way, but with God’s help we can do it—even to those who have hurt us.
5. Find the True Meaning behind the Words
None of us means what we say. Most of our communication is a parable of what we really mean. We often ask “how are you?”, but we almost never are looking for a doctor’s diagnosis. A husband may say “I love you,” but not at that moment feel a surge of emotion for his wife. Our child may say, “I don’t feel good,” but they might just be emotionally hurt, not having a physical ailment. Even so, quite a bit of our words have meaning that is not stated directly in the words we used.
And it isn’t only words. I could say, “My mother in law is coming to visit,” and depending on the look on my face or my tone of voice, I would communicate to you whether I liked that idea or not. But if you didn’t understand my non verbal communication—you heard disgust in my voice when I was trying to communicate with my face happy anticipation—then we will get our wires crossed and spend time trying to unravel the miscommunication.
Or we might get into a conflict with another person, and we can argue about the silliest things—whether the sky is actually sky blue or not—whatever. But if we get into a conflict, often the conflict is not about what we are directly discussing. Perhaps the argument is about how one communicates. Or it could be about a long-held ideal or dream that hasn’t been communicated yet. And the conflict could go on eternally without resolution, because the true meaning of the conflict hasn’t yet been discussed.
If the person we are communicating with understands our indirect communication, fine, no problem. However, every time we use indirect communication, we are taking the chance that the other person might misunderstand. And then we don’t understand what they misunderstood because we communicated as clearly as we could—or so we thought.
We need to do our best to get behind the simple meaning of the words. And how do we do this? We ask. We tell the other person what they think they meant by a face or an argument, and give them a chance to explain in a different way.
6. Listen Carefully
Jesus told us that we must “Be careful how you listen.” It is never enough to just listen, but we must listen in a way that communicates. Even our listening communicates a reaction to what others say. And how we listen can either meet others needs or tear them down.
If we do not look like we are listening to the other person, then they think we are ignoring them and they are not important to us. One person may expect someone to look at her when she is talking, but her partner may need to look at the floor to concentrate. Even if he can repeat everything she said, she will still not feel listened to, but ignored. When listening, we need to show that we are interested, in the best way we can, in the way the person we are listening to understands.
We might ask questions, but not too many. We might make listening “noises” like “uh huh”, but not too often. We might nod, but not too excitedly. If we do not do these things enough, the other will think that we are ignoring them. But if we do these things too much, then the other person will think that we are not trying to listen, but to take over the conversation. We must find the right balance for each person.
The most important part of listening in love is two things: First, don’t be trying to force your agenda on the other person. Let them say what they need to say. Second, do your best to give them your full attention. Because we live in a society in which everyone feels that everyone is too busy to listen, this is the best gift that anyone can give.
(Thanks to the work of John M Gottman and Deborah Tannan)
Is Islam Evil?
Many Christian teachers are speaking much about Islam. Some say that Islam is a terrible evil that God must destroy. Some declare that Islam is a religion similar to the Bible or Jesus. Both sides are exaggerating the truth, and it is our responsibility as Christians to make a decision about truth in accordance with mercy, not exaggerations that try to make our personal opinion. Below is the truth about Islam in relation to the teachings of the Bible.
1. Intellectually, Allah is the same as Eloyah
The word “Allah” is not the name of some moon god, but is the Arabic translation of the Hebrew word for God, “Eloyah”, which comes from “Elohim,” translated in modern translations, “God”. There is less evidence that the word, “Allah” is blasphemous than the English word, “God”. Also, when the Qur’an—the holy book of Muslims—and when Muslims themselves speak of Allah, they use the same description Christians and Jews do about Elohim—God is one, all-powerful, sovereign, forgiving, and merciful.
However, most Muslims limit God’s ability
Most Muslims do not emphasize what Jesus and the prophets emphasize—that God works through his people’s suffering, and that he gives his Spirit of power to those who ask. Most of the time, when speaking about God, they limit God’s ability to providence, or the moving of events in this world. They are unable to hear God or to ask for miracles from their devotion.
Father, we pray that you would give our Muslim friends the ability to understand you in fullness, and to worship you in Spirit and in Truth.
2. The Qur’an speaks higher of Jesus than Muhammad
The Qur’an says amazing things about Jesus. The Qur’an uses the name “Isa” for Jesus and says that he is the Messiah, the Word of God, and the receiver of God’s spirit. The Qur’an says that he was born of the virgin Mary, performed miracles, did no sin, that he died and was resurrected and that he would judge on the last day. However, the Qur’an, in speaking of Muhammad, says that he is a sinner, that he had performed no miracle, and that he be able to speak for no one on the last day.
However, most Muslims do not understand Jesus
Even though the Qur’an teaches all this about Jesus, most Muslims do not know this teaching. They just recognize Jesus as one of many prophets. And the Qur’an does not teach that Jesus’ death cleanses us from sin or that to have faith in God through Jesus is the only way of gaining God’s salvation.
Father, show our Muslim friends that salvation is only found in Jesus.
3. Islam is firm against idolatry
The subject of the majority of the Qur’an is opposition to worshipping false gods and idols. The most terrible sin in Islam is “shirk” which means the sharing of God’s majesty with another. The Qur’an often reads like a text from the Old Testament that denounces idolatry. It is a bold statement for the worship of the Most High God.
However, Islam judges some not participating in idolatry as guilty of shirk
The Qur’an denounces anyone who calls the Son as one with God, for that would be the sin of shirk. Many Muslims also denounce any representation of any prophet or symbolic representation of God as shirk. They would declare that anyone doing these things are heretics or apostates.
Father, teach our Muslim friends how to judge according to your word, not their own ideas.
4. The Qur’an speaks well of Christians and Jews
The Qur’an calls Jews and Christians “the people of the Book” and declare that they should not be treated as unbelievers. Rather, the Qur’an says that the Muslim should go to Christians and Jews to learn what is written in the Injeel (the words of Jesus) and the Tora (the words of Moses), as well as other prophets.
However, the Qur’an also speaks of enacting violence against unbelievers
Some Muslims have declared many Christians and Jews to be their enemies and unbelievers, and so should be counted among those whom the Qur’an says should be slain. Many Muslims teach that the Injeel and the Tora have been corrupted over the years and so are unworthy of being read. And a few believe that war should be declared against those who have opposed the truths of Muhammad they express. Before we judge Muslims for this, we must remember how many Christians support the killing of enemies, when their Lord commanded that they love their enemies.
Father, help both Muslims and Christians do good to one another and learn of the way of Jesus.
5. Muslims devote themselves to God many times daily
Most devote Muslims declare their loyalty to God many times a day, declaring him to be forgiving and merciful. They are faithful in their prayers, and they wish to show themselves as God’s servants. The word “islam” means “submission to God” and the word “muslim” means “one who is submitted.” The whole purpose of being a Muslim is to devote ones whole life and community to God.
However, most Muslims act without regard to God’s ways
When it comes to everyday life, Muslims are as prone to follow their own desires as any other person. They will hate, gossip, lie and cheat in their everyday life—even as most Christians do.
Father, help us to live out your ways as well as speak your words. May we all have your Spirit to live your life.
6. Muslims give to the poor
Most devote Muslims separate 2.5% of what they earn specifically to the poor. This income is used to build orphanages and to help beggars in need. Although this sounds meager compared to a ten percent tithe, Muslims worldwide give a larger percentage of their income to the poor than Christians do worldwide.
However, most Muslims lack compassion in their giving
Muslims, however, lack the commands Christians do to give with compassion, love and without any self-interest. Many Muslims do give selflessly, especially through hospitality to strangers, but many more give out of their own self-interest and hopes of recognition. Jesus teaches that giving out of self-recognition would not be rewarded by God.
Father, through Jesus and the Spirit may your compassion rest upon our Muslim friends.
Conclusion: Is Islam evil? Not really—it is more incomplete than anything else. It does a fine job to teach pagans to worship the one true God, but it does not teach the ethical standards of Jesus, or show his example. Most Muslims are not evil, but they are misled. If they knew more about their own holy book, as well as the words of Jesus and Moses that the Qur’an affirms, they might know who the real Prophet and Savior is—Jesus. Let us pray for Muslims in our communities and around the world so that they could know the whole truth and that the truth would free them from oppression.
1. Intellectually, Allah is the same as Eloyah
The word “Allah” is not the name of some moon god, but is the Arabic translation of the Hebrew word for God, “Eloyah”, which comes from “Elohim,” translated in modern translations, “God”. There is less evidence that the word, “Allah” is blasphemous than the English word, “God”. Also, when the Qur’an—the holy book of Muslims—and when Muslims themselves speak of Allah, they use the same description Christians and Jews do about Elohim—God is one, all-powerful, sovereign, forgiving, and merciful.
However, most Muslims limit God’s ability
Most Muslims do not emphasize what Jesus and the prophets emphasize—that God works through his people’s suffering, and that he gives his Spirit of power to those who ask. Most of the time, when speaking about God, they limit God’s ability to providence, or the moving of events in this world. They are unable to hear God or to ask for miracles from their devotion.
Father, we pray that you would give our Muslim friends the ability to understand you in fullness, and to worship you in Spirit and in Truth.
2. The Qur’an speaks higher of Jesus than Muhammad
The Qur’an says amazing things about Jesus. The Qur’an uses the name “Isa” for Jesus and says that he is the Messiah, the Word of God, and the receiver of God’s spirit. The Qur’an says that he was born of the virgin Mary, performed miracles, did no sin, that he died and was resurrected and that he would judge on the last day. However, the Qur’an, in speaking of Muhammad, says that he is a sinner, that he had performed no miracle, and that he be able to speak for no one on the last day.
