God wants His people to be happy. This theology is based on the same type of teaching that says "God helps those who help themselves." One would be hard pressed to find anything in the Bible that comes close to resembling such a statement.
The church today is filled with people who believe that God wants us to be happy. These people teach the "health and wealth" gospel that has riddled the church during my lifetime with heresies and false promises.
God wants us to be happy...Tell that to the Christian in China who is persecuted for his faith and to his congregation in the house church who meet in secret because they could all get arrested if they were found out. Tell that to the believer in Sudan who was executed for his faith. Tell that to the Christian who gets ridiculed at work because she is a follower of Christ and follows His teachings. Are these people happy? Is God letting them down by allowing them to be unhappy? Have they somehow offended God and so God is punishing them by taking away their happiness? By no means.
He wants us to be happy...Was Jesus happy? A quick perusal through the Gospels tell us that He was not. He was constantly ridiculed; He was hated; He was betrayed by a close friend; He was denied by an even closer friend; He was flogged, spat upon, crucified, mocked, ridiculed...Happy? I doubt it.
No really, He wants us to be happy. Let's look at Paul's life. Paul: flogged 5 times, beaten with rods 3 times, stoned once, shipwrecked 3 times - adrift at sea for a night and a day, in constant danger, in prison multiple times, without food, in cold and exposure, constant anxiety for all of the churches, imprisoned multiple times and finally executed. Happy? I doubt it.
Didn't Jesus say that He wants us to be happy? Jesus sent his disciples out as sheep among wolves. Think about that statement - does that sound like He was setting them up for happiness? We will be hated by all because of Him - happiness? To the man who wanted to first bury his father Jesus told him to let the dead bury their own. To the rich young ruler Jesus said that he had to sell everything he had before he could follow Jesus. Happy?
Does God want us to be happy? By no means. God wants so much more for us. The problem is that we do not have an eternal perspective as to what God really wants for us. We think in terms of this life. We don't think in terms of eternity. God wants us to find our meaning in Him; to find our purpose in Him; to find our identity in Him. Will this make us happy? Perhaps on some days it will but I guarantee that it will make our lives better and far more fulfilling that we can possibly imagine.
There is a hymn that makes me very unhappy to sing, At the Cross. The chorus goes like this:
At the cross, at the cross,
Where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away -
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.
I get it. I understand that this idea is appealing. Perhaps we should stop living a faith that is appealing and start living a faith that is real, that is biblical, that is eternal.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
It's Complicated
God hates divorce. Jesus allows for divorce in situations of marital unfaithfulness (and that only because of the hardness of our hearts). This seems pretty simple doesn't it? Don't do it. Don't get divorced. This is one command that we are clearly given in Scripture. The Bible is full of things that we should not do - not in order to earn salvation or God's favor but in order to live the life that we were designed to live - but this is one.
During a recent discussion with some peeps I was told that while the Bible says that God hates divorce sometimes it is more complicated than that. Sometimes people stay married but hate each other and their kids grow up to resent the fact that the parents stayed together. (Of course, I would argue that the kids resent the fact that the parents didn't live their marriage according to the biblical commands that Paul gives numerous times - Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church...etc.) Sometimes people fall out of love (whatever this means). Sometimes...(insert excuse here).
The argument was that human affairs are too complicated to follow biblical commands strictly. The Bible can't be the standard bearer in my life because life is complicated. Have human affairs over the past 2000 years have made the Bible less relevant? Have human affairs become so complicated that God's clear commands can't apply in the same way anymore?
This is a symptom of a much deeper problem. Self proclaimed Christians; people who claim to be followers of Christ; people who claim to believe the Scripture refuse to follow Him and refuse to believe what it says.
As a christian society we have made God fit into what or who we want Him to be. We read about God predestining (a word used more than once) the elect (another word used) and say a God who chooses some can't be fair so we don't want to believe that. We read about the eternal damnation for those who aren't covered by Christ's blood and we think that that is inherently unfair so we, at best, ignore the doctrine of hell and, at worst, we claim that all get to heaven apart from Christ.
It's time that the elect, the true followers of Christ stand up for what the Bible says. We don't need to apologize for saying that divorce is wrong, that filthy talk is wrong, that homosexuality is wrong, etc. Why? Because the Bible says so and the Bible is the inherent Word of God. God made the rules - we need to live by them and allow Him to deal with the fall-out. Something tells me that He can handle it.
During a recent discussion with some peeps I was told that while the Bible says that God hates divorce sometimes it is more complicated than that. Sometimes people stay married but hate each other and their kids grow up to resent the fact that the parents stayed together. (Of course, I would argue that the kids resent the fact that the parents didn't live their marriage according to the biblical commands that Paul gives numerous times - Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church...etc.) Sometimes people fall out of love (whatever this means). Sometimes...(insert excuse here).
