Of Facebook Cannons and Twitter Bombs

The issues are the same: We get wronged and we want to tell everyone about how wronged we were and how unfairly we were treated.  But the weapons have evolved through time.  From face to face to telephones and now social media.  Facebook cannons and Twitter bombs. If you wrong me, (or I so much as perceive that you oppose something I might hold dear, thus creating, at least in my mind, the offense) I will BLOW you off the face of the social media map by turning the tide of popular opinion against you

and then, not only allowing, but encouraging others who agree with me to also get their shots in, until you are totally pummeled into submission.  And even after you wave the white flag of surrender, I will come back and drop another bomb just for good measure before I finally turn and fly off.  But allow me to digress.

It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Take, for instance, what happens when someone truly wrongs us...or even if we just perceive that we have been wronged.  What happens?  We immediately want to let people know that we were wronged and we try to gain more people to agree with us about how badly we were treated.

Back in the day before technology, when people were wronged, they told their family members, or their friends or maybe even a judge.  Some even took justice into their own hands and developed "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" mentality.  They wanted to make sure that they exacted their "pound of flesh!"  There are many examples throughout the Bible of people seeking to "get even" or make someone else pay or at least to come out of a scrap without losing anything.

Think Joseph's brothers after being told another wild dream.  Think Jezebel after her prophets were done away with.  Think of the two mothers in Solomon's court arguing about a baby.  Think the priest who lost a concubine to rape and cutting her up and sending a piece of her to each tribe to show what the men of the tribe of Benjamin had done.  They all wanted to let people know how much someone had wronged them.  There is nothing new, as King Solomon said, under the sun.

You've done it.  I've done it.  It's only natural that I want YOU to know how much I hurt and have been WRONGED.  And let's be clear.  There are legitimate hurts that need to be addressed.  There ARE wrongs that need to be righted. But there are also right ways and wrong ways, if you are a Christian, of going about it.  Likewise, even if you aren't a Christian, there are more productive as well as less productive ways of going about things.

Which takes us next level.   There are two main motivations to make changes.  Force and choosing to change out of Love.  In our society, and in fact, in most societies throughout history, there has been an element of force or coercion underlying almost all social structures.  Each may have some valid points, but each also has its drawbacks.  From Empires in the old world to clan clashes and religious clashes in more recent times, almost all rely on a "might makes right" mentality.  Or another way of looking at it is "majority rules".  Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Naziism and even democracy all hold this in common.  They all utilize the idea that if we can just get enough people to join us for the change that we believe needs to happen then we can make them do it.  And most of it comes from the fact that we see the same problem, but all put forth different solutions as to how it should be addressed. (Which is why the election cycle becomes extremely tedious as each side seeks to rally more votes so they can be in power and make people do things their way.)

All of these social structures hold this in common.  The only difference is the distribution of wealth and power.  That's what the whole French Revolution was all about.  Seeking to throw off tyranny and establish new control over the distribution of wealth and power.  But if you read history, those who originally killed the aristocracy on the guillotine would themselves end up perishing the same way only a few days, or if lucky, a few months later as popular opinion swung wildly back and forth for a time.

So man operates off of the basic premise: If I have more power than you, then I can force you to do what I want you to do or I will simply eliminate you one way or the other.

But Jesus came and demonstrated a different way.  His "come, follow Me" was never followed by the words "or else".    His was a way of loving reason.  Of thinking about the other before Himself.  When the leaders of the synagogue and the people of Nazareth tried to throw Him off a cliff, He hid and then moved on to the next town.  And once there, He wasn't talking about how His own townspeople and neighbors had tried to kill Him.  He was talking about the Kingdom.  He was telling them that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to redeem it, not to judge it...but that the world might be saved through Him.

And then He taught, in Matt. 18:15    “If another believer^a sins against you,^b go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. ¹⁶ But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

And how did Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors?  With love.  Ask Matthew.  Ask Zaccheaus.  What about pagans?  What about the Centurion with a sick servant?  Or the Samaritan woman at the well.  These were who the Jews considered pagan.

Somehow, I don't think Jesus would ever say, "If another brother or sister sins against you, leverage your social media capitol and light up your Facebook cannon and drop your Twitter bombs."  See, once you bring out the big guns, your disagreement is guaranteed to only escalate until one side or the other realizes what is going on and backs down, or one side or the other sways enough popular opinion to bombard their adversary into complete and total surrender.  But surrender doesn't mean that minds have been changed and hearts have been won.  