However, most Muslims do not understand Jesus
Even though the Qur’an teaches all this about Jesus, most Muslims do not know this teaching. They just recognize Jesus as one of many prophets. And the Qur’an does not teach that Jesus’ death cleanses us from sin or that to have faith in God through Jesus is the only way of gaining God’s salvation.
Father, show our Muslim friends that salvation is only found in Jesus.
3. Islam is firm against idolatry
The subject of the majority of the Qur’an is opposition to worshipping false gods and idols. The most terrible sin in Islam is “shirk” which means the sharing of God’s majesty with another. The Qur’an often reads like a text from the Old Testament that denounces idolatry. It is a bold statement for the worship of the Most High God.
However, Islam judges some not participating in idolatry as guilty of shirk
The Qur’an denounces anyone who calls the Son as one with God, for that would be the sin of shirk. Many Muslims also denounce any representation of any prophet or symbolic representation of God as shirk. They would declare that anyone doing these things are heretics or apostates.
Father, teach our Muslim friends how to judge according to your word, not their own ideas.
4. The Qur’an speaks well of Christians and Jews
The Qur’an calls Jews and Christians “the people of the Book” and declare that they should not be treated as unbelievers. Rather, the Qur’an says that the Muslim should go to Christians and Jews to learn what is written in the Injeel (the words of Jesus) and the Tora (the words of Moses), as well as other prophets.
However, the Qur’an also speaks of enacting violence against unbelievers
Some Muslims have declared many Christians and Jews to be their enemies and unbelievers, and so should be counted among those whom the Qur’an says should be slain. Many Muslims teach that the Injeel and the Tora have been corrupted over the years and so are unworthy of being read. And a few believe that war should be declared against those who have opposed the truths of Muhammad they express. Before we judge Muslims for this, we must remember how many Christians support the killing of enemies, when their Lord commanded that they love their enemies.
Father, help both Muslims and Christians do good to one another and learn of the way of Jesus.
5. Muslims devote themselves to God many times daily
Most devote Muslims declare their loyalty to God many times a day, declaring him to be forgiving and merciful. They are faithful in their prayers, and they wish to show themselves as God’s servants. The word “islam” means “submission to God” and the word “muslim” means “one who is submitted.” The whole purpose of being a Muslim is to devote ones whole life and community to God.
However, most Muslims act without regard to God’s ways
When it comes to everyday life, Muslims are as prone to follow their own desires as any other person. They will hate, gossip, lie and cheat in their everyday life—even as most Christians do.
Father, help us to live out your ways as well as speak your words. May we all have your Spirit to live your life.
6. Muslims give to the poor
Most devote Muslims separate 2.5% of what they earn specifically to the poor. This income is used to build orphanages and to help beggars in need. Although this sounds meager compared to a ten percent tithe, Muslims worldwide give a larger percentage of their income to the poor than Christians do worldwide.
However, most Muslims lack compassion in their giving
Muslims, however, lack the commands Christians do to give with compassion, love and without any self-interest. Many Muslims do give selflessly, especially through hospitality to strangers, but many more give out of their own self-interest and hopes of recognition. Jesus teaches that giving out of self-recognition would not be rewarded by God.
Father, through Jesus and the Spirit may your compassion rest upon our Muslim friends.
Conclusion: Is Islam evil? Not really—it is more incomplete than anything else. It does a fine job to teach pagans to worship the one true God, but it does not teach the ethical standards of Jesus, or show his example. Most Muslims are not evil, but they are misled. If they knew more about their own holy book, as well as the words of Jesus and Moses that the Qur’an affirms, they might know who the real Prophet and Savior is—Jesus. Let us pray for Muslims in our communities and around the world so that they could know the whole truth and that the truth would free them from oppression.
The Loves of God
Most of us love a whole bunch of people. It’s how we’re built—we are built to love others and to have others love us. Sometimes we have a hard time knowing how to love others, but that’s what we’re meant to do. But for all those we love, we don’t love everyone the same. The love we give to our spouse isn’t the same love we give to our children, or to our parents or to our country or to our friends or our neighbor or the good-looking stranger we meet on the street. We may care for them all and have their benefit in mind when we do something for them, but the actual actions and love we have for each of them is different.
In the same way, God loves people differently. He has different kinds of loves for the different relationships he has with different people. We can look at different people and each of them has a different relationship with God.
Who Does God Care For?
God cares for everyone, all humanity. God doesn’t love just some people—he loves everyone. God displays his care on most of creation, but humanity is his crowning achievement, his greatest creation on work, and God loves every single one of us. He sees us for what we are—all of our weaknesses and our disgusting habits—and he loves us. He wants us just like we are.
From the time that humanity was created, God loves all people. He desires their well being, and wants the best for all of humanity. God provides food for all of his creation, especially human beings. God has given every human being authority over the other creatures of the earth, and so indicated that every human is significant. God also speaks to every person about their sin, in order to give everyone the opportunity to repent of their sin. No person can say that there is no one to care for them—for God cares for them. No one can say that there is no one to take care of them—God takes care of them. No one can say that they are unimportant—God has given them importance from the beginning of creation. No one can say that God rejects them—God will do everything he can to help every person achieve his blessing and a relationship with Him. No one can say that God hasn’t spoken to them—God at the very least convicts each person of sin.
This means that whoever you see that you hate—God loves them and cares for them. The people who you think deserve nothing less than torture and punishment—God wants to bless them. God is not scared of unholiness or filthiness. He is not disgusted by the things we are disgusted by. It is a part of God’s holiness that he can overlook unholiness and it is a part of God’s purity that he can embrace impurity. And so nothing is separated from God’s love—no matter how many people may think that someone does not deserve love.
What is humanity that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet. Psalm 8:5-7
Who Does God Especially Assist?
Although God cares for everyone, he does not assist everyone. After all, not everyone needs his help. Some people do fine on their own, and so they never need him and never really ask for his help. Perhaps those who don’t need God will do what they can to be on God’s good side—go to church everyone once in a while or they may be somewhat religious. But they don’t really need God.
The ones whom God looks to help are the needy, especially the poor. Those who have no other resources to help themselves, those who have no human means of gaining help—those are the ones God especially looks out for. And no wonder, those are the ones who cry out to God for help time and time again. They see their need and they know that there is no one else to turn to except God, and so they seek him out.
This is why God will especially heal and protect the poor above all others. When an injustice is done against the poor, God is there to correct the injustice. And especially, God will punish every person who oppresses those who have no where else to turn. God’s wrath is especially on those who harm those who can do no harm.
The LORD executes justice for the oppressed; The LORD gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. Psalm 146:7-9
Who does God choose?
However, not every person will receive God’s blessings. And not everyone is chosen by God to have the opportunity for God’s blessings. What are the blessings of God? Being forgiven of our sins, having a close relationship with Him, living with him forever, and having all of our needs provided for by God forever—that’s what God promises for us. And God chooses particular people to receive of this, while the others he does not.
The strange fact is that God has already chosen these people. All of them. He has made the decision not to choose everyone, but just one nation—a single country. They are the only ones who will be offered this blessing of God. It may seem like favoritism on God’s part, but it is his choice to give gifts as he chooses. And he made this choice from the beginning of the world.
Who did God choose? Originally, he chose Israel. And then, within Israel, he chose Jesus’ people. The nation that God chose is the nation of Jesus. The wonder of Jesus’ people, is that he is open to people of every race, every background, every language, no matter what one has done or even how evil they have been. Jesus is accepting of them all, and is ready to accept them into his people. All who are called are welcome into Jesus’ nation.
But to gain this love from God, we have to choose Jesus. That’s right. In order to be chosen by God, we have to choose Jesus. If we chose Jesus, then we are a part of the people who are chosen by God.
Everyone chosen by God receives his Spirit. Everyone chosen by God is adopted as a child of God, ready to receive of his blessings. And the chosen by God can know the true righteousness of God—what is really good and how to live it out. And they have their past—no matter how evil—wiped away and a new future to look forward to.
In love God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Ephesians 1:5
Who does God bless?
The strange thing, though, is, not everyone who chooses Jesus receives God’s final blessing. Everyone who chooses Jesus has all the grace of God in order to be able to live in Jesus. They have Jesus’ teaching—the true righteousness of God. And they have the Holy Spirit—the power of God to do good. However, unless the believer in Jesus actually does good, they will not enter into God’s kingdom and receive his blessings. They may have all the blessings of God on earth, but in the end, they can lose it all.
Those who do not remain with Jesus can lose it all—Jesus said that his true people would abide in him. Those who act hypocritically can lose it all—Jesus said that those who obey him are his true people. Those who deny Jesus before men can lost it all—Jesus said that those who confess will gain reward. Those who oppress the poor can lose it all—for Jesus told his people to assist the poor. Those who carelessly continue in their sin can lose it all—Jesus offers reward to the repentant.
In the end, those who receive the kingdom of God are those who endure. Not just those who make a commitment to Jesus, but those who stick with it and grow in Jesus and continually become more righteous before him. On the final day of judgement, those who will be loved for all eternity are those who do what is righteous by Jesus’ standard, no matter what obstacles get put in the way. God loves all people, but only those who abide in Jesus to the end of their days will gain the kingdom of God and all of the blessings of it.
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Matthew 7:21
God loves everyone, but only a few obedient will be blessed eternally.
