St. John Studies

“What am I doing?”

Have you ever thought that?

Have you found yourself not enjoying what you should enjoy—your life?

There was a time in my life when I was driven.  I was paid a nice salary to take care of classes of students and get them from point A to point B in 16 weeks.   Let’s say it was a speech class.  I knew what I had to do.  I had to take a few good speakers, many average speakers and a few people suffering from stage fright and give them fundamental knowledge about how to present material to groups.

I used to kid about it a lot.  My goal was “to get your butterflies to fly in formation.  They will never go away.  You don’t want them to go away or you will be dull and lifeless.   You just want to get them in control and you want to channel that energy into an exciting performance.  You never tell the audience that you are scared.  You tell them you are excited.”

That was my shtick.

I had five classes to teach in 16 weeks, approximately 125 students.  Trying to get them from point A to point B.

After 16 weeks, I started all over again with 125 more.

It was ok.  I enjoyed it.  It was a living, a nice one for around here in western Kentucky.

But I was driven.

You know what I mean.  I was always pushing to get things accomplished.  I pushed myself; I pushed my students.  Getting them to work toward a goal was my purpose in life and I knew that they needed to see me responding to calls, emails, grading papers, creating lectures and doing what I always did in a 16 week period; lots of “teacher stuff.”  I always felt if I presented myself as a hard worker, they may be inspired to be hard workers.

Now, I am retired.

And here is my challenge.

How can I slow down and quit pushing myself and others?

Pastor Chan says we all need to stop and think.  What am I doing?  What is my purpose for what I am doing?  We need to stop and think.

As I am able to be less driven, the habits of the past creep back into my life.  I find myself pushing myself to work at things.  When I am working at something I am thinking about the next thing I have to do, which robs me of the joy of the present task.  Here is what I do.  It is simple and it sounds a bit selfish.  As I work at a task, I say the simple phrase over and over—“this is my time.”  Not complicated but it slows me down and makes me realize that God has given me this time to enjoy myself and I should enjoy it.   I longed to have this time.  I daydreamed about having it.  It is here.

Secondly, stop and just take time to wonder about the small stuff.  The sunset, the green grass, the delicate unfolding of a flower, a bug crawling across my big toe.  I know it sounds stupid, but as you slow down and appreciate the small stuff, it makes you really see the world, feel the world, smell the world, touch the world and taste the world.  God is in it all and He put it here for you to enjoy.

In addition, it is time to focus on what you have rather than what you don’t have.  I spent some time this morning with a man who is suffering from Parkinson’s.  I have known him for quite a while and he loves to read and loves to write.  The disease has taken that away from him now.  His condition makes me look at what I have and just thank God.  Right now, I have more than I deserve.  Right now, I am doing better than I deserve.  It won’t be that way forever.  The focus on the gifts I have now is really important.

Along with slowing down, paying attention to small stuff and acknowledging what I have, it is good to lead what I call a God-directed life.  Don’t get so caught up in an agenda that you can’t move in a direction that God wants you to move when He wants you to move.  Be flexible and realize that if you respond to the needs that God puts before you, there will be a blessing.  I have written about this many times but I get tired sometimes and don’t want to go to church, but I do go because I will receive a blessing.   I always come home feeling glad that I went.

Finally, “Stop Praying.”  Sound familiar?  It is the title of the chapter we are in.  I am a big mouth.  My wife says I am never at a loss for words.  One of the worst situations she ever has to suffer through is when we wake up together and sit on the couch and as coffee invigorates my brain, I begin to speak and I hop from topic to topic as the caffeine begins to work.  There is poor Susan, sitting there in a sleep stupor having to pay attention to a big mouth, blathering on and on.

I can be that way with God.

Just because I am in His presence, it does not mean that I have to be blathering on with God.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”  I have written about that verse before.  It is a good thing to remember when you feel compelled to pray but you are not in the proper frame of mind.  It is a good thing to remember when you should approach God with the proper awe and just meditate in His presence.   It is a good thing to remember that when you put your concerns in His hands, that He will take care of them.