To leverage your social media against another without so much as a face to face or at least a private phone or even private email conversation may win you the skirmish, but it will never win you the war.  You may leverage enough social capitol to load the cannon and deliver and you might even force someone's hand on an issue.  You may even force things that are right and good to happen.  But even if you get the right results utilizing the the wrong methodology will never truly serve you for the long term.  In the end, you always stand to lose more than you gain.  It may be a loss of relationship, or a loss of trust, respect or credibilty  and reputation.  It could even be the loss of your salvation.   But you will always lose something, even if you happen to win in the short term.  To paraphrase Jesus...he who lives by the cannon, dies by the cannon.  Or whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

Without a doubt, change is needed in many areas.  And undoubtedly,  there are issues that we must address and face if we are to be faithful followers of Jesus in the public arena.  But HOW we address them is just as important as addressing them.  But note that Jesus never asked us to be successful in creating change. He only asked us to be faithful in our presentation of Him and His love.

Maybe it is time to put away the Facebook Cannons and Twitter Bombs and instead of trying to force others to change their beliefs or their actions in order to get more results,  perhaps it's time we live like Jesus and lead with Love.  

The Hard Choice

I don’t care who you are—suffering will touch you. There is really no such thing as a charmed life. The wealthiest all the way down to the poorest. We all suffer. You might be saying, “Oh, I’d like to suffer the way they have to suffer. At least I’d have a Beemer.” “Or at least I’d suffer in a million dollar house.”

If that’s your type of thinking then you haven’t really been paying attention. If watching hurricanes and tornadoes sweep across the land has taught us anything, it would have to be that the million dollar houses can be ruined and swept away as quickly as the shanties.

Recognize that while you may be thinking of a better way to suffer, there are millions of people who are suffering much worse. Did you know that there are children being born in Africa today, to parents with AIDS. Those children themselves, are born with AIDS, and they will live their entire life and then die an early death and not know one day without suffering.

Think about that. If you have had at least one day in your life free of worry or pain, you’ve got more than they will have in their entire lifetime. But recognize that it is not the suffering, itself, that brings you closer to Jesus.

It is what you choose to do with your suffering. It is how you choose to handle the crisis, the trauma, the
sickness, or the bad news. You can choose to run to Jesus and allow Him to comfort and strengthen you in (and perhaps even deliver you from) your suffering, or you can choose to run away from him and blame Him for your suffering.

One choice will bring you closer to Jesus and give you strength to bear up and persevere through whatever it is you are having to face. The other will cause you to grow bitter and miserable, to the point that others will soon go out of their way to avoid you.

Choose wisely..but choose. Don't let your life go into default.

Read this Blog or I'll Shoot This Dog

The Perils of Either/Or Thinking

 

 

In January of my Freshman year of high school, there was a magazine (not a particularly good one) called the National Lampoon that featured on its cover, the picture above, with the title, If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog!  Of course, it was a promotional stunt, but it was so in your face shocking that it soon became a hot discussion topic among my peers.  

 

Some thought it was hilarious while others, especially the animal lovers among us, found it to be very offensive and in poor taste.  There seemed to be very little middle ground on the topic.  Either you loved it or you hated it.  There were a few that simply shrugged and said they didn’t really care one way or the other, but then, they were that way on about every topic we discussed.  No matter how one felt, though, they were allowed to have their own perspective and we went on being friends.

 

It occurred to me the other day that in our society, and yes, even within the walls of our church, we have adopted an either/or posture on almost every topic.  Either you are for me…and if not, you are definitely against me.  Either you buy everything I tell you, or you totally reject it.  Either you totally agree with me, or I will have no use for you.   And the stakes for disagreeing are grow exponentially higher, often causing anger, suspicion, distrust and sometimes even ending friendships.

 

The more things change, the more things stay the same.  Did you know that was exactly why there were two different ruling parties that made up the Sanhedrin in Jesus day? They were called the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  They couldn’t agree on anything.  The Pharisees believed in the Resurrection.  The Sadducees didn’t. (Perhaps that’s why they were so sad…).  The Pharisees believed that if you did enough good works, you could bank some of it to help you get into heaven.  The Sadducees believed that since there was no resurrection, this life was all they had, so they had to live it up and get as much as they could while they were still alive.  And they believed that the more possessions one had, the more proof that God was with them and blessing them…which was one thing that the Pharisees began to adopt as well as they cushioned their own homes and pockets a little more.