In the same way, God loves people differently. He has different kinds of loves for the different relationships he has with different people. We can look at different people and each of them has a different relationship with God.
Who Does God Care For?
God cares for everyone, all humanity. God doesn’t love just some people—he loves everyone. God displays his care on most of creation, but humanity is his crowning achievement, his greatest creation on work, and God loves every single one of us. He sees us for what we are—all of our weaknesses and our disgusting habits—and he loves us. He wants us just like we are.
From the time that humanity was created, God loves all people. He desires their well being, and wants the best for all of humanity. God provides food for all of his creation, especially human beings. God has given every human being authority over the other creatures of the earth, and so indicated that every human is significant. God also speaks to every person about their sin, in order to give everyone the opportunity to repent of their sin. No person can say that there is no one to care for them—for God cares for them. No one can say that there is no one to take care of them—God takes care of them. No one can say that they are unimportant—God has given them importance from the beginning of creation. No one can say that God rejects them—God will do everything he can to help every person achieve his blessing and a relationship with Him. No one can say that God hasn’t spoken to them—God at the very least convicts each person of sin.
This means that whoever you see that you hate—God loves them and cares for them. The people who you think deserve nothing less than torture and punishment—God wants to bless them. God is not scared of unholiness or filthiness. He is not disgusted by the things we are disgusted by. It is a part of God’s holiness that he can overlook unholiness and it is a part of God’s purity that he can embrace impurity. And so nothing is separated from God’s love—no matter how many people may think that someone does not deserve love.
What is humanity that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet. Psalm 8:5-7
Who Does God Especially Assist?
Although God cares for everyone, he does not assist everyone. After all, not everyone needs his help. Some people do fine on their own, and so they never need him and never really ask for his help. Perhaps those who don’t need God will do what they can to be on God’s good side—go to church everyone once in a while or they may be somewhat religious. But they don’t really need God.
The ones whom God looks to help are the needy, especially the poor. Those who have no other resources to help themselves, those who have no human means of gaining help—those are the ones God especially looks out for. And no wonder, those are the ones who cry out to God for help time and time again. They see their need and they know that there is no one else to turn to except God, and so they seek him out.
This is why God will especially heal and protect the poor above all others. When an injustice is done against the poor, God is there to correct the injustice. And especially, God will punish every person who oppresses those who have no where else to turn. God’s wrath is especially on those who harm those who can do no harm.
The LORD executes justice for the oppressed; The LORD gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. Psalm 146:7-9
Who does God choose?
However, not every person will receive God’s blessings. And not everyone is chosen by God to have the opportunity for God’s blessings. What are the blessings of God? Being forgiven of our sins, having a close relationship with Him, living with him forever, and having all of our needs provided for by God forever—that’s what God promises for us. And God chooses particular people to receive of this, while the others he does not.
The strange fact is that God has already chosen these people. All of them. He has made the decision not to choose everyone, but just one nation—a single country. They are the only ones who will be offered this blessing of God. It may seem like favoritism on God’s part, but it is his choice to give gifts as he chooses. And he made this choice from the beginning of the world.
Who did God choose? Originally, he chose Israel. And then, within Israel, he chose Jesus’ people. The nation that God chose is the nation of Jesus. The wonder of Jesus’ people, is that he is open to people of every race, every background, every language, no matter what one has done or even how evil they have been. Jesus is accepting of them all, and is ready to accept them into his people. All who are called are welcome into Jesus’ nation.
But to gain this love from God, we have to choose Jesus. That’s right. In order to be chosen by God, we have to choose Jesus. If we chose Jesus, then we are a part of the people who are chosen by God.
Everyone chosen by God receives his Spirit. Everyone chosen by God is adopted as a child of God, ready to receive of his blessings. And the chosen by God can know the true righteousness of God—what is really good and how to live it out. And they have their past—no matter how evil—wiped away and a new future to look forward to.
In love God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Ephesians 1:5
Who does God bless?
The strange thing, though, is, not everyone who chooses Jesus receives God’s final blessing. Everyone who chooses Jesus has all the grace of God in order to be able to live in Jesus. They have Jesus’ teaching—the true righteousness of God. And they have the Holy Spirit—the power of God to do good. However, unless the believer in Jesus actually does good, they will not enter into God’s kingdom and receive his blessings. They may have all the blessings of God on earth, but in the end, they can lose it all.
Those who do not remain with Jesus can lose it all—Jesus said that his true people would abide in him. Those who act hypocritically can lose it all—Jesus said that those who obey him are his true people. Those who deny Jesus before men can lost it all—Jesus said that those who confess will gain reward. Those who oppress the poor can lose it all—for Jesus told his people to assist the poor. Those who carelessly continue in their sin can lose it all—Jesus offers reward to the repentant.
In the end, those who receive the kingdom of God are those who endure. Not just those who make a commitment to Jesus, but those who stick with it and grow in Jesus and continually become more righteous before him. On the final day of judgement, those who will be loved for all eternity are those who do what is righteous by Jesus’ standard, no matter what obstacles get put in the way. God loves all people, but only those who abide in Jesus to the end of their days will gain the kingdom of God and all of the blessings of it.
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Matthew 7:21
God loves everyone, but only a few obedient will be blessed eternally.
Do You Hear Voices?
I know that I do. Some voices I want to hear, but others I do not. Some voices are for my benefit and the benefit of my relationship with God. But other voices are trying to tear me down, trying to destroy me. Perhaps you might think that I’m schizophrenic. Perhaps you might think that I need to go to a psychiatrist. But Jesus also heard these voices—so did Peter, Elijah, Moses, Abraham and many others. Anyone who has a connection with the spirit world hears voices. A lot of people do. Some of them are on drugs, some of them are very religious, some of them really are crazy. Many of these voices are a way for us to connect with the spirit world.
But we need to understand something important about the spirit world: it is not all good. Some people are impressed just because they have had a connection with the spirit world. They think that they are important because they have had a vision, or because they have seen an angel, or because they hear a voice that claims to be from God. But what many people do not understand is that the spirit world is fraught with danger. It is filled with beings who will deceive humans and attempt to destroy them. In order to make sense of one and another, we need to have clear discernment.
Various voices
We all hear voices everyday. We will often have discussions with ourselves, debating different sides of a decision we need to make, or different moral points of view. Certainly, not all of these voices are from the spirit world. Some are just from our own head, and some are from other people. It requires great wisdom and discernment to distinguish between voices. It also takes time and persistence to figure out who is who. Below are some of the voices that I deal with and they are sometimes difficult to tell them apart from one another. Some guidelines are given that help me to distinguish one voice from another.
The Flesh—The “flesh” is a term in the Bible for the natural human desires we all have. Hunger, sexual desire, anger, insecurity, significance—these are all a part of our lives, and they play a big part of what we want and do not want. However, we need to remember that our desire is just one part of who we are and what we think is ultimately important. There are many other voices that speak to us, trying to convince us to act in their ways. The voice of “the flesh” is interested in self-gratification, and that as quickly as possible. We need to recognize the voice of the Flesh, but also we need to set these desires aside if it is not ultimately in our best interest.
Delusion—Delusion is simple confusion, our minds in chaos. We may try to make sense of things, but our conclusions are not reasonable to anyone else—often not even ourselves. Although people diagnosed as “mentally ill” are commonly seen as deluded, yet everyone deals with a certain amount of delusion sometimes. Often we have to swallow our pride and ask some one else if what we are thinking makes sense. If it does not, then our delusional thoughts we just need to set aside. And if delusion is persistent in our lives, then we will need to ignore it as soon as we recognize it. Ignoring it does not make the delusion go away—but it makes it ineffective in our lives.
The World—The World is society and all the organization of it—governments, corporations, churches, schools, families, peers, etc. All of the “building blocks” of society is what might be called “the World”. The World may seem on the surface to be something outside of you, and yet it has its voices in our heads trying to tell us what to do. Our “mother’s” voice may be telling us what we should do for the family. Our “boss’” voice may tell us what to do for the company. And we may have a “patriotic” voice telling us what to do for our country—and on and on. The World has it’s own idea of morality and significance that may be good for you or may not. But the World is distinguished by telling us what we need to do for the group, the organization, the society. We need to do what is right and proper for the group that we feel a part of—this is what the voices of the World are telling us. However, the Bible tells us that we should separate ourselves from the World. We should recognize that God’s morality and the world’s morality come from a different source, and listening to the World and obeying it will ultimately lead to separation from God and our destruction, though it may seem seductively moral.
Evil Spirits—There are a whole variety of spirits in the spirit world that is interested in only one thing—destroying us. These spirits will talk to us, and they make so much sense and they are so convincing that we could meet our needs (the Flesh) or society’s needs (the World), if only we would make some small compromises with God… We all have some basic notions of what is right and wrong that come from God. The evil spirits want us to destroy ourselves by disobeying God and so making it right for God to destroy us. If we worship any God apart from the true God, or if we deliberately ignore the right God wants us to do, then we are threatening our very life. God destroys the rebellious, and evil spirits want to make us rebellious. So evil spirits will try to convince us to worship untrue gods. They will try to spur us on with fear and judging others. They will accuse us, trying to convince us that we are separated from God and that we can never return to Him. And evil spirits will, if they can, try to convince us to do things that will destroy us—making stupid choices or committing suicide. If an evil spirit is speaking to you and trying to attack you—or if it is trying to seduce you into doing evil—then you must tell the spirits to get lost. Don’t be shy—speak against them and let them know that they are not welcome. Basically, tell them to go away.
