Being Free

So Jesus said to those who believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”(John 8: 31-32 NASB)

One of the sad truths about churches is that too often they are better at tethering Christians than they are at helping them live in the freedom of Christ. Over time, even churches who start with no creed other than the crucified Christ and an understanding that each of us comes to Christ in his own way, have a tendency towards homogenization. They develop rules, written and unwritten, that force people into a mold of “proper Christianity” that is not necessarily what Christ intended for His people.

First and foremost, Christianity is never about adherence to rules. There are no rules in the strictest sense of the word. If we insist on rules of behavior as a way to determine who is Christian or not, we are legalists who deny grace. If we insist on adherence to the Mosaic Law, we miss the point of the cross.

The Law of Moses was unkeepable.  At best, it could be kept only in outward appearance while the inner man was still prone to sin. Jesus made this clear in the Sermon on the Mount. Even those who obey the commandments that should be easiest to follow and neither murder nor commit adultery, break them in our hearts through anger and lust. The purpose of the Law was to show us our own inability to live holy on our own and to bring us to repentance and Christ. Paul calls the Law a tutor (Gal. 3: 15-29) and a lien against us because of our sins (Col. 2: 14).

That debt was canceled on the cross. It is no more. As we live in Christ, no one can judge us in regard to what we eat, what we wear, what we drink or how we celebrate and honor God. (Col. 2: 16-17) We are free of both the condemnation of the Law and of the burden of its outward keeping. In fact, if we put ourselves back under even a part of the Law, the entire Law will again govern us because we cannot pick and choose what part of the Law we want to apply – it is all or nothing. I for one choose nothing.

Yet we constantly allow ourselves to be governed by both remnants of the Law and by the imaginations of men by trying to adhere to rules that churches impose. Worse, we develop a sense of self-satisfaction that turns grace on its ear. Instead of freely admitting that we are sinners and all our righteousness is really filthy rags, but God grants us righteousness through grace, we pride ourselves on how well we keep the rules. It is Christ, Who deserves the credit, yet we claim it for ourselves – all the while denying that we are doing just that.

Worse, following the rules gives us a distorted view of our own need for repentance and grace. We play Let’s Compare Sins as a way of assuring ourselves of our own righteousness. Is there one of who has not said, “Well, at least I don’t use the Lord’s name in vain” or “At least I don’t gamble or drink”? God is not interested in what we aren’t doing, and is very concerned about forgiving the things we are doing if only we would bring them to Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NASB)

So, in Christ, we are free. We are freed of our sins through grace. And we are also free of the need to obey a list of rules and regulations imposed by anyone about how to be Christian or how to worship. And the best freedom of all is that we are now free of the necessity to sin. We can now choose not to follow sin, when in the past we were slaves to sin and had no choice in the matter at all.

We are not Christians because of what we do; we do what we do because we are Christians.

Be a Berean

The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17: 10-11, NASB)

When I was teaching Sunday school, I used to tell my classes that more than anything I wanted them to become Bereans. I never wanted them to accept anything I said without “testing the spirits” by checking what I said against the Word. I encourage everyone who reads what I write to do the same.

If we are not Bereans, we leave ourselves open to being mislead at every turn. It is too easy to bend the Word of God to make it appear to say things that were never intended. This has been true from the beginning. Genesis 3 records Eve’s encounter with the serpent in the garden. The serpent began by testing her knowledge of what God said: Has God said, “You shall not eat of any tree in the Garden?”

Eve responded correctly and then added to what God had actually said, “’from the tree in the middle of the garden God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it, or touch it, or you will die.’” God had no warned her not to touch it. By not stating what was “so”, she left herself open to misdirection and ultimately destruction.

If Eve could so easily misquote and misapply God’s Word when there was only one commandment, how easy is it for us to misconstrue Scripture today – not intentionally, but from inattention. That is why we need to be Bereans, constantly checking everything we hear and even our own beliefs against what the Word actually says on the matter.

Bereans are those people who will “search the Scriptures” not just for a single verse, but for related verses to be sure that they understand not only the message, but also the intent. They don’t fall into the trap of convenience – either by addition or subtraction. They want to know not just what was said, but why, where, to whom, by whom, and if possible how. And they are not casual about their searching. They do it daily.