 

But when it came to Jesus…they both suddenly agreed!  HE was dangerous.  He was usurping their authority and their important role in society.  As such, He had to go!

 

So, they began to use either/or thinking with Jesus.  Buy this magazine or we’ll shoot this dog!  Over and over, they tried to trap Jesus into committing to one or the other, in order to trap Him.  Need some examples?

 

John 8:4   “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

 

John 8:6    They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 

 

They knew that if he said “Stone her” they could simply turn Him over to the Romans for preempting their authority to decide between life and death, and the Romans would dispose of Him. Problem solved.  But if Jesus said, “Let her go” the people would be livid that He was ignoring Moses law and turn on Him. Again, problem solved.  Either/or would carry the day. But not so fast. Jesus has never been about either/or thinking.  It’s too narrow and dismisses any room for grace.  Let’s go back to John 8:7

 

⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone! ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

 

John 8:9    When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

 

John 8:11   “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

 

With a simple statement, Jesus dismissed, not only a crowd full of sinners, but their “either/or” thinking as well.

 

Here’s another: Mark 12:13    Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. ¹⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵  Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”  (There it is…either/or)

 

 Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin,^a and I’ll tell you.”  ¹⁶ When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”   “Caesar’s,” they replied.

 

Mark 12:17   “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”  His reply completely amazed them.

 

Why?  Why did it amaze them?  Because it didn’t fall into their either/or thinking.  There are many other examples in scripture, but they all make the same point.  You don’t have to buy the magazine OR shoot the dog.

 

You don’t have to share a certain post with 10 friends or lose the blessing of Jesus.  You don’t have to subscribe to mask or no mask.  You can support black lives while continuing to support law enforcement.  It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.  But the more important point to consider as you seek to lead others to Jesus is, how well are you representing the character of Jesus and His love through your words and actions?  

 

Even if you don’t believe in wearing masks and you think it is all a croc, when you go to church and they ask you to be considerate, do you yield for the sake of loving the weaker (perhaps immuno-depressed) brother or sister and put one on, joyful to serve others humbly in such a simple (though perhaps irritating) way?  Or do you proudly, defiantly look for ways to register your disdain and use your position in the church to lobby for changing “these stupid requirements”?

 

When you hear Black Lives Matter, do you humbly seek to hear the plight, concerns and fears of your black brother or sister, happy to serve through listening and learning in humility, or do you immediately jump to All Lives Matter as you seek to argue the point of which matters more?

 

Did you know that I can readily accept and champion Black lives mattering, seeking to uphold and support my black friends and promoting the need for police reform, without agreeing on every point that the Black Lives Matter platform puts forth.  I can likewise support those police officers who are out there on the front lines every day doing their absolute best to do a good job to protect and serve.  I don’t have to allow myself to be polarized so much that I lose the ability to reason.  I can actually, if I think about it…support both.  

 

And someone’s need to have me agree with them on their polarized end of the spectrum is just that--their need.  And when I don’t conform to their demands, many have pushed me to the opposite end of the spectrum in their mind, without actually considering my reasons, or the  fact that I don’t happen to agree with the opposite end of their spectrum either.  But we are caught in a society that pushes, very strongly,  either you are with me or you are against me!  

 

I love my wife, but I don’t have to agree with every last idea or thought she has in order to continue loving her.  We are going to have differences.  HOW we work through our differences really determines whether I truly love her or not.  And the same is true in the church.  How we love others will show whether we truly love Christ or not.

 

I may believe that wearing a mask is stupid, suffocating and non-essential, but still choose to wear it out of love.  Because I understand that wearing it tells my fellow worshippers that I am more concerned about their health, and their belief that masks help contain the spread of a virus, than I am about my personal rights.   I can choose to wear it joyfully, because I want my church to be perceived as a safe place to be for my brothers and sisters, as well as a safe place to bring their friends.  Both physically and spiritually.

