the world

Gospel Gone Viral

Frank

Saint Francis of Assisi is believed to have said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.” Whether or not he actually said it, it remains a good point. Call it lifestyle evangelism if you will, but the life of a disciple of Jesus should look different from the rest of the world and that difference should be attractive. I’m not saying that God owes the Christian any special blessing, but we are promised a “peace that surpasses understanding” (Philippians 4:7) as we are called to live a life separate from the world.

Sometimes we see the fruit of living out the Gospel in our lives as family members become Christians or as a coworker or friend reaches out for Jesus in a time of need. (Sadly, the converse is also true- it is possible for our lives to actually make the Gospel unattractive) Other times the seeds are planted, but fruit won’t been seen in our lifetimes. And then there is the rare time when one’s lifestyle makes such an impact that it literally makes headlines and goes viral.

This post comes a couple of weeks late, but there were some headlines that caught my attention (and much of the world’s) that hit right around the same time.

First (ranked because of the number of YouTube views) is the story of Robbie Novak, also known as Kid President. This 8 year-old hit it big with his ‘Pep Talk’ video (not cool, Robert Frost!), a light-hearted call for hope against the cynicism of the world that has been viewed just over 11 million times (as of this posting). While his videos may not explicitly contain the Gospel message, his roots appear to be planted in good soil as the videos are the brainchild of his brother-in-law who is the social media director for Freed-Hardeman University.

Next, ranked by level of social uproar, is Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A. You might remember not too long ago when he was asked (by a Baptist publication, it is important to note) about his support of traditional marriage. Although his company’s charitable contributions to “pro-family” groups was not a secret and he was asked the question by a religious publication, his answer created a firestorm in the LGBTQ community nonetheless. Soon after, prominent mayors would say that his company would not be welcome in their communities, protests would begin, and of course counter-protests would organize in support. At first glance you might think Cathy was living out the Gospel by standing up for what he believes in both in his personal life and professionally. But it is what he’s done away from the spotlight that I want to highlight.

If you follow college football you know there’s a postseason bowl game sponsored by just about every product under the sun; Chick-Fil-A is no exception. Dan Cathy’s guest of honor for the game his company sponsored was Shane Windmeyer, director of the LGBT group Campus Pride. Shrewd political move? According to Windmeyer, Dan Cathy actually reached out to him to reconcile and through several conversations the two become friends. Cathy wanted to hear the other side of the debate at a personal level and hoped that they could reach the point to agree to disagree. If this act surprises you, or even possibly offends you, we need to remember that Jesus was routinely criticized by the religious elite for hanging out with sinners.

In a similar vein is the story of the defection of Megan Phelps-Roper from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church which is led by her grandfather, Fred Phelps; you might have heard of him. Jeff Chu got the scoop on the story as he encountered Megan at his congregation, Old First Reformed Church in New York. Jeff, it is important to note, like Windmeyer is gay. What is curious, and not addressed in his article, is why she went to a gay-friendly congregation in Brooklyn, a thousand miles (physically and spiritually) from her home church in Kansas. Jeff, it turns out, knew Megan from spending time with her as he was writing his book, Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America. Despite your opinion on his sexuality, his life (not limited to his lifestyle) must have made enough of an impact that one of Megan’s first church services away from everything she grew up believing was at this congregation. Regardless of your convictions regarding homosexuality, I strongly encourage you to read this story. Hers is a terrific example of God’s word convicting in spite of religion.

Finally, as a bookend with Kid President, are the stars of A&E’s hit show ‘Duck Dynasty’. To be honest, I’ve only watched this once to see what all the hype was about. I wasn’t really a fan, only because those types of shows don’t typically appeal to me. But I am a fan of the Robertson’s lifestyle and family as it is portrayed in the show. They are unashamedly Christian, shown gathering at the end of every show for a family meal which begins with a prayer of thanksgiving (and although the standard line “in Jesus’ name, Amen” is typically edited out, it was included in their season finale in November). Brandon Hooks, a fan of the show, did a Google search on the Robinsons and found this testimony by Willie Robertson, speaking at Harding University. Hooks made the decision to follow Jesus and his wife arranged for him to be baptized by the family. While this could be written off as a case of celebrity worship, it is important to point out that his wife is a Christian and they have been attending church together as long as they’ve been married- since 2007. It wasn’t until he saw Duck Dynasty and heard Willie’s testimony that the Gospel began to move in his heart which just goes to show you never know how, when, or by whom the Gospel will impact another.

