Time to Party ...

When was the last time you heard a Christian saying that its time to party?  A lot of nominal Christians perhaps, but how about Christians that think of themselves as disciples, or apostles, or leaders in the faith.  The problem is not the joy, it is how the term “party” is usually associated with getting to the joy.  The world has commandeered the term “party” to be closely associated with chemical stimulants.  But even the world admits, the chemical stimulation is not as much fun when you are alone.  Indeed, the most fundamental ingredient of any party, whether it be the world’s idea of fun, or perhaps the Christian ideas of the same, is a gathering of other people (no cats just won’t do).  And no matter what kind of party you prefer, or attend, having someone there who is indeed the “life” of the party makes the gathering even better.  A party can go from dull to exhilarating just by having someone attend who is practiced at being the life of the party.  But then again, if there is no-one there to see the life of the party, to enjoy the interaction with them, then the skills are wasted, and the event is generally a failure.

So if you break a party down to its most fundamental elements there are few things revealed.  First, any party to even call itself by that name, needs to include a gathering of people.  Second, parties can be made significantly better by having the “right” person or people in attendance – folks who know how to have a good time and know how to encourage others to do the same.  Third, when you gather people together, things tend to get noisy.  And lastly, no matter how you get there, the ultimate desire underlying any party is to have fun, to attain joy, to lift our spirits and make us feel better about our lives.  A party is a chance to escape the normal pressures of the world and focus on something entirely different.  And what rings the irony gong for me, is the vehicle a party uses to shift our focus upwards and better is the vehicle of human fellowship.  A party is not a party without people.  Ideally these people are ones we know and love, but most of us would be happy to meet new folks as long as they are fun to fellowship with and enjoy lifting their own spirits while at the same time lifting ours.

At most parties there is some sort of food element involved.  Even if only finger foods, or appetizers, having something to munch on is a great ice breaker at parties.  Depending on how much food is involved, a party can evolve from party to feast.  There is not much distinction between a party and a feast except for the amount of food they intend to serve and consume.  Food has long been a vehicle for people to set aside precious time and fellowship while they eat.  When you can’t get people to come to a “party” you can almost always get them to come to “feast”.  Everyone has to eat.  And even eating is much more fun when you don’t do it alone.  Sharing, whether it is ideas, or thoughts, or even commiserating, is a fundamental need of humans.  This is part of the whole “created in Gods image” thing.  Our God longs to fellowship, and enjoy His own creations (food, etc.) with us, the same way we would long to do it with each other, and hopefully with Him.

So inevitably when I look around, I see the faces of Christians, and my first thought is rarely – “this is a party guy or gal”.  No instead my first thought is – “who died?”.  When I study the rest of the American Christian frame, I realize perhaps the party is going extinct, but the feast seems to be alive and well.  Though perhaps McDonalds and the fast food industry is responsible for more of our heft, than the traditional home cooked feasting that would be so much more fun if we could only make time for it.  In any case, Jesus did not intend for Christians to be miserable people, always hungry, and never caught dead in a party (even if we call it a feast).  The intent of our God was that we eat the fruits of His garden, and that it is not good for us to be alone.  We need companionship, just like He does.  We should have way more joy in our lives.  So much joy, that it creeps into our faces and our bodies, and becomes evident to anyone who looks at us.  How do I know?  Luke offers us some insight into Jesus’ thoughts on just this topic.  He begins in his 5^th chapter in the gospel letter to his friend on the fundamentals of our beliefs and where they come from.

Picking up in verse 27 it begins … “And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. [verse 28] And he left all, rose up, and followed him.”  A lot of us modern day Christians read this passage only for its historical value.  We seem to forget this invitation is not dissimilar to what God offers each of us, every single day.  Jesus asks each of us, would you like to follow me?  Note that He does not ask us for directions.  He already knows where He is going.  The invitation is not for you to join a committee or intend to make the plans “with” Jesus.  His plans for you are already made.  What Jesus asks each of us, is whether we are willing to “follow” Jesus and let Him lead us wherever He wants us to be, even if that is to the same place you have been longing to get away from every day of your life.  Your role in this transaction is simply to follow.  Perhaps better stated to be willing to follow, and then to move where He leads, even if that means standing still while He clears the way out in front of you.  No more decision making for you, if you are practiced enough to begin letting Jesus make them for you (which is the ultimate of submission).  When Jesus asked Levi Matthew this, albeit in person, Matthew left everything and followed Jesus.  It did not matter where Jesus was going, only that Levi Matthew was honored enough to be going too.