If we are not Bereans, we set ourselves up for missing out on what God has in mind for us. Just as Eve missed the chance to spend eternity in Eden,  we place ourselves in danger of missing blessings or courting judgment by not understanding what God has said. A look at one of the more recent theological arguments will demonstrate this point.

One of the more convenient arguments used today to justify bad behavior is “God loves me and accepts me as I am”. A Berean knows there are ample scriptures to support that view of God’s love for us. But a Berean also knows there is more to the message than just love and acceptance. God takes us as we are and then expects us to change. How many times in His ministry did Jesus follow up his acceptance of a sinner “as is” and then follow it up with “Go and sin no more”?

Berean knows better than to accept this as a truth.

If I have one desire other than raise up Christians who are more spiritually mature than I am, it is to inspire them to check everything they hear against what God actually says. Look at the entire message – always – leaving nothing out and adding nothing in the process. When we know the truth, the truth will truly set us free.

Outside the Comfort Zone

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did no regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, the name which is above every name. (Phil. 2: 5-9, NASB)

Too often when we are challenged by our life in Christ, we want to stay will within our comfort zones. We don’t meet challenges because we don’t want to move away from what we already know we can do and feel confident about. We want to serve, but we don't want to give up anything in doing it. This doesn’t make us bad people, just weak Christians.

Paul reminded the Philippians they needed to be more like Christ Himself in this respect. Think of the Christ’s comfort zone. He was equal to God in every way. He lived in a splendor we can scarcely imagine. And yet, when God’s will and our need called for it, He willingly gave it all up – for us. To give up equality with God to become a man with all the human frailties we ourselves endure isn’t just stepping out of the comfort zone; it is leaving it behind completely.

The truth is that no one can really serve God without leaving the comfort zone. Think of Abram, living in the comfort of Terah in Ur of the Chaldeans. God called him to pick up all his belongings and his family and go to a place God would show him. Abram had no idea where God would lead him, but he went. God promised him that he would be the father of a great nation. But to claim God's promises, Abram had to leave his home and all he was familiar with. After Abram stepped out of his comfort zone, God renamed him Abraham and blessed him exactly as He promised.

Think of Moses. When God called him to lead the Jews out of Egypt, Moses had more excuses than a Viet Nam era draft dodger. But in the end, he obeyed, left his comfort zone, and became the gold standard for the Jews of Jesus day.

Think of David. He had to leave his comfortable and familiar life as a shepherd to follow God’s will. Yet God made him the greatest king in the history of Israel. David obeyed because he was a man “after God’s own heart”. He had the attitude that was in Christ Jesus even before he was aware there was a Christ Jesus.

Popular Christian culture has made most of us aware of the NIV translation of Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." The words are God’s reminder to the Jews that He was punishing them for their own good, but they also have a very real application in the context of comfort zones.

The Jews had gathered prophets who were lying to them, saying they were not going to have to give up much for long. God’s reality was to put them into captivity for seventy years - a lifetime. God's promise and the hope of a future for the Jews forced them well outside any comfort zone they had previously known. Of course, had they left their comfort zone on their own and obeyed God in the first place, none of that would have happened.

This is the way of it, then. To gain the promises that God holds for us, we have to be willing to step outside the zone of comfort, knowledge, familiarity, and sometimes happiness. God will always lead us into uncharted territory, not because He wants us confused and miserable, but because He sees where we need to be. And if our attitude is that of Christ Jesus, we will go without looking back.

Why I Do Not Go to Church

Anyone who has ever tried to discuss religion with a nonbeliever has at some point encountered the confession, “I know I should go to church, but I just can’t get into that church thing.” Usually the confession follows an invitation to “go to church with me.”

I do not go to church. I haven’t gone to church in roughly ten years. Frankly, going to church just doesn’t get it for me. That doesn’t mean that I am not involved with a church family. I am. I am even part of the regular Sunday worship.

I play bass (badly) in the praise band and I look forward to Sundays. I can even say there have been times when I didn’t feel like going but after I was there, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

But I do not go to church. Going to church is a really passive activity. Being part of a church is not.

Think of it this way. People go to concerts. Some go to several concerts a year. But at no point does going to concerts make them part of the band. You can go to concerts all you want, but going to concerts, though it may move you and inspire you, will never make you a musician.

