God on Our Terms

Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. – 2 Timothy 4:2-5

I have often committed to our congregation that I would not preach Christianity but I would preach Christ. I believe that Christ is our Good News and Christianity has become our expression of it. But no more than a painting of a person can introduce you to the person in the portrait can the expression of Christ introduce anyone to him. They can see him, but not know him. You have to meet the person in the painting face to face to say you’ve actually met them, to get to know them.

This is the basis of the ministry God has given me. Working at telling others, to the best of my ability, the difference between the Good News of Christ himself and the personal expressions of it we have come to know as religion.

I have found that people in general have a real struggle with trying to understand the boundaries between faith and personal convictions of religious behavior. As I talk with people I try and listen where they are coming from. Everyone has had a journey of experiences and what has happened along that journey is a pretty good indicator of why we filter what we do, or react the way we do, or value what we do. More often than not, I’m afraid, these experiences come from peoples' expressions of religion rather than from actual experience with Christ.

We have to remember: God did not send a religion into the world to save it, he sent a person – his Son!

I have heard this phrase recently: The age of irrationality. It was in reference to the world we live in today where the facts have become secondary to what we want to believe. We do it with who is, or is not, in the White House. We do it with who is, or is not, elected to congress. We do it with who is giving the news. We do it with who we choose as friends and who we associate with. And we do it with the bible, our church, and our faith. When I say we, I don’t mean just Christians, but all of us who are looking to hope for and believe in God on our terms. We tend to want to vilify what we don’t want.

The apostle Paul addressed this critical and judgmental attitude in Romans 2:1 “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.”

In this age where we have more access to global technology, social media, and more information at our fingertips than at any time in history, we still tend to lean to what we want to believe rather than look at the facts. Let’s face it, it’s easy to believe something bad about somebody when it affirms what we want to believe about them. It’s easy to believe a rant on Facebook by someone who we think holds the same convictions as we do without checking it out factually because it confirms what we want to be confirmed in – that we’re right about that person or law or situation, whatever it might be.

This mindset was seen in the history of Israel, too. Isaiah 5:19 says that the people were challenging God to hurry up and do something to prove that he really existed and was in control of the world. What they didn't see coming was that when God did as they asked, it was they who were on the receiving end of his judgment because of their critical and judgmental attitudes. Verse 20 states that they had missed what it was that God wanted to do among them because they had turned evil to good and good to evil.

I know we want to say that is what the godless world has done, it’s the world that has gone backwards, it’s people who don’t follow Christ who have turned evil into good and good into evil. True. It has. They will. But in Isaiah’s day, it was God’s people who were doing that. And now, we have Paul addressing Timothy about the same characteristics among the followers of Christ; “They will reject the truth and follow after myths.”

Don’t believe everything you read! (says the guy writing the blog…)

Why? Because it’s easier to follow after that which affirms what we want to believe is right rather than suffer for what is right, be patient for what is right, lay out the cost for what is right, spend the time for what is right, think about what is right, be kind in doing what is right, listen to the Holy Spirit for what is right because ultimately it is he who will lead us into all truth! (John 16:12)

If Jesus is truly the Word from God for us, if he truly is the Good News from God for us, we have to preach and teach Christ, not our personal take on Christ, but Christ. Not the religion of Christ, but the person of Christ. Whether the times are difficult to understand or not, whether the circumstances of our country or the world economy or global weather are favorable or not; I am committed to fully carry out the ministry God has given me and “Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”