As you might surmise from the title, this series is going to cover a lot of ground. Believe it or not, there is an underlying theme that links these subjects. This theme has to do with an underlying naïveté that affects all of us. How many have heard these types of comments in Christian circles?
-Tiger Woods is such a clean-cut kind of guy and his wife is gorgeous! I can’t believe he was involved with all of those women.
-My pastor is a man of God. He would never lie, have an affair, steal, or be in ministry to make a lot of money.
-Billy Joe became a Christian. Yeah, he used to have problems with drugs and little boys. But Jesus has healed him! Thank you Jesus!
-I can’t believe that Sally and Phil got a divorce. They had the “perfect” marriage and were always in church. Heck, he was a deacon!
-The women in that church are unfriendly, cliquey, and gossipy. That is supposed to be a Christian church.
-Jimmy Carter says he’s born again. How could he speak so harshly of the President?
Many of us remember becoming Christians. At first, it was all so amazing. We began a relationship with God through prayer and Scripture reading. We were baptized and joined a church. We witnessed and fellowshipped. Yet, as time went on and we matured in the faith, we began to perceptive that something in the Christian world was amiss. Just when we felt we had “conquered one sin” in our lives, we began to perceive other sins. And even more than our own sin problems, we became acutely aware of the sins of our Christian brothers and sisters. Then we began to deal with this reality of sin in different ways. Here are just a few.
-Well, I may not be perfect, but I’m a lot better than I was. (Does this see to fall a bit flat, even to the person saying it?)
-He’s just a baby Christian. (Have you ever heard this said of people who have been Christians for a whole long while? And they seem to be awfully big for babies?)
– I try and try and I keep screwing up. I am a lousy Christian. What’s wrong with me? (Deep down inside, do you feel like this a lot? In fact, don’t you even like this person better then the self-righteous “together” pastor?)
Then, some try the legalistic approach to solving these problems. You know, if you just try really, really hard, you will “be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So, you embark on a campaign of perfection. When you fail, you pretend you’re perfect to the outside world. And sometimes you justify it because you really feel you must be better than Tiger Woods, don’t you? (Don’t I?)
And this is where CJ Mahaney and gang step in. They understand the problem of sin really well. In fact, they will tell you just how sinful you are. And then they make a big deal of how they are the “worst sinner” of all. (As an aside, have you ever thought how egotistical it is when these guys fight over how they each are the worst sinner? Go to a Sovereign Grace Church and you will understand what we mean. You see, in some strange way, they prove just how humble and deserving they are of admiration by playing this stupid game).
Then, the worst sinner, which would be C.J. since he is in charge and gets to make the decision as the “Head Apostle” gets to tell you, the lesser sinner (by default), how much of a sinner you are. And then he, the worst sinner, has a cure for you. Shut up, don’t make suggestions, go to your assigned care group, and do whatever you are told. And, if a teenage member of the church molests your kid, forgive the teen immediately and stop complaining! To read this true story (CJ- be ashamed), go to
http://www.sgmsurvivors.com/?p=276
So, what is the problem? We can’t seem to win in this Christian life.
"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." ( 1 John 3:9-10-NIV)
All of us would admit to ongoing sin in our lives. Yet this verse seems to indicate that we cannot go on sinning. At this point, I want to defer to a wonderful teacher at a great web site that we highly recommend. It is called "Apt to Teach" and can be found at this link:
http://www.apttoteach.org/Book_studies/Hard%20questions/20_Positional_Truth_notes.pdf
Actually, we, in Jesus, have won, big time! When we become Christians, what changes? Our standing with God changes. Where once we were unrighteous, we are now positionally “righteous” before God. This happens immediately and “irrevocably.” This site uses the example of the ceremonial cleansing of the priests in the Temple before certain ceremonies. That priest had not changed in essence yet was now positionally clean to perform his sacred duties . (We can imagine the comments in that day. “Boy, that Levi acts so holy but I saw him kick his donkey yesterday. And he thinks he is some big shot at the Temple!”)
Some things never change. For example, if we are financially poor and live in India, we are still poor and live in India. We still have the same genes and the same relatives.
Then, the author goes onto explain that some things change gradually and incompletely. These will include such things wisdom, character, moral perfection, spirituality, etc.
The author makes two important points that help in the matters that we will be addressing this week. The first involves what happens to us as when we become Christians. Our conversion removes the focus from me to God and others. God works in and through this imperfect me as His disciple. In so doing, He changes me. He teaches me patience as I raise my children. In teaching me patience, He helps me to be a better mother.
For several years my children attended Camp Kanakuk, which stresses the “I’m Third” principle. This means God first, others second, me third. As I respond to God as His disciple, He will lead me down paths in service to others. In serving others, we begin to discover His love, and in so doing, become more loving.
This brings us to the second point. This process is ongoing and will be incomplete in this life. This means that we will grow in love but will experience, on far too many occasions, that we do not love whatsoever. This does not mean we are not Christians. We most definitely are! What we are not is perfect. We are routinely convicted by the Holy Spirit who enables us to obey, but we will not do so perfectly. We must be in regular fellowship in good churches and Bible studies that continue the work of the Holy Spirit by opening our hearts to God’s work in and through us.
Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard this all before. What does this have to do with abusive ministries, lying, and uncompassionate pastors and so on and on? Everything! Christians should be the first to recognize the failings of our lives. Instead, we have set ourselves up on a pedestal, telling the world how to act, and then failing at the very thing we tell others not to do. How many divorces are there in today’s churches? Incredibly, it's the same number as the world at large! Why does the world delight in kicking a fallen “famous” Christian? Because, oftentimes, said Christian delighted in condemning the world around him. One only has to look at the ministry of Ted Haggard to see this.
As we have looked at the ministries of folks like Mac Brunson, we see the seeds of this problem. How the world longs for truly humble pastors. By this we mean one who lives it, not some Sovereign Grace game of who’s the worst sinner. How many church disasters could have been averted by a quick admission of guilt from a pastor who screwed up and then threw himself on his congregation for mercy. Praise God that we, personally, have seen this from at least two pastors. Unfortunately, we have not seen this from many more. Neither has the watching world. We act as arrogant as the New Atheists.
I (Dee) am currently reading (on my new Kindle which I love!) the fourth book in the Ted Dekker series called Green. ( The others were Black, Red, and White). In this book, there are the followers of God who were once part of the Horde who are a group of murderous warriors who are covered with ugly sores, which are very painful. They must cover themselves with a dirt paste in order to get just a tiny bit of relief. They cannot wash in plain water because it is too painful. They are angry and in chronic pain and are always attempting to kill the followers of God.
Yet, all they have to do to be cured is to immerse themselves in red water which will drown them but raise them cleared of the disease. One of the God followers is the daughter of the head of the Horde army. Her son hates the Horde and wishes to kill them all. He views his mother as “ridiculous” because she shows such love for her father and other members of the Horde who wish to kill her and the others. She understands that although she is positionally changed, all that separates her from her father is the red lake which was put there by God.
In the coming days, we will look at a current controversy involving Mike Huckabee as well as one involving pedophiles and a church. We also have an stinging assessment on one of these issues from a well known ex-Christian psychologist. Stay tuned…