You and I are unlikely to become stars in a reality TV show or get a million hits on YouTube. But you never know who is watching how we live- children, enemies, the hyper-religious, or the unbeliever. And sometimes, our lives preach the Gospel louder than words ever could.

Uninviting

Frank

Have you ever uninvited someone to church? No, I don’t mean you called someone up and actually asked them not to come. But rather have you ever acted in such a way that made your life, your church, your Jesus uninviting?

One of the emotional heart-strings to pull when it comes to evangelism is to imagine standing in line like sheep and goats waiting before the judgement seat of Christ. You are there alongside neighbors, coworkers and friends. And they, in tears, ask you, “why didn’t you tell us? Now it is too late!”

Ideally our lives should stand out in such a way that is both attractive, bearing the fruits of the Spirit, while at the same time foolish by the world’s standards. But it is just as likely that the way we conduct ourselves in public is unattractive- that even if we would have “told them” they would probably reject the invitation.

How well to manage your temper? When you are stuck in traffic or when someone cuts you off, how do you respond? The person in the car next to or behind you might just be the next person you are reaching out to.

Are you patient? When you are in line at the grocery store are you agitated, anxiously checking your watch while grumbling under your breath? If you shop at the same store frequently, and most of us have our routines, then the person behind you in line has seen you before and your actions and attitudes leave an impression.

How do you conduct yourself at work? Do you participate in workplace gossip, laugh at inappropriate jokes, talk down about rivals or competitors? Face it, you spend more time at work than you do anywhere else.

What does your family look like in public? Are your children always fighting, are you always yelling, or are you spoiling them by giving them everything they are asking for? Do you talk back at your spouse, argue in public? Again, people notice.

What do your Facebook posts say about you? Do they reflect worldly values, are they caught up in political debates, are they boastful? What is the reason you post what you do on social media, to glorify God or yourself?

We can have non-stop evangelism programs, discipleship workshops and outreach campaigns. We can knock on doors until our knuckles are bloody. We can stand on street corners loudly proclaiming the Gospel. But if our lives don’t show it, we might as well just asking others not to come.

Dislocated

Frank

Even though I grew up in ski country, I have only been skiing once. Not only was I not very good, but during one of my many falls I dislocated my thumb. That may not sound like a big deal but it still affects me from time to time nearly twenty years later. When I played summer-league softball in college, every hit shot pain up through my arm as the impact of ball on bat pushed back just enough on the joint of my thumb. While playing a game of pickup basketball after I graduated, I went to the ground after a loose ball and couldn’t put weight on my hand to push myself back up. These days when I do yard work, I have to take breaks from shoveling or hacking away at wood because that tender area between my thumb and my hand hurts just too much.

That thought stuck in my mind as I read chapter VIII of A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, “Restoring the Creator-creature Relation”. Right at the beginning of the chapter Tozer writes, “the cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, and upset in our relation to God and to each other.” (pg 70) Dislocation. The word made it so clear, so obvious. And subconsciously caused my thumb to ache.

God designed the perfect relationship: tending to the Garden of Eden together with his creation. But ever since The Fall, mankind has been dislocated from that perfect alignment. Just as my thumb hurts when conditions are just right, discomforts in this world remind us of our fallen state. The common question is why does God allow bad things to happen? The answer, based on this observation, is to remind us of our condition.

