I remember a quote from a dear friend when his wife was stressing over the redecorating of their house. She had enlisted the help of some family members and was complaining about the situation. As he thought about her ingratitude for the help being offered, he remarked, “Why does she have to turn a blessing into such a pain in the ass!” We often do that. We turn what God has designed for good into a pain because we neglect to see things from God’s perspective. One of those blessings is the church.
The church should be a great blessing but it is turned into a pain in the ass when we do it the world’s way and neglect God’s design. Several ways we do this are:
1. We focus on people as numbers.
When we look at the congregation it is plus, minus, division and multiplication. We add to the congregation program after program to busy their lives with endless activities. This keeps the flock at the building and away from the true mission field, home and neighborhood. This adds to the stress and quenches the joy of building meaningful relationships. We subtract from essential doctrine to appeal to the flesh. If we neglect the truth that God has given us then what are we feeding the flock? People need to hear about the supremacy of God, the depravity of man, the great grace of God and the veracity of the Bible. This is not self help but life changing truth. We seek to multiply our numbers in our own strength instead of allowing God to bring the people. We cause division by riding our own hobby horses while lassoing church members into our control. We are told to be witnesses and to teach not to control and manipulate.   People need love, care, openness, and encouragement not formulas and programs.

2.  We follow the business model over the family unit.

We seek to grow the church using business and marketing strategies.  Church becomes a money making enterprise with the goals of expand, grow, and monopolize.  This pursuit does not rely on the Holy Spirit or the principles laid out in the Bible.  The pattern laid out in the Bible shows God’s people relating to others in love as a family.  This is what will witness to the world for they will know us by our love.  Forget the marketing schemes and rely on prayer.  We are not co-workers at a job but family.  Follow the leading of the Spirit not some worldly agenda.

3.  We neglect our spiritual gifts.

Scripture teaches that we have spiritual gifts but many don’t use them.  Many do not know what they are or which gifts they have.  Many don’t have the opportunity because they sit in the pews watching the paid professionals do all the work.  The pastor is to be the equipper not the one doing all the work.  As a church we should be working together not against each other.  We should look at each other with the desire to see each doing the work that God has called and gifted each of us to do.  The goal should be to find our spiritual gifts and use them as well as to encourage others to do the same.  In this, we can appreciate God’s diversity and unity in the body of Christ.

4.  We get locked into a pattern.

Tradition are good to bring us together and remind us of God’s goodness and faithfulness but they can also strangle the progress of ministry.  Phrases like, “We have always done it this way” and “This is what such and such church is doing” should not be our guide to making decisions.  The pattern laid out in the Bible is prayer, fasting, faith and the Spirit’s leading.  Instead of doing what has always been done or seeking some other church’s model let us seek God’s direction through prayer, fasting and obedience to His word.

5.  We hide in the Christian subculture.

The christian subculture is a world where people are always at church or christian get-togethers, people only listen to christian music and hang out with only Christians.  There is no interaction with the world! This world is fake, simplistic and just like the world but dresses different.  Jesus never commanded us to leave the world but he commanded us to not act like the world.  It is hard  to live within this subculture because it demands a certain appearance.  One cannot struggle with sin therefore confessing our sins one to another is impossible without fear or gossip and slander.  One cannot engage the world or he or she is labeled “worldly.”  We are to be in the world but not of it.  Let us be in the world by being engaging in life (music, movies, recreation, get-togethers) with our neighbors, co workers and family members.  Let us not be of the world by living in the grace and godliness of walking in the Spirit.

6.  We have created false expectations of Christianity and church.

People are sinners.  People WILL disappoint and fail.  Do not expect perfection out of others.  Do not expect perfection out of yourself.  As Christians we are new creatures in Christ and have the power of the Holy Spirit, yet we have many years of practicing sinful behavior and the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. We are all in this together. So let us extend grace to each other as well as yourself.  Grace is not an excuse to act sinfully but an understanding of our spiritual condition and a catalyst to glorify God because of his love, work and presence in our lives.

I find that those who focus on the situation and not on the solution bring worry and frustration.  The situation is messy but the solution is Jesus.  If we look to Jesus we will see his love for people, his model of family, his great work in each believer, his direction and leading, his involvement in the world, and his overwhelming grace.  Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” or not a pain in the ass.