God—Finally, we can hear God. God has true messengers, called angels; and he has his perfect representative, called Jesus; and he has his power living within Jesus’ people, called the Holy Spirit. God desires us to live for him, and he wants to give us significance, and life, and security and peace. He alone wants our well being AND knows how to give it to us. Sometimes God tells us what we don’t want to hear—he says difficult things. Sometimes God makes amazing promises that are hard to believe—but he expects us to believe him anyway. And God talks to us. Everyday. He tells us how he loves us. He tells us how to be right with him. He tells us what we need to do. We can recognize God’s voice because it is the same as his Son, Jesus. Jesus is the one who best represents God and the Spirit Jesus sends among us is the voice of God that we hear through Jesus. Thus, if we know Jesus’ voice—the things he would say—then we know what God sounds like. And it is God’s voice alone that we should always obey, and always listen to.
It is not easy to hear God’s voice. We have all these other voices in our heads—all of them telling us what to do. Some of these voices are loud, and some demand our attention. God doesn’t often do that. If we want to hear God, we have to go out of our way to do it. We need to take time to listen to him, and to tell all the other voices to shut up. We need to specifically listen to God and to focus on him. He is not always dramatic, and he doesn’t always speak right when we want him to. But if we are to listen to God, then we must ask Him to reveal Himself. And he will—if we ask, we will receive God.
But we need to understand something important about the spirit world: it is not all good. Some people are impressed just because they have had a connection with the spirit world. They think that they are important because they have had a vision, or because they have seen an angel, or because they hear a voice that claims to be from God. But what many people do not understand is that the spirit world is fraught with danger. It is filled with beings who will deceive humans and attempt to destroy them. In order to make sense of one and another, we need to have clear discernment.
Various voices
We all hear voices everyday. We will often have discussions with ourselves, debating different sides of a decision we need to make, or different moral points of view. Certainly, not all of these voices are from the spirit world. Some are just from our own head, and some are from other people. It requires great wisdom and discernment to distinguish between voices. It also takes time and persistence to figure out who is who. Below are some of the voices that I deal with and they are sometimes difficult to tell them apart from one another. Some guidelines are given that help me to distinguish one voice from another.
The Flesh—The “flesh” is a term in the Bible for the natural human desires we all have. Hunger, sexual desire, anger, insecurity, significance—these are all a part of our lives, and they play a big part of what we want and do not want. However, we need to remember that our desire is just one part of who we are and what we think is ultimately important. There are many other voices that speak to us, trying to convince us to act in their ways. The voice of “the flesh” is interested in self-gratification, and that as quickly as possible. We need to recognize the voice of the Flesh, but also we need to set these desires aside if it is not ultimately in our best interest.
Delusion—Delusion is simple confusion, our minds in chaos. We may try to make sense of things, but our conclusions are not reasonable to anyone else—often not even ourselves. Although people diagnosed as “mentally ill” are commonly seen as deluded, yet everyone deals with a certain amount of delusion sometimes. Often we have to swallow our pride and ask some one else if what we are thinking makes sense. If it does not, then our delusional thoughts we just need to set aside. And if delusion is persistent in our lives, then we will need to ignore it as soon as we recognize it. Ignoring it does not make the delusion go away—but it makes it ineffective in our lives.
The World—The World is society and all the organization of it—governments, corporations, churches, schools, families, peers, etc. All of the “building blocks” of society is what might be called “the World”. The World may seem on the surface to be something outside of you, and yet it has its voices in our heads trying to tell us what to do. Our “mother’s” voice may be telling us what we should do for the family. Our “boss’” voice may tell us what to do for the company. And we may have a “patriotic” voice telling us what to do for our country—and on and on. The World has it’s own idea of morality and significance that may be good for you or may not. But the World is distinguished by telling us what we need to do for the group, the organization, the society. We need to do what is right and proper for the group that we feel a part of—this is what the voices of the World are telling us. However, the Bible tells us that we should separate ourselves from the World. We should recognize that God’s morality and the world’s morality come from a different source, and listening to the World and obeying it will ultimately lead to separation from God and our destruction, though it may seem seductively moral.
Evil Spirits—There are a whole variety of spirits in the spirit world that is interested in only one thing—destroying us. These spirits will talk to us, and they make so much sense and they are so convincing that we could meet our needs (the Flesh) or society’s needs (the World), if only we would make some small compromises with God… We all have some basic notions of what is right and wrong that come from God. The evil spirits want us to destroy ourselves by disobeying God and so making it right for God to destroy us. If we worship any God apart from the true God, or if we deliberately ignore the right God wants us to do, then we are threatening our very life. God destroys the rebellious, and evil spirits want to make us rebellious. So evil spirits will try to convince us to worship untrue gods. They will try to spur us on with fear and judging others. They will accuse us, trying to convince us that we are separated from God and that we can never return to Him. And evil spirits will, if they can, try to convince us to do things that will destroy us—making stupid choices or committing suicide. If an evil spirit is speaking to you and trying to attack you—or if it is trying to seduce you into doing evil—then you must tell the spirits to get lost. Don’t be shy—speak against them and let them know that they are not welcome. Basically, tell them to go away.
God—Finally, we can hear God. God has true messengers, called angels; and he has his perfect representative, called Jesus; and he has his power living within Jesus’ people, called the Holy Spirit. God desires us to live for him, and he wants to give us significance, and life, and security and peace. He alone wants our well being AND knows how to give it to us. Sometimes God tells us what we don’t want to hear—he says difficult things. Sometimes God makes amazing promises that are hard to believe—but he expects us to believe him anyway. And God talks to us. Everyday. He tells us how he loves us. He tells us how to be right with him. He tells us what we need to do. We can recognize God’s voice because it is the same as his Son, Jesus. Jesus is the one who best represents God and the Spirit Jesus sends among us is the voice of God that we hear through Jesus. Thus, if we know Jesus’ voice—the things he would say—then we know what God sounds like. And it is God’s voice alone that we should always obey, and always listen to.
It is not easy to hear God’s voice. We have all these other voices in our heads—all of them telling us what to do. Some of these voices are loud, and some demand our attention. God doesn’t often do that. If we want to hear God, we have to go out of our way to do it. We need to take time to listen to him, and to tell all the other voices to shut up. We need to specifically listen to God and to focus on him. He is not always dramatic, and he doesn’t always speak right when we want him to. But if we are to listen to God, then we must ask Him to reveal Himself. And he will—if we ask, we will receive God.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
The Lost Church
The Right Way
Look for the unpopular routes to heaven. There are many ways that everyone likes in seeking God’s favor—but they lead to your destruction. Sure, they’re popular, but they are also deadly. But the way to God’s blessing and life is so unacceptable that few will embrace it.
Christianity is not a straight path, it is a smorgasbord. There are as many "ways" and moralities within the broadest definition of Christendom as there are outside of Christianity. This isn’t just denominations, but there are many ways of understanding Jesus and salvation even within a particular denomination. Christianity is the largest world religion on the planet—the largest belief system. More people believe in Christianity than any other belief system that exists, that ever exists. But according to the founder of this faith, that is the biggest indication that there is something fundamentally wrong with Christianity. The belief system that Jesus himself founded, he said, would have few followers. By definition, the broadest concept of Christianity is just plain wrong.
Difference between a Guard Dog and a Wolf
Even so, there are teachers that look great, and are so charismatic, but they are false teachers, leading you away from God. They may look like well-groomed sheepdogs, but in reality they are wolves, seeking to fill their stomachs, not care for the sheep. How will you know the difference between a guard dog and a wolf? By their actions. How do you know if you’ve got an apple tree? If there are any apples on it. If there are peaches on it, it ain’t an apple tree. Even so, a good teacher does good things, but a false teacher does evil things. If an apple tree only bears rotten fruit, then you know there’s a problem with the tree. Even so, every teacher who does evil things is taken away from God's people and is judged. So you will know who are the good and bad teachers by what they do.
So what is wrong with Christianity? What would Jesus say is the biggest problem? He states it right off the bat—the leaders are the problem. Christianity has many teachers, many leaders, and most of them are wrong. Many of them are charismatic, almost all of them teach the Bible, they are all moral leaders and wise counselors. So what’s wrong? How can such wise and knowledgeable leaders get us going the wrong way? Simple, Jesus says, out of all of these great shepherds, we have many wolves. Most of the leaders of the church are not there for the people, but for their own benefit.
But how are we to tell the difference? How can we see the difference between a good sheepdog and a wolf whose only desire is to whet his own appetite? On the surface, they seem so similar. They are so hard to tell apart. But Jesus gave us a litmus test—he gave us one way to figure out who is who. He asks us to examine our leaders—not necessarily their teachings, nor necessarily their looks, nor necessarily their basis of authority. Rather, he asks us to look at their actions and words when they are not "on stage" so to speak. When they are out of the public eye, what do they do? What is their life about? We don’t necessarily need to see them praying all the time or reading their Bible. Rather we need to see if they are obedient to Jesus.
Is the leader that the church depends on actually living out the sermon on the mount or not? In their daily lives, is the leader of God’s church:
Is he or she accepting of persecution, or looking for revenge?
Is he or she making things right with those they have sinned against or saying they are doing nothing wrong?
Is he or she expressing hatred and insults through their speech?
Is he or she lusting after people they are not married to?
Is he or she planning on separating from their spouse?
Does he or she not take their word seriously, or keep their promises?
Is he or she rebellious against authority, or submissive?
Is he or she taking action to harm their enemy or loving their enemy and praying for those who hate them?
