The Outward Appearance

The adage is, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” There are a lot of really good books that don’t have fancy covers, and there are other books that have really nice covers but don’t have much of anything worth reading inside. 2 Corinthians 10:7 tells us not to judge by the outward appearance. Paul was upset at the church at Corinth because they were showing favoritism based on how people looked. Some people still do that, today, even in church. Let’s be honest about it, the economy is tough. If somebody comes to church, and their Sunday best happens to be jeans and a T-shirt, what is that to you? Granted, if you have nice clothes that you could wear to church, and you choose to wear something grubby, that’s disrespectful. The question is, if someone else comes to church wearing casual attire, you should consider that those clothes might be the very best they have.

This applies to other things, as well. Some people are just big-boned, or have a really slow metabolism. If someone appears to be large enough to be unhealthy, that may be an indication that they suffer from gluttony, but that would be between them and God. For all you know, they have been dieting and/or exercising for some time now, and they just haven’t been able to lose the weight. A person’s size doesn’t have anything to do with where they stand with God, and it shouldn’t make any difference to how you treat that individual.

Now, we, as Christians, know that the outward appearance is not, and never has been, what mattered, but we also know that many other people don’t understand that. We must be ready to do good to all people, even the ones that want to nitpick how we look. Don’t misunderstand me, we as Christians should try to look our best, as ambassadors for Christ. Understand that when people don’t want what you’re trying to give them, one of the easiest ways to push back is to criticize. It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? If Ed McMahon showed up on their doorstep with a great big check, they wouldn’t tell him that he was fat, or that they didn’t like what he was wearing, they would be too excited about all that money. Here we are trying to give people something so much more valuable than simple cash, and they want to give us a hard time for not meeting their expectations as far as how we look.

The bottom line is that, even though we know better than to pass judgment, sometimes we do it anyway, so we certainly shouldn’t expect others to show us that courtesy. We just have to remember that our purpose is greater than we are, and none of us is perfect, so someone who wants to nitpick will always be able to find fault. Jesus said that if He would be lifted up, that He would draw all men unto Him. He didn’t say that if we dressed nicely, or if we had perfect figures, of if we were as handsome or as beautiful as movie stars, that we would draw people to Christ… Sharing the Gospel isn’t about us, but we should be about spreading the Gospel. If anyone wants to blame us for not sharing the Gospel effectively, based on how we look, then they should be talking to God about that, and I really don’t think that excuse is going to fly very far (if at all).

Nobody's Perfect

Some have posed the question, “Why would God use people like ______ to do His work?” Fill in the blank with just about any character in the Bible you would like. For example, Abraham, father and patriarch of all of Israel, the man to whom the Promise was given, tried to pass off Sarah as his sister once because he was afraid that he would be killed by a man or men that wanted Sarah for themselves. Of course, the man that he feared most was indeed attracted to Sarah, but, since he believed that Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister, he just took her. It turns out that he wasn’t the kind of guy that would have killed a man just to take his wife, anyway, but even if he had been, shouldn’t Abraham have trusted God to protect him? Of course he should have. So, basically what we have learned about Abraham is that he suffered from cowardice. So why would God use someone like Abraham?

If that were not bad enough, apparently Abraham was so ashamed of himself for his actions that he didn’t tell Isaac about it. Many years later, Isaac and Rebekah were in the same city, Gerar, under the same king, Abimelech, and Isaac told the same lie for the same reason. So why would God use someone like Isaac?

When David was king over all of Israel, he found himself attracted to a woman that was one of his neighbors, in fact, she was the wife of one of David’s mighty men. He had her brought into his home, and later had her husband killed, so that he could marry her. Why would God use someone like David?

Peter denied the Lord three times, after promising Jesus that he would follow Him into death if it came to that. I can somewhat understand that Peter’s world had just been rocked; he followed Jesus for three years, and, even though Jesus tried to warn him what was coming, Peter was not ready for the arrest. While he was trying to figure it out, to reconcile what he thought he had known with what had just happened, some people started talking to him about being one of Jesus’ disciples. Why would God use someone like Peter?
To be honest, we could go down the list of all the people in the Bible, and they all have faults, except for Jesus Himself. Some of them were fortunate enough to not have their faults actually mentioned in the Scriptures, but every one of them had faults. Paul even talked about his thorn in the flesh; how he sought God to remove it, but God finally told him that he needed the thorn to keep him from being exalted above measure (in other words, God didn’t want Paul to get a big head).

