Friday, December 14, 2018

Persecution

As you are reading this, the most populous country in the world is giving signals that it has begun a campaign of oppression, and repression, of philosophies, and religions, other than the one supported by the government.

Individuals, families, and churches are facing persecution, prison, and, possibly, death. This was the reaction of Rome in the days of Jesus. This has been the reaction of governments since that time.

How should God's family respond?

• Scripture says love your enemies.

We could respond with "an eye for an eye," but Jesus said to respond in a way that is the opposite. Governments persecute, and hurt. God's family should love, serve, and bless.

• You are the body of Christ.

God's family has many parts. All parts make up his family, no matter who, or how different. Disciples of Jesus in Asia are the right hand. Disciples in North America are the left hand. What happens to them does matter to us. Each of us needs to position our hearts with them.

We need to initiate an offensive of prayer. We should pray for: protection and provision, penetration of the Spirit into government officials, workers of the gospel, planting of seed, watering of the crop, and a reaping of the harvest.

• It backfired with Rome.

When persecution was the strategy of dealing with God's family for the Roman empire, when arrest, prison, and dying in the arena were tactics Rome used, it backfired. When God's family responded to persecution with peace, and joy, when God's family responded to persecution with love, and blessing, the responses proclaimed the gospel was true, and more powerful than the government, and its philosophy. People gave their allegiance to God in spite of the persecution. Satan's tools, which were intended to push people away from God, resulted in people being drawn to him.

We should pray for God's spirit to fill this boomerang effect.

Scripture says Satan will attack anyone who gives their allegiance to Jesus, and seeks to live a life of obedience.

Scripture also says we love, and honor Christ, if we live lifestyles of obedience. Almost like being attacked is an indicator of obedience, of love toward God. I sometimes wonder if God's family in the west is really being "persecuted" for acting like jerks.

God's family does need to stand for truth. the most important truth, the one we need to practice above all, is love. We cannot do the first, and forget the second. we need to promote the counter-cultural stands of God's kingdom, of which love is first.

And we need to remember our brothers and sisters, who are in need, who are suffering, by our love, definitely by our prayers, and maybe with our physical assets, or our physical labor.

Monday, December 10, 2018

Essential Good News

The last several years. I have become involved with a number of international students. The local university hosts several hundred students each year. Some come to get their under graduate degree. some come to get a graduate degree. Some are professors, who are taking advantage of a different set of resources for research.

Some of these don't connect with people of the host country. They only associate with others from their own country, language, and culture.

Other get involved with all sorts of social interaction. They get to know local people. They travel, engage in local culture, including holiday observances. (This year, I had a Thanksgiving dinner with 55 people. Only ten were American.)

And some get involved with genuine followers of Jesus. They might attend a church service. They might attend a Bible study. They might have some sort of spiritual discussion.

So, the question is this: How do you explain the gospel to someone, who has never read the Bible, never attending a Sunday service, has had no exposure to Jesus, but wonders what Christianity is all about?

Or another way to ask the question: What is the essential, most basic explanation of the gospel?

It seems to me there are two parts. The first part: believing that -- let's call it -- the Bible narrative is true.

God created the world perfect. He created people perfect. He designed the world, and the people, to be one, giant family, with himself as the ideal Father of everyone. He intended to be close to, talk to, encourage, and develop each person.

The first people grew to question God's goodness, and chose to act in a way that was apart form, and against, god. And the world broke. And people broke. And the relationship between God and man broke.

Death entered into the world, both spiritual and physical. All that was true, good, and beautiful was tied to man's connection to God. Remnants of these things remained, but they did not match what was.

But God did not give up his plan, and purpose, for the world, and mankind. He developed, and put into effect another plan to deal with the rebellion of the world, reconnect God and man, and rebuild his one, giant family.

The separation between God and men was infinite. The brokenness was total. Only someone infinite could become a bridge over the separation. Only someone all-wise, and all-powerful could put all the pieces together.

And because men were the rebels, and were broken, mankind needed to take responsibility before God.

And, as only God is infinite, all-wise, and all-powerful, only he could span the infinite separation. So, he merged the infinite with mankind, and became a man. Infinite to span the separation. A man to represent the entire, broken, rebellious race.

