This won’t work without Jesus

Anytime two sinners join together in a relationship meant to last a lifetime, things are bound to go wrong. Two wrongs certainly don’t make a right when it comes to relationships!

The first couple on earth had God in the center of their relationship when everything was going well.

We too, thanks to the equal access we have to God through salvation in Jesus Christ, can keep God as the center of our marriages. This means putting God first in every decision and seeking Him in all you do as a couple:

Pray together; study the Word together; discuss the joys and mysteries of God and life together; get involved in a local church together; give of your time, talent, and money together; connect with other Christian couples together; etc…

Doing these things will bring you peace, satisfaction, and lots of perspective in your marriage. And as you put God first, your commitment level to each other will increase. Little arguments will seem…well…littler. Life’s problems will be put into the perspective of God’s time. And God will bless you and your marriage by putting Him first.

To stay in love; love better; and be an example of love to others; stick with the God who is love because this won’t work without Jesus!

We were at The Enchanted Forest; a small story-book themed amusement park South of Salem, Oregon. It’s a nice little amusement park that I have been going to for as long as I can remember.

I held my daughter tightly as we walked down the brick pathway and into the “ice cream house”. She is two years-old, has big dark blue eyes, and the most beautiful blonde pony-tailed hair you’ve ever seen. Her body perked up with excitement as she approached the house.

This was not simply an ice cream house though, it was the witch’s house from the morbidly strange children’s story ‘Hansel and Gretel’. And from the moment we got about two feet from the entrance to the house, Kylie knew something was afoot that wasn’t quite right.

Her little body stiffened with fear and her bobbly head reluctantly peeked around the door frame to see what was hiding inside this house deceptively made of ice cream. And with her adorable little two year-old voice she said something that sounded like;” I squaied….” Which I’m pretty sure means “I’m scared.”

Then, she saw the thirty+ year-old antequated animatronic witch luring in Gretel while Hansel was being held in a cage dangerously close to a fire, and began asking to “Go home!”

Then I remember that, I too when I was little, was terrified of this same attraction at The Enchanted Forest. I knew it was fake, I knew Hansel and Gretel was simply a fairy tale, I too was intrigued by a house made of candy and ice cream, and I knew that my older sister and brother-in-law would protect me if something went awry. But I was still terrified.

Now my daughter Kylie is only two and she doesn’t know anything about witches, what canabalism (Hansel and Gretel) is, and originally had no idea what was even inside, but for some reason she knew to be afraid.

Jesus’ words to Peter after Peter declared Him to be the Christ are brought to mind when thinking about my daughter’s fear today; and mine when I was a child. He said,” …on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

So many Christians live in fear of the unknown, worry about things they have no control over, blame every little hang-nail on the devil, hide from the world in fear of being infected by the “contagious” illness of sin, and never step out to accomplish God-sized things because they’re afraid of failing.

Either they’re too young in their faith or too naive to know why they are scared; or they know that there is truly nothing to be scared of in light of what God has promised them, but for some reason they just fear.

I think fear is instilled in us from a very young age. Since the culture around us has become so familiar with fearing particular things, we follow suit, and it becomes our very nature.

I’ve watched videos of newborn babies being surrounded by snakes, and they weren’t afraid at all. So I guess it’s more nurture than nature when it comes to our fears. But how are we nurturing a culture of fear; especially within the church??

We as Christians, as the Church, are called and established to be Hell-Busters. We literally have the power achieved by the finished work of Christ through the  Holy Spirit to break down the very gates of hell! No one can stop us from accomplishing the God-sized things we’ve been called to; no one except for ourselves. It is only our fear that will stop us from accomplishing what God has put in front of us.

So whether it’s a witches house made of ice cream, an opinionated gossiper, or the devil himself; we have no reason to fear because the battle is not ours- it is the Lord’s. Satan, sin, hell, and death are being done away with, but the victory of Christ and the assurance thereof lasts forever.

We talked about ministry, pastoring, evangelism, and the Church. We
discussed how small churches who want to make a lasting difference in
their communities are to respond to the “big box churches” who are
doing a much better job than them. We talked about a lot of things.

But as we stared at the magazine during our conversation, I realized
that I wanted to be like the ‘mega star pastor’ on the cover. But then
I realized something else- that the non-Christians sitting around us
at Starbucks had no idea who this magazine-cover pastor was. The only
people who knew who this pastor was, were Christians- particularly
pastors!

And, I wondered with my Starbuck’s friend; “What’s the point of having
all sorts of Christians know about you anyways?!” Had I been desiring
to be a Christian celebrity?! For years I had dreamed about being the
pastor who was invited to speak at Christian conferences- I still do-
but I realize that speaking to thousands at Christian conferences
entitles…speaking to Christians!? And while I want to help
Christians grow and advance in their faith, my (our) primary concern
is to speak, to preach, and to teach the Gospel to those who are lost.