Is he or she religious for their own benefit, or are they sincerely acting for God?
Is he or she sacrificially giving to the poor or collecting more stuff for themselves?
Is he or she judging harshly or making decisions about others on the basis of mercy?
Is he or she acting for the benefit of others, or for themselves?
This is the test of Jesus. Frankly, most Christian leaders fail this test. Some of them even try to make excuses for not doing what Jesus’ said in their teaching. But there is no excuse. Jesus says that if anyone fails to obey Him, then they have no place being a leader in his church. There are so many leaders that need to step down. But they won’t. They want the prestige, they want the power, they want the money they get from being a leader of the church. And this is why the Christian church is so far from where Jesus wants it to be.
Saying and Doing
On the last day, there will be many who call me "Lord", but not all of them will enter God’s kingdom. Only the one who does God’s will has the opportunity to enter. Many will get my attention on the final day and say, "My Lord, didn’t I teach your word? And I prayed for people, and they were healed! And I was able to give them spiritual healing!" And I will make my final decision: "I never knew you. Get lost—you aren’t entering God’s kingdom. You are those who did what was evil in God’s sight."
So the leaders of the church won’t step down when they really should. Well, I suppose that’s fine, no one can really make them. Well, one person can. That’s the head of all the church, Jesus himself. And Jesus is patient, even with leaders who in His name disobey Him. But if they refuse to repent, if they refuse to change their ways, then they will meet Jesus—face to face. And they will point out to Jesus all the good things they have done for Him. "Jesus, look at the cathedral I built for you! Jesus, look at the books I wrote for you! Jesus, look at the television specials I produced for you!"
Jesus, however, doesn’t care about any of these things. These things were insignificant. Jesus doesn’t want people’s talents or people-pleasing skills. Jesus wants their heart, their obedience. Jesus will turn to all of these leaders and says, "Who are you? You say you did all these things for me, but I never knew who you were." And Jesus will disown them before all the earth. All the leaders that ignored what Jesus said to do and did something else, they will all be rejected from the face of Jesus for all eternity.
Jesus made it clear that it isn’t enough to just call him "Lord" or "God". It isn’t enough to claim that Jesus is one’s savior. Words just don’t do it. They don’t indicate what anyone really believes. Our faith is not found by what doctrinal statement we sign. It is found by what we do.
Listening and Doing
Here’s my final story: Whoever has heard my teaching—from "How fortunate are the poor" to here—and puts these teachings into practice, they are the fortunate ones. These doers of the word are like a builder who establishes a level, solid, concrete foundation for his house. Floods came, earthquakes came, wind storms came—but nothing could destroy that building, because it was built not just on good theory, but good practice. However, there are many who have heard my teaching and then thinks, "Interesting ideas…" but never accomplishes any of it. That person is like the builder who has gone to school, read all the books, and then said, "Forget it, I’m building my house my way." So he decides sand is cheaper than concrete and who needs to go through all the effort for it to be level? And he builds his house. Let me tell you, the next flood, the next earthquake, the next wind storm—whatever disaster is next on the grid—and that house will fall so hard, you’d need a microscope to find the pieces. This isn’t just another sermon—it is your life and death. Please pay attention and do as I have said.
Jesus is saying this not just to teachers and Christian leaders. He is talking to all of us. He says that we have heard his whole sermon—Matthew 5 through 7. And now it is up to us. We have two choices. We can say, "Good sermon, Jesus" and be entertained by it and think pleasant thoughts about Jesus’ teaching. Or we can do it. We can pray to God and ask for strength to change our lives and do what it actually says.
This is the most important decision we will make in our lives. Deciding to be a Christian is nothing compared to this decision—will we commit to do what Jesus asked us to do or not? Will we allow God to change our lives from the inside out or not. If we do, we have much to gain—God’s whole kingdom. We will gain the resurrection from the dead. We will gain peace and eternal prosperity. We will gain the presence of God. We will gain freedom from our enemies.
But if we choose to listen to Jesus words and take it lightly… If we think that we can get away with not doing what Jesus says… if we thing that God will forgive us no matter how much we hurt other people… if we think that we can give Jesus praise and loving words and he will like us so much that he’ll forget the fact that we filled the lives of those around us with destruction… if we refuse to ingest and live out the Sermon on the Mount—then disaster will overtake us. Jesus is coming. Jesus will cleanse his church. And those who rejected the living out of his words will be thrown out of the church.
Please, it is not too late. Do what Jesus said. Do what Jesus is telling you to do right now. Surrender your life to obedience to Jesus. I know it is hard. This is why Jesus said it is a narrow way. Most people can’t even think about loving their enemies, keeping their promises, being faithful to their spouses, sacrificing for the poor, forgiving those who did them wrong. It seems so hard. And it is. But Jesus will give you his Holy Spirit to help you do it.
But first you have to surrender. First you need to be willing. First you have to repent from your sin. Are you willing to surrender yourself to living out Jesus’ life? Are you ready to confess your sin? Are you ready to love Jesus—not just with words, but with your whole life?
If you are, confess your sin to Him. Ask Him for His Holy Spirit. Read the Sermon on the Mount again. Go to everyone you have sinned against—if you can—and make it right with them. And pray for God to help you to be gentle, to judge with mercy, to always act in the benefit for others, to not be a hypocrite. And God’s kingdom will come to you now.
Look for the unpopular routes to heaven. There are many ways that everyone likes in seeking God’s favor—but they lead to your destruction. Sure, they’re popular, but they are also deadly. But the way to God’s blessing and life is so unacceptable that few will embrace it.
Christianity is not a straight path, it is a smorgasbord. There are as many "ways" and moralities within the broadest definition of Christendom as there are outside of Christianity. This isn’t just denominations, but there are many ways of understanding Jesus and salvation even within a particular denomination. Christianity is the largest world religion on the planet—the largest belief system. More people believe in Christianity than any other belief system that exists, that ever exists. But according to the founder of this faith, that is the biggest indication that there is something fundamentally wrong with Christianity. The belief system that Jesus himself founded, he said, would have few followers. By definition, the broadest concept of Christianity is just plain wrong.
Difference between a Guard Dog and a Wolf
Even so, there are teachers that look great, and are so charismatic, but they are false teachers, leading you away from God. They may look like well-groomed sheepdogs, but in reality they are wolves, seeking to fill their stomachs, not care for the sheep. How will you know the difference between a guard dog and a wolf? By their actions. How do you know if you’ve got an apple tree? If there are any apples on it. If there are peaches on it, it ain’t an apple tree. Even so, a good teacher does good things, but a false teacher does evil things. If an apple tree only bears rotten fruit, then you know there’s a problem with the tree. Even so, every teacher who does evil things is taken away from God's people and is judged. So you will know who are the good and bad teachers by what they do.
So what is wrong with Christianity? What would Jesus say is the biggest problem? He states it right off the bat—the leaders are the problem. Christianity has many teachers, many leaders, and most of them are wrong. Many of them are charismatic, almost all of them teach the Bible, they are all moral leaders and wise counselors. So what’s wrong? How can such wise and knowledgeable leaders get us going the wrong way? Simple, Jesus says, out of all of these great shepherds, we have many wolves. Most of the leaders of the church are not there for the people, but for their own benefit.
But how are we to tell the difference? How can we see the difference between a good sheepdog and a wolf whose only desire is to whet his own appetite? On the surface, they seem so similar. They are so hard to tell apart. But Jesus gave us a litmus test—he gave us one way to figure out who is who. He asks us to examine our leaders—not necessarily their teachings, nor necessarily their looks, nor necessarily their basis of authority. Rather, he asks us to look at their actions and words when they are not "on stage" so to speak. When they are out of the public eye, what do they do? What is their life about? We don’t necessarily need to see them praying all the time or reading their Bible. Rather we need to see if they are obedient to Jesus.
Is the leader that the church depends on actually living out the sermon on the mount or not? In their daily lives, is the leader of God’s church:
Is he or she accepting of persecution, or looking for revenge?
Is he or she making things right with those they have sinned against or saying they are doing nothing wrong?
Is he or she expressing hatred and insults through their speech?
Is he or she lusting after people they are not married to?
Is he or she planning on separating from their spouse?
Does he or she not take their word seriously, or keep their promises?
Is he or she rebellious against authority, or submissive?
Is he or she taking action to harm their enemy or loving their enemy and praying for those who hate them?
Is he or she religious for their own benefit, or are they sincerely acting for God?
Is he or she sacrificially giving to the poor or collecting more stuff for themselves?
Is he or she judging harshly or making decisions about others on the basis of mercy?
Is he or she acting for the benefit of others, or for themselves?
This is the test of Jesus. Frankly, most Christian leaders fail this test. Some of them even try to make excuses for not doing what Jesus’ said in their teaching. But there is no excuse. Jesus says that if anyone fails to obey Him, then they have no place being a leader in his church. There are so many leaders that need to step down. But they won’t. They want the prestige, they want the power, they want the money they get from being a leader of the church. And this is why the Christian church is so far from where Jesus wants it to be.
Saying and Doing
On the last day, there will be many who call me "Lord", but not all of them will enter God’s kingdom. Only the one who does God’s will has the opportunity to enter. Many will get my attention on the final day and say, "My Lord, didn’t I teach your word? And I prayed for people, and they were healed! And I was able to give them spiritual healing!" And I will make my final decision: "I never knew you. Get lost—you aren’t entering God’s kingdom. You are those who did what was evil in God’s sight."