I can put my hand in a brace, isolate it from movement, take pain killers to dull aches and pains, or even just keep my hand in my pocket and never take it out, but none of those things change the fact that it is forever injured. In the same way we can dress ourselves up with religion, practice all the spiritual disciplines, lock ourselves away in a monastery to guard us from the world, but those are just physical means to medicate a spiritual injury. So long as we are in this world, our flesh will oppose a right relationship with God. So long as we are exposed to this world and its ideals, our mind cannot fully comprehend our position with God. But our hearts, guided by the Holy Spirit by the grace of Jesus Christ can desire to be adjoined with our Creator. And that is enough to bring comfort to our terminal injury.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Catching Squirrels

Frank

(Apologies for the late post. I wrote this on the plane yesterday but was more jet-lagged than usual last night and I’m just now waking back up)

How do you catch a squirrel? They say if you hide a nut behind a small hole the squirrel will reach in for the nut and get stuck. Its closed fist will be too large to pull back through the hole, but the squirrel is not smart enough to let go of the nut to get free.

We are a lot like that squirrel, and the world has figured out how to trap us. How easy is it to reach in to grab things, unwilling to let go for our own good? It starts young- right after learning dada and mama, the next words out of a young child’s mouth is usually mine or more. We put on diapers with popular cartoon characters, is if it makes any difference to the kid. And then the toys come- every birthday, every Christmas, and every excuse in between- Easter, Valentine’s Day, even a natural part of development like losing a tooth is followed by a visit from the tooth fairy, bringing money.

We are raised to want more and more. And it isn’t limited to children’s toys. The iPhone 4 isn’t good enough, you need the iPhone 5. Never mind that your old TV was a 36 standard-def, you need that 60 inch high-def plasma. Got in on the ground floor of HDTV? Upgrade your 720p to 3D. Meanwhile I type this on my iPad after reading the second chapter of A.W. Tozer’s Pursuit of God via my Kindle App.

I have a lot. If you’re reading this on a computer screen or a portable device, you have a lot too. So the hard question we need to ask ourselves, is if our hands are stuck in the hole? Recently my wife and I were looking at ways to trim our budget. I wrestled with the thought of giving up my iPhone and XM radio. I just couldn’t do it. Why? What am I going to miss out on? We’ve already had to implement a no-phone rule at dinner. I probably wouldn’t be losing anything, rather gaining otherwise wasted time.

Tozer writes, “Things have become necessary for us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.” (pg 18) He them goes on to remind us of the example of Abraham, who was asked by God to sacrifice- put to death- that what meant the most, his son Isaac. Instead of protesting, asking how he could live without, he obeyed. God spared his son and blessed Abraham for learning this hard lesson. Tozer continues, “the words “my” and “mine” never again had the same meaning to Abraham.” (pg 21)

“Mine” still means something to me. It’s amazing how much I can hold in one hand while it is so hard to pull it from the trap.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Point Of View

Frank

This picture was a hit on the interwebs last week. Follow the link to the original and instructions on how the picture was made.

Step away from your computer, what do you see? But come closer and the image changes. Yet again, what do you see?

Even though the image in your mind is different, in both cases you see the same thing- a face. It is only as your point of view changes that the image changes.

When I saw Peter pick the topic of “secular” for his blog carnival I was stumped. But then my wife found a picture on Pintrest that uses one of the Urban Dictionary’s definitions of Christianity:

The belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree…

Yeah, Christianity makes perfect sense.

And I remembered the picture above. (Yes, my brain works in odd ways. I’m having that checked) But the point that stood out to me was that the “definition” above is only one point of view. Secular it may be, but is it really that far off?

Before you scream “blasphemy!” consider- your perspective and my perspective are different. If we were to each give a description of Jesus, chances are we would say different things. You say loving, I say faithful. You say merciful, I say bold. We could go on and on. Francis Chan makes that point in Crazy Love with respect to God- that if every person in the world used a different word to describe God, we would run out of people before we ran out of words. Your experience with Jesus is different from mine. Different still from the secularist. Yet like in the picture above aren’t we all seeing the same thing, Jesus?

So the Urban Dictionary description makes Christianity sound crazy. But isn’t it, really? Has Christianity in our day and age become so “normal” that we forget just how crazy it is to give up everything and follow a Jewish zombie that told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood to atone for some internal demon that we all have just because some naked chick in a garden ate the fruit of a magical tree because a snake told her to? I’m not offended by this. My faith in Christ is crazy, I am ready to admit. But that’s just my perspective.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. This week’s topic is “secular“. Be sure to click the link to check out other posts and other perspectives.