We think much to have the lives of men taken away, but if we knew what the glory of God meant, and what infinite reason there is that God should be glorified, we would not think it so much that the lives of so many men should go for the glory of God. It is mercy that our lives have not gone many times for God’s glory. How often might God have glorified Himself in taking away our lives? We have cause to bless Him that our lives have been preserved as long as they have.”

What is intrinsic to the Christian life? Romans 12 is a great chapter in the Bible on how to live the Christian life. We are challenged to make our lives living sacrifices to God and to not be squeezed into the world’s mold. We are entreated to have our minds renewed and to test and discern what the good, acceptable and perfect will of God is. Then Paul gets real practical and fleshes out how we are to do these things. He shares that it is by the grace given to him that he speaks these exhortations. “The grace” is so important. It is God’s gift, pleasure, work and will that Paul can and does speak with authority. As Christians, we need this grace and God provides it.

But when God works, He receives opposition from the flesh, the world and the devil. Christians can get haughty by doing the work of God. We are tempted to think it is our own doing that we experience such success and blessing. So Paul exhorts, “… not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.” How ought we think of ourselves? What is this sober judgment that is not hyped up on pride or inebriated with self absorbed narcissism? We need to see ourselves as created by God, gifted by God, and placed into a body by God. God made us and that means we are not autonomous but have a purpose. God gifted us therefore we are not self-sufficient but useful. God placed us into a body of believers and so we are not solitary but communal. Right thinking places us as God’s work.

Paul goes on to charge believers to use the gifts that he has graced them with. If you got it use it! Prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy are to be exercised within the body. It is like saying for the heart to beat, the lungs to breathe, the stomach to digest and the eyes to see and so on. Do what you were created, called and gifted to do. How easily we can be distracted from our original intent. We use our time, energy, money and desires toward things that are not of eternal purposes. We can be sideswiped into thinking we are not necessary or needed. We can also be deluded into thinking our own personal plans are more important the will of God.

Antioch was a case study of the working out of these gifts. Acts 11:19-30 records the unnamed Christians, Barnabas, Paul, and Agabus doing what God created, called and gifted them to do. How important it was that the unnamed Christians reached out to the gentiles and that Barnabus was there to welcome and disciple them? How amazing was the need for Paul to teach and lead this growing multitude of saints? How timely was the prophesy from Agabus and the provision of the giving saints to the believers in Judea? This is a model of saints using their gifts in faith for the building up of the body of Christ to the glory of God.

What intrinsically is a Christian? A Christian is created by God, gifted by God and part of the body of Christ. What does that look like in personal behavior and responsibility? Paul lists directives to the employment of these gifts in daily life and relationship. Romans 12:9-21states:

“As it is with men that are upon the earth, they lookup to the heavens and see the things of heaven only slightly. Why is it that the stars seem so small to us here? It is because we are on the earth. The earth seems a vast body to us, but the stars seem little to us, even though they are far bigger than the earth. Were we in heaven, the heavenly bodies would seem vast to us, and the earthly bodies would scarcely be discerned by us. Were men’s hearts heavenly, all the things of the earth would seem little to them, but because they are earthly, the things of heaven and spiritual mysteries are very small in their eyes.”

Imagine riding in a bus full of screaming kids through acres of smelly trash. Sounds like what they call purgatory? That was a field trip we took this week with the camp. I was amazed at what happens to our trash after the trash truck picks it up. The amount of energy, time, money and space it takes to deal with our trash… is staggering. Trash is just junk, the things we throw away. But don’t think this experience is void of spiritual significance. I pondered trash and the trash in my life. The Bible calls it sin.

The first statistic that blew me away was that Franklin County sends 300,000 tons a day to SWACO or the landfill. It was amazing how much time, money, manpower and space was needed to protect the environment from the possible threat from the landfill. To see all the different trucks zoom in and out bringing in filth was overwhelming. The smell was down right nauseating. This is a picture of sin in how it accumulates in us, contaminates everyone and nauseates God.