So the leaders of the church won’t step down when they really should. Well, I suppose that’s fine, no one can really make them. Well, one person can. That’s the head of all the church, Jesus himself. And Jesus is patient, even with leaders who in His name disobey Him. But if they refuse to repent, if they refuse to change their ways, then they will meet Jesus—face to face. And they will point out to Jesus all the good things they have done for Him. "Jesus, look at the cathedral I built for you! Jesus, look at the books I wrote for you! Jesus, look at the television specials I produced for you!"
Jesus, however, doesn’t care about any of these things. These things were insignificant. Jesus doesn’t want people’s talents or people-pleasing skills. Jesus wants their heart, their obedience. Jesus will turn to all of these leaders and says, "Who are you? You say you did all these things for me, but I never knew who you were." And Jesus will disown them before all the earth. All the leaders that ignored what Jesus said to do and did something else, they will all be rejected from the face of Jesus for all eternity.
Jesus made it clear that it isn’t enough to just call him "Lord" or "God". It isn’t enough to claim that Jesus is one’s savior. Words just don’t do it. They don’t indicate what anyone really believes. Our faith is not found by what doctrinal statement we sign. It is found by what we do.
Listening and Doing
Here’s my final story: Whoever has heard my teaching—from "How fortunate are the poor" to here—and puts these teachings into practice, they are the fortunate ones. These doers of the word are like a builder who establishes a level, solid, concrete foundation for his house. Floods came, earthquakes came, wind storms came—but nothing could destroy that building, because it was built not just on good theory, but good practice. However, there are many who have heard my teaching and then thinks, "Interesting ideas…" but never accomplishes any of it. That person is like the builder who has gone to school, read all the books, and then said, "Forget it, I’m building my house my way." So he decides sand is cheaper than concrete and who needs to go through all the effort for it to be level? And he builds his house. Let me tell you, the next flood, the next earthquake, the next wind storm—whatever disaster is next on the grid—and that house will fall so hard, you’d need a microscope to find the pieces. This isn’t just another sermon—it is your life and death. Please pay attention and do as I have said.
Jesus is saying this not just to teachers and Christian leaders. He is talking to all of us. He says that we have heard his whole sermon—Matthew 5 through 7. And now it is up to us. We have two choices. We can say, "Good sermon, Jesus" and be entertained by it and think pleasant thoughts about Jesus’ teaching. Or we can do it. We can pray to God and ask for strength to change our lives and do what it actually says.
This is the most important decision we will make in our lives. Deciding to be a Christian is nothing compared to this decision—will we commit to do what Jesus asked us to do or not? Will we allow God to change our lives from the inside out or not. If we do, we have much to gain—God’s whole kingdom. We will gain the resurrection from the dead. We will gain peace and eternal prosperity. We will gain the presence of God. We will gain freedom from our enemies.
But if we choose to listen to Jesus words and take it lightly… If we think that we can get away with not doing what Jesus says… if we thing that God will forgive us no matter how much we hurt other people… if we think that we can give Jesus praise and loving words and he will like us so much that he’ll forget the fact that we filled the lives of those around us with destruction… if we refuse to ingest and live out the Sermon on the Mount—then disaster will overtake us. Jesus is coming. Jesus will cleanse his church. And those who rejected the living out of his words will be thrown out of the church.
Please, it is not too late. Do what Jesus said. Do what Jesus is telling you to do right now. Surrender your life to obedience to Jesus. I know it is hard. This is why Jesus said it is a narrow way. Most people can’t even think about loving their enemies, keeping their promises, being faithful to their spouses, sacrificing for the poor, forgiving those who did them wrong. It seems so hard. And it is. But Jesus will give you his Holy Spirit to help you do it.
But first you have to surrender. First you need to be willing. First you have to repent from your sin. Are you willing to surrender yourself to living out Jesus’ life? Are you ready to confess your sin? Are you ready to love Jesus—not just with words, but with your whole life?
If you are, confess your sin to Him. Ask Him for His Holy Spirit. Read the Sermon on the Mount again. Go to everyone you have sinned against—if you can—and make it right with them. And pray for God to help you to be gentle, to judge with mercy, to always act in the benefit for others, to not be a hypocrite. And God’s kingdom will come to you now.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Do You Hear Voices?
I know that I do. Some voices I want to hear, but others I do not. Some voices are for my benefit and the benefit of my relationship with God. But other voices are trying to tear me down, trying to destroy me. Perhaps you might think that I’m schizophrenic. Perhaps you might think that I need to go to a psychiatrist. But Jesus also heard these voices—so did Peter, Elijah, Moses, Abraham and many others. Anyone who has a connection with the spirit world hears voices. A lot of people do. Some of them are on drugs, some of them are very religious, some of them really are crazy. Many of these voices are a way for us to connect with the spirit world.
But we need to understand something important about the spirit world: it is not all good. Some people are impressed just because they have had a connection with the spirit world. They think that they are important because they have had a vision, or because they have seen an angel, or because they hear a voice that claims to be from God. But what many people do not understand is that the spirit world is fraught with danger. It is filled with beings who will deceive humans and attempt to destroy them. In order to make sense of one and another, we need to have clear discernment.
Various voices
We all hear voices everyday. We will often have discussions with ourselves, debating different sides of a decision we need to make, or different moral points of view. Certainly, not all of these voices are from the spirit world. Some are just from our own head, and some are from other people. It requires great wisdom and discernment to distinguish between voices. It also takes time and persistence to figure out who is who. Below are some of the voices that I deal with and they are sometimes difficult to tell them apart from one another. Some guidelines are given that help me to distinguish one voice from another.
The Flesh—The "flesh" is a term in the Bible for the natural human desires we all have. Hunger, sexual desire, anger, insecurity, significance—these are all a part of our lives, and they play a big part of what we want and do not want. However, we need to remember that our desire is just one part of who we are and what we think is ultimately important. There are many other voices that speak to us, trying to convince us to act in their ways. The voice of "the flesh" is interested in self-gratification, and that as quickly as possible. We need to recognize the voice of the Flesh, but also we need to set these desires aside if it is not ultimately in our best interest.
Delusion—Delusion is simple confusion, our minds in chaos. We may try to make sense of things, but our conclusions are not reasonable to anyone else—often not even ourselves. Although people diagnosed as "mentally ill" are commonly seen as deluded, yet everyone deals with a certain amount of delusion sometimes. Often we have to swallow our pride and ask some one else if what we are thinking makes sense. If it does not, then our delusional thoughts we just need to set aside. And if delusion is persistent in our lives, then we will need to ignore it as soon as we recognize it. Ignoring it does not make the delusion go away—but it makes it ineffective in our lives.
The World—The World is society and all the organization of it—governments, corporations, churches, schools, families, peers, etc. All of the "building blocks" of society is what might be called "the World". The World may seem on the surface to be something outside of you, and yet it has its voices in our heads trying to tell us what to do. Our "mother’s" voice may be telling us what we should do for the family. Our "boss’" voice may tell us what to do for the company. And we may have a "patriotic" voice telling us what to do for our country—and on and on. The World has it’s own idea of morality and significance that may be good for you or may not. But the World is distinguished by telling us what we need to do for the group, the organization, the society. We need to do what is right and proper for the group that we feel a part of—this is what the voices of the World are telling us. However, the Bible tells us that we should separate ourselves from the World. We should recognize that God’s morality and the world’s morality come from a different source, and listening to the World and obeying it will ultimately lead to separation from God and our destruction, though it may seem seductively moral.
Evil Spirits—There are a whole variety of spirits in the spirit world that is interested in only one thing—destroying us. These spirits will talk to us, and they make so much sense and they are so convincing that we could meet our needs (the Flesh) or society’s needs (the World), if only we would make some small compromises with God… We all have some basic notions of what is right and wrong that come from God. The evil spirits want us to destroy ourselves by disobeying God and so making it right for God to destroy us. If we worship any God apart from the true God, or if we deliberately ignore the right God wants us to do, then we are threatening our very life. God destroys the rebellious, and evil spirits want to make us rebellious. So evil spirits will try to convince us to worship untrue gods. They will try to spur us on with fear and judging others. They will accuse us, trying to convince us that we are separated from God and that we can never return to Him. And evil spirits will, if they can, try to convince us to do things that will destroy us—making stupid choices or committing suicide. If an evil spirit is speaking to you and trying to attack you—or if it is trying to seduce you into doing evil—then you must tell the spirits to get lost. Don’t be shy—speak against them and let them know that they are not welcome. Basically, tell them to go away.
God—Finally, we can hear God. God has true messengers, called angels; and he has his perfect representative, called Jesus; and he has his power living within Jesus’ people, called the Holy Spirit. God desires us to live for him, and he wants to give us significance, and life, and security and peace. He alone wants our well being AND knows how to give it to us. Sometimes God tells us what we don’t want to hear—he says difficult things. Sometimes God makes amazing promises that are hard to believe—but he expects us to believe him anyway. And God talks to us. Everyday. He tells us how he loves us. He tells us how to be right with him. He tells us what we need to do. We can recognize God’s voice because it is the same as his Son, Jesus. Jesus is the one who best represents God and the Spirit Jesus sends among us is the voice of God that we hear through Jesus. Thus, if we know Jesus’ voice—the things he would say—then we know what God sounds like. And it is God’s voice alone that we should always obey, and always listen to.