Super Perspective

Frank

Reading up on the news in Egypt (and please keep everyone there in your prayers!), one figure stood out to me: 40% of Egyptians make less than $2 a day. Puts my salary in perspective. But it puts this weekend’s gluttony, aka the Super Bowl in perspective as well.

Consider:

  • A 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl will cost $3,000,000.
  • A ticket on the 50-yard line, lower level, costs almost $16,000
  • 106.5 million people watched the Super Bowl last year on CBS.
  • 8 million pounds of popcorn will be consumed, 28 million pounds of chips, 53.5 million pounds of avocados for guacamole requiring a total of 222,792 football fields worth of farmland to grow.
  • 325.5 million gallons of beer will be drank which would fill 493 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Meanwhile:

  • $3,000,000 would provide hospice care for those dying of HIV/AIDS over four years in Uganda, or vaccinate 3 million children for measles across Africa, or provide mosquito nets, better access to medications, and free HIV/AIDS testing in Rwanda. (That’s only three ads right there)
  • 75% of the world makes less than the cost of that football ticket… in ten years. (according to the Global Rich List)
  • Up to 10,000 adult and underage girls are expected to be sex-trafficked to Dallas-Fort Worth this week
  • 223,000 acres of corn would feed 25,000 people for a year (according to rough calculations from this site).
  • 325.5 million gallons would give enough potable water to 616 million people for a day, or enough for 1.7 million people for a year. (This is only a dent, though, as 1 billion people are without drinkable water)

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d] is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

Season of Reason

Frank

I get a kick out of these ads from Acura. I like the play on words. We can all relate to the examples of ridiculous traditions in these ads: gifts, lights on the house, gourmet chestnut roasters (ok, maybe not that one). So we are offered an alternative tradition- the new car wrapped in a bow in the driveway on Christmas morning. I’m sure there are some people out there who actually get a brand new car for Christmas. There must be to justify these ads every year. Most of us though would be lucky to get a brand new bike.

But “season of reason”? What’s reasonable about a new car for Christmas? I heard an ad on the radio the other day to lease a Mercedes Benz. Only $3800 down and $639/month for two years. Merry Christmas, honey! I just signed us up to have over $600 withdrawn from our account every month! Aren’t you happy? Oh sure, we get a shiny new Mercedes to drive around too that we have to give it back in two years. But only $600! What a bargain!

I wonder how many people go into significant debt just this season just for the sake of buying presents? I can relate. Since I’ve been married, Christmas has always been a checkbook killer. Sure we try and budget a certain amount for gifts, but we always seem to go over. Then we add holiday travel to our balance and after a few years we were surprised to find ourselves tens of thousands of dollars in debt. And we haven’t even been married that long! (insert shameless plug for Dave Ramsey… but don’t want to get off-point)

Here we are to celebrate the birth of our savior, Jesus, the perfect gift from God. And the world encourages us to put ourselves in debt for the sake of things this holiday season. A gift that keeps giving, celebrated by people buying gifts that keep taking. Ironic? Maybe. Reasonable? Certainly not.

If you’re like me and have a lot of last-minute shopping still to do, think about the gift we’ve been given in Christ. Think about how simple, how humble, how full of grace that gift was and continues to be. Then look at your shopping list and ask yourself if the gifts you’re giving are as simple and humble. Are they given in grace, with no expectation for any return, or are they given simply because they’re what the world tells us is the latest, coolest thing that we continue to pay interest on for the rest of our lives?

‘Tis the season for reason.

R12:Do you know when you look most like Jesus?

Frank

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” (Romans 12:14) Yesterday we defined “blessing” as desiring God’s best for someone. When it comes to those who have hurt us, we cannot have that desire without first making a decision to forgive. That, by itself, does not fully cleanse our hearts of bitterness, but it begins the process. You may still have negative feelings and attitudes, you are allowed to still hurt, but you decide not to let those feelings rule over you.

So you’ve decided to forgive and you’re begrudgingly desiring God’s best for this person (by the way, the best way to get to this point is through prayer, prayer, and more prayer), now what? Romans 12 continues, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” (v 15-16) I’ve always taken these verses as a stand-alone description of our relationships in general, but in context they are commands on how to relate to those who have hurt us.

