SHOULD WE REALLY SUFFER?

"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny." ~ C.S. Lewis

In this quote, C.S. Lewis points out one of the potential reasons for the hardships in a person's life. He is surely not saying that this is always the case, hence the word "often". But would it be a far stretch to say that most of our hardships should have a positive impact on our lives?  Or that they are something every believer may very well have to endure?

If we listen to the teachings of the Word of Faith movement or from the Prosperity gospel, we would have to conclude that those two questions are indeed a far stretch. You see, they both teach that we, as God's children, should not suffer in this life. Whether that suffering be financial, physical, emotional or mental, they would quickly say that a believer should be immune to them. We are somehow promised health, wealth and prosperity, all because we are Christian. According to their theology, the moment God saves us He is obligated to provide the best of all things for us. The best job. The best house. The best car. Our best life...now. Any sign of the opposite is quickly attributed to a lack of faith in the individual that is affected. And these claims seem to be backed up by scripture after scripture.

Mainly found in the Old Testament/Covenant, even those seemingly supportive verses are either taken out of context or misinterpreted, or both. But when taken and read in their out of place order, they would convince anyone that believers are to be among the most wealthy people on this planet! But they don't stop there. Some even attempt to solidify their argument by attributing this wealth to the one example we have been given on how to live in this world...Christ himself! They teach that Jesus Christ was dressed in the finest garments of his time, which even a cursory knowledge of the culture would prove to be false. They claim that Christ's very own testimony about the son of God not having a place to rest his head, was only about "that city", as opposed to what it should be clearly read to mean. They say that he rode on an ass that no one had ever ridden, and that this was comparable to driving a brand new luxury car today. And the scripture twisting goes on and on and on. But the point is that even our namesake and Lord was wealthy in this world. You couple that with the other verses and passages that are taken out of context and the picture you see painted is that God's children should have nothing but the best on this side of heaven. Money problems, health problems, mental problems, even a seemingly early death itself must be the fault of the person and a result of weak faith or sin.

But what, then, are we to do with those other verses we see in God's word that appear to teach us something totally different?

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." ~Romans 5:3-5

In this passage, Paul seems to make the case that it is not uncommon for us - believers - to endure suffering or hardship. He doesn't attempt to soothe the hearers by telling the, that they will only have the best. Instead he reminds them of the hope that our sufferings produce by pointing them to Christ. The one and only Christ that died for us at the right time, while we were yet sinners!
We are comforted by the knowledge that God never forsakes us and is always with us, showing His infinite strength in our abundant weakness.

Those that would attempt to convince us that we can have our best lives now or that we deserve nothing but the best, seem to make the same fatal error in their thinking. They seem to believe that, upon our being saved, we are somehow made perfect and worthy of some sort of admiration. They seem to forget that it took God Himself, coming down from heaven and becoming a man like us, living a perfectly sinless life, being murdered at the hands of sinful men (us) and doing all of this willingly in order to save and redeem us. That fact does not go away after salvation. We have Christ's righteousness imputed to us, but make no mistake that we have no righteousness of our own to boast in. This is why the Apostle Paul boasted only in The Lord. Our goodness is like filthy rags, something to be shunned and discarded, lest it makes the one who touches it unclean.

Now, this doesn't mean that God won't provide for or protect His children. We are comforted by the fact that he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. God himself tells us not to be anxious for the things we need. He is a comforter, protector, provider, healer, our peace and the list goes on. But the fact is that we live our lives in a fallen and sinful world and unfortunately we suffer the consequences of this just as those that have yet to believe. Those consequences can come in many forms; poverty, cancer and other diseases of the body, mental illnesses, violence at the hands of others, war, and even death. This does not mean that God loves us any less, or that we are lacking faith, or even that we are being punished for a personal sin! It simply means we are saved by God's grace to be beacons of light and hope in a sinful and fallen world and at times we become casualties of the spiritual war we are all embroiled in. But no matter the outcome, we give God the glory through our suffering as well as through our healing, whichever He deems it should be!

I AM...