Luke continues in verse 29 saying … “And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.”  And look how Levi Matthew responds.  Not in solemn silence.  Not with black clothing and ashes heaped upon his head for the fortune and property and income he was walking away from.  Matthew was not depressed by what he gave up to follow Jesus – instead he was excited to the hilt to be offered the spot on the Jesus team.  Money is worth nothing.  Jesus is worth everything.  So a happy man, full of joy does, what a happy man full of joy does.  He throws a party and invites anyone who would dare to party with a sinner like himself.  The elite of society will not be coming to this event, at least not inside the house of this sinner.  They will come and peruse the goings on through the windows outside where the “proper” folks go to avoid being contaminated by the sinners who tarry within.  But Jesus goes right in there.  Jesus walks right on in to a house filled with prostitutes, adulterers, men of great pride and little education, men who cheat the Israelite nation on behalf of Rome and themselves.  There was not ONE single saint in that entire gathering outside of Christ.  This was a party.  A full-on respectable party, full of joy.  And the life of the party was Jesus Christ.  If you let Him, He will be the life of every party you throw.  A tradition that does not end here, but continues in heaven for an eternity your mind is too feeble to even comprehend right now.

For those of us modern Christians who are too timid to go to a party because there “might” be alcohol there – get over it.  For those of us Christians who believe isolation is the only solution to keep us from getting contaminated by the sins of other sinners – get over it.  YOU are already the source of sin those others sinners should be avoiding in the first place by that judgmental logic.  Its not them, its you.  No matter what they are doing, you are doing things just as bad or worse.  You may not have been discovered yet, but you are no less guilty than they.  So isolation just leaves you alone in your own sins, it does not prevent you from contracting theirs.  Fellowship is not the cure for sinning, but it can be a vehicle of support for those suffering with this disease including you.  Jesus is the cure.  And Jesus can be found in places of joy and parties and feasts, just like He might be found in the places of worship that resemble more of funerals than of people bound for an infinity of fun.  Jesus attended this party, like He is honored to attend any other you ask Him to.  And He was not in there making everyone miserable with sermons on hell fire and sin and repentance.  He was in there freeing people from sins, lifting them up in joy, making them shout and sing and dance because this new found freedom was like nothing they had ever experienced.  That is my kind of party.  Who cares what you eat and drink if you have Jesus right there making everything awesome.

But alas, for every life of the party, there is usually a Debbie-downer looking to trash the whole event.  For this one, enter the Pharisees.  I forgot, are you one of those?  Nobody thinks that “they” are the Debbie-downer Pharisee, but the judgmental language that seems to just leap out of their mouths, brings everybody down and does nothing to lift anyone out of any sin ever.  We Pharisees have a knack for pointing out what is wrong with anything.  We can tell you the five ways this could have been better, but usually spend our time focusing on who is to blame for the tragedies we invent.  Anyone who comes in our circle usually instantly regrets that decision.  Walk by us in a party and just feel your spirit come crashing down to earth, when it might have otherwise soared to the heights of heaven.  When you look up, you move up.  When you look down, you fall down.  And so not content to just be miserable, we must share our misery in order to feel even the slightest bit of relief from the responsibility we carry of pointing out the sins of the world.

Luke continues in verse 30 saying … “But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? [verse 31] And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. [verse 32] I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Does it sound like Jesus was indisposed in the back bedroom with the hookers who came to this shindig?  Or does it sound like Jesus was at the kitchen table in there counting up the gold and dividing it up to keep a good portion of it Himself?  Does it sound like Jesus was falling down drunk unable to speak without slurring His words?  No.  Jesus was fully alert, sober, and having the time of His life.  These wounded souls were hearing Him, and accepting His call to follow, and let Him free them from their sins.  Again, my kind of party.  And the results were singing, shouting, and dancing.  Everyone was having a blast, not because of their sins, but because He was freeing them from their sins.  And Debbie-downer was worried about the social stigma of hanging out with hookers and tax collectors (hookers being better than tax collectors also called publicans).

