The Faith of Friends

Recently, I was reading the story in Mark 2:1-12 where Jesus heals a paralytic.

  Many of you reading this I am sure are familiar with this story. 

  "And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them" (Mark 2:1-2 ESV).

  Jesus was preaching to a packed house (literally).  No one could get in it was so jammed.  Yet there was a crew of men who had a friend who was paralyzed.   They desperately sought out Jesus because they truly believed he was the answer to the healing of this man.  They sought to have their friend walk.  The couldn't get in the door.  The windows were probably too small are packed with people. They had to think quick and act fast.  In those days, many of the houses had stairs to the roof, so they decided to go up to the roof, cut a hole and lower their friend right in front of Jesus, hoping against hope that Jesus would take pity on the man and heal him.

 First, let's note the dedication of the friends in this story.  These men were determined, nothing was going to get in their way of going hard after Jesus.  Nothing, not even a crowd was going to slow them down from getting to Jesus.

  Who knows how long their friend was paralyzed.  Who knows if they were there when it happened to him.  My guess is they were best friends before the accident that caused the paralysis.  They knew this man from his former life and loved him. 

  No matter the story, these men were determined to bring him to Jesus and they did just that.  Now, here is the part that blows my mind:

"And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."'(Mark 2:5 ESV)

  That little sentenced caused me much time to pause.  Jesus seeing their faith forgave the man's sins.  Normally it comes down to the faith of the person forgiven in the other stories of this nature, yet the faith of the friends was what Jesus saw and their faith in Him caused Him to forgive the paralytic!

  Think of the implications! The faith of the friends moved Jesus to action! They knew Jesus could heal his infirmity, but this, this is so much more!  Does this mean that our faith on the behalf of others can move Jesus to action on their behalf?  I think so!

  This Sunday in the Chapel service at ACAC (my church) I was leading.  During this service, we allow for a testimony time and one older lady raised her hand to share.  She said that for 27 years she prayed for her husband to receive Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and after 27 years he accepted Christ and shortly after he passed away.

  I believe her faith moved Jesus to action.  She was willing to lose sleep over it.  She was willing to pray until her heart ached.  She prayed through year after year of no answer.  Yet Jesus said to her husband after 27 years:  "your sins are forgiven".  He in that story had to choose that forgiveness, he had to ask for it for himself, but Jesus was working on him for 27 years.

  As friends of non-believers, our faith can move God.  Our prayers can help people come to know Him.  Most of the time, I pray for myself, I think of myself and I try to get healing for myself.  What if I was like the friends in this true life story?  What if  I fought through crowds and was creative enough to lower them before Jesus in any way possible?

  The faith of friends is powerful.  Jesus honored their faith.  He not only forgave sins (BIG Miracle) he healed the paralysis (small miracle)!

  Let us not lose heart for eternal or temporal healing for those we love!

Mourning Osama

  Today, the world has found out that Osama Bin Laden is dead.

America is taking credit for his death.

Americans, Christian and non are rejoicing in his death and glad that this man has passed away.

  I am not so quick to rejoice.  #1, I am skeptical that it was actually him that died and #2 if it was him that died, what is there to be happy about?  A man who did not know Christ died.  In my worldview, this means that Osama Bin Laden is now in Hell.  This does not bring me happiness, nor does it bring me comfort.

  Some would question my patriotism.  Some would say I am weak.  Others would wonder why I am being so "religious" about a "political" issue.  I don't care what you think. 

  I am sad that a man who had extreme potential to be fervent for the right thing, had become so painfully blinded by the wrong thing and gave his life for a lie.  As followers of Jesus, who claim to love Jesus should this not burden our hearts?  As people, even Christians are dancing on the grave of an eternally condemned man, does that not bring pain to your heart?  Does the word "lost" mean nothing any more?  Or are we happy and rejoicing that we have found "vengeance"?

  I am not for what Osama did in life.  I knew people who had family members die on 9-11, so I am not even numb to the realities of the devastation this man caused in life.  On that day, many died who did not know Christ and they too suffer the same fate as Osama.

  We can get into a Rob Bell-esque discussion of why would God allow Hell, but this is not the time or place.  I believe the Bible and I trust what Jesus says about Hell and it is that trust that makes me sad for Osama. 

  Have we been praying for his conversion or his death?  Have we stopped to think of the implications of a man such as that sold out to the cause of Christ?  A man who inherits millions and his sole desire is to serve his god in the way he knows how...could you imagine if he were sold out to Christ?  The implications are far reaching.  Yet most of us slip into what we "deserve" and we rejoice at the death of a fellow man.

  I am wrestling with this.  We fight for this type of justice and we rejoice when we receive the justice we've been begging for.  The odd thing is, we are all just as bad as Osama Bin Laden.  Left to ourselves we could all be radical murderers, couldn't we?  We say in church we all deserve death for our sins, but we wouldn't want that justice, would we?  God has extended great mercy and grace to us, shouldn't we do the same?

