New Book Chapter

Hey everyone,

I just added another chapter to my “book.” Go check it out at www.thetab.wordpress.com. Let me know what you think…

Don’t Start Backwards

Lately I have begun to really struggle with the way I have always been trained to share my faith. I was always taught the Romans road. Everyone is a sinner that needs salvation; sin causes a break in our relationship to YOU; YOU died to make a way for restoration; we must repent… I have always heard that we have to convince people they are sinners so they know they need to be saved. This all comes form the book of Romans where Paul lays these ideas out in this order.

The problem is that the book of Romans was not written as a tract. It was not written for unbelievers. It as a letter to a church. Paul is setting out systematic theology so that those who already believe could understand their faith better. When I look at Paul’s sermons I don’t see him walking into the marketplace and telling people they are sinners. I see him walking in and explaining the good news that YOU came and died and were raised. He always concludes with a warning about what happens if we reject YOU but that is not the lead. He does not start with the threat of hell. When YOU talked about hell, it was always in warnings to the religious people, not to those who were not yet followers.

Could it be that we have the good news backwards? Should we be starting with the good news, the message of YOUR love and ending with a warning of what happens if we reject YOU rather than start with a threat and hope they grasp the life preserver? I believe we should. Starting out with the threat of hell only leads to lifeless religion. Understanding YOUR love leads to real life and freedom. Fear of hell only lasts for a little while. YOUR Love is eternal. If I try to follow YOU to escape hell, I may never understand YOUR love, YOUR purpose, YOUR plan, or how to have a relationship with YOU. If I begin following YOU because I understand that YOU love me more than YOUR own life and that YOU desperately desire a relationship with me, then my heart leaps to follow YOU and to trust YOU. After all, actions flow out of what is in my heart. Action does not produce love but love produces action.

God’s Will (II)

Sometimes it is the little verses that seem to just be thrown in that get to me. It seems that every once in a while when Paul was writing his letters that he would just take a shotgun approach and throw out all his Christian advise real quick without developing the topics. He seems to be doing this at the end of 1 Thessalonians. He gives out 14 short pieces of advice on maybe seven topics. But on only one of those pieces of advice does he give a reason, …give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess 5:18).

As I was reading this passage, the reason jumped out at me. I am to give thanks in all circumstances because that is YOUR will for me. There it is again. YOUR will. I always want to know YOUR will but I don’t seem to understand what the phrase means. I seem to always think that knowing YOUR will means knowing where I am supposed to work, who am I supposed to talk to, how much I should give, what I will be doing in five years, etc… But every time I find the phrase “will of God” in the Bible, I find an instruction on how to live. Could it be that I have the wrong understanding on something?

So, it is YOUR will that I be thankful in ALL circumstances. Not just the good ones. I was real thankful the other day when I received two checks in the mail. I was not so thankful when I got bills the next day… So I was out of YOUR will. I am thankful on days that my knees don’t hurt too badly, but not so much when they do hurt. YOU want me to be thankful in the good and the bad.

The reason YOU want me to be thankful is that YOU are concerned with the condition of my heart. If I am not thankful now, nothing is ever going to be good enough. If I can’t be thankful in the hard times, I become a person who cannot ever be thankful. If I can’t be thankful for being able to walk because my knees hurt, I won’t be thankful if they are healed. I always think I will be thankful when I get everything the way I want it to be. But if I am a complainer now, I will be a complainer when things get better. There will always be something else to be upset about. It is the pressure of the hard times that show what is in my heart. If ingratitude is in my heart, it won’t just go away in good times. If anything it will go into hiding for a little while. But eventually good enough won’t be good enough and it will come back. Lord, deliver me for this cycle.

Not only that, but if I am not thankful, I am outside of YOUR will. I can preach, counsel, give, do all kinds of God stuff but I am still outside of YOUR will. The only way to know more of YOUR will for me is to fulfill what YOU have already revealed. Thankfulness is a clearly revealed part of YOUR will. Once I learn to obey what YOU have told me, You will tell me more. Lord, help me. This is impossible without YOUR spirit in my heart.