We need to stop and think.

Just be still and know that God is God and He wants you to enjoy your life.

After all, you are here right now for a reason.  He wants to show you what that reason is, but you have to slow down to understand it.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear … “ Matthew 6:25

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Matthew 5:11

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”  Matthew 16:25

We could go on and on.

Crazy scriptures…

Jesus said love your neighbor just like you love yourself?  Wow that’s tough.  Over the years I have had some neighbors who were hard to love.  Yet that is what He says.

Don’t worry about life.  Come on.  Who can do that?   Sometimes I have things going well yet I still worry because they are not “perfect”.  Yet Jesus says not to worry.

When people insult you, do you feel like you are capable of dealing with it?  Can you turn the other cheek?   Jesus says that is necessary.

And then the “losing and finding it” scripture.  Talk about CRAZY!  You have to lose your life in Christ to find your life?  Yet Jesus says just that.

Now we are getting an appreciation of the title of our study—Crazy Love.  To be a Christian is to be labelled as crazy by the people of this world.  The reason, God asks so much of us.

Have you ever been around someone like Francis Chan?  Someone who is extreme in his vision for what the church can do, someone who not only talks about sacrifice, but is perfectly willing to sacrifice, someone who inspires you to want more God, do more for God, grow in your personal relationship with God.  His goal in life is to stretch himself and those around him.

Someone who realizes that enough is never enough.

Drives you crazy doesn’t it.

Adam and Christine Teske have written an interesting article for Relevant Magazine on Three Things I Hate About Jesus.  It fits right in with Crazy Love.

The Christian life calls for us to do a lot that is challenging.  First of all they say it is asking a lot for us to be able to put up with all kinds of people.  In Matthew 13 Jesus talks about a farmer who plants wheat seeds in a field. But his enemy also comes and plants weed seeds. The farmer’s servants see the weeds and they ask if they should pull them up. The farmer says no:  “While you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.”  Jesus goes on to explain that in the parable, He’s the farmer, the wheat represents people of His Kingdom, the enemy is the Devil and the weeds are people of “the evil one.”  Who wants to put up with people from Satan?  Yet that is what Jesus says we have to do.  Isn’t that asking a lot?

The Teskes write “While anyone can follow Jesus, it [must be] on His terms. Jesus didn’t leave any room to call Him a ‘good teacher’ or ‘a spiritual guide.’ He said He was the Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Narrow Gate, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth and the Life (and that’s just in the book of John).”   There is no room for us to pick and choose what we want to do and believe.  The writers call this picking and choosing the “buffet approach.”   Jesus is a “package deal.”  You have to take the whole package, not just parts of it.  Jesus says we have to do this.  Isn’t that asking a lot?

Jesus said if I’m going to follow Him, I have to give up everything I have (Luke 14:33). He said that I have to deny myself, take up my cross (an implement of my own painful death) every day and then follow Him (Luke 9:23). Jesus must become greater, and I must become less (John 3:30).  Wow, where is the room for me to be me?  The Teske’s third complaint is that Jesus asks for their whole life.  Yours too.  Mine too.  Come to think of it, that’s what those verses above mean.  He wants it all.

Can we give our whole lives over to Jesus?  Probably not, but He wants it anyway.

This study is going to ask tough questions of all of us Christians who “compartmentalize” our lives.  You know what I mean.  You have the Christian hat that you put on, on Sunday, and the rest of the week you put on your “worldly hat.”   Pastor Chan will hold the mirror up to us and get us to see that is what we are doing and he does not like it.

We should not like it either.

God doesn’t.

Man this book is crazy!

As we begin a new book, I am on fire.

One of the best Adult Sunday School teaching experiences I have ever had was with the slim volume we are now studying, “Crazy Love” by Pastor Francis Chan.

Chan has a way of waking up the sleeping church and as he wakes you up, you will want more and more from him.

