"Christians Hate Obama"

I was recently on a plane ride, sandwiched between two lovely people, and fully expected to doze my way home (4 AM is an early wake up call for me!), when a conversation began between myself and Paul, one of my seatmates.  I am so glad I didn't sleep!  (shout out to Paul if you're out there!).

Paul is a freelance writer, and has ventured into recording peoples personal histories, so he is good at interviewing, listening and drawing people out, and he is intelligent and kind, so we had all the makings of a great conversation. 

We discussed life, culture, interviewing, San Francisco, his work, and then he asked me about my work.  I told him I was a pastor, and this is where we both began to learn more about the other.  Let me say, before I continue, that it was entirely refreshing to dialogue with Paul without the emotional heat differences of opinion usually brings.  We both walked away having gained some knowledge, perspective, new understanding of things.

What I learned from Paul:

• Paul is a liberal, a Jew, and hangs and works with the University crowd.  His only knowledge of Christians is Pat Robertson.  Seriously.  His view of Christians:  they are angry, they hate, they are illogical, greedy, etc.  Oh yeah, television preachers with large lifestyles was another frame of reference.  Media-driven frame of reference.
• "Do the people in your church hate Obama?".  This is a question he asked me.  Read it again.  Do the people in your church HATE? 
• "Why are conservatives so angry"?  
• People may have good hearts in general, yet their hearts be hard towards the gospel.  Paul's limited, if not non-existent, interaction with Christians gave him a narrow and skewed perspective that understandably hardened his heart towards the message of the gospel.  I can't say I blame him.
• Perhaps we have lost our ability to be heard mainstream because all they hear/see is anger and hate.  I know that's not where we want to come from, but can we not see the fruit we are growing on our tree?

I have a family member who recently went to a rally regarding a possible repeal of special-rights legislation for gay/lesbian couples.  She was listening to a speech that became angry in tone, and looked around wondering about the over 51% of them that were divorced (yet up in arms about protecting marriage); what percentage were caught in sexual sin; why was it so easy to angrily cast stones?  She personally may not agree with the repeal, but she did question the emotional quotient that seemed to be driving the crowd.  When had it become so easy to point the finger when our own households are not in order?

Back to Paul.  Paul and I disagree on a lot of the things we talked about.  I believe in absolutes, yet struggle with the tensions we live in.  I believe in good and evil, heaven and hell (we both thought the idea of heaven as floating in the clouds forever sounded incredibly boring.  People have the funniest ideas about heaven - if you are a Christian, learn the doctrine of heaven!).  Though we disagreed, we were able to talk and learn from each other. 

• You can't plant seed in hard ground.  It has to be softened.  Let's not be so quick to angrily throw our seed out there hoping it will penetrate.  (Consider the soil).
• Emotions get in the way of true dialogue. 
• Affirming our "rightness" shuts doors to hearing and receiving.
• People have different perspectives.  Their frames of reference are not the same.  They may have no personal experience with Christians, the Bible, faith....Using our frames of reference, our perspective and experience to convince them of something doesn't compute. 
• Be open to having conversation, to learn from others.  It will go both ways!
• You can share the gospel without quoting chapter and verse (which is outside their frame of reference).
• Don't be afraid to share your own humanity with others.  No one is perfect, and it's nice when we admit that!

Paul is in San Diego for a conference, and I hope he has a great time in our beautiful city.  I also hope our conversation continues in his heart and it does in mine.

Meditation: Fear is Overcome by Love

"Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.  If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love" 1 John 4:18 (NLT).

Sometimes we experience fear for the future, and often this is fear of failing at life.  We are on a journey to succeed with our families, our work, our vision, our health...and we are afraid that it's going to come to nothing, or worse yet, we will somehow experience a hammer blow for failing.  This fear reveals that we have room to grow in understanding God's love for us.  God loves us perfectly.  We are not perfect to earn that love.  He loves us whether we succeed or fail, so live fearlessly!  Give life all you've got, knowing that God loves you, and don't let fear sideline you.

Feeling fearful?  Remind yourself of God's love and let it transform your thinking - your emotions will follow!

