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Christian Apologetics, Christian Living, Inspirational, Motivational

THE CHRISTIAN MONSTER CREATED BY APATHY, TEMPER & SELFISHNESS (AND THE CURE)

news3-maggyRobert E. Webber was an American theologian who wrote extensively on the relationship between the ancient church and the today’s modern church. In a development called the Convergence Movement Webber hoped to reintroduce Christianity’s ancient creeds, practices, worship, prayer and community into the culture of today’s Western Christianity desperately needing grounding,focus and renewed purpose.  While his topics and theme were both wide and deep, in their scope, a simple but profound truth leapt off the page for me: We live with paradoxes and need to return to the Biblical facts for grounding (more on this later).

Our fellowship, Maranatha Koinonia, began the transition from Western institutional church in search for true Biblical community about one year ago. Throughout the process some families and individuals left, hoping to connect with church that was more recognizable and convenient for societies standard of Christianity and fellowship.  But while some left others joined our fellowship largely due to what a true Biblical community represented and the promise, that if we reconnect to our ancient faith, we will better understand and reach our world. Webber calls today’s world one of a secular / spiritual paradox. On the one hand we have many people in search for spiritual connections and while this pursuit is sincere many are also unwilling to surrender the secular culture that pull them away from spirituality. We all sense this tug of war daily and we wake up with the conflict in our mind, body and spirit. Before we are actually able to devise an effective approach as to how we can conquer the paradox we must recognize victory will only ever be achieved if we get the “facts” correct from the beginning.

What “facts” am I referring to?  Remarkably if you ask a person about what Jesus actually said, or did, you will soon discover a myriad of one-liners, common grace works and a personal theology that casts Jesus from a mere moral mortal to a demi-god or to God in flesh. It isn’t very surprising in an age of secular / spiritual paradoxes that even Jesus can be, or is, anything but what He actually said of Himself; and this draws us back to the necessity of needing to know the facts. You see to actually know what Jesus said and why He did what He did requires the reader to look beyond the paradox and comprehend the “facts”, of Jesus, as revealed though an entire narrative from Genesis to Revelation. Such an approach, often referred to as Biblical Hebraic holism, capture not only the earthly ministry of Jesus but places His life within the context of prophecy, divinity and deity. This is why the facts can’t be glossed over or flatly ignored; because to do so creates a “Christian monster” that is far from Christian and every bit a dangerous monster.

What has contributed to the “Christian Monster?” You may be surprised to discover Webber’s paradox is not an invention of Modernity or Post-Modernity. In fact the paradox has always been with us; but until recently this paradox was held in check by disciplined discipleship and commitment to a Christianity that represented an entire Word of God (the Bible) world-view.  Webber cites, in his book Ancient – Future Evangelism a gathering of 450 churches, across multiple denominations and nations, which gathered to address the growing concern of the church’s place in society. Specifically this conference met to discuss the challenges of evangelism and discipleship and concluded, “The church is a mile wide but only one inch deep.” In 1999, when this conference was held, the crises was looming; and now living in 2014 the crises is a monster which has created a Christian faith that resembles very little from the ancient faith of the Patriarchs, Moses, the prophets, Jesus or the Apostles. I have uncovered at least three contributors to this monster and I would like to address them while also suggesting a cure.

1. APATHY:  lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern (IE: widespread apathy among students). The very word makes us all cringe. We know it when we see it, we feel it when we are there and like a filthy weed we know it will rob life out of anything healthy. Apathy remains one of the significant poisons that has sapped the rich, vibrant faith of Christianity and replaced it with a yard that, from afar, looks green; but upon closer examination is little more than a large weed patch. Apathy is a great robber of all people and when apathy infects the Christian community of faith it always damages people’s belief in the integrity of God, His Word and His promises.