It’s one thing to half-heartedly pray for God’s blessings in someone’s life. It an entirely different attitude to genuinely be happy when those blessings come to fruition. This continues the “scrubbing” process in our souls. Of course this is hard and is likely impossible without the Holy Spirit intervening on our behalf, but we are still commanded to have this attitude.

You’ve likely been here before: you are passed over for a promotion by someone you do not like; there is a promotion party that everyone is invited to; you don’t go. Romans 12:15 commands us to go, put a smile on our face, and sincerely wish the best for this person. How much easier is it to stay behind in your cubicle and allow your hurt to stew.

Chip Ingram gives other examples in his book that better describe this not from an individual disciple perspective, but from the perspective of the corporate church as a whole. Think of the reputation Christians, or rather our churches, have: judgemental, only wanting our money, corrupt and/or filled with cronyism, full of double-standards, hypocritical, lacking grace, and so on, and so on. Think about the real-life spiritual warfare that is going on outside our churches walls: homosexuality, single parenthood, teenage pregnancy, addiction, and poverty. Are rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who are mourning in these circumstances? More, are you “willing to associate with” these people? If not, your attitude is not “the same as that of Christ Jesus, who” lived his life among the tax collectors and prostitutes and forgave the very ones who beat, insulted, and ultimately killed him. “By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

Bringing this back home, where if you haven’t faced this situation yet, you will someday: My family is presently suffering the inevitable loss of the family matriarch. On Sunday family from all over came to her house to pay their last respects, share memories and tears, and try to have closure. But beneath the surface ran a current of resentment, competitiveness, and pride. Behind every “how are you doing?” was an unspoken “you don’t deserve your share of the inheritance.” Behind every “I’m glad you were here for her” was the question, “why didn’t you ever call?” I’ve been through this before, and I’ll likely go through it again. It is sad that we let petty grievances prevent us from “mourning with those who mourn.” But this is a real battle in a real situation.

Regardless of any attitude or feeling, when we, as disciples of Christ, enter into those circumstances, we must obey Paul’s command. If we do, we show the real Jesus to those who may not know him or don’t know him well enough. And “all men will know…” to the Glory of the Father.

Think: What in this [post] spoke to you?
Reflect: What aspect of this teaching from Romans 12 was hardest for you to accept? Why?
Understand: What would it look like in your situation to rejoice (or weep) with the very one who treated you wrongly?
Surrender: Ask God to show you how he wants you to apply this truth in your life in view of your specific circumstances.
Take Action: Choose from the list of actions on events on pages 234 and 235 and bless you enemies this week. [These are life-events such as marriage, the birth of a baby, the recovery from an illness, etc on the rejoicing side, and death, illness, troubles at home, etc on the mourning side of Romans 12:15]
Motivation: Download the audio message How to Overcome the Evil Aimed at You at r12 online [click the r12 button to the right, select the Supernaturally tab and find this message under Free Resources]
Encourage Someone: Think of someone who has been betrayed or wounded and share r12 with them like [was done with Chip in the book].

Today continues our “virtual small group” covering the book Living On The Edge. For how this group is going to work, read this entry. For an introduction with disclaimers, click here. For some numbers from Barna to motivate you to continue reading, go here. For the R12 videos, click the R12 button on the sidebar to the right. Finally, as we move forward through the book you can always catch up by clicking the R12 label at the end of each post.

R12:Do you know when you look most like Jesus?

Frank

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” (Romans 12:14) Yesterday we defined “blessing” as desiring God’s best for someone. When it comes to those who have hurt us, we cannot have that desire without first making a decision to forgive. That, by itself, does not fully cleanse our hearts of bitterness, but it begins the process. You may still have negative feelings and attitudes, you are allowed to still hurt, but you decide not to let those feelings rule over you.

So you’ve decided to forgive and you’re begrudgingly desiring God’s best for this person (by the way, the best way to get to this point is through prayer, prayer, and more prayer), now what? Romans 12 continues, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” (v 15-16) I’ve always taken these verses as a stand-alone description of our relationships in general, but in context they are commands on how to relate to those who have hurt us.