When I was going to church on a regular basis, I felt the need to be entertained, or inspired, or even moved by the experience. I judged a service by what I got out of it. And if I didn’t get anything out of it – the music was not to my liking, or the sermon seemed dry – I could critique the service or even stop going and feel justified. (Full disclosure: I was sometimes like Simon on American Idol. They let me come back anyway.)

Then I was asked to lead a small group for Rick Warren called 40 Days of Purpose. In the course of the 40 days, I discovered that my entire purpose for being there on Sunday wasn’t to get something out of the service, but to put something in. And the biggest something I needed to put in was myself.

I realized that even though I was part of the church leadership and even taught a Sunday School class, I was still just going to church. And at that point I resolved to stop going and to start being. I joined the band – literally. But it wasn’t joining the church band that made me part of the experience, but my realization that the church was my family and that Sundays were more like going home to my dad’s than like going to a performance.

All who are part of the church bring something to the table – spiritual potluck if you will. First, we bring our hearts to God. We bring praise. We bring worship. We bring an eagerness to know the people around us and to work together with them for the good of the family. We bring a hunger for hearing the Word and sharing the Word.

The heart of the matter isn’t what we get out of the service, but what God gets out of it. If we are going to church, we expect God to somehow pour something into us just because we are there. That isn’t how it works. When we pour ourselves into service, God gets worship and praise. Then He fills us in response.

Church goers are visitors – even when their names are on the roster. Those who are actively engaged in the life of the church are part of God’s family. If church goers stop going, they are missed for a while, but not for long. When members leave, there is a hole in the fabric of the church. The family has been fragmented.

And that is why I do not go to church.

The Christian In the Closet

There are basically three types of Christians. First there are the committed church members who are not afraid to let the world know they are Christian. Then there are the committed church members who seldom let on to anyone they are Christians. The third group are the Christians who would not set foot inside a church unless they were forced to go.

When I started this blog a few weeks ago, I wrote anonymously as I. Barnabas, but I had severe reservations about using just a pseudonym. Then a friend pointed out that the web is filled with people with i.baranabas screen names. That forced me into some soul searching and some prayerful consideration of what I was actually trying to do here.

And that created a problem for me. Where is my accountability? If I put my name out there, I accept the responsibility for what I say here. I should be up front about who I am and accept the responsibility for what I live when I am not writing here. My life has to be an extension of what I say here and that cannot be done anonymously.

That is the problem faced by Christians who keep their beliefs to themselves - for whatever reason. They deny themselves accountability for what they believe. Christ says that if we confess Him before men, He will confess us before the Father. But he also says that if we don't confess Him before men, He will not admit to knowing us. What good is a confession, if it is anonymous?

That said, I can move on to the real point of this post. What to do with Christians who would rather be branded with hot irons than be part of a church? We all know them. They profess belief in Christ, and acknowledge Him, but they refuse to commit to any body of Christians around them. They are spiritual orphans.

We have all heard someone say, "I can be as close to God on the golf course as I can in a church." We have also heard people say they don't want to be tied to  particular church because they don't like the way churches act. Sometimes it is a matter of ruffled feathers. Sometimes I hear the complaint that all the churches want anyway is my money.

From God's point of view, not one of the reasons people give for avoiding church matters in the least. Really. Jesus calls the church "my church". When Peter caught Ananias and his wife lying about the amount of money they gave the church, he punished them, not for withholding their money, but for "lying to God". If we lie to the church, we lie to God.

If we follow that thinking further, if we avoid church membership, we also avoid belonging to God. We avoid being part of Christ's body. We become amputated limbs. Orphans by choice. Without intending it, Christians who avoid churches also leave themselves helpless, alone and powerless, and they don't even realize it. The devil loves disaffected Christians because they help weaken the church and have nothing to fall back on when adversity strikes.

The strength of a Christian who is part a church isn't in the doctrine of the larger organization. It isn't in the structure of a denomination. It is in the individual congregation - the body of believers that are gathered together. These are the people who will encourage each other to good works and love. This is why belonging to a church is important. It is the home base. The important thing is to be involved in the lives of the other members. That is more important that being involved in any program or ministry (though those are important, too).