PDE5 inhibiting medicines could be taken anytime in future, or present if discount viagra no prescription impotence strikes back. So when someone makes a batch of buy cheap levitra that allegedly contains the correct blend of levitra’s active ingredient, Sildenafil Citrate, expired. usa viagra no prescription Thankfully, anti-impotence tablets are here to rescue males. The cialis samples medications come with the same ingredients and effectiveness like the original cialis products. 2. TEMPER: a person’s state of mind seen in terms of their being angry or calm. Have you stopped to think what kind of Jesus you may have fashioned out of your anger or calm? Could it be you have, in your immaturity,  contributed to a Jesus that is just not present despite your best wants and desires? And could it also be, like a spoiled child, when we don’t get our way we inflict great harm against the community of Christ because Jesus decided not to indulge our selfishness?  Sadly we have all contributed to being more of a distraction, away from Jesus, than being those who point people toward the Biblical and true Jesus. Until we are willing to mature (grow up) we risk becoming the apathetic, angry monster that acts hurt and continues hurting those we so desperately need to show love toward. True, lasting, genuine and sincere love can only be expressed through Jesus and to know Him means we must do the hard work of yielding to who He said He was and not who we want Him to be. Therefore, we must all keep our tempers in check and allow His Holy Spirit to guide and instruct us according to His Word!

3. “CARES OF THE WORLD” The last ingredient to the Christian monster is the one that feeds the here and now without ever considering the eternal. Too often we settle for quick, pat answers that have been formed in the shallowest pools of spiritual and intellectual thought. We have become the generation of one-liners and pass them along via Twitter and Facebook without really comprehending what they mean, relay or represent. Today we are inundated with a multitude of Christian writers that are passing little more than spiritual baby food that feeds the apathetic, temper-tantrum prone Christian monster. As we are called to mature in Him (Discipleship) anything that distracts us from Him (Jesus), and produces the wrong kind of attention back to us, needs to be starved.  St. Augustine prayed, ‘O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.’

THE ANSWER: If we are called to live, move and have our being in Him (the Father) then we need the discernment of the Holy Spirit to help us see our world is trapped in the secular / spiritual paradox; and we must allow His discernment to turn our apathy, temper and selfishness into passion, calm and selflessness. When we really live according to Biblical holism then we will be able to see our world for what it is and what it is not. Only then can we effectively administer the only cure for the seeking, hurting and searching…the true Biblical Jesus in His own words from the beginning to the last amen. This is, and always has been, the only cure for the misguided person.

While I am convinced sick people can become addicted to living unhealthy, most people desire to be healthy. We want happy marriages, connected families, blessed children and most of all the reassurance of being safe. Safety, happiness, joy and community have always been in Him (Jesus) and the additives of “self” have done more harm to our bodies, and spiritual development, than good. To know Jesus is more than an intellectual ascent or a comforting warm and fuzzy. To really know Him is to know His Word and to know His Word is a life long pursuit of discipleship. Yes, it is hard work and the monstrous us will have to die in the process but the reward is, in this life and the age to come, Jesus the joy of man’s desire!

Grace and Peace

JOSHUA

Christian Apologetics, Christian Living, Inspirational, Motivational

LOOKING AT SIN & REDEMPTION THROUGH A DIFFERENT PARADIGM

redemption_series_graphic“In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 MSG)

I’m not trying to be clever, cute or intentionally controversial but something curious happened to me as our faith community has studied the book of Revelation. While Revelation deals with many eschatological and prophetic themes it often wraps them within the idea of covenant relationship, fidelity and a return to an Edenic state.  As I was sharing with my faith family the events surrounding Jesus’ second coming, and His union to a “faithful bride”, I also began to revisit how I have commonly viewed sin and redemption and asked, is there a better way?

By asking such an “out of the box” question I was not challenging God’s prescribed order of events and means by which He restores all things. Rather, like with most things, when I don’t have a clear understanding I turn to spiritual mentors, writings on the topic, opinions and most of all God’s Word to see if I am thinking God thoughts or just well intentioned but misleading opinions? Everyone struggles with what St. Paul called a “thorn in the flesh” whether it be a specific sin or the burdens of the sin nature. Furthermore, we know our remedy has and is always securely placed through the atoning work of Jesus. Yes, despite this truth, sin doesn’t just disappear from our lives and cease to exist. In fact, the sin nature is very much alive, in the world around us, and by default we are surrounded by many elements that attempt to revive the old nature within us.