So why is it, that all through the Bible, God used imperfect people to carry out His perfect will? Let me ask you a question: What other kind of people would He have used? The Bible tells us that all have sinned, and all have come short of the glory of God. Let me ask you another question: If God hadn’t been able to use imperfect people all through the Bible, then how would He ever manage to be able to use you? Or, for that matter, how could I believe that God could ever use me? To be honest, I still struggle with that concept. But, if you and I wait for someone perfect to come along and do the work of God, we are going to have a long wait. He has already been here, and He has left it up to us, now. We just need to open up and let Him work through us.

Compel Them to Come In

In Luke 14, Jesus tells a parable about a Lord who has planned a celebration, a feast, and has invited many people to attend. Apparently, these people all seemed pleased at the prospect when they were invited, but, for various reasons, begged off of attending the actual event. Seems awfully strange to me: usually you don’t any trouble getting people to show up for a free meal (heck, if a dinner is being held as a fund-raiser for something that most people think is a good cause, you can get people to line up to pay $100 a plate for overcooked chicken). In any case, this Lord finds himself with a big dinner prepared, and no guests. He tells his servants to go out into the streets and the hedges and take the halt and the blind and compel them to come to his dinner. Clearly, this is directed at us. We, as God’s servants, have been commanded to compel people into the Kingdom of God.
Now, many people have taken this to mean that we should browbeat and Bible thump people into accepting Jesus as Lord. They will tell you that it is not enough for us make sure that those around us know that we are Christians, we must make sure that they understand that they are going to Hell if they don’t accept Christ, and just how severe the torment in Hell will be. I respectfully disagree. It seems to me that, in this day and age especially, people know what Hell is, and, although I suspect that most people underestimate Hell, they do generally understand that they don’t want to wind up there. I think that it is much more important to get across to people how much God loves them, and that He really wants people to come to Him, and that He is prepared to reward those that diligently seek Him. In other words, the carrot usually works better than the stick (don’t misunderstand me, though, not everyone will respond to God’s love initially, and you may need to talk about Hell—allow yourself to be led of God, and it will all work out).
Think about Paul and Silas in the Thessalonian jail. They didn’t preach Hellfire and brimstone to the jailer, or to the other prisoners, they just praised God. One might wonder how they were able to praise God in that circumstance, but they had an understanding that God didn’t torture them, the enemies of God did, and, even if they didn’t understand why God allowed them to be tortured, they knew that God had a plan, and that they didn’t have to understand His plan; they just had to play their part. As they praised God, though, the jailer fell asleep; there was an earthquake, the chains fell off their arms and legs, and the jail doors opened up. The jailer woke up, and seeing the doors open, assumed that his prisoners had escaped. I’m not sure what would have happened if his superiors would have come in the next morning and found him asleep with an empty jail, but I’m sure it would not have been pleasant. He pulled out his sword and started to kill himself, but Paul stopped him. When the jailer realized that none of the prisoners had escaped, he knew that he was not dealing with ordinary men. In the first place, he had never seen doors and shackles just spontaneously open before, and, in the second place, not only did they not escape when given the opportunity, they cared enough about him to not let him take his own life. Why should these prisoners care about him? The answer is that they cared about him because God cared about him. Paul and Silas recognized that Jesus died for the Thessalonian jailer’s sins, too.
My point is, they didn’t tell him that he was going to Hell for throwing them in jail; instead, they followed God’s demonstration of power with a personal demonstration of God’s love. That’s what the Thessalonian jailer really needed to know, and that’s what most people today really need to know.

