When you live in a liberal town you see things and meet people that make you wonder about how others came to believe what they believe. When you watch TV you begin to see that the world is filled with examples of people who want to live life for themselves and on their terms. Saturday toward the end of the night I decided to flip through the on demand and find something to watch. (I had a great time watching “A Knights Tale” - I love that movie. I enjoy the witty lines and the modern music in a medieval setting.) I was flipping through and found a documentary on religion called “Religious”. In this film a not-so-funny comedian, Bill Maher, traveled around the World asking people of different religions questions and then making fun of them for believing in God. At many points in the documentary he admits he doesn’t know the answer to the questions he is asking. I have to be honest and say that I turned the movie off after about 45 minutes in. It seemed that he was looking for the worst representations and the craziest of every religion. One of the questions of the film was in relation to hell even existing.
After church on Sunday I had coffee with someone (never met her before) who called herself a Christian. Usually I don’t argue with people when they “call themselves” a Christian. I didn’t this time and we didn’t even talk about religion during coffee. We had covered the basics of beliefs before via email. We had an ok conversation. Afterwards we exchanged text (she asked me to be honest) about seeing one another again and I decided that since we both have very different views of faith that I would not re-engage this person. I got an earful about being judgmental and hateful. After reading up on that religion I see that the biggest issue in that faith is the lack of the gospel. This religion is built on a belief that you can choose everything you want to believe about God as long as you are a good person. The after-coffee dialog confirmed everything I believed about this church after reading up on their website. This works/non-works religion has no absolutes only wishy-washy ideas about God and him really sending people to hell. The “no good person goes to hell” dialog bothers me. If God’s love for us was pulled out of our ability to be a good person where is the measuring stick of what “good” means? Who decides who’s good and who’s not? Many people in the world have and still do believe what they are doing is good. Politicians cheat and lie for the “greater good”. Hitler killed believing what he was doing was good for his people. There is even a TV show about a serial killer who only murders bad people. Without an ultimate measuring stick we are left to decide what’s good for ourselves, and as you can see by examples throughout history we don’t always do a good job of deciding what’s really good. This is where the law (Ten Commandments) proves that no one is good but rather everyone needs the gospel. So works, being a good person doesn’t do it.
One of the other areas we struggle with is our belief in the power of the Gospel. For me it’s funny, I have no problem praying for the sick and truly believing God can deliver health or praying for the hurting and believing God will comfort to them. When it comes to my own life understanding and believing the truth for myself seems hard and sometimes impossible. I’ve wondered why for most of my life. I’ve been drawing closer to God a lot more over the last 3 years. I’ve been reading books (I’ve not been big on reading most of my life), the word and listening to sermons. I understand more about the gospel today than I ever have before.
Growing up in the church it’s easy to talk about sin and not feel its weight or talk about grace and not feel its relief. Over time the idea of sin and grace can become such a regular thought that we tend to disarm it of its power. We forget that the requirement for our sin is death and is not a made up fiction but rather a true price to pay. Without Jesus, death is a sure thing. We tend to handle our faith the same way some people play poker online, but without learning the rules or seeing the small print and they end up signing up for a real game. They believe they don’t play with any real money so they just keep playing and losing. What if one day that debt became real and game makers decided to send a loan shark after you for your negative poker balance? All of a sudden the countless games you played and lost from your computer have become more real. Suddenly you regret not learning the game rules or reading the agreement you blindly clicked “I agree” to. Sadly we forget to think about the consequences of our actions until it’s too late. People wait to prepare by getting water and food until a hurricane is about to strike and there is nothing left, or wait to take care of themselves until after they have health problems. The media can warn us over and over yet we seem to still be blind to the fact that the natural disaster is on the way and can hit out of the blue or if we eat 5000 calories a day we are going to die early. God’s love for us warns us of our impending need for a savior, and the consequences of our disbelief or complacency is eternal separation from him.
There are a lot of people in the world who believe in a “Higher Power” but fail to connect Jesus to that equation and don’t become a Christian because they don’t want to change their life or lose their false sense freedom. Others feel like they must have it all together to understand everything about God before they trust him. Both ideas lead to the same place.
False sense of Freedom
One of the false misconceptions about Christianity is that it’s all about rules. I’ve heard it said that staying out of religion or Christianity for that matter gives people the freedom to live the way they want. The scary part is that most of what we want is selfish things that usually lead to us hurting others or ourselves. Our desires lead us to places of perusing idols that are self-destructive. Marriages end because either or both spouses are more about pleasing themselves than their partner. Looking at Hollywood, or even Nashville, it’s easy to see what happens to those who get what they want and reject Jesus at the same time. This is not always the case, but so many people who “have it all” end up on drugs, getting into trouble, and even dying from their self-destructive behavior. The few who were blessed enough to experience the good things that have come out of those two cultures and follow Jesus at the same time seem to have a sense of humility and freedom. My point is this- money, fame, a living a life based on ideas of success and freedom, are false ideas of what brings joy, peace and true freedom. True freedom is experienced when we lay our lives down and follow Jesus. The bible promises to give us the desires of our heart.