 

Jesus said it this way: John 13:35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

 

Don’t buy the magazine…and please don’t shoot the dog.  It doesn’t make you a bad person.  But DO show love and respect for others as a way of proving to the world that you are a disciple of Jesus.

Step Away Before You Re-engage

Hey Christian Leader…are you tired?  Mentally exhausted?  Physically drained?  Emotionally spent?  Me too. What we have been going through the past months (and especially the last 2 weeks) is enough to drain the life out of the best of us.  Unless you are a person who thrives on quarantine and conflict…or conflict in quarantine…or some other combination of the same, if you are like me (and because you are human…I know that in at least some ways you are) you can only take so much of the fevered pitch before you have to step away.

And that’s ok.  You can’t sustain the emotional knife edge for very long anyway.  So, let me invite you, first, to step away. Perhaps for only a few hours, or just an afternoon. Maybe a day or weekend.  Step away and unplug.  Disconnect from the news.  It will be there when you get back-and it will still be mostly bad.  Take leave of your social media platforms for a while.  The discussions will be still be there, and just as heated, when you get back.  For your own mental health’s sake, back away, unplug, disconnect and take some time reconnecting to the Source of peace and mental health.

As I look around at the events in today’s world, I see the social injustice and racism, the riots and demonstrations, the verbal volleys on social media, the political posturing and the name calling.  My emotions run higher as I come to understand the intolerable things that people of color continue to have to bear and the senseless killings of innocent people.  It IS an outrage.  And it NEEDS to stop.  MUST stop.

Alongside that, protests that start peacefully enough suddenly turn violent, and more lives are lost, buildings are burned and looted and justifications are put forth as to why it should be that way.  And dialogs that could be productive, cease.  And defensiveness escalates with emotions that are already running high and understanding ceases.  Battle lines are drawn and enemies are declared.

But stop.  Step back and consider.  PEOPLE aren’t our enemies.  They are simply victims of our one great enemy, the devil.  He has sold us all different versions of the same lie… “YOU can be like God.”  In essence…YOU. CAN. BE. GOD! (really only for you, but that’s in the fine print). But we take that to mean that WE are the ultimate cause in the Universe.  

But we, who belong to the King of Kings, must look at thing a bit differently.  We must recognize first, that He is God…and not we ourselves.  And as God, He does call His followers to right the wrongs and lift the lowly and champion the cause of those who are oppressed.  But we must do it in HIS way in order for lasting change to take place.  All other methods simply breed resentment and when the time is right, resentment spews forth hatred, which ends up bringing death.

This is why it is so important to stop, step back and unplug for a bit before we re-engage.  In fact, before any of us go running off to right wrongs, we must be under HIS control and not our own.  How do we do that?  Isaiah 1 gives us a clue.  Isaiah is addressing the church and the inherent problems that come with a group of people who are only partially committed to the Lord.  Here is a sampling of the things that God was saying in a vision to Isaiah.

Is. 1:2               Listen, O heavens! Pay attention, earth!

                        This is what the LORD says:

            “The children I raised and cared for

                        have rebelled against me.

³           Even an ox knows its owner,

                        and a donkey recognizes its master’s care—

            but Israel doesn’t know its master.

                        My people don’t recognize my care for them.”

⁴           Oh, what a sinful nation they are—

                        loaded down with a burden of guilt.

            They are evil people,

                        corrupt children who have rejected the LORD.

            They have despised the Holy One of Israel

                        and turned their backs on him.

He goes on to list some of the problems the country was currently having.  The country was in ruins.  Towns are burned.  Foreigners are plundering and destroying.  Sound familiar?  And how did God’s people respond.  By doing more of the same thing they were doing that caused their destruction in the first place.  Gave more offerings.  Said more prayers.  Offered more sacrifices and hoped for the best…with no internal change.

And God said. ¹¹         “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?”

                        says the LORD.

            “I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams

                        and the fat of fattened cattle.

¹³         Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;

                        the incense of your offerings disgusts me!

            As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath

                        and your special days for fasting—

            they are all sinful and false.

                        I want no more of your pious meetings

¹⁵         When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.

                        Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,

                        for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

Then God comes to what He is really interested in.

¹⁶         Wash yourselves and be clean!

                        Get your sins out of my sight.

                        Give up your evil ways.

¹⁷         Learn to do good.

                        Seek justice.

            Help the oppressed.