It’s one thing to half-heartedly pray for God’s blessings in someone’s life. It an entirely different attitude to genuinely be happy when those blessings come to fruition. This continues the “scrubbing” process in our souls. Of course this is hard and is likely impossible without the Holy Spirit intervening on our behalf, but we are still commanded to have this attitude.

You’ve likely been here before: you are passed over for a promotion by someone you do not like; there is a promotion party that everyone is invited to; you don’t go. Romans 12:15 commands us to go, put a smile on our face, and sincerely wish the best for this person. How much easier is it to stay behind in your cubicle and allow your hurt to stew.

Chip Ingram gives other examples in his book that better describe this not from an individual disciple perspective, but from the perspective of the corporate church as a whole. Think of the reputation Christians, or rather our churches, have: judgemental, only wanting our money, corrupt and/or filled with cronyism, full of double-standards, hypocritical, lacking grace, and so on, and so on. Think about the real-life spiritual warfare that is going on outside our churches walls: homosexuality, single parenthood, teenage pregnancy, addiction, and poverty. Are rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who are mourning in these circumstances? More, are you “willing to associate with” these people? If not, your attitude is not “the same as that of Christ Jesus, who” lived his life among the tax collectors and prostitutes and forgave the very ones who beat, insulted, and ultimately killed him. “By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

Bringing this back home, where if you haven’t faced this situation yet, you will someday: My family is presently suffering the inevitable loss of the family matriarch. On Sunday family from all over came to her house to pay their last respects, share memories and tears, and try to have closure. But beneath the surface ran a current of resentment, competitiveness, and pride. Behind every “how are you doing?” was an unspoken “you don’t deserve your share of the inheritance.” Behind every “I’m glad you were here for her” was the question, “why didn’t you ever call?” I’ve been through this before, and I’ll likely go through it again. It is sad that we let petty grievances prevent us from “mourning with those who mourn.” But this is a real battle in a real situation.

Regardless of any attitude or feeling, when we, as disciples of Christ, enter into those circumstances, we must obey Paul’s command. If we do, we show the real Jesus to those who may not know him or don’t know him well enough. And “all men will know…” to the Glory of the Father.

Think: What in this [post] spoke to you?
Reflect: What aspect of this teaching from Romans 12 was hardest for you to accept? Why?
Understand: What would it look like in your situation to rejoice (or weep) with the very one who treated you wrongly?
Surrender: Ask God to show you how he wants you to apply this truth in your life in view of your specific circumstances.
Take Action: Choose from the list of actions on events on pages 234 and 235 and bless you enemies this week. [These are life-events such as marriage, the birth of a baby, the recovery from an illness, etc on the rejoicing side, and death, illness, troubles at home, etc on the mourning side of Romans 12:15]
Motivation: Download the audio message How to Overcome the Evil Aimed at You at r12 online [click the r12 button to the right, select the Supernaturally tab and find this message under Free Resources]
Encourage Someone: Think of someone who has been betrayed or wounded and share r12 with them like [was done with Chip in the book].

Today continues our “virtual small group” covering the book Living On The Edge. For how this group is going to work, read this entry. For an introduction with disclaimers, click here. For some numbers from Barna to motivate you to continue reading, go here. For the R12 videos, click the R12 button on the sidebar to the right. Finally, as we move forward through the book you can always catch up by clicking the R12 label at the end of each post.

R12: Could your mental diet be killing your soul?

Frank

Before I move on to the next chapter, I have to cover some more ground from last time. The post was pretty long as it was and I neglected a few points that tie us into today’s topic.

While I spent a lot of time describing those things that compete with God for our affection, I didn’t talk much about us being lovers of God. If our faith is weak or nonexistent, or if we’ve been hurt by the religious (and often blame that on God) why would we choose to love God over the pleasures of this world? 1 John 2:17 touches on this, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Even if we don’t believe in God, we know that our lives are going to end. On one hand, that means that our pleasures in this world are all we have and we should chase after them exhaustively. On the other hand, it means that whatever pleasures we enjoy in this life are meaningless since we’re just going to die anyway and we will have no memory of those pleasures. God offers a third option, an eternity with him where the pleasures of this world are insignificant in comparison to the joys of being united with our Creator in heaven. Now, that’s hard to wrap our minds around. God could just as easily be the Flying Spaghetti Monster with a promise such as this. So we need to establish why we should take God at his word.