If you are a member of St. John, and subscribed to Right Now Media, you will see companion videos for each chapter.  They are short intro. videos but they may help you get the main point of the chapter.  Log on to Right Now Media and watch along as we study the chapters.  If you are following this blog but not a member of St. John and want to see the video, you can access them on youtube but the quality is not as good.

With apologies to Wikipedia, here is a little information about Pastor Chan:

“Chan was born in San Francisco to native Chinese parents. His father named Francis after the city of his birth. Francis Chan’s mother died giving birth to him. After Chan’s father remarried, when Chan was about 7 years old, his stepmother died in a car accident when he was 9 years old. His father remarried again when he was 10. His father then died of cancer when Chan was 12 years old. Francis Chan was then raised by his stepmother Josephine Chan along with his older sister Grace, older brother Paul and much younger half-sister, Gloria. He had family support from his father’s younger sister and her husband, Marion and William Wong, along with a large extended family and church family. He did not get along well with his father growing up, but says that his fear of his father has helped him understand a level of fear of God. He also stated he didn’t understand the love of God well until he became a father himself. As a high-school and then junior-college student, Chan was active in Christian youth groups which helped develop his faith in Christ and his interest in ministry. Before becoming a senior pastor, Francis worked for a variety of employers including Taco Bell, Mic Pizza, Kirby Company, Ralphs Market, Broadway Men’s Clothing, hardwood flooring contractors, and the Acapulco restaurant. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Master’s College and a Master of Divinity degree from Master’s Seminary. After a three-month leave from Cornerstone Church, Francis said he felt convicted to sacrifice more for God. Chan gives away about 90 percent of his income, doesn’t take a salary from his church, and has donated most of his book royalties, which have totaled about $2,000,000, to various charities. Much of it goes to organizations which rescue sex slaves in foreign countries.”  Furthermore, in 2008 it was reported that Cornerstone would give away 55% of its income to charitable causes.   In September 2014, Chan joined the board of elders of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California.”

As I complete my last post on God Speaks Your Love Language, I have to admit that I have enjoyed commenting on the book.

I have always had a sincere interest in interpersonal relationships and Dr. Chapman’s book allowed me to work a lot of my ideas into the posts.

It is my opinion that most of us do not spend enough time working on our closest relationships, making them better, dealing with problems and trying to change.  What should be the most dear is often the most neglected in many cases.  We spend so much time with those around us that we take people for granted and that is a grievous error.

Again, what is the main point of God Speaks Your Love Language?

We must become aware of our own love language needs.   We must become aware of the predominant way we speak love language to others.  We must learn to be proficient in other love languages so we can do what God put us on earth to do…love our fellow man.

Dr. Chapman writes, “I have never met a couple who married with the intention of making each other miserable.  Most people want a loving, supportive, understanding spouse.  I’m convinced the fastest way to have such a spouse is to become a loving, supportive, understanding spouse.”

You may not be there yet.

That’s ok.

No one ever “arrives” while we are here on earth.

But that does not mean that the transformation process cannot get underway.

It can.

I wondered how I would post my last comments on this book and as I was having quality time with the Lord this morning, I put my coffee cup down on an old Adult Sunday School book that my wife keeps beside the bed in the room where I go to be with God.  On the book it says “A Transformed Heart is a Work in Progress.”

That’s exactly what I want to leave you with.

Maybe you have learned that there are areas in your relationships that need improvement.  Maybe you have felt a bit convicted that you have stopped giving your relationships your best.   Maybe you have found yourself in the habit of blaming the other person for problems you both have.

But now you know that this type of stuff needs to stop.

That’s significant.

Do you have the courage to change?  Do you want things to be better?  Do you want the relationships that God has promised you that you will have?

The transformed heart is a work in progress.

Now is the time to move forward.  Now is the time to make some progress.  My Grandfather Mason said “Now is the time to commence!”

In Ephesians 2: 21-22, Paul writes that “In him [Jesus Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Truly God intends all of us to be works in progress.

If you have learned, if you have been convicted, if you are aware of your habits, let God take you to new places in your relationships with people on this earth.

