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Simply Resting in God’s Plan Salvation Plan

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Having some deep, theological thoughts this morning… probably a little too much for so little sleep.

I was just wrestling with why God doesn’t simply change everyone’s hearts to turn towards him. I processed through this at the speed of an old desktop computer, chugging and grinding through the possibilities (again, it was early).

Then God seemed to calm my mind and heart and remind me that “He is in control” and that He desires all to come to know Him freely, not out of robotic, ritualistic, coerced religion. Something about this just clicked and I rested in the thought that God knows our hearts and wants each of us to come to Him. He is so patiently waiting for us.

So this morning, I lift up neighbors in the 10, that their hearts would be yielded to God and that nothing would hold them back. I worship God for His almighty faithfulness and wisdom that is so far beyond my understanding (even at a reasonable hour). The “Jesus Culture” Pandora radio station saturates the background of this post and my heart is re-postured to the Lord in submission and awe of His glorious power, plan and untainted, unending fervor for drawing every heart to Himself. www.wearemission.com/pray

Two Lepers Bricks

Clean! Clean!

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This morning I was reading through a 365-day Bible reading plan and I’m traversing through Leviticus — lots of fun! (not really) Luckily, it’s coupled with the New Testament so I don’t give up while going through all the laws and regulations of the old covenant.

Lepers BricksLeviticus 13 is a chapter that would only interest a medical student. It describes the laborious process of determining if someone is clean or unclean from skin diseases as well as how to handle them if they are indeed unclean. Some may have heard this before, but those with leprosy in that time were declared ceremonially unclean, which meant they couldn’t be touched, were instructed not to brush their hair, forced to live outside the city and required to cover their mouths and yell “unclean! unclean!” when they came in town. Some historians teach that the lepers were required to bang bricks together while they yelled so that everyone heard them and could stand clear.

However, if the open sores heal and turn white like the rest of the skin, the person must return to the priest 17 for another examination. If the affected areas have indeed turned white, the priest will then pronounce the person ceremonially clean by declaring, ‘You are clean!’Leviticus 13:16-17

How sweet would it have been to be declared “clean” after months or years of separation from society? from the affection of human touch? from self-dignity and honor?

Many of us feel as if we are ceremonially unclean. We feel that something deep within us is dirty and unloveable. There is a lie deep within that says “I don’t have what it takes” or, especially for women, “I’m damaged and not captivating”. Maybe it’s our past sin or something that marked us when we were young, but I guarantee that the parts that you despise about others, the parts that disgust you most, are the same parts that you despise about yourself the most.

Our inability to love others well is not the disease but the symptom of our own self contempt.

Thankfully, about the time that boredom had taken over, the chapter ended and I read the coinciding New Testament chapter. John 13 describes the last supper with Christ, in which he demonstrates love and humility by washing his own student’s feet. It is evident in the story that Christ knew who would betray him; all the disciples would eventually flee, Peter would deny Christ three times and Judas Iscariot would sell Jesus over to the high priest for 30 silver coins.

Let me take a brief moment and marvel at this, because I’m just realizing it. It’s so interesting to me that the disciples choices were to run, lie or get greedy. Aren’t those our natural tendencies when things get hard?

Jesus says something here that left me reeling for a few minutes as to what He meant. John 13:8 reads: “‘No,’ Peter protested, ‘you will never ever wash my feet!’ Jesus replied, ‘Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.‘”

How often are we confronted with the reality of our inadequacy and our response is, “Nah, I’ll fix it”? There is something about this verse that just left me hanging. Especially after reading Leviticus and seeing to what length someone must go in order to be ceremonially clean — “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.” I didn’t quite understand. Was this a ceremonial thing? Was this about baptism? Some versions hinted at it being about the disciples suffering along with Jesus. But none seemed to settle the issue for me.

Then it hit me. Within hours of Jesus telling them this, they would each go about betraying him and would be marked with such grief and guilt that one of them would end up hanging himself. They would be deemed ceremonially unclean in their hearts and minds for knowing they they ran, lied and betrayed the one who they professed to love. They were about to commit the biggest sin of their lives and Jesus was saying, “I already know, and I claim you as my own.”