Having it all figured out
I think most mature Christians will admit they don’t have it ALL figured out. Issues like ‘how does a virgin birth happen’ or ‘how can a sea be parted, people get healed, resurrected’ are not things that cannot be proven by science, but rather only explained by faith in an all-powerful God. The fact is, that having it all figured out is not needed for relationship. Most friendships or even relationships we enter into do not start with us knowing everything about the other person. We decide to start the relationship to get to know the other person in hopes that we will gain a friend that we can trust out of this. Jesus understood our need for friendship and relationship with him when he said:
God has given us all the tools through Jesus to understand and explore his love for us. He’s not asking us to have it all figured out but rather that we would begin a friendship with him. Doing this becomes the greatest friendship you will ever have. Out of this friendship you gain a father, king. and a friend. You get a comforter, guide. and equipper in the power Holy Spirit. You gain a family of believers that can help you through hard times, love you, and point you in the right direction.
Growing up in the church it’s easy to talk about sin and not feel its weight or talk about grace and not feel its relief. Over time the idea of sin and grace can become such a regular thought that we tend to disarm it of its power. We forget that the requirement for our sin is death and is not a made up fiction but rather a true price to pay. Without Jesus, death is a sure thing. We tend to handle our faith the same way some people play poker online, but without learning the rules or seeing the small print and they end up signing up for a real game. They believe they don’t play with any real money so they just keep playing and losing. What if one day that debt became real and game makers decided to send a loan shark after you for your negative poker balance? All of a sudden the countless games you played and lost from your computer have become more real. Suddenly you regret not learning the game rules or reading the agreement you blindly clicked “I agree” to. Sadly we forget to think about the consequences of our actions until it’s too late. People wait to prepare by getting water and food until a hurricane is about to strike and there is nothing left, or wait to take care of themselves until after they have health problems. The media can warn us over and over yet we seem to still be blind to the fact that the natural disaster is on the way and can hit out of the blue or if we eat 5000 calories a day we are going to die early. God’s love for us warns us of our impending need for a savior, and the consequences of our disbelief or complacency is eternal separation from him.
There are a lot of people in the world who believe in a “Higher Power” but fail to connect Jesus to that equation and don’t become a Christian because they don’t want to change their life or lose their false sense freedom. Others feel like they must have it all together to understand everything about God before they trust him. Both ideas lead to the same place.
False sense of Freedom
One of the false misconceptions about Christianity is that it’s all about rules. I’ve heard it said that staying out of religion or Christianity for that matter gives people the freedom to live the way they want. The scary part is that most of what we want is selfish things that usually lead to us hurting others or ourselves. Our desires lead us to places of perusing idols that are self-destructive. Marriages end because either or both spouses are more about pleasing themselves than their partner. Looking at Hollywood, or even Nashville, it’s easy to see what happens to those who get what they want and reject Jesus at the same time. This is not always the case, but so many people who “have it all” end up on drugs, getting into trouble, and even dying from their self-destructive behavior. The few who were blessed enough to experience the good things that have come out of those two cultures and follow Jesus at the same time seem to have a sense of humility and freedom. My point is this- money, fame, a living a life based on ideas of success and freedom, are false ideas of what brings joy, peace and true freedom. True freedom is experienced when we lay our lives down and follow Jesus. The bible promises to give us the desires of our heart.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps. 37:4Once you get even a glimpse of God’s love and goodness your desires change. You will not look at life the same as you did before you met Jesus and decided to follow him. Freedom looks different. Freedom is found in a God who died for you and gave his life for you. Freedom is found in truly understanding grace. Life is less about us, more about others, and all about God. How would America look today if we cared about each other more than ourselves? Stayed away from lifestyles that God has warned us are harmful? Turned away from sin? How would marriage look in America if fewer men struggled with pornography? What if we treated homosexuality the way we treated people struggling with pornography and help them see that God loves them? The problem with the Church today is that we are less accepting of people yet more accepting of sin. If we reversed the two I think the American church would look different.
Having it all figured out
I think most mature Christians will admit they don’t have it ALL figured out. Issues like ‘how does a virgin birth happen’ or ‘how can a sea be parted, people get healed, resurrected’ are not things that cannot be proven by science, but rather only explained by faith in an all-powerful God. The fact is, that having it all figured out is not needed for relationship. Most friendships or even relationships we enter into do not start with us knowing everything about the other person. We decide to start the relationship to get to know the other person in hopes that we will gain a friend that we can trust out of this. Jesus understood our need for friendship and relationship with him when he said:
I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. John 15:15
God has given us all the tools through Jesus to understand and explore his love for us. He’s not asking us to have it all figured out but rather that we would begin a friendship with him. Doing this becomes the greatest friendship you will ever have. Out of this friendship you gain a father, king. and a friend. You get a comforter, guide. and equipper in the power Holy Spirit. You gain a family of believers that can help you through hard times, love you, and point you in the right direction.
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