It is not easy to hear God’s voice. We have all these other voices in our heads—all of them telling us what to do. Some of these voices are loud, and some demand our attention. God doesn’t often do that. If we want to hear God, we have to go out of our way to do it. We need to take time to listen to him, and to tell all the other voices to shut up. We need to specifically listen to God and to focus on him. He is not always dramatic, and he doesn’t always speak right when we want him to. But if we are to listen to God, then we must ask Him to reveal Himself. And he will—if we ask, we will receive God.
But we need to understand something important about the spirit world: it is not all good. Some people are impressed just because they have had a connection with the spirit world. They think that they are important because they have had a vision, or because they have seen an angel, or because they hear a voice that claims to be from God. But what many people do not understand is that the spirit world is fraught with danger. It is filled with beings who will deceive humans and attempt to destroy them. In order to make sense of one and another, we need to have clear discernment.
Various voices
We all hear voices everyday. We will often have discussions with ourselves, debating different sides of a decision we need to make, or different moral points of view. Certainly, not all of these voices are from the spirit world. Some are just from our own head, and some are from other people. It requires great wisdom and discernment to distinguish between voices. It also takes time and persistence to figure out who is who. Below are some of the voices that I deal with and they are sometimes difficult to tell them apart from one another. Some guidelines are given that help me to distinguish one voice from another.
The Flesh—The "flesh" is a term in the Bible for the natural human desires we all have. Hunger, sexual desire, anger, insecurity, significance—these are all a part of our lives, and they play a big part of what we want and do not want. However, we need to remember that our desire is just one part of who we are and what we think is ultimately important. There are many other voices that speak to us, trying to convince us to act in their ways. The voice of "the flesh" is interested in self-gratification, and that as quickly as possible. We need to recognize the voice of the Flesh, but also we need to set these desires aside if it is not ultimately in our best interest.
Delusion—Delusion is simple confusion, our minds in chaos. We may try to make sense of things, but our conclusions are not reasonable to anyone else—often not even ourselves. Although people diagnosed as "mentally ill" are commonly seen as deluded, yet everyone deals with a certain amount of delusion sometimes. Often we have to swallow our pride and ask some one else if what we are thinking makes sense. If it does not, then our delusional thoughts we just need to set aside. And if delusion is persistent in our lives, then we will need to ignore it as soon as we recognize it. Ignoring it does not make the delusion go away—but it makes it ineffective in our lives.
The World—The World is society and all the organization of it—governments, corporations, churches, schools, families, peers, etc. All of the "building blocks" of society is what might be called "the World". The World may seem on the surface to be something outside of you, and yet it has its voices in our heads trying to tell us what to do. Our "mother’s" voice may be telling us what we should do for the family. Our "boss’" voice may tell us what to do for the company. And we may have a "patriotic" voice telling us what to do for our country—and on and on. The World has it’s own idea of morality and significance that may be good for you or may not. But the World is distinguished by telling us what we need to do for the group, the organization, the society. We need to do what is right and proper for the group that we feel a part of—this is what the voices of the World are telling us. However, the Bible tells us that we should separate ourselves from the World. We should recognize that God’s morality and the world’s morality come from a different source, and listening to the World and obeying it will ultimately lead to separation from God and our destruction, though it may seem seductively moral.
Evil Spirits—There are a whole variety of spirits in the spirit world that is interested in only one thing—destroying us. These spirits will talk to us, and they make so much sense and they are so convincing that we could meet our needs (the Flesh) or society’s needs (the World), if only we would make some small compromises with God… We all have some basic notions of what is right and wrong that come from God. The evil spirits want us to destroy ourselves by disobeying God and so making it right for God to destroy us. If we worship any God apart from the true God, or if we deliberately ignore the right God wants us to do, then we are threatening our very life. God destroys the rebellious, and evil spirits want to make us rebellious. So evil spirits will try to convince us to worship untrue gods. They will try to spur us on with fear and judging others. They will accuse us, trying to convince us that we are separated from God and that we can never return to Him. And evil spirits will, if they can, try to convince us to do things that will destroy us—making stupid choices or committing suicide. If an evil spirit is speaking to you and trying to attack you—or if it is trying to seduce you into doing evil—then you must tell the spirits to get lost. Don’t be shy—speak against them and let them know that they are not welcome. Basically, tell them to go away.
God—Finally, we can hear God. God has true messengers, called angels; and he has his perfect representative, called Jesus; and he has his power living within Jesus’ people, called the Holy Spirit. God desires us to live for him, and he wants to give us significance, and life, and security and peace. He alone wants our well being AND knows how to give it to us. Sometimes God tells us what we don’t want to hear—he says difficult things. Sometimes God makes amazing promises that are hard to believe—but he expects us to believe him anyway. And God talks to us. Everyday. He tells us how he loves us. He tells us how to be right with him. He tells us what we need to do. We can recognize God’s voice because it is the same as his Son, Jesus. Jesus is the one who best represents God and the Spirit Jesus sends among us is the voice of God that we hear through Jesus. Thus, if we know Jesus’ voice—the things he would say—then we know what God sounds like. And it is God’s voice alone that we should always obey, and always listen to.
It is not easy to hear God’s voice. We have all these other voices in our heads—all of them telling us what to do. Some of these voices are loud, and some demand our attention. God doesn’t often do that. If we want to hear God, we have to go out of our way to do it. We need to take time to listen to him, and to tell all the other voices to shut up. We need to specifically listen to God and to focus on him. He is not always dramatic, and he doesn’t always speak right when we want him to. But if we are to listen to God, then we must ask Him to reveal Himself. And he will—if we ask, we will receive God.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Giving Purity A Facelift
Purity is a necessary, but neglected, part of our spiritual lives. Jesus said that without purity we cannot see God. Without purity, no one can be in God’s presence or even be heard by God. The impure cannot abide in God’s presence, nor will their prayers be heard—except for a prayer requesting purity. The spirit world cannot accept any but the most pure, the most clean things. Any gifts to God must be pure, and this includes our words, our actions, our intentions and our very lives.
Today, purity is no longer considered a benefit. When we think of "purity" we think of chastity belts, frowning aged faces and strict people wearing black hats with a buckle on it. To be pure is to be fundamentalist, to be a disciplinarian, to be judging, and to probably be a hypocrite. Purity in ancient times used to be something desirable, but we have so many negative images associated with purity that even if we love God we probably don’t want to spend much time considering it.
It is time for purity to have a makeover. Not that we need to change what purity means in some Orwellian fashion, but that we need to forcefully steal purity back from the judging and hypocrites. To do this, we must first understand what purity is, what God intended it to be:
Pure focus on God
Because most people understand that God is forgiving and merciful, they put their relationship with God on a low gear, low intensity. Although they feel that their relationship with God could be improved in some vague way, they know that God will overlook their faults and just be glad that they think of him at all. However, God is not content with a casual relationship. God wants us to have a mind that is purely on Him and His desires. God doesn’t need casual friends, he has billions of those. God is looking for a faithful spouse, a best friend, a lifelong companion. God asks for people to be completely surrendered to Him and to His ways.
Pure actions of holiness
The only time we use "holy" it seems is in the phrase "holier than thou". Holiness is either considered a divine prerogative or a façade someone puts on to make themselves seem better than they really are. But God told his people to be holy, to be holy as He is holy. This doesn’t mean that God is wanting his people to look down their noses on others who are not holy. Rather, holiness is a gift that we receive from God to be a people that is distinctly divine, not a card to play to stomp on others. Holiness is simply having religious, sexual, relational, and even clothing differences that distinguish us from "normal" society. But holiness isn’t something we just make up—the holiness code is something given to us from God. God commanded his people to not insult each other, to be faithful to our spouses in action and mind, to follow God’s sexual ethics, to keep our promises, to not get drunk, to not worship images, to do our religious actions in private at times. To be pure is to follow God’s code of holiness, even if others do something different.
Pure intentions of love
Purity, however, is not just a matter of action and devotion but of intent. To be pure is not just in relation to God and his desires, but to others and their needs as well. To be pure, we need to be more than holy. Purity is also an act of love, an act of caring for those around us. Part of God’s holiness code is to "love your neighbor as yourself." If, in our holiness, we attack or condemn others then we have forsaken our holiness. Purity is keeping in mind the weaknesses and misunderstandings of those around us, swallowing our revulsion of their impurity and caring for them as best we can.
Three Is One
To be pure is not any one of these three, but the whole. If one loves God with all of his heart and does everything he can to live rightly, but displays anger and disdain to those around him, then he is not pure. If one loves everyone around them and she does so because of her love for God, but she rejects a part of God’s holiness code for herself, then she is not pure. If one decides to live among the Amish, for example, and truly cares for everyone and lives according to their community code as a good way of life, but has little true devotion for God, then he is not pure. Purity is living for God, living according to God’s ways and living in love—all three without exception. Without all three aspects of purity, one will not be welcomed into the presence of God.
Purity of heart
The most difficult part of purity, however, is our minds. We all know that purity is not just a matter of action, but a matter of the heart. Mind you, one’s actions must be pure in order to be pure, but if one’s heart is not pure, then no matter how many pure actions one does, purity is beyond our reach.
The relationship between intent and action is complicated. One can do some actions, especially in public, and not have the intent behind it. But, ultimately, all of our true intentions come out in our actions. And we are so good at deceiving ourselves, often we do not know our true intentions at all, for our actions deceived everyone, even ourselves. So, if we desire to be pure, how can we truly know that we have achieved purity?
There are certain actions that indicate our true intentions, beyond our conscious desires. Here are a few areas we can examine to see our true intention:
Money—What we do with our money is an often unexamined area of our lives. We think of money to meet our needs, but God’s purity requires us to use our money to build God’s kingdom, for holiness and in care for others. Are we using our money in purity or impurity?