The argument was that human affairs are too complicated to follow biblical commands strictly. The Bible can't be the standard bearer in my life because life is complicated. Have human affairs over the past 2000 years have made the Bible less relevant? Have human affairs become so complicated that God's clear commands can't apply in the same way anymore?
This is a symptom of a much deeper problem. Self proclaimed Christians; people who claim to be followers of Christ; people who claim to believe the Scripture refuse to follow Him and refuse to believe what it says.
As a christian society we have made God fit into what or who we want Him to be. We read about God predestining (a word used more than once) the elect (another word used) and say a God who chooses some can't be fair so we don't want to believe that. We read about the eternal damnation for those who aren't covered by Christ's blood and we think that that is inherently unfair so we, at best, ignore the doctrine of hell and, at worst, we claim that all get to heaven apart from Christ.
It's time that the elect, the true followers of Christ stand up for what the Bible says. We don't need to apologize for saying that divorce is wrong, that filthy talk is wrong, that homosexuality is wrong, etc. Why? Because the Bible says so and the Bible is the inherent Word of God. God made the rules - we need to live by them and allow Him to deal with the fall-out. Something tells me that He can handle it.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Like Jonah?
Jonah is an interesting character...a prophet; a racist; a man who does the exact opposite of what God told him to do; a man who admitted running from God but refusing to address the reasons that he did it. The list could go on and on.
Why would one praise Jonah? Because unlike us, Jonah is honest with himself and honest with God about why he refused God's command. Remember Jesus's last words to His followers before He was taken up to heaven? Jesus told us to go to all nations.
God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and Jesus told us to go to all nations.
Jonah got on a boat headed toward Spain. We sit on our couches in our comfortable American homes, eating our American food, basking in our American freedom.
Jonah got swallowed by a fish (which God used to force Jonah into obedience). We get swallowed by our pride and comfort (which we use to force God to leave us alone).
God forced Jonah to go to Nineveh. God allows us to ignore Him.
Jonah admitted that he didn't want to go to Ninevah because he was a racist. We say that we aren't "called" to missions and therefore we justify our ignoring the commands of Christ and we sit by while people all over the world are dying without the saving grace of Christ.
Jonah laments when the Ninevites repent. We never get to see that happen so who knows how we would respond.
I have often wondered about Jonah. Why is he in the Bible? Why would God want us to read about this racist prophet who refused God's command? Perhaps I now know why.
Perhaps God wanted to show us that even though we may not feel "called" to missions we are still commanded to go.
Even though we may not want to love our neighbor we are still commanded to love.
Even though we may not want to pray for our enemies we are still commanded to pray.
And amazingly God still uses Jonah. God doesn't require us to want to do all of the things that we are commanded to do. He does, however, require us to do them.
So the next time that you look in the mirror think about what you are running from. And think about why you have chosen to ignore the commands of God. Maybe if you are honest you will learn something about yourself and that may be the first step to truly being a follower of Christ.
Why would one praise Jonah? Because unlike us, Jonah is honest with himself and honest with God about why he refused God's command. Remember Jesus's last words to His followers before He was taken up to heaven? Jesus told us to go to all nations.
God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and Jesus told us to go to all nations.
Jonah got on a boat headed toward Spain. We sit on our couches in our comfortable American homes, eating our American food, basking in our American freedom.
Jonah got swallowed by a fish (which God used to force Jonah into obedience). We get swallowed by our pride and comfort (which we use to force God to leave us alone).
God forced Jonah to go to Nineveh. God allows us to ignore Him.
Jonah admitted that he didn't want to go to Ninevah because he was a racist. We say that we aren't "called" to missions and therefore we justify our ignoring the commands of Christ and we sit by while people all over the world are dying without the saving grace of Christ.
Jonah laments when the Ninevites repent. We never get to see that happen so who knows how we would respond.
I have often wondered about Jonah. Why is he in the Bible? Why would God want us to read about this racist prophet who refused God's command? Perhaps I now know why.
Perhaps God wanted to show us that even though we may not feel "called" to missions we are still commanded to go.
Even though we may not want to love our neighbor we are still commanded to love.
Even though we may not want to pray for our enemies we are still commanded to pray.
And amazingly God still uses Jonah. God doesn't require us to want to do all of the things that we are commanded to do. He does, however, require us to do them.
So the next time that you look in the mirror think about what you are running from. And think about why you have chosen to ignore the commands of God. Maybe if you are honest you will learn something about yourself and that may be the first step to truly being a follower of Christ.
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