Jesus Didn't Come to Fix the Church

I want to start with a thank you to all those who read my blog off my Facebook page.  I appreciate all the comments you leave me there - thank you!  :)

Matthew 9 -

Jesus has just healed a man and forgiven his sins when He encounters Matthew, a tax collector, and calls him to discipleship.  The discipleship lesson begins with sitting down and rubbing elbows with what the Amplified Bible calls the "especially wicked sinnners...the preeminently sinful".  These guys have been pegged by society and religon as most offensive, yet here is Jesus and his newby disciple eating with them.  Why?

"Those who are strong and well (healthy) have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick.  Go and learn what this means:  I desire mercy [that is, readiness to help those in trouble] and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims.  For I came not to call and invite [to repentance] the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin)."

Jesus was on a mission to save sinners from sin: to save you, me, your neighbor, and all those who acts you cannot abide.  And He was willing to associate with them, to eat with them, to be in their world (not of it) in order to accomplish His mission.  This was highly offensive to some, but Jesus was clear, "I didn't come to call the righteous".  He wasn't interested in "fixing the righteous" - they were righteous already!  He was doggedly determined to get to those who were lost.

There are two kinds of righteous people:  a) those who are righeous by the righteousness of Christ, having received and taken on His righteousness as a free gift of God's grace, and b) those who are righteous because they do the right thing.  Righteousness can be achieved both ways, but the "b" camp has a tough row to hoe as they say - Paul makes it clear in Galatians that if you are going to be righteous by your right actions, then you'd better be right ALL the time because one unrighteous act disqualifies you, nullifying your righteousness.  Ummm, I choose "a".  Nevertheless, if you can pull it off, you are righteous.  And Jesus is happy about us being righteous.  So His attention focuses on those who aren't righteous and how He can bring them into relationship with the Father (Mission).

Now we have to ask ourselves:  Where is our focus?  On "fixing the righteous", or on "reaching the unrighteous"? 

Calling the righteous to repentance falls under the catetory of "biting and devouring each other" (Gal. 5:15), and judging and condemning each other (Matthew 7).  It brings destruction to the "fellowship" (Gal. 5:15) and the lost are ignored. 

But saved and called out ones, if we are living on Mission, our challenge is to not get caught up in the wrong focus.  Let's focus our gaze to see and reach those who need Christ.  The righteous are righteous already (or are trying to be). 

Let's see the lost, the broken, the hurt and the dying
Let's love them, have compassion on them
Let's be merciful to those lost in sin
Let's bring Jesus to their table/home/office/

Let's begin choosing to live on Mission

I am challenged as I know you are, and as I pray for me, I'll pray for you - on Mission together,
Michelle


Question:  I wonder if Mathew's "first love" that he would be called upon to remember was that of sitting with and reaching sinners - that as Jesus reached him, he would reach others?

How Do We Accomplish Mission?

We learn from the Mission Master.

Jesus, (who was conceived, lived, died and rose on mission to save His people from their sins), He is the Mission Master.  As He lived out Mission in everyday life, He shared these words with us:

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many."  Mark 10:45

The success of Mission hinged upon this strategy:  giving for and serving others.  He paid a personal price for the sake of others, to the point of death.  What price am I willing to pay?

I envision a church, a people, who live on Mission in such a way.  A people who lift up and launch people upward and onward in God, not seeking to Lord over them, not seeking to be "in charge", but instead coming under people and serving them as they journey into relationship with Christ.

In order for this to happen, we have to get real.  Is there a price we aren't willing to pay?  Is our comfort, time, money or resources something we aren't willing to part with?  If so, a change of mindset is necessary.  Disciples not only believe in sowing and reaping, they practice it.  Followers will only follow until the price is too high, but disciples don't waver.  Disciples know that sowing comfort, time, money and resources into the Kingdom of God, into His Mission to save His people, will always reap a good reward.  Sowing and reaping is not just a nice principle, it is Kingdom truth.

Accomplishing Mission gets personal.  It costs us personally.  We can no longer be satisfied with sitting in our church seats, content that the "professionals" are taking care of business.  We must reject self-seeking motivations of giving or serving in order to prop up our own sense of value, identity, or position.   Instead, as disciples of Christ, are we willing to empty ourselves, to sow from our personal lives?  For the benefit of others.

What greater cause is there but to see the greatest mandate on earth be accomplished?  What is greater than meeting the deepest desire of our Father's heart - that His people be saved?  Nothing I know of.

It is time to SEE our City, to see the people again.
On Mission with Jesus.