Month: December 2015

 Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15 (NRSV)

Modern life and cultures have taken us into a Post Christendom world.  Fewer people have heard the good news.  Today there are children who have never heard the Christmas story. They have no clue why it is that we have a festive season in December each year.

We as a society have moved away from religion and more towards self-reliance.   Even if we do know who God is, and profess to be a Christian, are we really humbled and committed to following his commandments?

In the days of Joshua it was very clear who the other gods were.  Humans and animals didn’t spring to life from nothing but a sudden big bang.  Each group of people encountered in the Old Testament had a deity or two or more that they worshiped:

Baal

Amon

Asherah

Ashtoreth

Molech

There are more mentioned in the Old Testament, and a few more in the New Testament.  That isn’t the take away though.  It would seem that the one thing that everyone agreed on and had in common is that there was some higher power out there.

Where they differed is that all of these false Gods were dependent on their followers and needed the gifts and offerings brought by the worshipers to survive.  If you wanted something from a foreign God you needed to offer it a sacrifice in exchange.

The God of Israel, our God, however didn’t need the Israelites at all. He was (and is) all-sufficient in himself but he chose them as his people and provided for them.   God didn’t need their sacrifices of food or grains and he never required human sacrifices (followers of Molech sacrificed their children) in order for him to continue providing for them or to continue to exist.  The sacrifices the Jewish people did make were for the purpose of purification and forgiveness of their sins, but that is a topic for another time.

Fast forward to our present age.

Just like the Israelites God has chosen us to be his children.  All of us. The offer is open to any person willing to accept the gift of saving grace offered on the cross.  He accepts us exactly where we are and expects us to grow through the Holy Spirit’s leading.

But what about other gods.  Are they still around in our present day world?  While there are still people who may worship a deity other than the God of the Bible, the false gods mankind is inclined to worship today are a little more human made.  A little more materialistic. We seem to have decided we are self-sufficient and have no need for a God at all.  We can provide for ourselves.

Today the list of false gods looks a lot different:

Career

Hobby

Houses

Cars

Money

Gadgets

Celebrities

Food

Appearance

Self

The list is endless.  We don’t tend to worship and honor false deities, but Satan has supplied us with plenty of new false gods to take their place.  Materialistic gods.  Pleasure seeking gods.  Self serving gods of our own pride and vanity.  The whole purpose of them is to put distance between us and God, driving in wedges to keep us divided.

Often times we sit in our pews on Sundays to check off the religion requirement in our lives for the week, but then head out, back into the world of men forgetting the teachings of the rebel Messiah once we are out of the sanctuary doors.  Are we truly committed to following Jesus?

Not just on Sunday mornings.

God wants a relationship with us all the time.

Every second of every minute of every day.

If so, we must separate ourselves from the false gods of our time and worship the one true God instead.  We are called to live in the world but not of it.  This doesn’t mean that we will have dull, grey lives full of things we CAN’T do.  It means that we know that we are called by God and we want to follow his teachings and be used for the purposes he created us for.

We live with joy.

We see the world through the eyes of Jesus Christ as we act as his hands and feet on earth.  He didn’t promise that we would have an easy road if we chose to follow him.  What he does promise us is eternal life.

What or who will you choose to worship?

Who is your God?

But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:33-38 (NRSV)

 

 

 

 

In thinking about living in the world but not being of it yesterday, it brought to mind this verse, Joshua 1:9:

I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

You probably already know that this was said to Joshua as he and the Israelites were preparing to cross over into the promised land.  Moses has died and the torch is being passed on to Joshua so to speak.  They are preparing for an invasion to take the land by force.  They are also cautioned to be sure to keep the laws of Yahweh.

When you think about it, that is exactly what we are being charged to do as well.  We are to go forth into a land that has forgotten God or never known him to begin with and to spread the gospel.  Our land, our country, our communities, our homes.

And this takes courage.

Unlike the Israelites, we don’t need to have actual weapons and armour, but we do need to dress ourselves in the full armour of God.  And that includes our Bibles and the truth that it contains.   We need to prepare our hearts and minds for battle by soaking in the Spirit breathed words of God so that we can hide them in our hearts, ready to bring them forth when needed.

Jesus calls us to conquer our world with love.

And this takes courage.

It takes courage to be the one person to stand up in a crowd to say that something is wrong.  It takes even more courage to try to right the wrongs we see.  Whether it be bullying or racism, we can be strong and courageous and be a voice for the persons being wronged and we need to take that stand.

