If you are a Christian, then you realize that you do not need a special day in which to be thankful. You know that you have many things to be thankful for daily, especially in regards to the forgiveness of your sins. You also realize that you could spend the rest of your life listing the blessings God has favored you with and yet you would not have enough time. 

But as you set your mind to reflect upon things God has done for you also think about the things that He didn’t do for you. Think about how He kept you from that job, position, relationship, or possession. Think about how if He would not have done so, the amount of trouble and anguish you may be experiencing right now.

So often our thanks to God is for what He HAS done. Perhaps we should be just as joyous for the things that He HAS NOT done. For that was just as much of a blessing!

 

HAPPY THANKGIVING! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Some time ago, I wrote two articles entitled, “Being Honest About a Christian Husband’s Tension”. In part one or two (I honestly don’t recall), I wrote about my wife and I and our search for a home to purchase. I told you all how, no matter what we had going in our favor, we just couldn’t seem to get an offer accepted.

Well, a few weeks back we decided to discontinue our search for now. At the time it seemed that everything that could go wrong was. For instance, one of the down payment assistance programs that we were going to use was temporarily suspended due to the state budget. Also, the interest rate for FHA loans went up because of the economic turmoil of the country. And, worse of all, the bank countered the offer we made on one of their homes by a $25,000 increase. We knew that with all that, we just couldn’t afford the home. 

Needless to say, we were very disappointed. And although we had resolved ourselves that God knew what was best, it didn’t seem to take away the sting of disappointment. And I say resolved because we approached that truth as something begrudgingly accepted rather than joyfully embraced. The fact that God knows all and at times prevents His children from making huge errors should’ve brought us much comfort and joy. But that knowledge was not allowed to do so because our desires overruled our judgment. As the so-called “strong” one, I tried to comfort my wife with this truth over and over again. However, in truth, I was just preaching to myself.

Well, last night at work I found out that my medical insurance premium was increasing from $70.13 biweekly to $240.50 biweekly on January 1, 2009. Can you believe it? That’s $481 a month for health insurance. And I work for the government! That’s private sector rates.

And to think, the house we wanted was forty miles from my job which means I would have had to buy a car because we only have one. The gas and maintenance alone would have potentially been really expensive, especially if I would have bought a used car, which is all I could afford anyway. To top it off, because of budget cuts, our overtime have been cutback drastically.

So this post is to encourage you the reader that it is absolutely true that God knows what is best for us. It is more than a cliche that other Christians tell you when they don’t know what else to say. It is the truth that should provide us with that peace that passes all understanding. It is the knowledge that should shield us from allowing any present situation to control our emotions. We cannot excape the fact that when it comes to the story of our life, we see the movie frame-by-frame, but God sees and knows the entire thing from beginning to end.

So the next time that you are in a situation and things don’t seem to be progressing, just know that your Heavenly Father has it all under control and sooner or later you’ll be thanking Him for being God Himself and not letting you run things.

I must admit, as I look back over my entire Christian walk, and maybe my life, I’ve always had a somewhat critical disposition. It wasn’t that I wanted to put other people down and exalt myself. (That’s especially true now that I’m born again.) At least that wasn’t my primary motivation. It was really that I wanted to understand why people thought the way they did. I wanted to know if even they understood why they thought the way they did. I wanted to know why they seemed to have glaring contradictions between what they said they believed and how it affected the way they thought things through. 

As I learned more about any number of subjects, I began to developed a habit of being especially critical of those whom I held in high regard. I began to ask, myself, questions about the things I noticed. Why did my dad stay in the COGIC given all the bible that he knew? Why wasn’t my mom able to take the same advice about handling life’s many challenges that I watched her give to anyone who asked? Why wasn’t anybody besides my dad, my brother Samuel and myself more biblically driven (at least as far as I thought we were, turns out I was wrong) than emotionally?