Let God take you to new places in your relationship with Him.

It’s all about words of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, giving gifts, and acts of service.

Apply these concepts to your life for your loved ones.  Apply these concepts to your life for our Lord and Savior.

If you were in jail and you had little hope of getting out and suddenly the cell door swung open and there were no guards to stop you, what would you do?

Of course, this refers to the very well-known story of Paul in the prison cell in Philippi.

He and Silas were singing and praying and an earthquake struck.  The earth shook so much that the prison door opened and everyone’s chains came loose.  Paul’s jailer woke up and rushed to the prison, expecting to have to kill the prisoners.  He naturally assumed that they would be attempting to escape.

They weren’t.

They were still in the prison.  They were not going anywhere.

Why?

Paul knew what he needed to do.

Save the jailer.

He spoke to the jailer “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved—you and your household.”  The jailer and his family all became followers of Christ.  Paul baptized them all.

As we begin to leave God Speaks Your Love Language, why is this story appropriate?

It is the attitude of Paul.

Paul knew his purpose in life and his purpose was to bring souls to Jesus Christ.  He knew his actions would speak loudly to the jailer and they did.

What are your actions speaking to the people around you?

What is the purpose of some of the words you say to others?

Are you speaking love?  Are you trying to improve the relationships you have in your life?

Dr. Chapman’s God Speaks Your Love Language has been about putting others first.  Is that not what Jesus Christ exhibited for us in his thirty-three years here on earth?

It is hard.   The world is such a distraction as humans make powerful statements of hatred and violence every day.  The attitude that the world says is that you need to “stand up for yourself,” “push others around to get your way,” “if you have to do wrong to get what you want, that’s ok.”  As Christians, we may be influenced by these messages but we know that is not what God intended for us to do.  Jesus did not show us that behavior.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 and read “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant and rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable and resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.”

Does this language sound like the language of our selfish world?

I don’t think so.

These statements about love are all directed toward the well-being of the one being loved.

This is what God has told us in His Word.  He has told us that He loves us, despite the fact that many of us walk away from Him.  He will forgive us and He wants us back.  All we have to do is repent of our sins and ask Him back into our lives.  He wants the best for us.  He wants the best for our relationships.

All we have to do is pay attention to our actions and let God’s spirit guide those actions.  He will help us if we just listen and do what He says to do.

The temptations will always be there.  As Paul was tempted to leave his cell, he fought the urge and won souls to Christ.  He knew what he needed to do.

His actions spoke volumes.

The question for you today is, what are your actions telling others around you?

That you love them?

Dr. Chapman writes: “In every generation and in every culture, the Spirit of God continues to communicate divine love by speaking the love languages of God.  God is both holy and loving.  If man does not respond to His love and accept His forgiveness and the gift of an eternal relationship with Him, then man must face His judgment.  The fork in the road for all mankind is to choose God’s love or God’s justice.”

It is one of my pleasures of life to have a wonderful pastor for a friend.  He and I have been close for about 18 years now and I am not a member of his church.  What’s the significance of that?  He can tell me things he cannot tell his flock.

I am honored to be his sounding board.

He has a man in his church who has turned his back on his wife.  This man has taken up with a younger woman and has stopped going to my friend’s church.  The problem is, my friend wants to minister to this man, wants to lead him back to the flock, wants him to choose the love of God as the way back to right relationship with God.

Now the young man is floundering.  By this I mean that he feels remorse but he seeks someone to justify his actions.

Can he find that person?  Sure he can.

Can he find a pastor that will “excuse” him?  Sure he can.

Can he find a congregation that will accept him as he is now, forgetting that he has committed adultery?  Sure he can.

That’s how desperate some churches are to get members.

What is his best option?

Repent and choose God’s love.

What could he do?

Run from what he has done.

Dr. Chapman says it best when he says every generation has to make the choice.  Every generation has to come to the fork in the road—God’s love or God’s justice.