                        Defend the cause of orphans.

                        Fight for the rights of widows.

Is. 1:18           “Come now, let’s settle this,”

                        says the LORD.

            “Though your sins are like scarlet,

                        I will make them as white as snow.

            Though they are red like crimson,

                        I will make them as white as wool.

Did you catch that?  And some are saying…. “Yes!  Let’s go fight and help the oppressed!  Let’s defend the cause and rights of orphans and widows”.  But not yet.  Stay unplugged for just a little longer.  Because in verse 18 God says: Let’s settle this. NLT. Other versions say “Come let us reason together.”  In other words, before you run off, there is something that needs to happen in your life.  You need to let me get rid of your sins and your evil desires.  You need to be washed!  Your words, your actions, your attitudes all need to be laid down so that you can accomplish things in the way I want them accomplished.  Through Love.

That means that, no matter your color or ethnicity, as a child of God, after letting Christ deal with your sins, you see His call to take up the cause of the oppressed in the way that Jesus would have you do it, rather than through use of the world’s might-makes-right-tactics.  

What would that look like?  It would look like you using whatever gifts and abilities the Lord has placed within you, and utilizing those as you follow the Holy Spirit’s stirrings in your heart to work to alleviate injustice no matter where it is found, in a manner in keeping with how you were created.

It means you put your shoulder to the wheel and utilize your influence for lasting change in a way that the outside, unbelieving, world can respect. It means you refuse to use their catchphrases that would inflame, choosing thoughtfulness and carefully chosen words instead, that can bring calm.  It means that you recognize the diversity that God has put into all people and you celebrate, rather than denigrate that.  Beyond ethnic differences, expand your view to include gender, generational curses, culture (community, church or school) and even personality types.

Wait, what?  I was tracking with you until you made that last turn.  Ok.  Let me break it down.  We are all different.  VERY different, which, if you haven’t noticed in all the realm of creation and nature, is exactly the way our Father likes things.  Which means that I don’t have to respond exactly like you in order to support you, whatever your race, circumstances, etc. might be.   I can be free to support the cause of justice in ways that you might not have even considered.  

For example, I’ve seen many in recent days write an iteration of this idea.  “If you are silent, you are complicit to the problem.”  Meaning, basically, if you are not saying something against this, you are guilty of spreading it.  I get the ideology behind that statement, especially coming from a non-believer, but what that statement actually does is simply shut off every other avenue of support I may have been able to offer if I happen to be, say, an introvert.  If I were an introvert, I wouldn’t want to march and shout things out.  I would probably shy away from conflict or controversy, and I wouldn’t want to post on my social media because I don’t want to be noticed. But, if encouraged in a more constructive way, I might donate to a cause or work behind the scenes in silence, or reach out in love to a friend of another race.  But if my silence is my complicity, then with one broad brush stroke, I have been de-valued and my potential contribution reduced to nothing.  That too, is an intolerant act, against someone whose only crime was to be born with the "wrong" type of personality.

So perhaps, instead of those type of statements, often written when emotions are running high and passion is running deep, what if we ran our emotions and passions through the filter of the Holy Spirit and in an attitude like that of the early church facing the injustices to the Greek widows,  engaged in dialog to see how we might, together, move as God’s people to address the issue of injustice in practical ways using all of our combined gifts?  Dialog in the Spirit and then implement in His power.

James gives us good counsel when it comes to how we might proceed.

James 1:19    My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Work on yourself first.  Then look out for others.

James 1:26    If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

May we allow God to change our hearts and then may that change help us to reach out to right the wrongs, bring justice where it is needed, stand with the oppressed and lift the fallen.  And may He accomplish it, not through our anger, but through His love and the power of His Spirit living in each one of us.  

Ok…now you can go re-engage...with a regenerated heart and with the love of Jesus.

A Spiritual Waist

We often talk of Jesus standing at the door of our hearts and knocking, (see Rev 3) and we know that if we open the door

He will come in and dine with us…but what then?  Is that all there is?  Sitting and dining for all time?  Or does dinner-time conversation lead us to live our lives differently the next day?

I’d like to think that Jesus, at dinner, invites us to go out the next day.  Almost a play-date if you will.  He wants to get us out of ourselves to see what else He has going on.  Perhaps to introduce us to other people He has dined with already, or maybe to get us to make friends with those around us who have never shared a meal with Him so that we can encourage them to do so when He next comes knocking.