Remember that Romans 12 begins with “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy…” after following a crash course of Jewish history and theology in chapters 1-11. We have to know who God is and what he has done, both throughout history and personally in each of our lives. Then the opening paragraph of Romans 12 ends with “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” There’s a promise at the end and we have to trust that God has our best in mind.

But the world wants us to think differently. This is the focus of Chapter 9- the battle in our mind. The world fools us with its pleasures into thinking “to feel, to have and to be” are ends, not means. So our goal should be those pleasures instead of experiencing those pleasures as our goals are of a higher calling. Take sex, for example. Sex is great! Sex is fun! Sex feels good! (How many more times do I have to type sex for my blog hits to triple?) And sex was designed by God for us to enjoy. But he gave us the context of marriage, or for the more liberally minded (though I do not agree) the context of a monogamous relationship. Here the “joy of sex” is not the ends, but the means to emotionally and spiritually bond with your spouse. It can be effectively argued that the best sex is when you are most giving (verbally, emotionally, or physically) and the worst is when you are the most selfish. There’s a reason for this. It is not the ends, but the means to an end.

You could describe any of yesterday’s temptations the same way. We need to eat and food tastes good, but food is not an end, but a means to nourish our bodies. And so on, and so on.

So there is this battle in our minds that tries to convince us that these temporary pleasures are worth sacrificing eternal joy. And we are easily duped. “I’m sad right now, what good does eternal joy do me now when who knows how long I will live or if heaven is even real?” So we give into wordly pleasures to satisfy the right now.

So we need our thoughts to be eternally minded. We need to “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:15) and “whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8) We need to win the battle in our minds.

But how? By feeding it spiritual thoughts. Think about a 40 hour workweek, 6 hours of sleep every night, and two hours of church on a Sunday. The balance is filled with errand-running, TV watching, bill paying, and if there’s enough time you might actually sit down for meal. And if not, you can always get something on the road. What dominates your attention? What is filling your mind during these times? So you need a steady diet of spirituality to overcome the diet of the world that dominates our time. We can’t read our Bibles 24/7 or lock ourselves away in a monastery or convent. But we can read the Word every day, we can surround ourselves with spiritual people every chance we get, we can listen to spiritual music, we can “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) by guiding our thoughts towards seeking God’s will- asking yourself WWJD.

But we have to build strength to overcome. Like I said, just based on time, the world dominates. So we need to train our thoughts. We can’t just open the Bible randomly and be encouraged by a Proverb. We need to study something specific, otherwise we’re just spinning our spiritual wheels. Likewise, we need to train our minds to always be thinking about God’s will by filling our thoughts with Scripture. This comes from memorization. I admit I’m not good in this area. But Chip gives a very compelling example of why and how this benefits.

We also have to cut out the junk. I love Doritos. I can’t get enough when I eat them. But they don’t satisfy any craving. So when I eat them, I want more and more and more. Junk food is like that. I can’t live off of Doritos, I need real sustenance. Likewise, the world feeds us junk. We can’t live off of it and it doesn’t satisfy. So we need to cut back on TV, music (most of what fills the Pop charts is moral filth), gossip in the workplace, etc.

In encourage you to find the junk in your life and cut it out. Feed yourself some real spiritual nourishment that satisfies. And “be transformed by the renewing of your mind“

(Not going to do TRUST ME yet. This subject demands another post. Look for it later today.)

Today continues our “virtual small group” covering the book Living On The Edge. For how this group is going to work, read this entry. For an introduction with disclaimers, click here. For some numbers from Barna to motivate you to continue reading, go here. For the R12 videos, click the R12 button on the sidebar to the right. Finally, as we move forward through the book you can always catch up by clicking the R12 label at the end of each post.