I am always happy to see husbands and wives working together in the church. It strengthens the church and it strengthens the bond between them. I am sad whenever I encounter a man or a woman whose partner is not part of the church life. There is something missing in their own relationship - a vital commonality that will bond them together. I have been in that situation and I ache for them.

Churches can be messy at times. That is true of any large family. And that is what a church is - a large family. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. God's plan for us is to gather together in His name as a family. When someone decides to avoid that gathering, what he is saying is that his plan is better than God's. I can say without reservation, I am not that good a planner.

Do I sometimes get upset with the way things work in my church? Oh, yes. Are there some people in the church I would rather be around than others? Sure. Do I always agree with the way the elders choose to do things? No. But I would rather be part of the family than apart from it. I am stronger for the ties that I have and I am sure that the church is stronger for my being there, even though I might not realize it.

So, in the end it comes down to this. I have put my name on this blog because I cannot in good conscience remain anonymous. If I mean what I say, I have to have my name on it. And I am part of a body of believers because with them I am stronger than I would ever be without them. I firmly believe  that where the church is, Christ is also.

Belonging to a body of believers is not optional. Together, we are the bulwark against the world. That is what Christ intends His church to be and that is what He expects of all who bear His name.

The Ah Hah! vs. the Hah!

Rabbi Silverman had eaten at the same delicatessen for lunch every day for nearly 30 years. And every day he had the same thing for lunch – chicken soup. The rabbi was so predictable that the waiter would lay out his table and have the bowl of soup ready at 10:59. At precisely 11:00 the rabbi would walk through the door, greet everyone, take his place at his table, and quietly eat his soup.

One morning the rabbi came in, as usual, greeted everyone, as usual, and sat at his table, as usual. But that morning, he merely looked at his soup. He didn’t even try to eat it.

Concerned, the waiter came over and asked if the rabbi were ok.

“Taste the soup,” the rabbi said.

“There is something wrong with the soup?” the waiter said. “You haven’t even tried it and you think there is something wrong with the soup?”

“Taste the soup,” the rabbi replied patiently.

“I just had a bowl of this soup,” the waiter said. “I can assure you it is wonderful chicken soup. Just the way you like it. Yet you keep saying, ‘Taste the soup’.”

“Taste the soup,” the rabbi said.

Finally, in exasperation, the waiter said, “All right, already, I’ll taste the soup!”

He reached down, then looked at the rabbi in astonishment and said, "You don’t have a spoon.”

“Ah hah!” the rabbi said.

I tell this story to my students when they start to fuss because I won’t give them answers they can easily discover for themselves or they should already know. It always comes down to discovery. If I tell them, they will have heard, but not learned. If they discover the answers, they have learned without the hearing. It is called the “ah hah” moment.

These moments are important in our growth as Christians. We want others to tell us what we should either already know need to learn for ourselves. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of our not grasping something we already know but don’t fully understand. The gap between knowing and understanding can be a chasm. Then, of course, there are times we simply overlook something that should be obvious. In all cases, we need to have our "ah hah" moment of discovery, not the be given the answers.

Often, when we are dealing with others, we don’t try to lead them to their own “ah hah” moment because we are too busy looking for the “Hah!” moment for ourselves. That is the moment when we can look at someone and say triumphantly, “Hah! See! I told you.” The problem with this is that nobody learns anything. In going for the “Hah!” moment, we miss the lessons that we can learn by watching others come to their own answers. When we lead them to the "ah hah" moment, everyone gains.

Worse, there are times when someone is trying to lead us to our “ah hah” moment and we simply defend our own already-arrived-at conclusions. We are so confident in our assumptions, so convinced we have overlooked nothing, that we miss the obvious. We have to be teachable to be taught. We miss the "ah hah" moments because we keep them from happening.

Sometimes we get frustrated when someone simply rejects our message. At those times we need to consider that perhaps it isn’t the message that is being rejected, but the delivery system. We haven't prepared the listener by giving him some way to grasp the message for himself. Sometimes the message is rejected no matter what, but we are not the stumbling block.

Paul says the Lord’s servant must be “able to teach . . . with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition.” (2 Tim. 2:24-25 NASB). Peter tells us to always be ready “to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet ever with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15 NASB)

In all things, we need to be like the rabbi leading others to discover for themselves the things they need to know. And like the waiter, we need to be sure on our part that everything necessary is there and usable by others. Taste the soup.