Well the habit of criticizing those whom I admire has continued up until now. Which brings us to the point and subject matter of this post. Currently on my Ipod are some of the people that those of us, who are more”conservative” theologically, esteem pretty highly. Men such as: Matt Slick, Bob DeWaay, John Piper, John MacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, Ravi Zacharias, Greg Koukl, James White, J. Vernon McGee, Alistair Begg, and the gentlemen from the White Horse Inn program.

Normally, I really enjoy listening to all of these programs, especially when I first started. But admittedly, the more I study the scriptures (and talkto Bro. Lionel Woods, yep it’s all your fault dude! LOL!!!)  the more I find myself wanting to pull my hair out. Sometimes I find myself wondering if I’m reading the same bible as these guys. Sometimes I question their motivations for saying what they’re saying. Sometimes I wonder if they are saved! And this is where I need to pump my brakes!Here it is, the guy who wrote the article “RoboChristianity” where I challenge the “everybody should think like me” mentality, and I’m wondering about guys eternal state based on a few disagreements. And none of them in the area that we would consider the “Essentials”. Lord help me!

So it seems that I have a real dilemna. As much as I desire for these gentlemen to govern their teachings (mainly their applications) by scripture, it is crucial that I’m just as taxing on my own behavior. So here’s my catch 22. I have really been challenged lately by two passages of scripture. I believe both are related to my current issue. Matthew 5:29-30 and Titus 3:2-7.

The Matthew text reads, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for the whole body to go into hell.” Now of course this scripture is dealing more with being willing to give up anything for the sake of eternal life. But if Jesus applies this principle to something as important as that, then surely it can be applied to living out my Christian life and avoiding ill will and judgmental thoughts towards other brothers. 

The Titus text reads, “to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing EVERY CONSIDERATION for ALL men. For WE also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, DECEIVED,….”.

I stop there because it is so important to remember where I was and still am in some areas. Deceived! Blind! Obstinate! Since I grew up in Church and in a Christian home, the Word of God was right there in my face all the time and I chose to ignore it. I am truly one who is without excuse. Continuing….

“…enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, HE SAVED US, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

In other words, a person’s salvation is not dependant upon them, nor does it rest in what level of knowledge that they can claim they have. It rest solely on the grace of God. Does that grace produce evidence? Yes! Am I always able to perfectly assess that evidence? No way! So getting to a point where I wonder if these guys are saved is, in my opinion, crossing a dangerous line.

So, do I keep listening to these brothers, take the good with the bad and extend them the grace of God that I desire for myself? Do I accept the challenge of Titus? Or, do I accept that I’m so weak in this area that it is best to just discontinue listening to them until I mature more? (I’ve already applied this method to a certain website that shall remain nameless) In other words, do I apply the principle of the Matthew text? Or would this just be an attempt to excape being tested? If I just stop listening, then how can I be challenged to apply the Titus text? Is there a way to apply both scriptures? Maybe it’s not the Ipod or these men that are the problem. Maybe it’s me and the fact is I need them so that I can learn to both cut off my own ungraciousness and to extend grace. 

Think about this with me. Maybe you can identify with my struggle. What would you suggest I do?

Back in 1987 a movie was released called RoboCop. RoboCop is set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan, in the near future. RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg, otherwise known as “RoboCop”. RoboCop is designed to be a robot police officer that is governed by what is called in the movie “The Three Laws”. Certain scenes were no doubt placed in the movie to show the conflict between actual life events and those three laws. 

 

In some way, this is a description of what we call Christianity in America. Like it or not, admit it or not, we Christians like the static approach to our faith. We want uniformity. We want to have a trademarked brand that excludes any form of individuality. We don’t want anyone “doing his own thing”. We want to think alike, sound alike and look alike. We want to be easily identified in a crowd of sinners. “There’s the Christian!” we want people to say. We want to have a three-by-five index card type of faith that is easily retrievable whenever we may need it. A card that tells us exactly what we should do in every situation. We want a faith where we can be confident that we all fit into the same whole.    