Freedom

Many years ago, Janis Joplin made the claim that "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." I suppose that's one form of freedom, perhaps even the purest form, but it isn't the best form.
Our nation's founders stated that they believed that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Obviously, there are some curtails on our liberty; the government can't allow my right to liberty to infringe on your right to life, no matter how much I might want that. By the same token, your right to pursue happiness should not be allowed to infringe on my right to liberty. I would hope that any of us who celebrated the Fourth of July were reminded of that (Do they have the Fourth of July in other countries? Of course they do, they just don’t celebrate it).
Jesus said that we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. We have a freedom in Christ that is like no other. Even then, there are consequences to our freedoms. Apostle Paul said that all things are lawful unto me, but not all things are expedient. There are some things that I have the freedom to do, but that would eventually hurt me, or hurt those around me. I have been commanded to love others as I would love myself, so I have to mindful of how my actions impact other people. I could, of course, learn to love myself very little, and then not have to worry about others, but, no, I don't think that’s how it’s supposed to work. God loves me, and He thinks I'm worth loving, even though sometimes I don't understand why. He expects me to love myself, too.
At the same time, we are told to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. Wait, what about my freedom? I still have my freedom, but there are consequences for exercising my choices, if they are not wise choices. God doesn't expect us to be robots, blindly obeying His every command; He wants us to obey His commands out of love, respect, and trust. If God knows what’s best for us, doesn't that mean that what He commands is going to be better for us than what we think of by ourselves? Keep in mind, He can see the big picture; we can't. He knows exactly what we are capable of, and how much help He is going to have to give us in order for us to perform that which He asks of us. We, so often, get caught up in thinking that we can't; it’s too big, and we forget that what ever got wants us to do, He's going to help us with. Nothing's too big for God. There is a lot of freedom in that, believe me.

I hate it when people overlook the obvious. Sometimes I wonder if what they are overlooking is only obvious to me. For example, many times I have heard people comment on the contention between Paul and Barnabas in Acts 15:38, and they say, "Now, we don't know what the contention was between Paul and Barnabas..." And I say, "You don't? Did you try reading the previous two verses?" It seems obvious to me that Barnabas felt very strongly that God wanted him to work with Mark, but he had grown so accustomed to working with Paul that it really didn't even occur to him that he was supposed to work with Mark instead of working with Paul. Meanwhile, Paul felt very strongly that he wasn't supposed to work with Mark, but he also was very accustomed to working with Barnabas, and it didn't occur to him, either, that Barnabas should work with Mark and Paul should find someone else to work with. But Barnabas insisted that they should work with Mark, and Paul insisted that they should not, and eventually they realized that they could no longer work together--which is what God wanted all along anyway. So Barnabas worked with Mark, and Paul worked with Silas.

Paul and Silas went on to be thrown in jail in Thessalonica, but then led a revival in the jail. That's an interesting story in and of itself. Paul and Silas, having been beaten badly, and having their feet locked in stocks in the inner prison, began praising God. The other prisoners heard them, and had to have thought that these guys are nuts--just completely whacked out of their gourds--but then, God sent an earthquake, and the stocks came loose, and the door to the cell opened. The jailer awoke, and seeing the door opened, assumed that Paul and Silas had escaped. Knowing what kind of punishment he would receive, and the disgrace to his family, the jailer thought it better to kill himself on the spot. He pulled out his sword, and Paul, knowing what was going through the jailer's mind, stopped him, and assured him that no one had escaped. The first thought in the jailers mind was probably that these guys are nuts... but he realized that Paul was the kind of man that didn't want to be even partially responsible for someone else's death. This Paul, he's real, he could have walked away and let me die, but he put my own life above his own (think about it: Paul didn't know what the morning held, he and Silas could very easily have been executed for their alleged crimes). What drives a man like that? How can I be more like that? The jailer took Paul and Silas to his own home, tended to their injuries, they shared with him the gospel message, and he was baptized, and his whole family (at what time? 2:00 AM? We know it was midnight when Paul and Silas started worshipping in their cell...) I wonder what the jailer's wife thought when he brought two prisoners home in the middle of the night (in the middle of his shift), and woke her up, and wanted her to listen to what they had to say... She probably thought her husband was nuts--completely whacked out of his gourd, but she knew that something had changed his life. Insanity is not contagious, but, sometimes, sanity is.

Faith Without Works

'Christianity Today' magazine has an interesting article in it about a 'new perspective' on the writings of Apostle Paul. A lot of this revolves around references in Galatians chapter 2 (and elsewhere) to 'the works of the law.' The 'new perspective' is that, perhaps Paul was only referring to the core aspects of Judaism: Sabbath, circumcision, and food laws; and that he didn't mean that we, as Christians, were absolved of responsibility in doing good works. This has long been a tight-rope act of Christian thinkers. If salvation is a free gift, then can we simply do nothing except mouth the words, 'Jesus is Lord!' and be saved? On the other hand, if works are required, then why does Paul say that 'by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified?' I think you have to look at some of the other things that Paul wrote (and even some other things in the Bible).