So the question in my mind that popped up, that I asked my friend,
was; “Are their any pastors or Christian leaders within our nation,
who are not famous only amongst Christians, but non-Christians as
well?” After all, the best place that we can leverage our notoriety
for the Gospel, is not amongst Christians, but amongst non-Christians.
If people are looking to us- if we ‘had the favor of all the people’
like the early Church in Acts- for advice, and entertainment,
teaching, and etc..then we could use that fame and notoriety as a
platform to preach the Gospel. And while pastors, myself included, are
trying to find ways to be famous within the Church world, maybe we
should start looking for ways to become famous in the real world.

There’s a few leaders I can think of that have gained some notoriety
in the real world that are making a difference for the Kingdom: Rick
Warren, Joel Osteen, Bono, John Maxwell, and Tony Dungy are a few of
those, but most of their ‘Christian influence and notoriety’ still
takes place within the Church. What if there were modern day prophets
like Daniel who could greatly leverage their fame and notoriety to
influence a nation for the Kingdom? Is it happening?

What about on a city-wide smaller scale? Are there any leaders in your
community who the community knows about-not just the Church- who are
using their notoriety to spread the Gospel and influence their region
for Christ? If so, I want to know!

I want to start dreaming and instilling dreams in the hearts of young
Believers about how we can become mighty influencers, not of just our
churches ( which do need to be influenced), but also our lost world.
That would be something worth giving your life to.

Although I don’t condone making or performing any art that is sinful by actively promoting an ungodly lifestyle, I would like to engage you with a few points:

Have you ever…?

-Have you ever seen a Christian piece of pottery?

-Have you ever tasted a freshly baked Christian cupcake?

-Have you ever marveled at a Christian clothing article as a model walked it down     the runway?

-Have you ever stood in awe at the bottom of a Christian architecturally ingenious building?

The answer to all of these questions is inexplicably, “No”. But when you take this to its extreme, where does that leave things like music? We, as Christians, are constantly labeling things Christian and nonChristian.

Christian Music:

But how do you classify a song as being Christian? Can a song be saved from hell? Can a song have a relationship with Jesus? No. We tend to label a song as Christian if it mentions Jesus in a positive light, is sung by a Christian, and if it’s played on a Christian radio station. But when a Christian artist who sings Christian songs sings a song that doesn’t explicitly mention Jesus or even if their song does mention Jesus and is played on a secular radio station- Watch Out, all hell breaks loose in the Christian community!

Compared to the Bible:

That’s all good and well until you look at…the Bible. And if you classify things as being ‘secular or sacred’ and ‘Christian and nonChristian’, the problem you end up with is that you’ll have to eliminate large portions of Scripture. And if you’re really black and white on this issue, you’d have to throw out the whole book because of its constant references to things which are VERY unpleasant, immoral, very unadvisable, and godless.

If you’ve never really read the book of Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ruth, Esther, Job, and Song of Solomon; you are in for a surprise! The book of Ruth barely even mentions God; the book of Esther doesn’t mention Him at all, and neither does Song of Solomon. And you would probably be shocked of what IS talked about in Song of Solomon- it definitely wouldn’t be classified as a Christian song by today’s Christian standards.

Everything Is Spiritual:

The reason that these things are validly Scripture is because they are true to the human experience: love, betrayal, war, sex, commitment, politics, money, children and parenting, etc…. You cannot say that some of these issues are sacred and some of them are not. Rob Bell, in his famous teaching Everything Is Spiritual, states,” To label something as spiritual is to label something as not spiritual.” You see everything in life has meaning and is spiritual just as much as it is physical. After all God, who is spirit, created us in His image and permeates everything in existence.

He desires every piece of our lives to be lived sacredly unto Him. That’s why I’ve mentioned before that everything is worship: not just church, not just t-shirts with the name Jesus on them, not just fish bumper stickers, or Christian radio stations, but everything.

How to Create:

An unknown Pastor who goes by the name of “Reverend J” receives various questions on a Christian blog known as John Mark Ministries. Someone asked him about this division between the sacred and the secular and he wrote this about art:

“A true artist gives his soul away to others. That is his or her gift to the world. It is a sacred impulse. A holy impulse. That impulse should not be contained and restricted but encouraged to flower and flourish. Christians, of all people, should be the first to facilitate that artistic impulse. During the Renaissance period the church got it right. That period produced the greatest art the world has ever seen. What happened? We’ve lost a lot of ground since then. It’s time to face the music and claim it back!”

And with that being said, some of the music I have heard that has been ‘so-called Christian music’ is some of the worst music I’ve ever heard artistically speaking. While the best music I have ever heard has been ‘so-called secular music’, music that is not explicitly about God, but about life and the human condition which is very sacred and very spiritual. And that’s something we can all relate to.