 

We can find echoes of this thinking all over the spectrum of our Theology but it is most reflective in our Ecclesiology. Let’s face the truth, we love to be sectarian. We love to proclaim that we’re the ones doing it “right”. By “right” some of us mean biblically, some historically and others just mean like our favorite theologian says we should. We marginalize, slander, rebuke and exclude all those who refuse to conform. We want people to walk in lock step with us on everything from their personal devotion to the way they do ministry outreach. From our style of preaching to our choice of praise song material, like RoboCop, we too believe ourselves to be governed by static laws. We believe that they work in every situation. Whether it is ten, three, or just one (whatever My Pastor says), we yet believe ourselves to be faithful followers of Christ and proclaim ourselves to be doing it the “Christian” way. But does the scripture comport to this way of thinking? Let’s look at a few examples:

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:”The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

 

Do you get the feeling that Jesus was expressing an unpredictable effect that the Spirit would have in a regenerate individual? Can regeneration be compared to an assembly line where every believer comes off exactly the same? Sure I believe that we have a common salvation (Jude 3) as believers but how it may appear in our lives may not be so similar. Even Jesus expressed the fickle nature in which God’s servants are identified by the “religious”. He said:

 

“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinner!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:18-19)

 

John the Baptist and Jesus. Two men. Two intertwined missions. Two different approaches. Both approved by God. And what about Paul?

 

“But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me;”

 

Why didn’t Paul need to be catechized by the ones who came before him? Didn’t he need to know the uniform and liturgy? Or what about this:

 

“If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.“ (Colossians 2:20-23) 

 

Why didn’t Paul think that this “structure” was necessary to prevent Christians from sinning? Didn’t he want them to be held accountable or have “church” discipline? And let’s not forget:

 

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.“

 

Does Paul believe that a foundational teaching is enough for Christians to thrive on? Surely he sees it necessary to do a “Marriage”, “Spiritual Leadership in the Home”, “Raising the Next Generation”, and “Spousal Submission” series, right? Was he that confident in the work of God in the life of His children?

 

Look friends, when Jesus commissioned His disciples to go out and make disciples, He intended for them to make disciples of Him and not them. How about you? Do you want men to follow you or Christ? Men have fantasized about making robots that look, talk and even think, just like them. They may appear alive but they are not. Jesus Christ, through His gospel and by His Spirit, makes men alive. Sure, at times they may appear dead but they are more alive than can be imagined. Maybe we should trust Him with how men’s lives are lived and just concentrate on introducing them to Him. The last thing we need are RoboChristians.

I am not trying to become the next political pundit. Neither am I assuming the role of cultural commentator for Christians. This post is not an ant-war post, at least not totally. This is just more evidence of how mad I am over the Church In America allowing any political party to highjack our cause and substitute our true platform, which is to proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take a look at this story:

 

Two men, both unaware of the other, sit outside of a home for weeks staking it out. They notice that there is a beautiful woman living there all alone. They are both stunned to see this lady living in such a big house by herself. They both decide that tonight is the night to break in. They leave their cars at the same time. Suddenly, one of the men (alleged burglar A) spots the other (alleged burglar B), creeps up behind him and hits him over the head, knocking him out. He procedes to enter the property. Unbeknownst to him, a neighbor has been watching the whole time and has called the police.

Both men are later arrested. When a search of their homes is done, alleged burglar B is found in possession of pictures of different women taken, apparently, through their bedroom windows. All of the women were victims of rape. This appears to be the man that raped each one of them. In the house of the alleged burglar A, the man who knocked him out, the police find receipts of what appears to be a shopping spree. They find receipts for flat screen tv’s, home entertainment systems, jewerly, clothes, etc. And they discover that the credit card used in each one of the purchases belongs to the lady in whose house alleged burglar A had broken into.

The trial for alleged burglar B is immediate and quick. All the evidence is against him and more than he wanted discovered comes out in court. Not only is he found guilty of the attempted burglary and rape of this woman but he’s also found guilty of over ten previously unsolved rapes. Alleged burglar A sees an angle for his defense.