Debbie-downer was worried about reputations, and keeping themselves in isolation from sinners in need.  But that is NOT the example of Jesus Christ who we claim to follow.  Jesus did not transact with hookers, He freed them from their sins, and used His church to support them, welcoming them into His ranks.  The same applied to tax collectors.  After all, He just personally invited one of those “scum” to be one of His disciples.  Take a hike Debbie-downer.  This party is for the joy of looking up in freedom.  The life of this party was handing out life like it was M&M’s in a punchbowl.  Relief.  Joy.  And fellowship with like minded folks who appreciated these gifts more than anything wealth could ever buy.  The last thing this party needed was “church leadership”.  Let the party be the party.

But Pharisaical Debbie-downer was persistent if nothing else.  Luke continues in verse 33 saying … “And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? [verse 34] And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? [verse 35] But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.”  Jesus says yes Debbie, there is a time coming when you will make persecution of any who find freedom from sin through me a living hell.  The church will persecute the saved from one end of the earth to the other bathing themselves in the blood of those who have found freedom no single doctrine could have ever provided.  In those times, there will be more fasting than feasting.  But notice too, when Jesus is with us, the time to party has come.  When Jesus is with us, it is feast time baby.  Somebody break out the finger food and the chips.  Hold your ears Debbie because there is going to be spontaneous singing, shouting, and dancing when Jesus is nearby.  This is not a Pentecostal thing, this is a Jesus proximity thing.  This is about being connected to the life of the party.  Not just in our imaginations or faith, but in the reality of an eternity spent with Jesus beyond the concepts of time.  We can begin here.  But it does NOT end there.

Jesus must have looked around at the guests of this party.  He notices some have clothing that is torn and ripped.  He notices too the wine bottles in the containers along the wall.  Items readily available for those in this party to see and understand what He means as He continues in verse 36 saying … “And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.”  The poor folks there understood, when their clothing was ripped, you could not cover the hole by sewing a new piece of fabric over it.  The new was much heavier and would rip the tear open even worse than before.  If you have an old robe, you need an old piece of fabric to cover it up with.

Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. [verse 38] But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. [verse 39] No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.”  The same analogy holds true with the bottles of wine.  And here is where Debbie-downer (my nickname for the Pharisees among us) went away angry.  Old doctrine is what old leaders prefer.  New doctrine is what new vessels, that is new converts prefer.  The old choking doctrines of the past, will choke a new convert, focusing only on what you can and cannot do – instead of how you can love and be free in the love of God for others.  It is a completely different way of thinking.  Loving others solves the sin problem like nothing else can.  If I love you, I don’t think about hurting you, lying to you, stealing from you, dishonoring you, you name it.  If I love God first, then the love for others will flow through me.  It is the lack of focus on love in the old set-in-their-ways ideas of the past, that creates Pharisees, kills Jesus, and causes entire generations to be lost.  Jesus brought us a new way to think, a new way to love and live.

The New way for us to follow, was one of submission of our ideas and will to our God.  Just like Jesus did with His Father every day He was here.  He submitted to God.  We submit to Him.  We accept that invitation to follow.  Next, Jesus loved everyone of us He encountered, and did everything He could to make each of our lives better through fellowship, support, and association.  There is no isolation called for in that recipe.  There is no sadness called for in it either.  He did not think of this as sacrifice, why do we?  It was the love in Him that gave Him joy in the giving.  Love can bring you that joy as well.  The world, and sin itself will bring plenty of sadness for us to have to deal with.  But Jesus brings freedom.  He brings joy.  He brings a time to party where we look up and find reason to sing, to dance, to shout praise to God.  My kind of party.  That kind of joy is infectious.  It spreads to anyone who encounters it.  And it is here.  Why not invite that life of the party into what will become the party of your life?  Why not begin to experience joy, not because you find it in a bottle or a syringe, but because true freedom is exhilarating.  Jesus truly is my kind of party.

 

Broken Babies ...