I have been in situations; you have too.  When you know you are doing wrong and you just can’t deal with it.  You feel convicted but there is a pull on you.  The pull is away from God and into a world of self- centeredness, temptation, greed, lust, covetousness etc..  The list is long.

You want to be forgiven.  You want to be told that you are right.  You want to feel ok.

But you know you are not.

One of today’s terms that gets tossed around a lot by people who espouse to be “spiritual” but they are not spiritual [in a Christian God sense] is the word karma.  I am not a fan of that word.  It is a pop term for justice.  God will allow the young man to go a long time without repercussions but there will be a time when God’s justice will come.   God wants all of us to choose Him.  My pastor friend wants the young man to choose Him.   I don’t know the young man very well but I want him to choose Him.

Choosing God is the only way that he will ever be right.

Choosing begins with admitting that he has done wrong.  The young man needs to say to God, “I have done wrong Lord, please forgive me.”  If it is said with a pure, sincere heart, God will forgive.

You see, God wants him back.  God sent his only Son to pay for the sins of this young man but he must accept this loving provision of God’s payment.  He must accept responsibility for his actions.

He can do this.

Take the fork and go toward God’s love.

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”

That’s it.  My favorite Bible verse: Matthew 22:37.

The focus is on love.  The focus is on the heart and soul and mind.  It’s the first and greatest commandment said Jesus.

I think of it as a growth verse.  Jesus is imploring his followers to love God with all we have including the mind.  That is important to me.  I like to acknowledge we all have minds and we all need to exercise them.

Life can dull us to growth and that is regretful.  It happens all the time.  We have our “go to” behaviors, our habits.  Our comfort zones.  Those are soothing but they are also deadening to growth.

God put us here on earth to serve a purpose; to grow, to love and not to hate.

John Ortberg cites the purpose of the life of Jesus in his video study “All the Places to Go.”   The people of Israel wanted a proud, powerful warrior to help them overthrow the Roman dominance of their land, yet they got a man who did the opposite of war; he taught us how to love.  His lessons have turned the world upside down.  They expected a man of power and violence and they got a man of love.

Of course Dr. Chapman is not Jesus, but he is sold on the idea that to change our world we need to make our love connection with those around us.  You can’t do it with church alone.  So many are hampered by their idea of “doing religion.”  You know the disciplines of attending, tithing, praying and trying to be good members.  They hope that will get them into heaven.

But that won’t do it.   We need to have that God connection, that love connection.  The God that was so active in the lives of Abraham, Joseph, Isiah and Ezekiel can be alive in our lives today if we reach out beyond the confines of our church comfort zones and do what God intended us to do.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

That means working hard to affirm others with our words.  That means giving things away to those who have need. That means spending quality time with loved ones and private quality time with God in Bible reading and prayer.  That means doing things for people who need our help.  That means touching others with our hugs of acceptance and love.

Learn to speak all five love languages and USE them.  Use them to the point that you are spreading God’s love around to those that need it.

Be the Bible.  You have heard the expression that [ Bill? ] is the only Bible they will ever know.  Anyone can be Bill; slide your name in there.  People need to see you as their Bible; you may be the only Bible they will ever see.  You can make a strong case about your faith with your behavior.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Yes Jesus said that is the first and greatest commandment but what was the second?

Matthew 22: 39, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Dr. Chapman says in Chapter 10, “Our relationship with God does not end when we make the God connection.  In fact it just begins.”

This is an exciting time when someone connects with God, when someone learns what having a relationship with God and Jesus Christ means.  It is more than church.  It is a new life with our Savior.

Dr. Chapman feels that the process of growing in Christ will be enhanced greatly with awareness of our love languages.

Awareness of your preferred love languages is your first major accomplishment.

But it is that, the first step.

Knowledge that you probably speak that language [s] to others is another major accomplishment.

But Dr. Chapman does not want us to stop there; neither does God.

Using me as an example, touch is my primary love language with a score of 10.   Right behind that is quality time with a 9.