We are called to be light bearers in a broken world.

And this takes courage.

It takes courage to be the dissident voice in the crowd in order to point out that a popular movie or show or song isn’t pleasing to God.  However, we need to be the torch bearers leading the way to things that are wholesome and draw us closer to God rather than displeasing to him and alienating ourselves from him for the sake of being one of the gang.

We are called to speak truth, even when it isn’t popular opinion.

And this takes courage.

I have heard it said recently that you can’t talk religion without bringing your politics to the table.  I don’t know if that is a universal truth, but it certainly seems to be the truth here in our society today.  How many of us go along with things for fear of crossing party lines if we don’t?

Abortion.

LGBTQ rights.

The Death Penalty.

Syrian Refugees.

Continuing Warfare with U.S. assistance in the Middle East.

All of these issues, and many, many more are hot topics right now.  The supporters on both sides of the aisle are convinced their solutions are the only right solutions.  The only ones that make sense.  But how did they all come to those conclusions?

They also think in many cases, at least in religious circles, that God is on their side and they are in the right.  Their cause is just.   But is it?

 When is the last time we actually came together on both sides of the table to engage in God’s word to see what is actually there?

When did we last pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us as we search for answers to these difficult issues that involve the lives of very real people?  Hurt people.  Marginalized people.  God’s people.

My friends, it takes courage and strength to stand up for what we KNOW is wrong.  We need to take that stand regardless of what our friends and family may think of us.  We need to quit worrying so much about being politically correct and start worrying about being spiritually correct.

We are just sojourners here.  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid.  Do not be fearful.

He is always with us.  Filling us with love, light, and courage.

Courage dear heart

–Aslan to Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

As church attendance dwindles in this post Christendom age we, as the faithful, seem to be forgetting a very important reality of being a Christian.  Christ called us to live in this world, but to not be of it.  We, as his children, are set apart from the world view and called to live with a Christocentric view instead.

In Romans 12:2 (NRSV)we read,

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So we are called to live by a different set of rules.  Every parent establishes rules for their children to be guided by and to live within.  God the Father is no different.  Jesus spent his time here on earth establishing the new laws of love during his ministry and by becoming our example of how to live.

How then to we do this?  To begin with, we need to be people of faith everyday, not just on Sundays.  To be sure, church attendance is important.  However, it isn’t meant to satisfy the “religion” requirement of our lives that we check off each week.

No, church is meant to be a refueling of our faith.  The place where we go to above all worship our mighty God and shower him with our thanksgiving and praise.  It is also a place for us to fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ and to refill ourselves with things that are good.

Here is where we hold each other accountable.  Here is where we seek prayer and guidance in our struggles.  We get refilled with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  This renews us to go back out into the world around us and shine our lights into the broken darkness.

Recently in a Sunday School class with our youth we had a lesson on this very thing.  We talked about how the choices we make when it comes to every day things, like what television shows we choose to watch or what movies we choose to go see or the music we choose to listen to, are the very things that may set us apart.

It can be very hard to tell our group of friends that we are choosing to not see a new popular release film because we feel that it isn’t appropriate.  We as humans want to be accepted.  To often in our culture I think we are saying to ourselves what harm will it do if I see this/hear this/support this?  I know the difference between right and wrong, moral and immoral, virtue and sin.

And there in lies the dangerous trap.  Once we see or hear something, good or bad, we can’t remove that from our brains.  It will forever more be in there.  So while it seems harmless enough to watch that block buster movie filled with loose morals and crass and vulgar language, we are accepting the messages they are filling our brains with.  Eventually we may even begin to question why is this so wrong as we hear the Evil One whispering in our ears.

In the verse above, we are called to renew our minds.  Rather than filling ourselves with garbage, strive to seek out stuff that is filling and good.  In doing this we will draw closer to God in our walk and be able to discern his voice more clearly in a noisy and chaotic world.

It is no different from the foods we eat.  If we choose to eat nothing but fast food cheese burgers our physical health will be poor as we pollute our bodies with little or no good nutrients. However, when we choose to eat a diet balanced in lean meats, low-fat dairy, vegetables, and whole grains we promote good health within and have the energy we need to go about our lives.

Our spiritual health needs to be fed a constant diet of things that are good and acceptable and perfect.  Choose to walk the path of showering the love of the radical Messiah.  One good choice by you can lead to another good choice by someone else.

Be the rebel that chooses substance over meaningless nothings.