Recently I was asked a question by a close friend that felt it would make a good topic to address here but also made me pause for several reasons. One of those reasons is that I had asked myself the same question before. The next reason was that, despite having wondered this in my own mind, I couldn't answer it! And the last was that I knew to some I would be least qualified to speak on it. But am I really?
You wonder what the question was, right? Well here it is:

Why is it that I've heard black people lament over being seen by the color of their skin, but those same people will declare passionately that they are "black first"? Seems like they are wanting it both ways. Am I seeing this wrong?

Before I attempt to answer that question I feel it may be necessary to preface what I'm about to say with a very quick bio about myself as I believe this will help you to better understand my point of view. Though my light complexion may initially throw some off, I am the product of inter-racial parents and have identified myself as black for as long as I can remember. Yes my mother is German and my father Black and there are things on both sides that I am proud of as well as that I am ashamed of. But I mention all of that to say that my view will be slightly different than most yours and vastly different than some of yours. However that may be, I will attempt to not only answer this question but also put forth why I believe it's the wrong mentality to have.

In case you didn't catch it, there are actually two questions that were asked. I'll answer the latter first, because it is easiest. No, you are not seeing this wrong! It is actually quite apparent that there are some that do want the benefit of being able to say they are "black first" while at the same time telling others to not see them as "black first".

Now the former question can only honestly be answered properly if we divide it into two sections. Let's  first talk about why we lament over being seen by the color of our skin. I will, hopefully accurately, assume that anyone reading this is familiar with our countries history of slavery and racism so I won't delve too deep into the past here. But suffice it to say that this history was very ugly and is still to this day a scar on this nations psyche, and rightfully so. There is no way to tell the story of America without covering not only the shameful era of slavery but also the equally shameful time of oppression after slavery was finally outlawed and stomped out. But it is this time after that, also known as the Civil Rights era, that factors in greatly as to why we do not want to be seen by the color of our skin. Though slavery was done away with, Blacks were still treated as sub-human for a long time after. In fact we were considered 3/5 of a human. Our ancestors were reminded of this on a daily basis. A simple days outing would bring them past water fountains that they weren't allowed to touch and restrooms that they weren't allowed to use, as well as restaurants that they could only eat from by knocking on the kitchen door in the back of the building. All of this division was not easily missed either. There literally were "black" parts of town. They lived separately, often worked separately, and even worshipped separately. There were countless lynchings! Blatant murders that were displayed for all to see but were never investigated. People disappeared all of the time and it was known that they had likely fallen prey to the Klan. A group of White men whose sole purpose was to remind all Black people that they were not worthy of being equal with them. Even after lynchings were officially made illegal this group continued to harass, threaten and even kill people for no other reason than the color of their skin.
As you can imagine, a history of being degraded and belittled simply because you have more melanin in your skin than others can leave an indelible mark in a peoples collective memory. So it is understandable why none of us wants to be seen or treated differently based on the color of our skin. We naturally expect any differential treatment to be negative, hateful or even dangerous. Dr. King and others marched, fought and died for us to be seen as equal with everyone else. He declared that he had a dream in which his "four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."!
And this is what we desire from everyone. We don't want to feel that we are being judged for being black before our character is even known. So this is why we lament over that.

That being said, the answer to the second part of the question is actually found in the same narrative. You see Blacks have undergone more than a couple of official "name changes" since slavery was abolished and even before. Early slaves called themselves African but their owners called the Negroes, the Portuguese word for black. The slightly altered "Negro" and Colored are just two of the terms that also were used. Black was later used as well although it was met with sever criticism. But in 1988-89, Jesse Jackson sought to make yet another official change that he felt would give our people a greater sense of pride when describing ourselves and this name was "African-American". I could argue the merits of this term and it's self-segregating mentality, but that's a topic for another discussion. But for the purposes of answering the question posed this is the term that we will look at most closely. When this change was first presented there were people on both sides of the fence about it. Some felt that it was not the term they wanted to be described by opting to simply be "Americans". But those that accepted the term bought into it fully. It became a way in which they felt they could identify with the land of their origin and this of course led to a renewed sense of pride about being black. Dr. Walter Allen (a professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, at the time) said, "This is a significant psychological and cultural turning point. This makes explicit what was implicit. First we had to convince everyone to come into the fold as black. Now we are clarifying what that means.".
It is this pride that is an answer to the question. We seek to make it known that we are unique and we revel in our "ethnic" pride. I can't answer for all that do push to be known as black (African-American) first, but I feel it's the general consensus that it is ingrained in our identity. We want to ensure that we aren't seen merely as a color but that this same color is due to our land of origin, and that is far more exotic. So in a sense it is simply a matter of racial or ethnic pride that leads some to push their being "black" to the forefront of their identity. Groups such as the New Black Panther party find their identity in being black and seemingly flying in the face of what Dr. King dreamed or and espoused in that famous speech. They, and others, have no problem whatsoever identifying themselves by their color first and foremost. But don't let someone of another race do the same...that's taboo! I must admit that it is difficult for me to understand that double standard. But, nonetheless, it exists.