At his trial, he pleads innocent despite all the evidence against him. Even the judge is shocked at his obstinance. You see, according to alleged burglar A, since he knocked out alleged burglar B and prevented a rape, he should then not be held accountable for his own crime. In fact, he claims, that it was a good thing that he was there to rob the lady at that exact moment and that she should be grateful to him.

Now if you think that the defense put forth by alleged burglar A is so ridiculous then you should feel the same way the next time you hear a so-called Christian defend the Iraq war. Our President, George W. Bush, told us that he was going into Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction. When we got there, we found none. We did find massive graves filled with people, who we assume were killed without any justifiable reason. We did find people in poverty who had no representation in government. (like that doesn’t happen here, right?) We did find women being oppressed (by our definition) and so on and so on. So the justification for the war started to change almost daily. And it appears that we will not easily be able to end this huge mistake of a war.

My point is this. Christians, we should be outraged that we’ve allowed our cause in this world to be attached to such dishonesty and incompetence. This war is not a Christian cause. God is not especially on the side of America because we are here. There are Christians in Iraq you know. We as Christians should have been the first group to stand up and declare our dissatisfaction with the military being used for an apparently unjustifiable cause. Or at least, refrained ourselves from supporting it. Wars should be justified before they’re engaged in and not after. While I understand that there is no guarantee of infallible engagement in war, we as believers should always be willing to say we are wrong, if and when we are.

As a country, we should be as sure as possible why we are going there, before we get there, and not be in a position where we are scrambling around searching for a justification for our actions. We should seek to end wars  where it is discovered that the original reasons for engaging in them are no longer applicable.

No matter what you as a Christian believe about any war, including this one, your allegiance is to Christ. You should not support or defend that which Christ would not, if it is at all possible to refrain from doing so. There’s just no justification for doing otherwise!

This is a picture of our soon to be First Family. This is our President-Elect, the next First Lady and their two beautiful daughters.

 

Over this long election season I have been appalled by the behavior of many so-called Christians. I hate, first of all, that we’ve allowed either political party to believe themselves capable of defining our platform. We are members of a heavenly kingdom. Period. Secondly, love is supposed to be the governing motivation for every single one of our thoughts and actions. But for me to hear slander, insults, and flat out lies about a man simply because one disagrees with his policies, I find to be indefensible. Thirdly, I saw that no matter how we may attempt to proclaim otherwise, Christians have a rating system for sins. It’s either based on a made up scaling system (homosexuality vs. divorce) or on pure numbers(abortion vs. war casualties). But the bible says that “all unrighteousness is sin.”( I John 5:17) And finally, the most aggregious of all the unChristian behaviors were when some felt justified in implying that Barack Obama was the Antichrist. Utterly shameful! Barack Obama is no more the Antichrist than George Bush or any other politician. These are all fallen men and women who will be held accountable for the way they conducted themselves in leadership. But wait…..

You too, Christian, will be held accountable for your attitude and behavior towards them. Will you follow the dictates of scriptures such as: Romans 13:1-7, I Timothy 2:1-4, I Peter 2:13-17 and Titus 3:1-8?

 

If not, then why shouldn’t you be classified as anti-Christ?

Do any of you from the Pentecostal background remember this song?:

Leader: “Power!”           Congregation: “Power Lord!”

Leader: “Power!”           Congregation: “Power Lord!”

Leader: “We need more power!”       Congregation: “Power Lord!”

Leader: “We need more power!”       Congregation: “Power Lord!”

Leader: “That Holy Ghost power!”      Congregation: “Power Lord!”

Leader: “That Holy Ghost power!”      Congregation: “Power Lord!”

 

Man, I can just hear that Hammond B-3 organ wailing, the bass drum kicking, the high-hat snapping, the snare drum popping, the hands clapping, the feet stomping, the leader pleading and the congregation begging. I can remember that sister with the big voice sending music as high as heaven for so long that she had to signal another sister to take over once her voice began to give out. I remember that sister carrying it as long as she could until something happened in her feet and she began to dance instead of sing. Then another would pick it up until all the people in the room were wishing to God that they could “saang like that!”. It was so beautiful to have the whole crowd in one accord lifting up what they believed to be praise to an awesome God!