300,000 tons a day… that’s a lot of trash

What kind of stuff goes to the landfill? Paper, plastics, cans and glass as well as any other dirt, crud, slime and goo enter the landfill each day. It doesn’t matter whether it came from a poor person or a rich person nor does it matter whether it came from a dirty house or a clean house it all goes there! Jeremiah Burroughs made a comment about the landfill, or in his day the dunghill, in the 17^th century stating,

“A man or woman may be undone by earthiness, and be damned and perish eternally, as by adultery, drunkenness, murder, or any notorious sin… Do not deceive yourselves into thinking that because you keep from those gross and notorious sins that others live in, therefore you hope to be saved. Your earthiness may damn you as well as anything else. Upon dunghills, you cast not only carrion and such nasty stuff, but the stuff that you sweep from your houses. I may compare hell, which is the place where God casts those damned out of His presence, to the common dunghill upon which filthy creatures are cast. Now upon that dunghill there are not only carrions and filthy blasphemers, whore-masters and thieves but there will also be dust upon the dunghill, and scrapings from your houses cast upon the dunghill of hell from the presence of God. Therefore, do not satisfy yourselves that you do not lie in such filthy, abominable lusts as others do. If you have foul earthy hearts, you may be cast upon the dunghill as well as those who have lived most notoriously wicked. Therefore take heed of earthly-mindedness.

I imagine we will be surprised when we see what actually ends up in the eternal landfill. Also I would surmise that the sin in my life would be more outrageous than 300,000 tons a day. What “little things” do we do that offend God so that He would cast them out of His presence. We may pitch cans, boxes, jars and dirt but He pitches pride, self- centeredness, rebellion, slander, gossip, envy, bitterness, deceit, and faithlessness (Revelation 21:8, Romans 1:21-32; Galatians 5:19-21). Thankfully God can deliver us from sin and cleanse us from sin (1 John 1:9) and we can be made new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20). This is a better hope than recycling yet just as many people don’t care to recycle they don’t care for the eternal reclamation of their souls.

How much sin will you continue to produce? Will you let it keep you from God’s presence?

Time, Manpower, Space and Fear

The landfill covers a great amount of land that was taken, bought, from farmers so that we can store trash. This land has many different sites, called cells (several acres wide about 40-feet deep), that get filled up quickly yet take a lot of resources to construct. In order for the ground water to be protected the landfill must protect the ground by placing a 5-foot layer of clay, a layer of synthetic liner and a drainage layer with pipes. Many other precautions and restrictions are taken to keep the “trash juice” and gasses from penetrating into the ground. A lot of money, time and manpower are used in creating each cell or trash site. What a great cost to deal with trash!

Think of the great cost it took to deal with sin…

It cost the death of Jesus, who is God-man, innocent, holy, just, loving and our Creator. If trash cost much how much more does our sin? How dare we cheapen the price God paid! Many so-called Christians deny the dreadfulness of sin and the work of Christ on the cross. They reject the idea that sin angers God and that He must bring justice by killing His own son. The cross is where the greatest price ever paid for “trash” was made. We stood condemned. We knew the guilt of our sin and sin nature. We were thrown out of God’s presence for eternity. Then Jesus took our place! The death that was ours became His. His righteousness became ours. Sin was dealt with! No fear… no worry, Jesus has paid for it all! (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:18-19)

What about contamination?

As there is much concern for ground water contamination there is also concern for the trucks that come and go from the landfill. Many trash trucks that come in and out and must be washed to go back on the road. Dirt, junk, hazardous juices and hard objects may be a hazard to drivers on the road if they fly off of a trash truck. Just as trash can contaminate so can sin as we come in and out of other’s lives. We can interact with many people; some are like entering a landfill. Some may even try to use us as a landfill by dumping their junk on us.

Sinful, thoughts, behavior, attitudes and ideas are dumped our way everyday. The greater problem is that our flesh likes some of it. How do we keep from being contaminated? First, we must examine our thoughts, attitudes, intentions and behavior. The Psalms provide great verses to pray to the Lord: Psalm 32; 51; 19:14. Pray that God will reveal to you the sin that is infiltrating into your life. Second, Encourage and confront others with God’s word in love. Paul, Peter, Jude and John wrote epistles to encourage and confront. Sin was infiltrating the church through sin infiltrating people’s personal lives. Wash one another with the Word of God and help your brothers and sisters by praying for them and with them. Follow the command to speak what is for the benefit of others (Ephesians 4:29). As we come and go in the lives of others we should be careful not to be contaminated and not to contaminate.