I hope I did a half-way decent job of answering the two-part question. And if not I pray that differing opinions will be expressed with respect.

Now, I promised that I would also put forth why I believe this is the wrong mentality to have. The first reason is that it is a double standard, not to mention very confusing, to get upset when we are profiled or treated a certain way based on the color of our skin and then turn around and push that same color in the faces of others. We do need to make up our minds.
As all things that we cover here, we look at this from a biblical worldview or a Christian understanding. Though I see nothing wrong with being proud of one's heritage, I do believe that we can't make that heritage our "identity". As I stated in the beginning, I'm both German and Black. I celebrate both sides and display both equally in my home and my personal life. The foods I eat are reflective of both sides as are the music, movies, books, etc.. It's safe to say that I am proud of where I come from. However, once I begin to make those things my identity, I run the risk of not only looking down on others but, without a doubt, alienating them. It could go too far in either direction. I could celebrate my German heritage so much so that anyone not of the same background would feel uncomfortable being around me and I could do the same for my Black side, ultimately pushing people away. You ask why I think this is wrong? Because the only thing I am free to identify myself as "first" is being a Christian! Upon being saved our lives are no longer our own. Christ died for us and in turn we live for Him. That being said, we also have a duty to carry out as believers and that is to carry the gospel to all four corners of this earth. Obviously if we push away or alienate anyone then we hinder ourselves in the fulfillment of that duty.
Having been saved we also die to ourselves, so what should be most important to us is being obedient to God's word and seeing as many souls saved as possible. Anything, not just our heritage but anything, that gets in the way of that is wrong.

Lastly, do we not realize that the biggest racial barrier ever was torn down the day Christ died? When the gospel was decreed to be given to both Jews and Gentiles, God tore down that barrier that existed since the creation of Israel. Jews looked down on and despised Gentiles (that's us, in case you didn't know), yet through the gospel the two were reconciled and made one. So who are we to cause division based on something as trivial as skin tone???
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." ~ Galatians 3:28

I am neither Jew nor Greek, I am neither black nor white....I am Christian!

GOD KNOWS MY.....WAIT...

I'm fairly certain that most of us can finish the title of this post without hesitation. But for the sake of clarity it's "God knows my heart". If you're like me then you've often heard this phrase uttered while speaking with someone about the gospel, church or the bible. This appears to be the go to default response when a Christian is asked about such things as church attendance or how often they read their bible and even about some particular habits they may have. Let's examine this phrase and, more importantly, the reason for its use.
For starters, it's important to note that there is nothing particularly wrong the phrase. God does indeed know our hearts. In fact, even better than we do ourselves. But do we know it as well as we think?

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

According to Jeremiah 17:9, our hearts are deceitful or, as another translation has it, sick. This makes it clear to us that we can't possibly trust it with most matters. In fact, it goes on to say that only God can know it. Despite this fact, we are content to default to this thinking in our attempt to explain away disobedience. And that is what this post is actually about; our tendency to openly and freely claim that we are believers, but in practice and our personal lives one would be hard pressed to see evidence of that claim.
In case there is any confusion, I'm speaking of a concept known as "Lordship salvation". In short what this means is that when we accept Christ as our savior, the one who lived a sinless life and willingly gave that life up for us so that we would not suffer the just wrath for our sins, we must by necessity accept Him as Lord as well. Or in other words, we don't have the option of allowing Him to be our savior today and then wait another 5 or 10 years, when we feel we're ready, to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives too. This kind of thinking and mindset not only contradicts scripture but gives rise to such concepts as a "Carnal Christian", a person that may have professed faith in Christ but nevertheless goes on living the way they did while they were still in the world.
Again, scripture is replete with examples of this being impossible;