But there is now in my mind such a bitter sweetness about the entire exercise. I now wonder, and maybe I did then but I ignored my own thoughts, if anyone had ever taken the time to listen to what we were saying and ask why. Of course it’s not just this song. There are many others. But who exactly told us that we needed this power that we, in our own estimation, did not already have? What was the power for? How did the power we were asking for fit into what God had called us to in salvation?

In most Pentecostal denominations Acts 2:38 carries the day but in the COGIC Acts 1:8 is THE scripture! The interpretation, of course, came directly from the denomination and included the idea of a “second blessing”, as does Acts 2:38, but with the added sense that it provided an individual with the ability to live more holy than the person without it. So much of the emotion in the singing came from this idea. It was the belief that there was another level of power available to the believer that, if accessed, would provide more power in prayer and Christian living. There were even some who believed that access to this power would provide sinless perfection. The idea of being a witness for Christ, in the evangelistic sense, was an almost completely foreign concept. The evangelism part was for the disciples only but the power was for everybody.

As I grew up, the power began to be sought as a means to complete physical healing, deliverance from past hurts and financial prosperity. No longer was sinless perfection or even holy living primary in our thinking. We wanted to rule and to reign right here on earth and have all of the promises of God realized. We felt that as children of God we should be living healthier than the atheist vegetarian that exercised daily, more guilt free than the patient of the world’s foremost psychologist and richer than the hardest working drug dealer. And all without putting forth any more effort than we were in the singing of those songs. 

And so there we were; A people who, for lack of any real biblical knowledge, were spinning our emotinal wheels trying to get God to give us this “power”. We were jumping, twisting, shouting, fainting and sweating more than a Richard Simmon’s class. And I’m not sure if any of it ever led to obtaining that power.

What is most sad is that the power that we were looking for was not only NOT meant for the ends which we were trying to attain but also the real power was easily found right there in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There was no physical exercise necessary, only a repentant heart. Everything, and I do mean everything else that we would need would be found in Christ. We really only needed to take His yoke upon us and learn of Him. Because in the ultimate sense, He is…..

Power, power Lord!

Just a short post.

Nine years ago today, the Gracious Lord blessed me to marry the most wonderful woman I have ever known, my wife Rikisha. Our marriage has been under attack from outside forces since the announcement was made. However, God has been there to make sure that no matter what was coming at us from outside pressures, we never became one another’s enemy. Sure, we’ve had those rough times of meshing two different personalities and backgrounds. We’ve struggled to respect one another’s passions or lack there of, concerning various issues. All and all, God has been there to keep the fire of love burning in our hearts for one another. Barring our deaths or the coming of the Lord (sorry D, I ain’t there yet, LOL) I plan to grow very old with Rikisha. I’m not looking for an exit and neither is she. In fact, the more we both understand about the grace that God has extended us in His Son through the gospel, the more grace we are prepared to extend to one another. Love truly does cover a multitude of faults. And that helps when you have two broken vessels striving to co-exist. But truly….

God is the glue!

Let’s go back to the coliseum:

Persecutor: ”Believer, you have the opportunity to be set free. The only thing that the king requires is that you denounce this Jesus person and affirm him as the only lord and master.”

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, what possibly could be a sufficient reason for me to do such a wretched thing?!”

Persecutor: “Believer, if you don’t we will have to force you.”

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, it’s funny that you would say force. For, you see, the One for whom I stand here as prisoner Himself also forced me into an allegiance with Him. However, I sense that you will force me in a way in which He did not. What, might I ask, will be your powers of persuasion?”

Persecutor: “Believer I warn you. Do not be dismissive of my powers of persuasion. I have been told by my leader, ’skin for skin all that a man has will he give for his life’. Therefore, I intend to put his word to the test. He has warned me that it is not 100% effective; your kind seems to be able, at times, to withstand much in the way of pressure and pain. But we will see if that holds true with you!”