But what about acts of service, words of affirmation and gifts?

God wants me to learn to speak those love languages to others.  He wants me to be fluent in languages that are not my preferred languages.

It won’t be easy.  He says “learning to speak other love languages may take time and effort.”  But there is one thing we must remember.  We are the channels of God’s love.   John 15: 5-6:  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

We are the branches that produce fruit and Dr. Chapman believes that much of that fruit is generated from the love language we speak to others.

Why should we be concerned with this?  The answer is obvious.  Because God is love and He has accepted us and loved us.  He does not want us to horde the love we receive.  He wants us to pass that love along to others.  It is a new purpose for our lives.

Dr. Chapman says that love is a key element that should be expressed to others within the Christian community.   But people who are fluent in all love languages know how to fulfill a need that is very much part of the non-Christian world.  All people long to be loved and that is a major reason they will join a church, the feeling of love and acceptance that they feel there.

What an honor it is to be an instrument of God.

Through our willingness to learn the 5 love languages, God can use us.  We can assume a new identity, the identity we are meant to have, an ACTIVE Christian bringing glory to the Lord.

It starts with effectively sending and receiving messages.  It continues with learning new languages.

It results in growth.

Don’t you want to grow?

I do.

I have close family members who don’t believe in Jesus.  In fact, they shy away from anything related to Jesus.  When I am around them, Jesus is a “taboo topic.”  Before you think Westboro Baptist Church [ the photo above ] represents all of us Christians, I am here to tell you they don’t and in my opinion, the Christians in the picture above do more damage to Christianity than good.

They just add more fuel to the fire for my family members who don’t believe in Jesus.

I suspect my family members tend to focus on the fact that Christians fall short.

We sometimes do.  We have to own that.

I teach an adult Sunday school class and I try to get the class to shy away from contemporary politics because issues today are very emotional and we often don’t have enough perspective on them to really express ourselves.  If I let my class stray away on politics, I might hear disparaging things about transgender people, the police and African-American people, poor people who live on welfare and don’t want to work etc.  You know the kinds of thoughts we all have.

Let’s just call them judgmental.

They are.

They can fall very short of the love that Jesus wants us to express.

Let’s call them self-righteous.

They are.

They can fall very short of the understanding that we need to have to really help others.

Dr. Chapman* says that religion can become a “shackle of Satan” if we are not careful.

When we act like we are better than others who need our help, all we do is place distance between ourselves and others.  None of us is perfect and we need to never forget that.   Matthew 6:14-15  “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”.

I am going to refer to a post from Joshua Elek’s blog, who shared his top reasons people hate Christians.

His opinions hurt but we may have to admit that some of his ideas are correct.  Too often they are real and too often they are probably some of the reasons I have close family members who don’t believe in Jesus.

1.Christians have strict guidelines for living and if you don’t follow their guidelines, they tell you that you will burn in hell.

2.Christians are not forgiving when non-Christians sin.  However they are often quick to forgive other Christians.

3.Christians are hypocritical.  They set the bar high yet they cannot achieve it.  It is obvious to others outside the Christian community.

4.Christians deny science.  Christians reduce all social issues down to black and white, good and bad—in short, if you don’t see things their way, you are stupid.

5.Christians hate people who disagree with them; for example homosexuals, people who advocate freedom of choice for abortion etc.

6.Christians take themselves too seriously.  They are self-absorbed and they try not to do things that the rest of the world does because they are afraid of the spiritual repercussions [which is justified].  The problem is they tell other people how they must behave.   In reality, this throws up barriers between themselves and others, especially when they point out that others are making serious mistakes [that is, going to hell].

Mr. Elek’s opinions are extreme at times.  He admits that.  However we have to admit that they are also true at times.  Anytime someone takes a broad brush and makes comments about a big group of people, they will “miss the mark” so to speak, but can you see why Dr. Chapman says that religion can become a “shackle of Satan?”