"You are my friends if you do what I command you." ~ John 15:14 (ESV)

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." ~ 1 John 2:3-6 (ESV)

Unfortunately, and despite this evidence, in this day and age we make it increasingly harder to live this out. Seemingly everything in our society is geared towards a noncommittal existence. From cell phone plans that no longer have you locked into a contract to rent to own merchandise that can be returned whenever it suits you on to the putting off of marriage until later ages, we are doing everything in our power to actually commit to less and less! By extension, the idea of committing ones life to glorifying God and actually changing our lives to reflect that, is a foreign concept. After all, God loves us just the way we are and knows our hearts, right?
But, whether we realize it or not, there are very real consequences that stem from this mentality. The most obvious is that we are not displaying the signs of true repentance and salvation and should, by right, question that. Christ saw fit to wholeheartedly commit himself to being obedient, even unto the cross, so we should at the very least be able to commit to changed lives that reflect our gratitude for that and glorify God. But another equally devastating effect is that it diminishes our testimony in the world and causes those that may want to come to Christ to be skeptical of the validity of our faith. The world expects us to be different and when they see the opposite and see us doing exactly as they do (and worse) they rightly call our bluff that there's any substance to what we claim to believe!
If we couple that with the popular perception that "we're all in it for the money" and that this is just a business and our product is Jesus, our effectiveness is watered down tremendously. And even if we
come correctly, they will turn a blind eye and deaf ear towards not merely us, but Christ himself!
This is something that we can no longer allow to go unaddressed, both in ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Yes, God knows our hearts...and he saved us from them!
Let us live as ambassadors and as if we have a priceless gift to share with the world on behalf of our King and Lord, because in reality...we do...

HOW FREE ARE WE?

How free are we? This is a question that I've asked myself before, but not so often as within the past week. I've participated in several discussions lately that were sparked when a certain celebrity (whom shall remain nameless) graced the red carpet of the BET awards in a rather revealing dress. The dress itself really wasn't the topic of these discussions and neither was it whether or not an entertainer should dress that way. The actual question was whether a Christian (which she professes to be) should dress in something that leaves so little to the imagination. This then naturally progressed to the question of the freedoms we enjoy in our personal lives. And that is what I'd like to address here.

The world has long espoused the idea that we all have our rights to do as we please (within the limits of the law) and that no one should care how we live our lives. In short, privacy. In this modern culture where the progression and advancement of self is the chief goal in everyones life and privacy and the ability to ensure it are a multi-billion dollar industry, the notion of not being able to do what you want to do just because someone else may not approve seems like a ridiculous idea. I mean if someone has a problem with what I do, they can simply opt to not be in my presence, right? If they don't like what you're wearing they can close their eyes, right? Don't like the language I'm using, don't listen!

Is that how we, as believers, should respond though?

Before I proceed allow me to say this. Yes, it's true that you have your private life that no one can claim a right to be involved in. And it's also true that you have your own private places where you can do as you will when you will. When you are at home you can do as you please in the privacy of your own home and expect no one to say anything to you. But that really isn't the topic here and is another issue altogether. What we are talking about is whether or not you should care what people think of the things that they can see and witness with their own eyes and even ears. Should you care about what people think of your smoking, your drinking, your clubbing habits, or even the company you keep? Should it matter to you what others think of how you dress or how you talk? I say that if you call yourself a Christian and are a professing believer then the answer is a resounding YES! 

Now, let's be clear here; there are things that we do that are not sinful in and of themselves. Drinking isn't condemned in the bible, being drunk is. The dress that was the topic of so many discussions this week isn't, in and of itself, sinful.  So, yes, you may have the right and ability to do some things and you may even know from the word that you're not sinning. But again, your rights aren't the issue, your abilities aren't the issue. We have more to be concerned about. And we are told what that is in the word:

9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. ~ 1 Corinthians 8:9-13

So the real issue is not us but rather our brothers (and sisters). When asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?", we should not hesitate to say yes! Once we are saved and become part of the body of believers, we are set free from the penalty of our sins. This is a freedom gained only in and through Christ. But at the same time we lose the "right" to say and do as we please without concern for our fellow man. That dress may look amazing and you may have the figure for it, but are you aiding your brother in his purity or causing him to lust? 

