“Lord, save us from your followers” — UHD 14:6

“Lord, save us from your followers” is a culturally popular video title that confuses me. “They like Jesus but not the Church” is a popular Christian book title that disturbs me. Pray for me. I’m confused and disturbed by Christians who find these attractive. I thought that the Bible teaches that a true follower of the Jesus of the Bible tells us how to be saved from sin, not saved from God’s people. I thought a Jesus follower was a lover of Jesus and other true followers. I thought that if someone loves Jesus they love brothers and sisters in the Church. I thought the Church is Jesus’ body. If the second title refers to the unsaved world, I thought Jesus said, “Don’t be surprised if the world hate you. It hated Me before it hated you.”

Why would lies be popular among young Christians? These titles open the door to do some word-play:

Lord save us from your followers who……
….like Jesus, the Head but not the Church, His Body.
….like the Jesus they like, but reject the Christians they don’t like.
….Like the earth and the things they see but not the spiritual and the things they don’t see.
….Like the conversation about the Truth, but not the Truth.
….Like group community with other people but not individual accountability before God.
….like the Jesus of the first advent but not the second advent.
….like to bow down to tolerance but not the tolerance of conservative fundamentalists
….like to get a hold of the Bible for their earthly purposes but not for spiritual purposes
….like to reject the wisdom of their elders but accept the wisdom of their peers
….like to question propositional truth in God’s Word, but welcome the question, “Has God said?”
…like a favorable presentation of homosexuality, but not the Bible’s condemnation of it as sin.
…like no references to what God says, but celebrate human opinion.

Lord, save us from these followers!

Extreme Makeover in Race Relations — UHD 14:6

Racist attitudes in North American churches persist. Sometimes blacks and whites are suspicious of each other.  Skin-color or physical appearance is not the only factor that puts up walls between ethnic groups. The language barrier makes some Americans feel like they’re living in a foreign country.  Some Koreans and Hispanics have their own churches.  The pain of feeling uncomfortable at church seems to be the main barrier for most people of any nationality.

Highly charged racial tension existed in NT times too, between Jews & Gentiles.  Herod’s Temple compound in Jerusalem had an outer court that was referred to as the Court of the Gentiles. Gentiles were excluded from entering into any of the inner courts by signs in Greek and Latin that warned that the penalty for trespassing by any Gentile was death.  Jews avoided Gentiles.

The Jews’ attitude to Gentiles was based on misuse of God’s Mosaic law.  God did make a clear distinction between Israel and the Gentiles in his OT instructions.  God favors one ethnic group, Israel, more than others.  When Jesus began his ministry he instructed his disciples, “Don’t go to the Gentiles, go to lost sheep of Israel…”

Ephesians 2:11-22 teaches that God temporarily suspended his racial preference when he formed the Church.  Though God still has a future for ethnic Israel after the rapture of the Church, right now God put aside those racial preferences to create unity ethnically. This is not God’s eternal intention, however. The Church does not replace Israel. God made promises to the nation of Israel that included land and descendants forever that are not yet fulfilled.  God will keep his promises made to Israel in the future, but for now, God set up racial equality in the Church.

The fact of racial equality in the Church does not mean that everyone in the Church is equal.  We tend to believe that Abraham Lincoln was right to say “all men are created equal.” This statement by Lincoln was designed to recognize that any human being from any race is created by God in the image of God.  His intent was not to say everyone is equal in position or roles.  That would contradict his position of authority as President of the United States.  Perhaps Lincoln’s words fuel broad egalitarian philosophy for Christian thinking today.  Equality in Jesus Christ does not mean that everyone is equally mature or wise.  Equality in Christ does not require that official positions of leadership or authority be eliminated.

What God did was temporarily break down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles to build a racially unified Church.

At this point in history, God set aside or temporarily removed His racial preference for Israel to create ethnic unity in the Church.  God now includes Gentiles with Jews to build a racially unified Church in an extreme relational makeover.

Where are we looking? — UHD 14:6

We need a balance. Showing tangible expressions of Jesus’ love helps people to see Jesus’ love. It is my opinion that Christians should be among the best stewards of God’s creation and should show compassion for the poor, oppressed, and homeless. I would by all means become all things to whatever audience in order that by any means possible, someone would come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. But the goal of these earthly pursuits is clear in Scripture. What does it profit the people of this world to have their house rebuilt or their bank accounts balanced if they lose their own soul for all eternity? On the other hand, how can I say that my faith is real if I close my pocketbook or become stingy with my time?

When the church puts too much emphasis on the things of this earth, they lose their unique purpose in this earth. If we are more impressed by the things that we can see with our physical eyes than we are by the things that we do not see that are eternal, then we look like any humanitarian philanthropist rather than someone who is “called out” of this world.

Putting too much of our time, money, energy and resources into material or financial things is a bad investment. Everything that we see with our physical eyes is temporary. What we do not see is spiritual and eternal. We are told by God to focus on the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not on the things of this earth. At the same time, a season of service to help someone put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ makes the investment worth it.