He chose suffering, and death, to satisfy god's justice. He chose resurrection to proclaim that the infinite separation had been bridged, death and brokenness had been healed, and he gave his eternal presence, so that a new family would be made, and a complete connection could be maintained.

The second part: to give allegiance to Father, Son and Spirit.

Allegiance is part choosing to move to a position of trust, dependence, and rest as God's child.

And it is part choosing surrender, and submission, to what God commands. God's child chooses to align him\her self with God's word, God's purposes, and God's relationship. It is loyalty of the highest order.

It involves submission, obedience, agreement, and alignment with God's word.

It is shown with the adoption of God's value, a pursuit of relationship with the Father, love and service to God's family, and all others.

Plus a realization that life, wholeness, and meaning all flow from the relationship that results from this allegiance. God's family, as expressions of love and service, seek the adoption into God's family of all those he chose to die for. Which include: friends, enemies, those in the other party, the other race, a different sexual orientation, different religions, and your every day, garden variety creep.

I sure people could come up with other ways of expressing this. Even some that have not been invented yet. There are different understandings of wrong, value, what gives meaning, and what a good life is.

In the west, people have a greater understanding of guilt, and justification. In the east, people tend to look at life through the lenses of shame, and honor. Perhaps, one reason God chose Israel, and put them where he did, was so he could give understanding of both concepts, and they could be included in his revelation.

Some people have a vivid picture of how evil they have lived. Some people (especially young children) may not recognize their imperfections as well.

Regardless of cultural understanding, or moral awareness, there is a Creator God, who designed the world to live in relationship to him. All meaning, value, and truth flow from him. All life is built to be connected, and to flow with him. And I need to recognize who he is, his position in the universe, and my relationship to him. I need to see that I may be moving with the current of his word, and purposes, or I may be moving against them. No matter which is true, I need to determine once for all (and to determine daily) to move into God's current, to move with the current, and choose to stay there. It is the first, and best, place to be.

Thursday, December 06, 2018

Performance or Identity

As I understand it, every religion in the world, past or present, bases the success, or worth, of the people following it, on their performance. The followers are successful by following a proscribed set of rules, or principles.

Every religion, but Christianity, that is. In Christianity, a follower's success, or worth, is based on what one, specific, other person did. Followers accept, receive, rely on, trust, and rest in the results of what that other person did. From one point of view, it does not matter what any person does, before or after, because it does not affect the person's success, or worth.

(1) Everything, ultimately, and completely, depends on what that one person did.

(2) There is nothing we could have done to achieve success. And if it depended on our effort to keep, or maintain, the success, or worth, achieved for us, we would have lost it on the first day.

We cannot now, nor in the future, of this life, act, speak, think, or feel, in a way that will achieve the goal, or keep the goal, of right standing with God.

This does not mean God does not care how we act, speak, think, or feel. Because he does.

As we have said in the past: God designed humanity to live a particular lifestyle. This lifestyle leads to right standing, his favor, and optimal living. God has also designed each person for a particular, unique niche in history. But the first people chose to move away form God, and that decision broke the world. The human ability to live in agreement with their design, and their unique niche, was broken.

So, how do we live? And how do we view ourselves?

On one hand, it does not matter how we live. We cannot live righteously. If we pursue following Jesus, we will be transformed. We may even grow to walk in some areas perfectly. But we will never be perfect.

Moreover, Jesus' work on the cross gives us our standing. We accept it. We rest in it. And, except in the possible case of rejecting Jesus, after we chose to give him our allegiance, our fate, and standing, are in his hands. And he is constant, and perfectly faithful.

On the other hand, it does matter how we live. God has chosen us to be his child, and part of his family. God has chosen to be with us, to listen to us, to speak to us, and to act for us. We represent him, and demonstrate who he is. All of the people, outside of God's family, learn who he is, and what he is like, by seeing how his family lives. And this "testimony" is more than just keeping the rules.

How we view ourselves in relationship to God is a more important question. Are we a servant? Or are we part of the family? Are we a pardoned wretch? Or are we a beloved son? Family is more important than the servants. A son is definitely more important than a wretch.

And what is most important is how God views us. Servant and wretch? Or family and son? Because God's view is the definition of reality. I am, your are, who God says we are. God's word is our identity.