It is easy to see our dogs as the perpetual babies of our families.  Why?  Because just like babies, they love, all the time, and know love more than those of us who are jaded by age and “responsibilities”.  After a hard day, it is the dog who comes to lick you better.  They are not certain if dog kisses will really change your day or your future, but you seem to need one, so let the shower of dog kisses commence.  And if you ever show even the slightest hint at wanting to play; well you have an ever-willing and excited partner in the dog.  Pick up a ball.  We dogs will chase it.  Pick up a tug of war rope.  We dogs will grab the other end of it.  And if you lay down on the floor near us; we dogs will jump all over you continuing that shower of dog kisses you interrupted the last time you moved away to “clean up”.  The love of dogs is constant, even forgiving, and often more healing than we humans might first learn to appreciate.

I know dogs are not humans.  I know humans are more important in the circle of life.  But I also have witnessed many an adult making silly coo-ing noises when they kiss a baby’s face, just the same as they make high-pitched loving speech when they pet the dog and show affection.  Offering love to anything that is bound to return that love is a lure most of us are suckers for.  And frankly, we need that kind of unconditional love in our lives.  Babies become precious to us for this reason just like dogs do; that we are able to establish a bond of love that seems impervious from the world.  And so we look to protect them.  Take care of them.  Meet whatever needs we believe they have even if that means trying to guess what they are (babies and dogs have a hard time getting their speeches understood).  The greatest horror of our lives then is when we encounter a “broken” baby, no matter what the species.  Fixing what is broken then occupies our mind like nothing else.  And when we find we are actually powerless to fix what is broken, we have then only one hope.  A hope in Jesus.

Again I know the feelings for a human baby will always far outweigh those for a dog.  That is as it should be.  But love need not be a competition.  And loss, or potential loss, is crippling no matter what kind of love you risk losing.  There may be degrees of loss.  But no one looks to experience it.  And everyone wants to make the suffering get better, no matter who or what is suffering.  That too, is as it should be.  If you are able to look upon suffering and remain unmoved, it is possible you have never felt the love you should have in your own life.  Something Jesus would love to change.  And something His followers should be aiding Him in doing.  When hope dwindles, there is only prayer.  For some of us, prayer is a constant.  For others, we turn to prayer when there is nowhere else to turn.  But that does not change where God is throughout the process.

We think sometimes that our grief, and our worry, and our suffering is “only” ours.  We presume in our pain, that our God does not share any of it with us.  That kind of image of God would have Him far away and unmoved and uncaring about the pain that exists in our very up-close personal world.  But that could not be farther from the truth.  Before for the first glimmer of sadness hits your heart, it was first in our God’s.  He aches first, and much deeper.  He is forced to watch us make choices to pollute our world, ourselves, and each other.  He is unable to “make” us choose to love, without first making us nothing but robots.  Robots is not what He created.  Babies are.  We are the babies of our God.  The creatures that populate our world were supposed to be the babies we were to take care of and love.  But sin broke all that.  And further sin makes it even worse.  Leaving us where we are.  Leaving God forced to watch it all unfold, until at last it must be forced to an ending.  Prior to that day however, there remains grief.  Grief in the heart of God, as there is grief in our own hearts.  Some grief God is able to undo in the course of His will and our requests.  Some grief He is forced to endure on a scale of broken heartedness we will only ever share a glimpse of.

And imagine the scale of it.  Imagine the grief of your own life, now magnified across 7 billion others, across more than 6000 years of our history.  God has endured the grief of Adam, to the grief of you.  And His pain is infinitely deeper than our own, as His love is infinitely deeper than our own.  So when we come to Him to ask for deliverance; we do not come to a cold unfeeling God unwilling to get involved.  Instead we come to a God already in way deeper pain than we feel.  A God who longs to grant our requests to “fix” the broken babies of His life.  He is not unmoved; He is very moved.  And where the greater will of our God to save us all can accommodate it; He is quick and happy to move to our deliverance.  That is who we serve.  That is who we have always served.  A God who invented love, who is comprised of Love, always wishes to treat His “babies” so much better even, than we would treat our own.