For over 37 years I have tried to conquer sin, through spiritual pilgrimage, fasting, prolonged prayer, counseling, public confession and begging but it wasn’t until I revisited sin from a different paradigm I was able to better understand His work of redemption. So, here is the first paradigm shift on sin: Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not a wrong doing, it is a wrong being of deliberate and absolute independence from God.

When you consider the Judeo-Christian world-view its approach to sin doesn’t just deal with specific sins but the very nature of sin itself. This type of worldview therefore places the Bible (God’s revealed Word) as a historical record, prophetic promise, covenant agreements and guidelines for a life that is willing to not just treat the branches or leaves, of the “sin tree”, but is willing to bore down deep to the roots. In considering the ministry of Jesus the first thing He confronted, in humanity, was the heredity of sin and not the specific sins they may have been struggling with. Jesus’ words to the woman caught in adultery went deeper than the sexual sin by confronting the very heart of the sin nature. Which is why Jesus said to her, Go, your sins (plural) are forgiven and sin no more. “The revelation of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took upon Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took upon Himself the heredity of sin that no man can touch. God made His own Son to be sin that He might make the sinner a saint.” (Chambers)

Leaves may grow 2.5 generic cialis in canada meters long and meter wide. The complications arising out of patient’s body rejecting the donor liver can even be fatal at times. amerikabulteni.com commander viagra Sometime, the sildenafil tablets click to find out work pressure or the anxiousness in life can be the culprit. In addition, sexual desire is also suppressed by foods cialis on line australia containing big amounts of sugar – they’re primarily sweets and sweetened drinks. CONSIDER A SECOND PARADIGM SHIFT ON REDEMPTION: Throughout the entire narrative of the Bible it is revealed the role of the Messiah (Jesus) would bare the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy. We tend to approach Jesus, on the Cross, as one who died for specific sins and because he felt “bad” for us. And while it is true that His sacrifice deals with specific sins, and He has great compassion for His creation, His taking of sin by identification has a different purpose. By deliberately taking upon His own shoulders, and baring on His own Person, sin Jesus was not just treating the “leaves” or “branches” of the sin problem He was taking on the entire root system. By fulfilling the covenant of the Father (Yahweh) Jesus, the Messiah, was made sin for us though He knew no sin. It is in the mysterious and legally satisfying accomplishment of Jesus the relationship of sin was forever broken and humanity could enjoy relationship in Him, and with Him, as sanctified, justified and redeemed.

Here too we are not just focusing on the action, of sacrifice, but in the act of relationship in which Jesus rehabilitated humanity and returned us back to where God designed us to be. This is why I experienced great frustration in dealing with personal sin by using actions or works to cure my problems. What I needed was what we all need: To break relationship with sin and enter into a faithful relationship with Jesus. Everyone is invited to enter into union with God on the grounds of who Jesus is and what He has done.

Not to long ago I had a rose bush that in its first year bloomed such marvelous flowers. But each year this bush produced less and less until finally it looked as it was going to die. Noticing it was sick I tried a variety of cures only to see marginal change and a worsening of the situation. Eventually I even tried to cure the soil conditions around this bush but this too had little effect. Finally, in one last attempt I uprooted the rose bush and planted it elsewhere. Next spring it came back to life and each year it has grown stronger and stronger with very little need for my direct attention. Like my rose bush many people are desperately trying to redeem their lives, through works and well-intentioned Biblical actions, when what is needed is a literal break with the old sin relationships and engaging in a new intimate relationship with Jesus. Redemption is God’s ‘bit,’ and is absolutely finished and complete! But communion and relationship is a two-way street so consider looking at sin and redemption through a new paradigm; and you may find yourself treating the root of sin is more rewarding than examining the leaves.

Grace and Peace

JOSHUA