Are you willing to be washed by Christ? He sees your sin and knows the areas of yourself that even you can’t forgive. Those areas that disgust you when you see them in others. God came for those. Christ died for those.

This goes for believers and skeptics: Stop trying to resist the cleansing forgiveness being offered to you. You can take off the lepers clothes and drop the bricks. Jesus calls you “Clean! Clean!”

So what’s holding you back? What is it that you are self-righteous enough to declare unforgivable when Christ has already forgiven you?

Homeless John

First United Church of Oddballs and Outcasts

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Homeless JohnWhen you look at our churches and the people that attend, who do you see? What types of people?

How ’bout when you walk the downtown alleyways, sit at that lonesome school lunch table or order your fast food? What kind of people do you see then? Are they the same group of people?

When I read through the New Testament, I get the picture that a good number of the people Jesus was walking the streets to find were the lonesome, the outcast and the oddballs — those that had been rejected, dejected and ignored.

Where this hits me the hardest is when I look at my life. It’s easy to point fingers at everyone else who has built their lives around people that make them feel comfortable, safe and loved. But when I realize that I’ve done the same, the mood turns sour. I’ve protected myself from those whom Jesus pursued most.

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?
-James 2:1

If you were to do an inventory on those in my life, you would find that most are friends who are independent (so I don’t need to offer much of myself), like-minded (so I don’t need to change) and successful (so I can share in their success). The sad truth is that it’s natural for me to get my worth from those around me; what they think of me, what they offer me and how they make me feel. Am I not showing favoritism when every person in my life is easy to love?

Turning the corner
So what do I do with this reality? I know that my heart and mind do not consciously decide these things, but they become truths over the course of time, as my life slips into the ravine of convenience and comfort. My first step is to acknowledge this and repent. Repentance is an old concept that means sincere remorse.

The second step would intuitively be to try harder, to be better, to love more, but I’ve learned that this isn’t the way to achieving the end goal. Instead, the root of it all lies in my source of worth. Because I receive my worth and value from what people think of me, my behavior will inevitably stem from that. So I must come to God and allow myself to be healed and filled by His love. There are areas of my life that I deem “unloveable” or “unforgivable”, but His endless love is capable of saturating even those areas.

From that full place, having received true, unselfish love, I am able to move towards those who are unloved by society — not needing anything from them, or even needing to change them in order to feel successful. Simply to extend love from the overflow of God’s ceaseless spring.

The Church of job fairs, fantasy conventions and death metal
The cultural outcast is the tax collector of our day. Somehow it feels easier to love the poor in third-world countries than it is to befriend the cultural oddballs of our day.

This may look different depending on your context, but I’m trying to picture the people that are socially rejected in our current day. They may be the unemployed or foreclosed-upon; the sci-fi convention attenders or the office janitor; the headphone-wearing punk kid in town or the shy relative. I’m really not sure who it is in your life. For me, God is revealing who that “outcast” is in my life.

I believe the sign of a healthy church is one with diversity. When I walk into a church where every member is the same, it’s good and edifying, but it’s not the best. It’s not what God intended. There is a church near Denver called “Scum of the Earth” which started as a church for the punks and outcasts who were not well-received in existing churches in the area. I think that churches would be healthier if they had a few more mohawks and homeless congregating in their foyer after the service.

Now, I’m not saying that it is wrong to have friends who share affinity with you; common interests, ability to encourage or give back to you. I’m not saying that churches that don’t have punks or trekkers running around are wrong, but I am saying that God is challenging me to take inventory on my “personal social network” and ask some serious questions. I’m also saying that if the solution comes from simply trying harder, we’re missing the mark. Instead, the sustainable solution comes from drawing near to the heart of God and allowing our hearts to break for what breaks His.

Join me in dreaming about what it would look like to live this out; in pursuit of God’s heart and in extending that love towards the social outskirts.