Take a case in point in the gospel of Luke chapter five of the letter to his friend.  Picking up in verse 12 it says … “And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”  Here is one of God’s babies finding Him, and begging for deliverance from a disease there was no medical cure from in his day.  Why this man?  I cannot answer that.  Why not every leper in Israel?  Not having lived at that time, I cannot say for certain if that is eventually what occurred.  But I can trust in the love of our God.  Then and now.  The question we all then ask, is why not me?  To that I can only say, our lives are mortal because of the entrance of sin in our world.  Whether sooner, or later, an ending faces us all.  But only a temporary ending, for in the world to come, no sin will ever rise again.  No evil with it.  And perfect peace and happiness because of the absence of disobedience, and the effects it brings upon us all.  But to the question of this leper there was an immediate answer.

Luke continues in verse 13 saying … “And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. [verse 14]  And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”  Jesus does not question this man about his faith.  Nor does He ask the man to recite the ten commandments, or recite the prophecies, or to bow down and worship Him as the Messiah.  This is not about the man’s heritage, or his doctrine, or his faith.  It is about instead the love of our God, who LONGS to do this restoration to all of us.  He does not withhold blessing based on some pre-cursor the man must offer.  It is given quickly and without reservation.  The first thing Jesus does is to reach out and touch the man (the way this disease spreads from person to person).  Jesus has no fear of contracting what this man has, but instead MUST show him physically that he is loved.  Then instead of demanding worship to Himself, He asks the man to keep quiet.  Jesus asks the man to go and fulfill the process the priests have had all along to heal this disease through the power of God.  Something the priests have long since abandoned losing faith it works, or that our God cares.  So many lepers exist in Israel where none should.  This is what happens when we lose faith in our God’s keen desire to do what is impossible for us.  When we lose sight of ourselves as the “broken” babies of God, we lose faith in His desire to do anything about it.

But silence was not what occurred despite the asking.  Luke continues in verse 15 saying “ But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. [verse 16]  And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed. [verse 17]  And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. [verse 18]  And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. [verse 19]  And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.”  The fame of Jesus as a healer spread throughout Israel like wildfire.  The salient question; why has that wildfire gone out in our church, and in our hearts?  Why do we let an image of a remote God become the norms of our thinking instead of the aberration of Satan’s design that it should be.  Jesus has not changed.  Why have we?

Luke wants to show his friend who will read this gospel letter that the impossible to us, is NOT impossible to God.  First he recounts the story of the leper who was healed merely by asking.  Now he recounts the story of a paralytic who will be more than healed.  Luke continues the story picking up in verse 20 saying … “ And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. [verse 21]  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? [verse 22]  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? [verse 23]  Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? [verse 24]  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. [verse 25]  And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. [verse 26]  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.”

Many things to unpack here.  First, our Jewish forefathers had one thing absolutely right.  ONLY God can forgive sins.  For anyone else to claim it, it is indeed blasphemy.  When any of our brothers or sisters come to us with sin-laden hearts seeking forgiveness, we must be careful in our language to insure we point them only to Jesus to forgive sins, and assure them if they ask Jesus, they will be forgiven.  We, and no other man, has anything to do with that process other than to point them where they can find forgiveness for themselves from the same source we must use ourselves.  Second, since only God can forgive sins, notice what God did – He forgave sins!!  All of that man’s burdens, weighed down by his sins, were washed away in a moment.  Perhaps we who grieve should take note.  The healing of our souls is perhaps more important than the healing of our bodies.  When we babies break, it is not inconceivable to note our sins do more harm to us, than the damage we incur from disease and tragedy.  To be healed of our sins, is perhaps then even more important than to be restored in our physical frames.

And finally, it was not just the man’s sins that were forgiven, it was his body as well.  Luke reminds us all that Jesus heals us completely both body and soul.  Jesus did not come just to make us better.  He came to restore us to what He intended us to be.  To the image of God He originally intended us to be.  The world, that is the universe He will call us home to, will be one where love itself is the center premise for everything.  Love in our God.  Love in us.  And yes, love in the dogs we so love in our world today.  To have a broken baby is to find our God’s heart aches in alignment with our own.  So to ask His healing, even over something so simple as a pet we cherish; is to unlock His heart on our behalf.  I know that should my dog be healed it can ONLY be the power of prayer that healed her.  And should Jesus elect not to heal my dog in this world, He will restore her to me in the next one.  Something that loves so unconditionally can only be an ambassador of the love the next kingdom will be based upon.  That is a love I have faith in.  And I hope it is a love I will do better at sharing here and now.