Compactors and Conviction

Big trucks, called compactors, run back and forth over the trash to push it down and puncture it. This squeezes out all the trash juice so that it can be piped up and filtered. My final lesson is to be pushed down and punctured by the Holy Spirit. Let Him compact your life to squeeze out all the sin juices so that they can be washed in the blood of Christ. The Lord knows our ways yet we may be oblivious to the corruption in us (Psalm 139). This pushing down and puncturing is something that demands that we slow down our lives, get quiet and be honest. It is more important that we be who God wants us to be than to just know stuff and do stuff. I believe that if we compacted all the activity in the church and in our lives that we find more sin juice than eternal treasure. What is done out of pride? Selfishness? Envy? Competition? Bitterness? Faithlessness?

Lord, search us and make known to us what is your good, acceptable and perfect will and help us to do it.

My mom often retells stories, that although I may not have been present at the event, I feel as though I were there. The many times I have experienced her reminiscences of these events have made it so I could recount these as though I had been there. She has passed down her life stories so I can pass them down and my children can pass them down. But what of the things of God? Am I able to pass down the qualities that please God because of the reminiscences of those before me? We easily forget what we need to remember most. We forget the spiritual aspect of our lives because the realities of food, money, sex, chores and sleep are hard to pass up. Although our soul is not silent it is often neglected for the priorities of this world.

Peter had made it his goal to pass on those things that matter most. Knowing that the Christian life is hard, he wanted to help the saints to remember what they would easily forget in the struggle. The qualities of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affections and love will make the believer fruitful and effective in the kingdom of God. But do we live for the Kingdom of God or this world? It is more convenient to develop the “qualities” of influence, power, riches, comfort, pride, possessions, entertainment, amusement and manipulation. We can see, feel and have immediate gratification in the things of this world yet the kingdom is perceived by faith.

Peter wanted to pass on what matters most but also wanted to solidify it in the minds of believers. Knowing his life in this world would end soon; he wanted to expend his energy on eternal matters in a way that believers would be able recall. It is easier to make a big splash that fades away quick as fads come and go but to focus on what lasts is time consuming, rigorous and unpopular. The goal of the church should be to pass down these qualities and confessions in a way that believers remember and retell. These qualities and confessions should become such a delight and a way of life that the believer can’t help but to pass them on. Catchy phrases, “shnazzy” programs and self-affirming experiences only last as long as they can be maintained or remembered. The things of God are eternal and Spirit led and empowered.

So then, how should the church expend her energy to help the believer recall these qualities? The church must focus or get a 3D perspective: define, defend and delete. She must define doctrine. This happens when we look to the scriptures and the creeds to understand what God has spoken to us. When my children are required to do vocabulary words for school they must look up the definitions in a dictionary not just make up a meaning that suits their fancy. There is a standard. Yes, words meanings may change over time but that does not mean that one can insert the modern meaning into the older passage for that would change the author’s intention. Today “gay” is understood as a homosexual lifestyle but in the past “gay” meant happy. To insert homosexual meanings into the references to gay in past writings would totally distort the author’s understanding. Defining doctrine is important because it is what God has communicated to us. God has intended to make His will and Himself known. What a profanity to misrepresent God!

Once the church knows what God has spoken she must defend it. Many will try to dilute and pervert the truth of God for their own selfish gain. Since many rely on clergy to represent God to them dishonest people may deceive them. That is why defending the faith involves placing the word of God into their lives. It involves passing on the creeds that were tempered in the flames of persecutions and conflict. Standing on the truth passed down by the church fathers and led by the Spirit of God, the church can wage war against those who would try to destroy the work of God.

Omitting that which is unnecessary is helpful in communication. The church has too often focused on the unnecessary and majored on the minors. It is convenient and trendy to direct our efforts on what the world thinks is important. Should the church listen to Bono or the Word of God for the direction of the church? Perhaps the church has out grown the Word of God? Perhaps God’s truth is not enough? Maybe God needs business plans, marketing schemes, and money to do anything? Foolishness! Delete the schemes of man and rely on the word and ways of God. Instead of inviting a church growth planner to come, invite the Holy Spirit to come! Fast and pray as church leadership not manipulate and market. Is the church about God’s business or the worlds? Delete the unnecessary and live on what God has provided. Joshua conquered the Promised Land on faith in God’s promises not worldly strategy.

Pass it on. Make it memorable. What we actually do, repeat and retell is what we think is most important. What will people remember about you? Do they see the qualities of the Spirit or the vices and devices of the world? As Peter labored, so we must make every effort so that after our departure other believer may be able at anytime to recall these qualities and confessions.