Christians can become so insulated from reality that we take our position on the throne of justice and we mete out judgments on others and those are not helpful.  What impact we can make on this world is blunted by this stance.  Instead of approaching others with love, we approach them with scorn and that is not a way to help.  That is a way to hurt.

If someone hears reports of this type of scornful behavior in the news media over and over, what happens?  They may get turned off and begin to not believe in Jesus.  If someone reads of Christian history and learns about the persecution of “heretics”, abuses by early church leaders in the quest for power, crusader wars in the name of God,  the Inquisition, American witch hunts, the southern American plantation owner’s attitude toward African-American slavery, they may get turned off and begin to not believe in Jesus.  If someone encounters “heavy-handed” Christians who have no love in their hearts and no ability to have empathy for other humans who are not like-minded, they may begin to not believe in Jesus.

Jesus did not come to earth to give us the tools to hate.  Jesus did not come to earth to give us a method to separate ourselves from others, to “disconnect.”  Jesus did not come to earth to give us a “shackle of Satan.”

He came to show us how to make the world a better place.

How will I be able to prove to my close family members that Jesus is real and He lives in me and He lives in them?  By demonstrating to them that I have what Jesus had.

An ability to love my fellow man.

*From his book  The Love Languages of God

As I began reading Chapter 10, I was struck.

Apartheid is hard to defend.  The domination of a black African population by an all-white government seems so wrong.  Domination may not be a word that is strong enough.   Maybe the best word would be repression.  Yet that is what we read about in Chapter 10. We encounter a strong man [Michael Cassity] who worked hard to get rid of this from the country of South Africa.

The sentence that struck me was this one: “There were 40 million people in South Africa who called themselves Christians, but most had little interest in applying Christianity to social structures of life.”  In other words, they were ok with repression of the black South African population.  They did not see their beliefs about Apartheid as antithetical to Christianity.

It is.

Today we do all kinds of things to twist our beliefs to fit everyday life.

I may make you mad but here is how I see a “committed Christian.”

1.They like going to church.  They actively participate in church.  If there is a Wednesday program, they attend.  If there is a potluck, they attend.  If they can help out with special projects, they help.  They are not just a 1 hour per week Christian [Sunday worship hour].  They like being around their church family.

2.They accept leadership positions in the church.  They recognize that work won’t get done without good leadership and they don’t shy away from work.

3.They read their Bibles and work to develop their faith through the church.

4.They believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ and they will share their faith with others.  They use their belief to spur themselves on to make the world a better place for all peoples.

This is how I see a “cultural Christian” [opposite of the committed Christian].

1.There is no outward sign that they are Christian.   They don’t like attending church yet they say they believe in God.  They are very accepting of anything that is happening in society today, from transgenderness to drug experimentation.   The idea is to live and let live.  It is all ok.

2.They don’t pray or read the Bible.  There is no effort to develop their faith through Bible study.

3.Jesus is not the only way to be saved.  In fact this type of Christian is likely to tell you that Hindus and Christians worship the same god and Jesus is not essential to salvation.  This is called “universality theology.”

4.It there are social ills, they are likely to ignore those.  There is an idea that “bad behavior” is not related to your beliefs.  If things need to be improved and made more consistent with Biblical principles, cultural Christians are not the ones to do that.

“Little interest in applying Christianity to social structures of life.”

What about the poor?

What about the hungry?

What about people who don’t know Christ?

What about people who are repressed?

This world is not a perfect place and it never will be.  That means there is a need for a lot of work to be done, work that will not be done by cultural Christians.  Another name for these people is CINO.  That is not a flattering term.  It refers to Christians in name only.  They like the word attached to their name but there is not much about them that means they are followers of Christ.

Later in Chapter 10, Dr. Chapman says in a paraphrase of 1 John 4:20 “How can you say that you love God whom you have not seen when you do not love your brother whom you have seen?”  Love of one another is a prerequisite for Christianity; love of one another is a requirement of Christianity.

It is a high bar, but it leads to having “interest in applying Christianity to social structures of life.”

“Committed Christians”; in my book, the best type.