 

Live and Let Live ...

How far should a Christian go to build bridges with non-believers, or even with those who believe differently about Christ than we might? Are we casting our pearls before swine, or offering that which is holy to dogs? Are we not to be standard bearers for our King to weed out the tares from the wheat? Where does compromise with the world become acceptable within our faith and where does following Christ even to our deaths enter in? Some in the Christian Community want to live and let live; others seem bent on enforcing their own views of the gospel. Can either be correct if Christ is truly leading?

This is the quintessential question that every Christian must wrestle with and find an answer to … once I know the truth, should I not warn others about what I know? Every instinct of our being screams yes – we must shout it from the mountain tops, proclaim it in the streets, and in so doing “the truth will makes us free”. But before the yelling commences, it may be worth a quick examination. Let’s call it prep work. First, before we set about to proclaim our “truth” it would be a good idea to substantiate where our idea of truth came from. Was this a personal revelation, somehow divinely inspired only between you and God? It may have been. I find God talks to me through music, lyrics, the council of my elders, my parent’s advice, my children’s advice, my pastor, and even through nature. God is speaking to us much more often than we are generally tuned in to listen.

If this new discovery of truth came from a highly personal revelation between God and you it might be a good idea to take it to the body for further evaluation. Having other members / believers of like mind examine a new truth may help mold it a bit, add character to it, enrich it, and make it deeper than you first imagined. And if perhaps your revelation may have been in error (well-meaning Christians sometimes misinterpret what God desires by accident, it does happen), then you have safety check in place before the proclamation starts.

If your idea of truth comes from a long line of tradition, perhaps the accepted doctrines of your particular church, I would submit it needs even more review than a personal miraculous revelation from God to you. Let’s face it, we often take for granted what our church says on a topic with little to no real personal study to validate these truths. We assume other “great” Christian minds have already done the study and we can rely on “their” findings. Thus people adopt entire value systems with little to no personal study designed to validate, enrich, or mature the basic truths they inherit from church traditions and teachings. This is sad. And logic dictates that there are too many Christian churches with a wide variety of teachings for ALL of them to be right based simply on history. While it may seem like a “waste of time” to restudy that which we have traditionally assumed to be correct – the truth is, study of scriptures is NEVER a waste of time.

Before reviewing any proposed truth, whether new or old, one must be willing to be wrong. This is the hardest concept for Christians to accept. They become so sure of themselves, that it becomes nearly impossible to be wrong and coincidentally nearly impossible to teach anything new to. One of the least effective witnesses in the world is one who is so convinced they are right, that there could be no room for error, no margins for mistakes. The mind locks up tight as a drum, and all the logic, counter arguments, common sense, and unfortunately Holy Spirit’s guidance does NO good at all. A cemented mind is one that cannot admit error even in the slightest, and is therefore un-teachable and un-reachable. Our humility must overtake our certainty in order for us to be led by God and His guiding Spirit. We are not ready to lead, if we are not ready to follow.

Next we need to take a minute and focus on the timing of a revelation of truth to us. Chances are, when Christ is truly leading, we are being led to His truth, in His time, in His manner. This is a critical part of the growth process for us as Christians, and as individuals in the faith. But remember how HIGHLY personal this is. My earlier analogy of the truth about tithing makes a good example of this. The truth about the process, benefits, and reasons behind tithing may be absolutes from God. (notice the use of the word “may” be) But when this truth is brought to my attention is extraordinarily important. It may take me a while to become ready to receive it. When my Christianity first begins, I may be focused on another sin entirely that I am looking for freedom from. All the while, I ignore the fact that Scrooge has nothing on me in the greed category. Others may see this character deficiency in me very clearly, but I do not see it in myself. Not perhaps, because I do not want to see it, but perhaps because I am absorbed with fighting another more dangerous sin, say chemical addictions. God may have to work with me for a long time before my mind is ready to see how selfish and greedy I truly am with my money. When I am ready, His truth is revealed.