We are called to be set apart from the world, but instead we see the the church itself and its individual members seeking to blend in with and imitate it. We look like the world, talk like the world, speak like the world and even think like the world does. So much so that they can no longer tell us apart. This of course gives rise to the idea that all Christians are hypocrites, since we seemingly pick and choose which sins are serious based upon our own comfort and convenience. We damage our own testimony by this and hinder our ability to properly (and believably) carry the gospel to the lost. We preach a gospel that is not only supposed to save but also claims to make us new creatures, all things becoming new. Yet we refuse to let go of the old lives and habits we were saved out of.

So, how free are we? Only as free as the slaves of Christ can be. Our lives are no longer our own and we owe it to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to those that have yet to know him to be mindful of how we carry and conduct ourselves, not causing them to stumble but helping them to stand...

YOU'RE WRONG TO SAY I'M WRONG...

Ask any twenty random people on the street which belief system they believe is the right one and you're likely to get twenty different answers. Or would those answers have more in common than you'd think? Almost without fail when I speak of this with people, they are of the mindset "if it's true for them, then that's okay" and "to each his own". That may sound like the loving thing to say or think, since you seem to be considering other's feelings and beliefs. But how loving is it really, especially if you happen to profess to be a Christian?

I'd venture to say that it's not "loving" at all! 

Let me explain. There are truly only two "belief systems" in the world. You have that of man's works and what he can do to get to heaven (or what they may call their version of it). And then you have that of God's work and what he did for us to get to heaven. The former would entail almost every religion in the world from Islam to Mormonism. The latter is Christianity and it pretty much stands alone in this regard. Furthermore, the reason that Christianity is looked down upon and even hated in so much of the world is because of one unique claim found therein. Namely, it's exclusivity! 

What do I mean by exclusivity? I'm referring to Christ's very own claim, 

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through  me.'" John 14:6

It is this claim that sets Christianity apart from every other system we see practiced today and indeed is the reason that Christians are met with hostility in world. Because, this claim leads us to tell others the one thing that is often falsely labeled intolerant...."you're wrong"! Regardless of their zeal or sincerity, we have tell others that what they believe will get them to heaven and who they think does this is wrong.

Now, I admit this is often not an easy thing to say to someone. I once had a conversation with a gentleman at the laundry mat. I believe he was in his late forties, had no children and had been divorced. With all sincerity he told me that it was the Mormon church that saved him and kept him from committing suicide. He had a book of Mormon with him and clutched it as if his life depended on it. 

I could have taken the easy route and just not delved deeper into the topic. But I realized that this wouldn't be the loving thing to do. After all a soul was at stake here. While he spoke, I silently prayed to God about what I should say and how I should say it. When he finished telling me about his experience I calmly and gently began a dialogue with him that I knew would lead him to pick apart his own faulty theology. 

I understand that this would or perhaps will be labeled as intolerant or wrong on my part. But I am convinced that we all have a duty to carry out the Great Commission and carry the gospel to all the people in the world. It just so happens that when we do this we often encounter someones "truth". It may seem feasible to have one person's beliefs to be true for them and ours be true for us and have them both equally accepted as valid. But what happens when our truth says their truth is false? At this point we obviously can't both be right.

This brings us to the label "intolerant". By definition, if I'm tolerant of someone it means I disagree with them about what they think or believe, but I'm okay with them continuing to believe it. I'm tolerating their contradictory beliefs and perhaps even their lifestyle. I'm content to let them live on that way if they choose to do so. Intolerance on the other hand would be if I attacked or ridiculed them and attempted to force them to change their minds or views to match my own. Ironically this is what we see directed towards Christians all the time, be it by the threat of death under Islamic law abroad or in our own cities by the LGBT community doing such things as boycotting their businesses or outright attacking them.

All that being said, you may not find it comfortable that we say you're wrong. But if we didn't do it, then we'd be displaying the lack of love you accuse us of. Do we always do it the right or best way? No. And I apologize for that, but we are human and we tend to err. But in the end your ego and feelings don't matter as much as your soul and believe me it's with all the love in the world that we say...you're wrong!