In my opinion, when these pursuits are out of balance, another vital element of our Christian life is lost. When we become earthbound to tangible things we see, we undermine the importance of faith in Christian living. Faith looks at things that cannot be seen and is certain of those things. When we turn our attention to creation care and building houses we tend to ignore heavenly things that we cannot see and as an unintended result we diminish the importance of faith.

^NIV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

^NAU 2 Corinthians 4:18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

^NAU 1 Peter 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

^NAU Colossians 3:1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Ambassadors charged with interference with the internal affairs of the host country

Jesus said “my kingdom is not of this world.” Instead, Jesus has commissioned every Christian to be an ambassador of his heavenly kingdom, to serve as an official representative of the Lord Jesus Christ to the “foreign culture” found on this earth. An ambassador is a citizen of the sending country, not the host country. As ambassadors of Christ, our job is to take the message of the gospel to every person in the host country, not to change its laws or social structures.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is an international treaty adopted on 18 April 1961 by the United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and Immunities held in Vienna, Austria, from 2 March to 14 April. Article 41 of the Vienna Convention states that it is the job of an ambassador to “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.”

When Jesus came into the world, people wanted Jesus to take over the earth and make it His kingdom and enforce His laws on the culture. But that was not his appointed mission, nor is it the Church’s appointed mission. Jesus did not seek to change one social structure, one civil or criminal system, or even organize to reach the poor and disenfranchised of the world. Since God made us ambassadors, we have no authority from God to change governments, social structures or laws, or to interfere in the internal political affairs of the receiving country of this world.

Let’s be faithful to maintain the priority of our appointed task as ambassadors who are citizens of heaven, not earth.

John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

18:37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

No Tolerance for Intolerant Inspectors — UHD 14:6

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to find a flaw in this thing.”

“A flaw?  Who cares?  This structure serves a greater purpose.  You are too picky.  Nothing is perfect. You need to loosen up and be more tolerant of flaws.”

 

So they left the primary support for the huge bridge like it was.  Traffic was heavy on the bridge because it worked.   After all, this bridge was doing something useful and helpful, such as connecting people.

 

This kind of thinking that produces sloppy inspection of a physical bridge that puts lives in physical danger would not be tolerated.

 

How much more should we be careful of the ways we carry the precious cargo of the gospel to reach out and connect with people’s souls and eternal destinies?

Careful inspection of a personal bridge that might put souls in eternal danger should not only be tolerated, but encouraged.

 

Gal. 1:6-9;  Acts 20:29-31; 1 Cor. 6:13; 1 Pet. 5:8

Sightseeing Turns Tragic – UHD 14:6

Dave watched as the group walked closer. Everyone was excited about seeing Kiluea’s continual eruption up close on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was a trip of a lifetime. The Christian group was convinced that it presented a tremendous educational opportunity to engage the fiery volcano in close proximity. One area allowed people very near to the edge, and the excited group marched right past the safety warning sign eager to get a better look. Dave stopped at the sign and started warning the group not to walk out too far, but they were curious. They wanted to learn as much as they could without slipping. As they walked toward the lava tube, the sound drowned out Dave’s warnings. Dave was such a worrier and way too conservative. Dave wanted to run after them but he feared for his own safety. Bob went too far, and his feet began to sink deeper into the hot lava near the edge of the tube. His friends had to pull him back to hardened lava. After the group left the site and returned to the warning sign, there was a mini-eruption at that very spot. The rest of the group pulled back in amazement. Someone said, “That was close.” “But what a good education.”

An Uncomfortable Truth – UHD 14:6

A global disaster looms over the horizon. It is the slow erosion of the Christian mindset by ideological pollutants. This seepage acts like a relentless cancer that cripples sound thinking. The malignancy travels through the air odorless and undetectable to the eye. It randomly enters the unsuspecting and otherwise healthy Christian through several audio-visual Christian mediums that ride on the winds of changing thought and it eventually erodes protective layers of the mental ozone. It raises the levels of toxins in the brain until healthy understanding and common sense is drowned out by the rising tide of high-sounding scholarship that questions the reality of God’s sovereign power over all the physical earth.

Early recognition is the key to successful treatment. What would help is early warning detection systems that automatically place us on high alert so that encounters with these toxins can be recognized and treated immediately.

In an American society that forced God out of public recognition by ostracizing prayer in Jesus’ name, a culture that banned the truth of God’s Word from education, and a populace that questions whether absolute truth can be known, anthropocentric philosophy remains as the main proprietor of the way of life on earth. Several axioms pop-up on the mental computers to indicate symptoms of polluted, earth-bound thinking: “The land is life;” “God holds people responsible for the earth’s climate;” “The good news about Jesus Christ causes the physical erosion of the ozone.”

Once these contaminants enter the brain, the damage to the cells of clear thought and wisdom is inevitable and the mental capacities are slowly poisoned until recovery is nearly impossible. This is an uncomfortable truth.