But what would have happened if in my earliest of Christian experiences, if everyone who saw in me ALL of the deficiencies I clearly had, dumped them ALL in my lap at the same time and said fix it. My defense mechanisms would have kicked into overdrive, and I may have rejected truths, simply because I was not READY to hear them. Nor would I appreciate this type of forced intervention. Chances are, I would have been the pig who turned and tried to trample you underfoot for your efforts to “save me.” But if you kept silent on my errors, and allowed me to discover them in His time, and in His way (which may include me seeing you live differently without ever saying a word on the topic, or perhaps if I directly asked you a question on the subject) – then the results may have been different. Timing is everything. It is a truism that should be considered in the process of salvation.

For you see salvation, and the revelation of truth, are indeed processes – not instant gratifications. We are not made perfect in a snap, nor are we made omnipotent in a second. Our wisdom comes from our dependence, not our accomplishments. Our strength is developed in our need, not in our vain attempts at control. We must begin to see that we are on a road of our salvation. The road is long, sometimes narrow, and seemingly difficult to follow. But in Christ it is well lit, and easy to take on, so long as He drives and does all the work. We should just get in the back seat and play with our toys while daddy drives us home. It’s good being a kid. Or rather, it’s good being His child. It frees us from the worry of the journey and allows us to focus on the destination (perfection inside and out).

Christians, like our Master Christ, do not have to endorse sin or accept sin or participate in sin to love a sinner. We can pray that someone who suffers will find an end to their suffering, for ALL of us are the suffering ones. While we may recognize sins in others, it is not our function to try to remove them. It just makes the pigs and dogs (also us by the way) very mad, and very vengeful. But we can point out to the hurting where they can find relief. We can by example live lives without the burden of our former addictions and slavery to evil, sin, and its pain. We can become beacons of light and liberation, rather than dark clouds of condemnation, eager to focus on sin, and reluctant to remember our mission is one of redemption. It is not a compromise with evil, to allow the suffering to find relief as Christ leads. That is trusting in Christ. It is not forsaking our duty to allow someone to think differently than we do about a truth, until they are READY to hear it from God in His way. Our duty is NOT to spread truth, it is to spread LOVE. Only the Holy Spirit can convict of truth, and only when we let Him do it.

We must learn to segregate our roles from the role of our Lord. He is our savior, we save no-one. We point the suffering to their healer, we do not attempt to heal on our own. We try to exemplify His love and when our lives of love lure others, we point them to the source of ALL love. We do not need to become evil to witness to evil. We do not need to adopt philosophies we know to be in error in order to witness to the erring. This is not logical. If anything our lives MUST be our living witness that there is a better way. If our lives do not SHOW a better way, then our talking about it is nothing more than fairy tale to those who take time to listen. It is in living our gospel that we become the gospel to others. It is then that our words carry weight. It is the realization that only Christ could affect this change in us, that will become a nagging question to those who do not have a Christ in their lives.

Our Bible presents a standard for how to love and what love is. It is embodied in the law and the prophets, and revealed in the personage and life of Christ. Christ alone is fit to bear any standards to be followed. We have already ALL fallen short. There is no sense in trying to exclude other sinners from the source of relief from sin because they are MORE infected than we are. First of all, our measuring ability to determine how much sin someone else suffers from is a wholly lacking skill set. We are really bad at it. Second, it makes no difference how infected with evil a person is, the cure works on EVERYONE, but in a highly unique way and timing.

Christ, our example, did not come to build walls between the truth and the world, but rather to break down all the barriers we had put up. He did not participate in our sins, but had great pity and compassion on our fallen souls. He redeemed us in spite of our unworthiness and loved us constantly and incessantly. The dogs and pigs of Matthew chapter 7 have too long been thought of as others, when in reality they were us. I am the pig. I am the dog. I am the one who rejected the holy, and tried to trample the well-meaning servants of God. Just as you did, and as you do – every time we reject the truth He wishes to lead us to. Our pride has made us the pigs and dogs, rebuked in His council. But our humility can relieve us from this condition. Through our surrender of the will to Christ, we can let go the resistant nature we have long fostered, and become the compliant children He needs us to be. We can jump in the back seat and start sharing our toys and our affections with each other in the innocence of our childhoods reborn, rather than trying to grab the wheel, jam on the brakes, and crash the car in the ditch on the road of our salvation. I would rather be a child freed to love, than an adult burdened by failure and doomed to repeat it. Our lives alone must be our witness whether they point to our Lord, or away from Him.