Love With No Obligations vs. Religion With An Agenda

I highly recommend the films of videographer Darren Wilson.  He simply takes a camera around the world to any place where God seems to be working in a powerful, miraculous way.  While so many Christian churches in North America struggle with direction, growth, and even survival, Darren finds faith in Christ alive in barrier-shattering ways.  And, more often than not, he films the impact of a living Jesus outside the walls of church buildings and in the most marginal, dangerous, and forgotten places on the face of the planet.  Hostile hearts turn God-ward, warlords and witch doctors cring before loving prayer, broken bodies are made whole, and centuries old barriers come crashing down...all because ordinary people wade into the streets and fields of a real world, armed only with prayers of faith, the touch of Christ-like care, and hearts flooded with the unbridled love of Jesus.

In his film THE FINGER OF GOD Darren chronicles the glowing love of Heidi Baker, who ministers among the poor and hopeless of Eastern Europe.  In explaining how God changes lives so dramatically through the ministry she shares with others, Heidi explained that it's the difference between "love with no obligations" and "religion with an agenda."  Miracles happen and lives change with the former; churches dry up and die with the latter.  In one instance Heidi used the translating services of a Turkish pastor to ask a poor Bulgarian woman if she (Heidi) could pray in Jesus' name for her healing.  The pastor told Heidi the woman was Muslim, so she would have to accept Jesus before someone could pray for her healing.  With joyous resolution Heidi lifted the woman before Jesus in prayer, insisting that love comes first.  Jesus didn't wait until we accepted him to die for us.  He died for us first; loved us first, before we loved him.

I believe signs and wonders, miracles, healings and deliverance can happen here.  Darren Wilson believes the doorway to all this is Heidi's kind of unfettered, forget the rules, just-love-'em-into-the-arms-of-Jesus love.  Heidi notes Roland Baker saying that miracles show God exists, but the greatest power is love.

This Saturday many people in our area will participate in an area wide mission blitz called Hope Epidemic.  For those doing so, this is more than cleaning yards, giving away groceries, paying for gas or laundry, or visiting the sick and home bound.  This is about BEING the love of Jesus in flesh and blood.  On Saturday morning look for the person who will not experience Jesus unless he/she experiences him in you.  Just love that person; don't make it complicated.  And be open to a miracle!

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Knowledge Alone is Worthless

I've been spending the last few weeks taking a slow, daily walk through I Corinthians from the Bible.  For those unfamiliar with the movement of following Jesus, this is actually a letter written by a first century leader called Paul to the Jesus-followers in a port city of the Roman Empire known as Corinth; located in the Greek Isles.  In what we know as chapter 8 of that letter Paul addresses a particular concern among followers of Jesus there.  Corinth had a multiplicity of religious practices in its population, and many faith systems followed ritual practices of sacrificing animals to their gods.  Partly as a means of providing an inexpensive food source for poor people, cast off meat from these sacrifices often went on the open market.  Eating meat sacrificed to false gods was abhorrent to people of the Hebrew faith, the parent faith group to the Jesus movement.  However, as the movement grew, many people came to it who were not from Hebrew roots, and knew nothing of these restrictions.  Both groups were represented in the Corinthian gathering of believers, and the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols became one of many bones of contention among the followers there.

As I read this, it seems that both sides of this debate assumed that they had the right knowledge, and that the right knowledge was enough.  One might say, "I know that eating food sacrificed to idols is and always has been against the commandments of God, and everybody should know this."  Another could say, "I know that idols mean nothing, so the sacrifice to them means nothing.  Therefore it's fine to eat such meat; this should make sense to everyone."  So Paul starts right off saying, "...We know that all possess knowledge.  Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up..."  (I Corinthians 8:1 - New International Version of the Bible)   I like it even better the way the Contemporary English Bible translates it:  "Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up."  Paul goes on to express that the issue isn't knowing what's legal or what's permissible.  The issue is what most helps another people experience the sacrificing, life-changing love of Jesus the Christ.  Just knowing something, then cavalierly expecting others to know it as well isn't helpful; it's arrogance.  Not only does this fail to help a person meet Jesus; it actually works against this happening.

I'm afraid we who follow Jesus, starting with the person at this keyboard, are too often guilty of beating the drum of what we know to be true, and expecting everyone else to pony up to that truth automatically, without getting out amongst folks (as Jesus did, BTW) and helping them to understand why certain truths matter.  More importantly, we need to help them see how the truths reflect the living presence of One who is infinite, saving love for them.  As researcher David Kinnemon reminds us, the general North American populace know more about that which Christians are against that what we are for.  In addition, the unreached population feels the haughtiness of Christians who make great pronouncements of what they know, presuming that everyone outside the walls of churches should automatically know these things as well.  This applies to all points on the Christian theological spectrum, from demanding 10 Commandment postings on courthouse walls and prayer in public schools, to condemning people who buy clothing cheaply made in substandard environments in Bangladesh.  Arrogance knows no politics, according to Paul.   And, as he bluntly puts it, knowledge without the love of Jesus is arrogance.

For example, I believe the biblical witness is fairly clear about human sexuality: intimacy is a gift of God for the bonded covenant of a marriage.  By inference and by direct word, any other use of this gift damages something sacred.  However, I live in a world in which presumptions about sexuality are all over the map.  Just as the majority of people in North America are practicing followers of Jesus, so the vast majority have no working familiarity with human relationship standards borne out of a relationship with a covenant God.  If I simply go about barking out pronouncements in Jesus name about same-gender sexual relationships, sexual practices outside of marriage, sexuality before marriage, adulterous relationships, etc. etc., without first showing and speaking of the love of Jesus and how and why He changes everything about how we live and treat others, then I am a stumbling block.   (See Matthew 18:7 in the Bible for a stinging indictment on this.)   I have acted on knowledge alone, without love.

Just my thoughts on this Tuesday...I'll see you around the next bend in the river.