Eyes—What we do with our eyes is a small action, almost unseen by most people. But what we look at often indicates what we are most interested in, and our interest can show our intention. What do we look at regularly that we may not notice?
Careless words—When we don’t mean to be saying anything, really, what do we say? Do we express hidden insults or impure desires? Do we indicate our separation of God? What do our careless words show about our true intentions?
Secret actions—We all have actions that no other human can see. If we think that these hidden actions are insignificant, we might not have a deep relationship with God. Or if our hidden actions are unholy or unloving and we do not repent of them, it is an indication that we are not pure, acceptable before God.
Sacrifice—Everyone has to make tough choices in our lives. Some things have to be sacrificed in certain contexts in order to accomplish the greater good. What we allow to be sacrificed and what we give our sacrifice for indicates the priorities in our lives. If we are to live before God, then we would never sacrifice our relationship to God, our holiness to live before God or our concern and help of others. What do we sacrifice and what do we retain?
Achieving purity
Purity may seem like an uphill battle. To a certain degree, it is. Purity is not easy, and much in our human nature screams against our participation in the spirit world. This is why our flesh and the Spirit are not in communion, but battle one another. But this does not mean that purity is impossible. Many people have achieved it and God longs to have relationship with people. To obtain purity, we must do five things:
Commitment—We must make a lifelong commitment to God. This commitment is often done by being baptized in Jesus or committing oneself to him for one’s whole life. But unless we commit to something, we will never know what it really means or how to accomplish it. The first step to purity is to commit to it. We can pray like this: "Lord Jesus, I commit myself to you and to your ways. I want to be in relationship with God all of my life, without exception."
Longing— Not only do we commit to it, but we must desire it with our whole heart. If we just think that purity is a nice thing that we want to do sometimes, then we will never accomplish it. We must eat, drink, live and sleep purity. We must work on having it be a deep part of our lives.
Prayer—We cannot accomplish purity on our own. It is humanly impossible. But God can make us pure before Him through his divine effort. To gain God’s help, we must ask. Pray this: "Father, I want to be pure before you, but I cannot do it on my own. Please help be to be pure through the power of your Spirit. Help me to desire that purity and live in it all the time."
Separation—There are many things that are driving us to be impure. There are things that tempt us to go away from God, to be unholy to be apathetic to others. If something doesn’t effect you, it doesn’t matter. But if something drives you away from God, if someone causes hatred in you, then it is time to separate from that thing or person. Whatever makes us apathetic or lustful or separated from God, we need to have nothing to do with it.
Community—There are people who know about purity and can live it out. These people love God, live righteously, but isn’t holier than thou, and they are deeply concerned about others. Hang out with these people, learn how they do what they do and try to be like them. These are the people who can teach purity because they learned it from God and others who are pure. Do you see people who meet the three criteria of purity? Then be with them, in this way you will achieve purity yourself.
Today, purity is no longer considered a benefit. When we think of "purity" we think of chastity belts, frowning aged faces and strict people wearing black hats with a buckle on it. To be pure is to be fundamentalist, to be a disciplinarian, to be judging, and to probably be a hypocrite. Purity in ancient times used to be something desirable, but we have so many negative images associated with purity that even if we love God we probably don’t want to spend much time considering it.
It is time for purity to have a makeover. Not that we need to change what purity means in some Orwellian fashion, but that we need to forcefully steal purity back from the judging and hypocrites. To do this, we must first understand what purity is, what God intended it to be:
Pure focus on God
Because most people understand that God is forgiving and merciful, they put their relationship with God on a low gear, low intensity. Although they feel that their relationship with God could be improved in some vague way, they know that God will overlook their faults and just be glad that they think of him at all. However, God is not content with a casual relationship. God wants us to have a mind that is purely on Him and His desires. God doesn’t need casual friends, he has billions of those. God is looking for a faithful spouse, a best friend, a lifelong companion. God asks for people to be completely surrendered to Him and to His ways.
Pure actions of holiness
The only time we use "holy" it seems is in the phrase "holier than thou". Holiness is either considered a divine prerogative or a façade someone puts on to make themselves seem better than they really are. But God told his people to be holy, to be holy as He is holy. This doesn’t mean that God is wanting his people to look down their noses on others who are not holy. Rather, holiness is a gift that we receive from God to be a people that is distinctly divine, not a card to play to stomp on others. Holiness is simply having religious, sexual, relational, and even clothing differences that distinguish us from "normal" society. But holiness isn’t something we just make up—the holiness code is something given to us from God. God commanded his people to not insult each other, to be faithful to our spouses in action and mind, to follow God’s sexual ethics, to keep our promises, to not get drunk, to not worship images, to do our religious actions in private at times. To be pure is to follow God’s code of holiness, even if others do something different.
Pure intentions of love
Purity, however, is not just a matter of action and devotion but of intent. To be pure is not just in relation to God and his desires, but to others and their needs as well. To be pure, we need to be more than holy. Purity is also an act of love, an act of caring for those around us. Part of God’s holiness code is to "love your neighbor as yourself." If, in our holiness, we attack or condemn others then we have forsaken our holiness. Purity is keeping in mind the weaknesses and misunderstandings of those around us, swallowing our revulsion of their impurity and caring for them as best we can.
Three Is One
To be pure is not any one of these three, but the whole. If one loves God with all of his heart and does everything he can to live rightly, but displays anger and disdain to those around him, then he is not pure. If one loves everyone around them and she does so because of her love for God, but she rejects a part of God’s holiness code for herself, then she is not pure. If one decides to live among the Amish, for example, and truly cares for everyone and lives according to their community code as a good way of life, but has little true devotion for God, then he is not pure. Purity is living for God, living according to God’s ways and living in love—all three without exception. Without all three aspects of purity, one will not be welcomed into the presence of God.
Purity of heart
The most difficult part of purity, however, is our minds. We all know that purity is not just a matter of action, but a matter of the heart. Mind you, one’s actions must be pure in order to be pure, but if one’s heart is not pure, then no matter how many pure actions one does, purity is beyond our reach.
The relationship between intent and action is complicated. One can do some actions, especially in public, and not have the intent behind it. But, ultimately, all of our true intentions come out in our actions. And we are so good at deceiving ourselves, often we do not know our true intentions at all, for our actions deceived everyone, even ourselves. So, if we desire to be pure, how can we truly know that we have achieved purity?
There are certain actions that indicate our true intentions, beyond our conscious desires. Here are a few areas we can examine to see our true intention:
Money—What we do with our money is an often unexamined area of our lives. We think of money to meet our needs, but God’s purity requires us to use our money to build God’s kingdom, for holiness and in care for others. Are we using our money in purity or impurity?
Eyes—What we do with our eyes is a small action, almost unseen by most people. But what we look at often indicates what we are most interested in, and our interest can show our intention. What do we look at regularly that we may not notice?
Careless words—When we don’t mean to be saying anything, really, what do we say? Do we express hidden insults or impure desires? Do we indicate our separation of God? What do our careless words show about our true intentions?
Secret actions—We all have actions that no other human can see. If we think that these hidden actions are insignificant, we might not have a deep relationship with God. Or if our hidden actions are unholy or unloving and we do not repent of them, it is an indication that we are not pure, acceptable before God.
Sacrifice—Everyone has to make tough choices in our lives. Some things have to be sacrificed in certain contexts in order to accomplish the greater good. What we allow to be sacrificed and what we give our sacrifice for indicates the priorities in our lives. If we are to live before God, then we would never sacrifice our relationship to God, our holiness to live before God or our concern and help of others. What do we sacrifice and what do we retain?
Achieving purity
Purity may seem like an uphill battle. To a certain degree, it is. Purity is not easy, and much in our human nature screams against our participation in the spirit world. This is why our flesh and the Spirit are not in communion, but battle one another. But this does not mean that purity is impossible. Many people have achieved it and God longs to have relationship with people. To obtain purity, we must do five things:
Commitment—We must make a lifelong commitment to God. This commitment is often done by being baptized in Jesus or committing oneself to him for one’s whole life. But unless we commit to something, we will never know what it really means or how to accomplish it. The first step to purity is to commit to it. We can pray like this: "Lord Jesus, I commit myself to you and to your ways. I want to be in relationship with God all of my life, without exception."
Longing— Not only do we commit to it, but we must desire it with our whole heart. If we just think that purity is a nice thing that we want to do sometimes, then we will never accomplish it. We must eat, drink, live and sleep purity. We must work on having it be a deep part of our lives.
Prayer—We cannot accomplish purity on our own. It is humanly impossible. But God can make us pure before Him through his divine effort. To gain God’s help, we must ask. Pray this: "Father, I want to be pure before you, but I cannot do it on my own. Please help be to be pure through the power of your Spirit. Help me to desire that purity and live in it all the time."
Separation—There are many things that are driving us to be impure. There are things that tempt us to go away from God, to be unholy to be apathetic to others. If something doesn’t effect you, it doesn’t matter. But if something drives you away from God, if someone causes hatred in you, then it is time to separate from that thing or person. Whatever makes us apathetic or lustful or separated from God, we need to have nothing to do with it.
Community—There are people who know about purity and can live it out. These people love God, live righteously, but isn’t holier than thou, and they are deeply concerned about others. Hang out with these people, learn how they do what they do and try to be like them. These are the people who can teach purity because they learned it from God and others who are pure. Do you see people who meet the three criteria of purity? Then be with them, in this way you will achieve purity yourself.
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