He wants to get us out for exercise, to work out what He has put in during our time together.  He wants us to personally experience where else He is at work.  To see how else He is countering the enemies’ strategies in ways far more genius than I can imagine.  And to quote a very old Nike ad, “You won’t know unless you go.”

If we always sit around the table, taking in and taking in, all we become are spiritually obese.  And the longer we take it in without working it out,  the more worthless to the cause of God we become.  Not because we don’t want to be out there, but because we enjoy the feast far too much and simply want to stay at the table and continue to gorge ourselves.  But to what purpose?

If I never put into practice all of the spiritual richness I have been able to ingest, it simply goes to my spiritual waist…and that my friends, is truly a spiritual  waste.  

Dining in is where it starts.  But going out is His command.   Perhaps we need a few less conferences and training events and a few more spiritually exercise-inducing activities.  Perhaps we need to keep that date with Jesus each morning and go out excited to see where He is at work today and simply join Him there.  To work ALONG SIDEJesus, instead of working FOR Jesus would perhaps be the ultimate spiritual exercise.

So please—open the door when He knocks. Dine with Him—daily.  But don’t stay at the table.  There is a world already alive where God is working.  Ask Him to guide you to see what He wants you to see, to be in the spot where HE wants you to be, and then roll up your sleeves and take your place beside Jesus and work there to help rescue a dying world.

Where Do I Find My Faith?

Over the past two weeks, my FaceBook inbox, my email inbox and many comments left on my Facebook feed have all begun to point at one main question.  “Where is my faith?”  Or “Where can I find peace.”   Is it possible?  And the answer is “Absolutely.”  I know that many others are talking about it, but for the sake of my friends who are asking, I’d like to take a stab at it.

First of all, I think many of us get confused when we hear the word faith.  Where is it found and what is it?  Well, it’s found in the dictionary, which is where most people would logically start.  Oxford defines it this way:

faith | fāTH |

noun

1 complete trust or confidence in someone or something: this restores one's faith in politicians.

2 strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof: bereaved people who have shown supreme faith.

• a system of religious belief: the Christian faith.

• a strongly held belief or theory: the faith that life will expand until it fills the universe.

It starts out good by saying, “complete trust or confidence in someone or something”, but then goes downhill when it mentions politicians.  Then we see “strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion” but then we see stuff like “based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”  The we see “a system of religious belief, and Strongly held belief or theory.”  And none of those are really helpful in restoring my faith.  No wonder we are confused.  I don’t want a faith that is simply based on my spiritual apprehensions or blind trust or simply chanting the mantra, “I believe, I believe” over and over as if God were Santa Claus and I really want to see him at Christmas. 

Here’s the problem.  While the dictionary can take a great stab at defining it, the type of faith we are talking about is not centered in a system or doctrines or even just strongly believing and hoping.  None of those is where true faith lies.

True faith lies in a relationship with a Person.  And the funny thing about relationships is that you can never really prove that they exist, you can only give evidence of them existing.  For instance, I can say that my wife, Sandy, loves me.  But I can’t prove it.  I can believe it to be so.  I can hope it to be so. But I can only point to the evidence of that love.  She treats me nice.  She continues to stay with me after almost 40 years.  She cooks and cleans for me.  She says nice things, etc.  But all of those are not proof—only evidence.  

Each of you could point to examples where the above evidences were only in place until that person could gain what they wanted or something of greater importance to them.  Let’s look at them one at a time.

“She treats me nice”...you already know intuitively that people can treat you nice because they want something from you.  So that is not necessarily a proof of love. “She continues to stay with me”...maybe she has no where else to go and she is comfortable with the lifestyle.  “She cooks and cleans.”  Could be she just sees that as a trade-off for a roof over her head and some groceries.  “She says nice things”...maybe she doesn’t want to mess up her good gig.  

So you can’t point to any of those and say you have conclusive proof.  BUT...if I take all of those pieces of evidence and put those together, and combine that with the ongoing nature of such evidences, I can conclude that my wife loves me.

Nice, Pastor, but I still haven’t found my faith.  Ok.  Since we are talking about God, why not see how HE defines faith. And since the Bible is His self-revelation to us, let’s see what it says.