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, I suppose that it would be more than obvious to say that no one likes pain. But “my kind”, as you have stated, has been given certain assurances that if we endure, we shall be saved. We have much incentive to withstand until the very end. Our Lord’s messenger has told us that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. What possibly could you do to me that would trump that promise?”

Persecutor: “Believer, I see that you just don’t get it. All of that stuff is just a fairy tale. What is about to happen to you is real! Then where will your promises be? I’m giving you one last opportunity to denounce this Jesus.”

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, I hate to be a bother at such a time as this but I did ask you what your powers of persuasion would be and you have not answered me.”

Persecutor: “Believer, perhaps you believe yourself to be in a position of power that you would now seek to negotiate. There was a time when my king offered your King riches, honor and glory but He refused. So my king then turned to you, His subjects. Some of you went for it and others didn’t. Strangely enough, when my king did sufficient investigation into the reasons why those that switch sides did, He found that none were actually real servants of your King. He found that they wanted the things that he was offering all along and were just waiting on someone to offer it to them. Your King offers riches that can’t be kept but must be shared, pleasures that come with rules, successes for which you can take no credit and very little else that can be held in the hand. Those who don’t understand this when they start out with Him soon are willing to abandon Him. Therefore, my king has decided to appeal to what most men will fight hardest to gain and preserve, their lives!”

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, perhaps I have given you the wrong impression. I do not intend now nor later to negotiate for my life. For I have already died and my life is hid with Christ in God. I only had been curious as to how you could have understood what you threatened against me to be more persuasive than that which my Lord has promised me.”

Persecutor: “Believer, do you think that the loss of your eyes to burning hot pokers is somehow not persuasive?”

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, surely you jest?! You don’t mean to persuade me by threatening the loss of these poor, wretched, sinful eyes, do you? These eyes that have lusted for opportunities to sin. These eyes that have looked for advantages over the weak and helpless. These eyes that have been full of unrighteous judgment upon others. These eyes that have spent days watching t.v. and only minutes reading the Word of God. Please Mr. Persecutor, do me the favor that I have not been brave enough to do myself. Pluck out these eyes!”

Persecutor: Believer, it seems that you are very brave. But we shall see how brave you are once I have sliced off your ears! Then, then you will relent!

Believer: “Mr. Persecutor, you can’t be serious! The loss of these poor, wretched, sinful ears can not possibly persuade me to give up my allegiance to my Lord. These ears that have entertained gossip and slander. These ears that have listened out for advantages over the weak. These ears that at times have refused to hear the voice of my Master calling me to obedience. Please dear Persecutor, take away these abominable things.”

Persecutor: “Oh Believer, no doubt your hands mean much to you since with them you pray and lift up praise unto your God.”

Believer: “Persecutor, if that were all that these hands do I may be inclined to beg you to spare them. However, the truth is that these hands have also groped hard for fleshly lust. They have kept loved ones at a distance and been closed to the needy. They have been used to repay evil for evil. My Master instructed me that if one caused me to sin that I should cut it off. However, my problem was in both hands and in cutting one off I would be prevented from the ability to chop off the other. You sir, present to me the only opportunity to be rid of this malady on this side of death. Would you please oblige me this favor?!”

Persecutor: “Look Believer, you are really starting to annoy me! No man can be that sick of his own body that he would request it to be maimed. That is pure lunacy! I am now most anxious to remove that tongue of yours! I now recognize it as your most diseased part!”

Believer: “Oh dear Persecutor! How glad you are making my heart without your knowing it. For you have agreed with the scriptures in diagnosing my most heinous part. This tongue is truly set on fire of hell! I have lied with it, gossiped, slandered, judged, condemned, cursed, coursely jested, spoken idly, and created discord amongst brethren. I desire to be rid of it as soon as possible. I only request that you grant me a final prayer to my Master. For I perceived that it is your intention that I will soon see Him face to face.”