On the show Who’s Line Is It Anyway? There is a game where they end each sentence with, “…if you know what I mean?” This phrase suggests sexual innuendo in any type of conversation. I cannot help but believe this is what emergent thinking is doing to the doctrines of the church. No, it is hopefully not making them sexual but it is tagging them for heretical innuendo.

What I mean is that the approach to theology that has, as its core values tolerance, relativism and pluralism will change the historically concrete terms of Christianity into impotent jargon. These terms can divide people and humble, offend, exasperate, and crush certain beliefs or ideas. If that is so then these terms are no friend to tolerance, relativism and pluralism. Yet this emergent thinking is saying, “I believe in the cross… if you know what I mean?” Or better yet, “I believe in the cross… in the way that no one is offended and people can feel good about themselves.”

In this campaign to devalue truth and elevate peace and unity the whole foundation of peace and unity is destroyed. What gives us peace and unity? A feeling? Tolerance? Relativism? Pluralism? Absolutely NOT! These things ask for people of different ideas, different feelings, different experiences, different desired, different realities and different convictions to rally around being different. What happens when these differences confront each other?

Can people agree that both are right and go on respecting and approving of each other? Agreeing to disagree may work in some cases but not in issues that hold eternal consequences. Salvation contains terms such as: sin, hell, wrath, condemnation, propitiation, justification, redemption, reconciliation and atonement. These words come from the Bible which is either truthful in speaking about these issues or is just one misguided option or opinion. Emergent thinking wants both. These terms are defined by experience and presuppositions that use them as another piece in life’s journey or quest.

If one approached their employment this way it would be thought silly. “My boss fired me but since terminating my employment is mean and makes me feel bad then, “fired” must mean that my boss is just cranky today. Hopeful people haves learned that thinking in a postmodern way may sound nice but it is contradictory and fantasy. The truth is hard but is real.

How can a myth about God becoming a man, dying on a cross and raising from the dead give any hope or healing. Concrete historical truth about God becoming man, dying on a cross for man’s sin and raising from the dead can bring hope and healing. The fact that there is a God, the fact that he died because of my sin, that fact that God’s wrath against sin and injustice is pacified, gives hope and healing because it deals with the real issues in my soul not just coddling my feelings. People know the hatred, pride, selfishness, jealousy, envy and strife within them and no myth or gimmick will remedy it.

A treaty drawn under the values of tolerance, relativism and pluralism cannot bring lasting peace because they are just ideas not reality. Only the real God, dying a real death, paying for my real sins, can bring real peace. Otherwise, my real guilt is just redefined and my real desire for the divine is just redirected to that which makes me feel good for the moment. Christianity will only be an impotent spiritual innuendo… if you know what I mean?

I find that I am too reliant on the “bit and bridle” in my life. Instead of doing what I want to do, I don’t do it. Instead of keeping from what I don’t want to do, I do it. O, wretched man that I am! I find myself whiling away my days on useless, meaningless, cheap and damning things. Therefore, I try to set up safeguards in my life; parameters and walls, schedules and deadlines, or checklists and goals. These may curb the flesh for a while but not absolutely.

What will curb the flesh absolutely, nay…(I say this as a wild horse) what will destroy the flesh?

I believe being glad, rejoicing and exalting in the LORD. This has to do with my priorities, my delights and my desires. What gives me worth? What satisfies me? What am I hungry for? The world, the flesh and the devil have answers to these questions that I sometimes believe. But these are NOT true! I must remind myself or be reminded of the true answer to these questions- GOD.

My worth comes from God because He created me. He foreknew me. He called me. He died for me. He has shown grace and mercy to me time and time again! He truly loves me like no other. He has chosen to make me holy. We can strive to be different, innovative, attractive or winsome but nothing can compare to holy.

My true fulfillment is in God. What he provides is eternal and real not fake and corruptible. His love, truth, grace, peace, work, joy and presence are most precious in this life. At the end of the day would we rather have what God gives or what we know will soon disappoint and leave us?

My soul is starving for God’s presence. I can do nothing without Him! He fuels my life and produces what is everlasting. He is what I need and should be what I want.

I must remind myself of these things! I must for otherwise I will follow the lies, folly, and senselessness of the moment that leads to sorrow, destruction and despair. It is the fear of the LORD, fearing His discipline and wrath but more so fearing His displeasure and departure. Would I fear that God would be distant more than that my jollies be denied!