  Just think with me for one second.  What if, instead of cheering at the death of Osama, we held a National vigil of mourning for him.

  Crazy, I know.  However, what would that say to the world about Jesus?  I think it would shock many and cause them to see Jesus as he is, merciful and loving.  Do you think it would help change the way in which people see American Christians?  I think for sure it would.

  Sadly, this won't happen.   Too many of us are selfish and want to rejoice in his death, without feeling guilty.  We want to relish the victory we as Americans have so long strived for: Osama dead.  If we think this death is going to stem the rising tide of terror, we are foolish.  Osama's story will only spur on more zealots like him and his death will drive them to the top to get known as Osama was.

  I know I am going to get blasted for this post, but like I said before, I don't care.  I care about the lost.  I care about people coming to know Jesus and no death, no matter who it is, is worth rejoicing over unless they knew Jesus and Jesus knew them.

  Let us change the way we in the Western world see the world and ask Christ for his eyes, so we can see as he does.  Today, I believe he mourns yet another death of an eternally condemned man.

Lone Warrior

Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead. (2 Samuel 23:9-10)

This is an incredible story that is just plugged right into the Bible. Picture the scene: The battle lines are drawn at Pas Dammim (which means "the Border of Blood"), which is the border between Israel's land and the land of the Philistines. These are two nasty rivals, peoples who've hated each other for centuries. This very border is the scene of massacre after massacre. There has never been a winning battle for either side decided on this border. It is home to many a death for Israeli and Philistine alike.

The Israelites are taunting the Philistines from across the border. The three mighty men and David taunting the loudest. As hardened warriors, the Philistines are not about to let the Israelites insult them, nor their woman and definitely not their mothers. So they taunt back, and begin the war cry. The Israelites being their war cry, banging their shields with their swords all while screaming across the line at the Philistines. The Philistines of course answer back with their own shouts and sword banging. The noise is deafening, the battle coming is almost palpable. You can sense the tension rising. Eleazar especially feels his adrenaline pumping. He is ready to kill many man in the name of the Lord. No one will taunt his God, the God of Israel, his righteous anger begins to boil over. The hot red flashes of blood lust over take his senses. He can only see red.

King David shouts the call to rush the field, Eleazar leading the pack, in a Holy rage against the Philistine army. The Spirit of the Living God descends upon Eleazar and consumes the man whole.

The Israelite army begins to cower before the Philistine army. Sudden dread overtakes them. The ranks become confused, the men begin to fall back even King David retreats, but not Eleazar. The Spirit has taken him into the middle of the Philistine ranks alone. He pushes toward the center, men falling dead by his swords mighty blows. No foe can stand against him. One after another men die at Eleazar's bloody sandals. The Lord has overtaken him and his sword arm no longer is his own, it is the judgement of God which he is now dishing out. Not a single Philistine can stand his ground against such a foe. They begin to cower back, soon they are running away from this blood-thirsty sword which never seems to slake its thirst.

Shortly after they begin to run, they all seem to retreat. The horn sounds and all of them run away. The run in fear from Eleazar, one man with a bloody sword. Soon Eleazar comes to his senses and realizes all are gone. He looks down at his feet and there is a pile of dead bodies surrounding him. He looks at his bloody sword and puts it into its sheath. He attempts to loose his hand from the hilt but finds he can't. This soldier of the Most High finds that he's been at battle so long and so hard that his hand is now frozen to the hilt of his bloody sword.

Eleazar points the tip of his sword heavenward and praises God for this victory : "The Lord has brought about a great victory this day" he says.

The rest of the Israelite army is stunned at the power of God, that was wielded by this one man. They stay staring at the border of blood, dumbstruck. They see their mighty friend go to his knees and they rush the field to strip the dead bodies of their possessions.

This story blows my mind! I pray for the courage to be like Eleazar, I want it said of me that I went into battle and fought so hard and so long that my sword froze to my hand. You know, the Word is also called the Sword and I spoke this over a young man today, but I also own it as a word for me. The sword in this story represents the Word of God (for this young man and for me), and God is asking me to be so tenacious with the Word of God that it sticks to my hand after battle. That I will use God's Word to SLAY the enemy, taking the battle to the BORDER of His strong hold and making it a Pas-Dammim ( a border of BLOOD). God's word can slay Satan. It will slay him up, down, left right and center. The Word of God cuts the throat of the enemy. I've been like the other Israelites: tough enough to taunt him, but too cowardly to get into battle. I want the blood lust of the Spirit to come on me so I can be used by God to bring about a great victory. I don't want this for the glory of Marvin, just like Eleazar didn't want it for the Glory of Eleazar (nor do I believe this other young man wants the glory for himself), but I (we) want the Glory to go to God!