Religion Does Not Work (II)

Lord, why do we always want to paint the outside of the car when it needs a new engine? We always want to fix the outside and ignore the real problems. We want people to clean up the outside and then hope their hearts will change. But we are not alone in this kind of thinking. Even in the early church they had a problem with it. Immediately after Paul came back from his first missions trip, people showed up telling the new believers that they could not follow YOU unless they followed all the religious rules first. How silly! When YOU were on earth, YOU just walked up to people and said follow ME, not follow rules. We can start following from wherever we are.

In Acts, Peter got up in a meeting to discuss this problem and said, “Why are we burdening Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10) He is saying, ‘Why are we expecting these people to follow a bunch of religious rules when we can’t even follow them?’ This reflects the human condition. I know I can’t keep the law. I know the filth that still resides in my heart. But I seem to love imposing the law on everyone else. Peter is saying, we hate living by a bunch of religious rules, why are we trying to put it on them? At some level, all humans hate rules. But we love giving rules. Why?

If I start with rules, they will always be a burden and I will always despise them. But if I start with following YOU, spending time with YOU, getting to know YOU, falling in love with YOU, I will want to be like YOU. Then I won’t be hung up on rules. I will know that any rule YOU give is good and for my benefit.

Lord deliver me from religious thinking. Not just me, but deliver me from imposing religion on others. Help me extend the grace and mercy I want for myself to everyone else.

With All YOUR Strength

Why do I sometimes burn out and tire of doing good? Why do I sometimes get so offended and hurt if I am not recognized or thanked? Could it be that I don’t really understand why and how I should serve YOU? Am I trying to work off my guilt and sin by doing God stuff? That is a certain recipe for burnout since I seem to keep blowing it faster than I can accomplish good deeds, Am I trying earn something from YOU? Again, a losing cause since I can’t even work off my sin, I will never be able to get into positive ground on the big scoreboard. Am I just trying to impress others? That is a little easier but still exhausting and un-fulfilling. Or am I just trying to fulfill my own ambition by doing something great? That is a never ending cycle since there seems to be no end to my selfish ambition.

My service must come first from none of the motivations above but from a heart of gratitude for what YOU have already done for me. YOU already love me. YOU already died for me. YOU did it all before I ever thought of doing anything for YOU. I live my life now in response to YOUR love. Every time I lose sight of this, I fall into one of those other motivations and start burning out and getting frustrated.

My service must also come through YOU. Paul says, “For this I toil, struggling with all YOUR energy that YOU work powerfully in me” (Colosians 1:29). I can’t accomplish anything in my own strength. Yes, I must put my shoulder to the wheel but ultimately, I can do nothing to change the world or any one person in it. I must struggle with all YOUR energy. That means I work in faith knowing that YOUR power will energize my pitiful little efforts.

Lord, please deliver me from selfish motivations today. Help me walk today in an attitude of gratitude where every act is praise to YOU whether recognized by anyone or not. And help me rely completely of YOUR strength.

Alienated

    Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? That is the question that comes to mind when I think about sin. Does sin cause me to pull away from YOU, or do I sin because I have pulled away from YOU? Colossians 1:21 says, “you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…” The problem is not the physical outward sin, or “deeds of evil.” The problem is alienation and being hostile in mind to YOU. The NIV translates it as, “once you were alienated and were enemies in your minds, because of your evil behavior…” While this is possible in the original language, YOU said that “…the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander (Matthew 15:18-19). So, I sin because my heart is alienated and hostile to YOU.

    So why am I so quick to condemn outward behaviors in other people? The problem is not what they DO. The problem is what they THINK and BELIEVE. We don’t trust YOU, we don’t believe YOU are good, we don’t want to submit our lives to YOU. So we pull away and become alienated.The natural outcome of this wrong thinking is sin. We all do evil things because our hearts are alienated from YOU. If people knew, trusted, and loved YOU, evil deeds would cease to exist.

    Maybe, in presenting You to the world, I should concentrate more on these issues of the heart rather than criticizing outward behaviors. After all, when someone starts by just obeying rules, they will always resent those rules. But if someone starts by falling in love with YOU, the standards become something we do out of love and respect.

    Lord, let my life be dedicated to promoting relationship with YOU, not attacking “deeds of evil.” I do not want my life to be defined by what I am AGAINST but by WHO I am FOR!