In Romans 10, Paul points out that the Jewish people were having some of the same struggles that we have when it comes to walking in faith.  

Romans 10:1    Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Here is often where we get stuck.  We want to know God.  We want to follow Him.  We want to have faith in Him, but we don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself.  Why is that?  Because many well-meaning people in our past have obscured it with well meaning words and rituals and practices that hinder a true view of Jesus.

In my faith tradition, especially during my youth, we often confused a relationship with Jesus with following of rules to help us live better lives.  Nothing wrong with the rules per se, but it caused me to miss Jesus, the person I need to have faith in, as I focused on being a good member of my church community.   And, as I am friends now with clergy from many other denominations, our comparing notes has led me to conclude that most of them have had a similar time in their history where following rules was more important than following Jesus.  

So does that mean they were bad people?  No.  I believe they were wanting to follow Jesus, but simply bought into what someone else had told them they needed to do, ultimately leading to a type of legalism in the church.  And in their misguided zeal, the true picture of God was marred and many were led to conclude, “well if God is like that then...”   The problem with that conclusion is that the premise was never challenged.  If God is like that.  Perhaps instead, we should have asked, “Is God really like that?”  And then gone looking in Scripture for the answer.

Other things that keep us from understanding God’s ways are expectations that we have learned or deduced or heard that may or may not be true.  I had such expectations when my dad got cancer and then consequently died while I was begging God to spare his life.  It really made me question if I could remain a minister.  I mean, why minister to the goodness of a God that you suddenly didn’t feel was so good?  If you are interested in reading that story, it’s here on my blog from a few years back.

I have realized in the ensuing years that the devil can create a lot of misunderstood passages and misguided expectations that can lead us to the wrong conclusions, and when we don’t get the desired outcome, he can twist our consequent pain into a blaming of God and an anger at Him that is neither accurate nor deserved.

I prayed and believed and nothing happened...therefore God doesn’t care and He can no longer be trusted.  It spirals downward from there.  God could have done something but He didn’t so I hate Him!  And on we go, spiraling away from where the only real hope is found.

So what does God look like?And how do I find my faith?  The simple answer is God...looks like Jesus. Notice this question and Jesus’ answer in John 14:8,9   Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9   Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 

John 1 calls Jesus “The Word”.  Starting in verse 1 of John 1 we read:  

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

²  He existed in the beginning with God.

³  God created everything through him,

and nothing was created except through him.

⁴  The Word gave life to everything that was created,^a

and his life brought light to everyone.

⁵  The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness can never extinguish it.^a

John is saying that Jesus IS God and Jesus was basically saying to His disciples, if you want to see what God is like, look at Me.  Watch Me.  Hang out with Me and I will show you a pure undistorted picture of what God is like and what we want for you!

So, how did Jesus treat people? Matt. 14:14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.   Over an over we see that Jesus led with compassion.

How did He deal with those that made mistakes?  Read the story in John 8:1-11 of the woman caught in the very act of adultery and then read the ending.  You will see Jesus response.  

John 8: ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

v.9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

v.11    “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

And of course most people have heard the greatest statement about what God is like in John 3:16…but don’t often read what John 3:17 says.  And John 3:17 was the continuation of Jesus’ thought when he was talking to Nicodemus.  Check this out.

John 3:16    “For this is how God loved the world: He gave^a his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

Yep…that’s the part I’ve heard.  But let Jesus continue that thought.

¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

One of the biggest lies that Satan has perpetrated through the centuries is that God hates you and is just sitting up there trying to catch you doing something wrong.  But Jesus didn’t come to judge the world…but to save it.  That means that God wants you to be saved more than you can ever even have the desire to be saved.  He won’t be throwing obstacles in your path.  The devil does that.  Jesus calmly, relentlessly pursues us as we continue to look at the distorted picture of Him that Satan has been pushing ever since the Garden.

All that is required of us is to see a picture of Jesus/God who loves us, wants to save and redeem us and who continues to pursue our hearts in love, and then simply stop and respond in returned love.

Here’s the capstone verse, in my opinion: 

1John 5:11   And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. 13    I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 

So the questions on the road to faith that we each have to answer are these: Do I have the Son of God in my life?  Have I accepted His forgiveness and am I willing to take the next step of faith that He lays out for me?