Cultural Christianity Vs. Authentic Christianity

Definitions:
Cultural Christianity: a moralistic, behavioral set of ethics that are put upon "followers of Christ" to determine whether or not they are good people that are going to heaven. More emphasis on how you look, and act than anything else

Authentic Christianity: a relational, heart-drawn call to God, His Son Jesus Christ and a willingness to be lead by the Holy Spirit. A competent understanding of your own sinfulness and a desire to change your heart above all else.

For years I have struggled with these two types of Christianity. When I was growing up, most of the people in my churches were cultural Christians, worrying themselves about how they appeared to be following Christ, rather than actually working on their hearts before the Almighty God Himself. This then trained me to do the very same thing. Not only did I succeed at doing so but I was a champion at pointing out others short-comings when it came to their appearance of following Christ. Cultural Christianity is simply a play with good characters and bad characters. A Ruse to get people to think that they are following the right path. You end up believing certain lies like: You can only be Republican if you're a Christian; Christians never get mad; Christians never fail and if you fail, keep it quiet so no one finds out; and most importantly is make sure you are "on your best behavior" at church.
When I got to college, my whole sphere of my beliefs came CRASHING down upon my head. I saw the utter flaws within my relationship to Christ, my own sin that I thought was ambition but was pride. I saw my black heart even though I thought it was as white as snow. I saw how often my finger was raised in accusation rather than admittance of my own wrong-doing. God used my college days to utterly transform how I perceived, loved and knew God. This is by no means a blog to say "how far I've come", yet a simple confession of my own personal past and present misconceptions of my Faith.
What I began to grapple with, was that to really wrestle with God was not to see all the sin in the world, but all the sin within myself. It meant that I needed to go to the mattresses with the Lord, baring my sins open to Him and trying to feebly keep some sins I enjoyed for myself. God has since been calling my junk to the forefront and will continue to do so. This has humbled me when it came to my finger pointing...mind you, I still pridefully do this but I trust I am getting better. I realized that I am just as rotten and disgusting as everyone else, I simply have a Savior that decided to graciously cover my sins because I asked Him. Without the covering of Jesus I am no better than the worst sinner whoever lived. I have within me the capacity to sin with limitless sinfulness. This understanding and the understanding that Christ has graciously given Himself for me has been a HUGE transforming truth for me.
This understanding is what I have called Authentic Christianity. No longer and I working on myself for a crowd, but giving myself over to the Lord for Him to point out the junk in me and asking Him to graciously help me pluck it out of my heart and life.
I'll be the first to admit that I live a culturally Christian life more and less of an authentic Christian life than I should. Yet I believe that if we all would grab onto this heart-changing, rather than outside changing Christian Faith, allowing Christ to purge us from within...the World will soon stand and take notice. It has nothing to do with being "culturally relevant" and all to do with how the God wants a relationship with us!

(For other post about this, check these out: Cleaning your Cups, Galatians Sermon, Authenticity)

What's so BIG about Authenticity? Pt. 4

One thing I've noticed about teenagers is that they can spot a "fake" person from a mile away. It's as if they have radar to sniff out a person posing. In the Church, this "fake" person motif is all to familiar. We say things like: "I'll pray for you brother" (and don't do it nor mean it). We see people acting different than they do at church in their homes, their jobs, and their schools. And I tell you that this fake face has become a negative pungent stench in the nostrils of today's youth. I will continuously quote UnChristian due to it's prophetic nature into today's youth and in this book, they've found that 85% of people 16-29 find the church as a whole (meaning us Christians) to be hypocritical! (By the way, I agree)
Being authentic is NOT being hypocritical. 1 John 1:5-10 says: "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives".
In bold is the call to Authenticity. We need to confess our sins, this is WALKING in the Light! We admit out junk. This means, we're honest, we're open, we're vulnerable. This type of authentic community brings fellowship with both God and men (read the italicized portion)! Also, this type of authenticity is attractive to the world, they need a place to admit their junk! The World NEEDS the church to be a place that says: "Oh, you're messed up? You're a sinner? All of us are too! We've messed up (and still do sometimes) but let us show you the LOVE of Christ, and give you the KEY to life!" A place that is willing to LOVE, take in sinners, be real with them and show the Christ (the Light) is a place that will be BOOMING with non-Christians!
Non-Christians (especially 16-29 year olds) FEAR going into a church because they will feel like everyone hates them, they will feel as if they are un-welcome because of their problems. They will feel isolated because they would be made to feel that they are the only person there with issues! Yet, if we could create an AUTHENTIC place where they will no longer feel this way, we could see this generation (and the next) come to Christ like NO OTHER generation in history!

In my next segments on authenticity, I will show how it does COST us to create this type of atmosphere, I will share more from 1 John about what this Authenticity creates and lastly, I will show how this type of Authentic living brings about the HEALING that God desires for us! Stay Tuned and PLEASE let me know your thoughts!