So whether you make music, cook steak, paint pictures, dance, act, perform standup comedy, whatever it is; do it as unto the Lord and let the creativity He gave you flow out of you with all its might. Should you be mindful not to offend a holy God with things that are distasteful or promote a sinful life, absolutely- after all, this is worship we’re talking about!

But don’t shy away with allowing your art to portray real life because it is very spiritual and everyone can relate to that and find God through real life circumstance and creativity.

But this weekend we celebrate the fact that God took all of the weight of our burdens and nailed them to a Roman cross two-thousand years ago.

When Jesus died on that cross He declared that it was finished. His Word says that there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. He already paid the full price and nailed all of our unmet expectations to a cross that has long since disenegrated.

You can come to Him today and lay all of your sins at His feet, rest and trust in His finished work for your forgiveness, give Him control of the life you weren’t able to manage on your own, and experience His righteousness, renewed rellationahip with Him, and eternal life through His resurrection.

Good Friday is horrible because we killed our Creator, but so good because He He allowed us to do so- for the joy set before Him.

It’s not just a holiday weekend, it’s a time of rememberance and reflection. It’s a time of renewed commitment. It’s a time of new life and resurrection.

Too often teachers will refer to a Bible story or passage, not explain it, then pass by to the next thing- leaving their audience bewildered as they continue.

If you build a foundation for the rest of your message on something that no one understands or knows about (either a Bible strory or cultural reference), they won’t be able to understand the rest of your message it’s built on.

Don’t be affraid of referencing obscure Bible stories or cultural references, just explain them- alot (more to come on that later).

Remember, especially with younger people, that today’s generation probably doesn’t know much about the Bible stories that you learned in Sunday school because- they didn’t go to Sunday School.

So remember to preach to the nonChristians, or the Biblically uneducated, in your crowd and not just to the seasoned saints. When a simple message is spoken, where Biblical points and theology, are thoroughly explained everyone is strengthened and edified- especially if the message is Gospel focused on and central (more to come on that later).

I always assume that my audience is made up of nonChristians and speak to the entire audience as if they are such. This way I can make sure that everyone understands and can weave the central message of salvation into everything, and hope for a response to the Gospel.

As I gear the message towards the lost, I also make sure to make many references that Christians will catch, but not at the expense of losing the most valuable member of your crowd: the unsaved.

I talked to someone who just came out of a cult. I talked with someone who was a witch and practiced Satanism. I talked with someone who didn’t believe in the claims of the Bible yet called himself a Christian. I talked with an elderly artist who has lived an extremely interesting life with prominent figures of Hollywood’s Golden era. I talked to a severely disabled woman bound to the confines of a wheelchair for the rest of her life. And I spoke to a dear friend who is at the threshold of completely loosing the little eyesight she has left. I talked to a few others two, but these are the interactions that stuck out.

One think that’s really going through my mind right now is the young man who doesn’t necessarily believe the claims of the Bible, yet says he’s Christian out of fear.

There was so much about this conversation that I would love to elaborate on but simply don’t have the time. He essentially, though, didn’t want to go to hell -which he thought was only a temporary judgement before all people go to heaven (?)- so he “was Christian” to avoid it.

I explained to him that the Bible says that,” perfect love casts out all fear”- that the purpose of being saved (or being a Christian) was not getting out of hell, but to experience an abundant everlasting relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I let him know that God’s purpose was perfect and abiding in His purpose will lead to a gratifying and fulfilling life for us; better than any life we could live for our own purposes. I told him that I have a relationship with God because God deserves my love, praise, and devotion for what He has done for me and simply for who He is.

I told him that hell was a real eternal place for sinners who do not receive the gift of eternal life through Christ, but that it was certainly not THE reason to become a Christian.

I heard Rick Warren say on his ministry podcast that heaven and hell were no longer the great motivators of evangelism. My wife and I were talking about that several days before I heard Warren on the podcast say the same thing. Another evangelism point of previous generations was creation, where today’s generation doesn’t seem to allow the creation/evolution debate to effect their decision on whether or not one receives Christ.

It was interesting, however, to talk with this young man whose objections to faith had to do with creation and science; and whose desire for faith had to do with hell.

But I shouldn’t be surprised. This guy grew up in a Christian home and attended church all of his life. And one of the prominent messages that the church gives still is that you become a Christian to get into heaven and to avoid going to hell.

I wonder if people who have so called “conversions” based off of these motivators are truly saved. They, after all, are not compelled to become Christians based off of their desire for relationship with or honoring of God. It’s simply to avoid hell. This motivator is self-serving and not Christ-Centered.

God could and can certainly use such motivators to lead to real transformational relationships with Him; but to have such decisions based solely off of the desire to escape hell are questionable at least.

This post is far from containing any full thought about this subject, but like usual, it poses a question: What can we as Christians  do to share the grace, love, and hope we have in Christ with others so that they may experience transformational eternal relationship with Him, without the motivation being self-serving?

And more importantly: Is my relationship with Christ merely self-serving? Is yours?