Persecutor: “Believer, you have perceived correctly. It is apparent that no matter the threat, you seem to have been granted some power to resist the fear that should come upon any rational man in the face of my tortures. The only thing that can be done now is to prevent you from influencing any of the others by your endurance. Your request is granted but before you begin I have a request of my own. Will you also include me if you believe that it will do any good? I have borne witness of the power of this belief that you hold and I desire that I too can believe something strong enough to be ready to face what you have faced today.”

Before he prays, Believer says that he only wishes that he had been as willing to kill his body parts throughout his Christian journey. He then begins to pray. In his prayer he not only ask for his own forgiveness but also for that of his persecutor. He ask for the strength to endure any tortures that the persecutor may have to inflict upon him should the persecutor change his mind about ending Believer’s life.

Whatever the conclusion to this fictional story may be, I ask that as we look at Believer’s reactions we also take inventory of our own lives. Sure in the face of death we believe that it is a special supply of God’s grace that caused any of the martyrs before us to endure and that would strengthen us. But since we have been called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, and that daily, I believe we should look for that supply of grace even now.

My brothers and sisters, are we there yet?

In my last post on this subject I tried to both define and provide examples of the effects of this malady I call “Lazy Extremism”. One example that I didn’t necessarily hit on was the problem of accepting words without definitions. We tend to hear people use words, and use them ourselves, so often that the usage becomes the definition for us. But is this a sound way to approach our biblical faithfulness. Hardly!

The problem is exasperated by the issue of tradition. I’ve found that when most people are pressed to define what they mean when they use a certain word they are usually at a loss for words. Pardon the pun. For example…

A few weeks ago a co-worker of mine, who is a nominal Christian at best (and that by her own admission, not my judgment) approached me about some of her family members (Oneness Pentecostals) whom she felt were hypocrites. I pressed her on what she meant by that label. We all know the charge that the world levels against the church so it was important to me to decipher whether or not she knew of what she spoke. As is the normal case with those who level that charge, to her it meant that they didn’t practice what they preached. In her opinion, they were hard on and judgmental towards all unwed mothers except their own daughter. This she considered hypocrisy. But in the case of proclaiming that which is right in one’s own home while being unable to effect the choices of one’s children, the charge of hypocrisy would seem to be patently unfair. But here’s the greater problem…

The aspect of not practicing what one preaches is actually a secondary definition to what a hypocrite is. We know in the original Greek that it meant a “mask wearer” to denote actors who would wear large masks in order to destort their voices so that they could play more than one character in the same play. But how does that translate into the way that Christ (the terms most prolific user) used it against the Pharisees? Well, Christ knew that despite the Pharisees true heart condition, they wanted everyone around them to THINK that they were truly God’s men. The Pharisees themselves knew that their motives were power, influence and money, but the only way to gain either was to convince others that they were sincere worshippers.

You see sisters and brothers this is the essence of the hypocrite. It is one who while knowing the truth of their own motives, speaks and lives in such a manner as to convey otherwise to those over whom they desire impact. In order for the charge of hypocrisy to be labeled on someone for not practicing what they preached, it would have to be an expectation of perfection for all who dared to declare anything as right or wrong. And needless to say, none of us are perfect; even in the areas where we are certain of what is right or wrong. Therefore, it can not be the expectation of the one who declares, for example, “thou shalt not lie” to have never lied him/herself.

But what about other words that we hear and use where we aren’t certain of the definition? I mean, what is the church? What is scripture? What is worship? What is leadership? What is accountability? What is membership? What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more. I couldn’t help it. LOL!!!)

But seriously, in a time when the true believer is almost unidentifiable and Christianity is ”just another religion”,  it seems to be imperative that we work really hard at articulating our hope and beliefs in clarity, against the backdrop of post-modernism. No longer can we attack the kaleidoscope of “new-age” religious thoughts while utilizing traditional versus biblical definitions. If we are going to be faithful in the defense of our Master and Lord’s holy word, then we must do so in a way that would seperate us from the rest. We can’t afford to be lazy extremists!