For starters, let's look down to verse 21 (still in Galatians chapter 2): "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." The point here is that Mosaic law tends to be a list of do's and don't's: Do this, don't do that, if you do, then sacrifice two turtledoves... In the next chapter (Galatians 3), in verses 24 and 25, Paul also tells us that the law was a 'schoolmaster' to bring us to Christ--to prepare us for the Messiah--but we are no longer under that schoolmaster. Jesus said that He was here to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). Further on in Galatians (chapter 5), Paul chides the Galatians for trying to live under Mosaic law, and yet live a Christian life. It isn't a matter of measuring oneself against an ancient checklist, it's a matter of walking in the spirit.

But isn't it faith that saves us? Absolutely. But, at the same time, James challenges us to demonstrate faith without works, and even goes on to say that faith without works is dead. Still later in the chapter, he compares faith without works to a body without a spirit. Do you think James meant what he said? Does this disagree with what Paul wrote? Take a look at Hebrews chapter 11. Notice that all through the chapter, faith is linked to works. I want to particularly point out that in verse 17 it makes reference to what many consider to be the ultimate test of faith--Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac. As Christians, we can see that this foreshadowed Christ's crucifixion, but my point is that, for Abraham, it was a test of faith. Did God doubt Abraham's faith? Of course not, God formed Abraham--God knew Abraham's heart better than Abraham himself did. The test was for Abraham; God wanted Abraham to know how much faith he had.

Likewise God tests our faith on a regular basis; not so that He can see how much faith we have, but so that we can see how much faith we, as individuals, have. Many of us fail these tests, and then excuse ourselves by saying, 'Not of works, lest any man should boast,' missing the next verse, which tells us that we are created unto good works. We have become completely oblivious to the fact that while we trust that our faith will save us, we continually fail test after test of our faith. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus told His disciples--the men who would later become known as the Apostles--that they had too much unbelief, and that if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed, they could move mountains. Now, a mustard seed is pretty small, and a mountain is pretty big, and, obviously, if you're trying to move a mountain that God doesn't want moved, you're not going to accomplish much. But my question (and this question is as much to myself as it is to anyone else) is this: What have you done lately, that proves that you believe--even if it only proves it to yourself?

Reality

I have been curious as to what the brouhaha was about as far as the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ that is being proposed in Congress. The liberals want fairness in media, the conservatives have been complaining for years that the main-stream media is too liberal, but they are fighting the Fairness Doctrine. WIRED magazine reported on the fairness doctrine, and there, in the third paragraph, is the explanation. Conservative talk show hosts exposed the liberals attempt to grant amnesty to the illegal immigrants, even though the main stream media ignored the bill. People found out, and a lot of the members of Congress got a lot of angry communication from their constituents. I wonder what sort of E-mails and letters they would have gotten if they had actually gotten the bill to pass. It strikes me as particularly odd, since George Clooney’s movie, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' quotes the journalist Edward R. Murrow as saying that sometimes you just can’t present both side of an argument and still be fair to the facts. I guess this Congress hasn't seen that movie.
If the 'Fairness Doctrine' becomes law, does that mean that anytime Al Gore's movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth' is played, that the BBC's documentary, 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' will be played also? BTW, out of a sense of fairness (if you'll pardon the expression), I feel I must point out that I found out about the BBC's film because one of the scientists (perhaps the only scientist), Professor Carl Wunsch, has since said that his statements were taken out of context and that he absolutely believes in global warming, but that some things that have been presented as fact by the media are really just theories.
How would the 'Fairness Doctrine' play on the subject of honor killing? Newsweek ran an article on the Juha sisters, who were killed in Gaza, allegedly after having been found guilty of prostitution in a considerably less than formal court. Now there is a man being held for murder, but there isn't much hue and cry about three girls being murdered, because it was an honor killing. It's tradition. Newsweek quotes the man who found the bodies as saying that this is not their religion, but it is tradition. I am not familiar enough with Islam to know, one way or the other. I do know the Jesus talked about men making the law of God of none effect by their tradition...
Really, though, what's on my mind is this: People either think that once you become a Christian, then you become perfect, and you never have any more problems, or people think that Christianity is *obviously* not the true religion, because it has so many imperfect people in it. I guess that's really kind of the same thing, but neither one is true. People tend to be, whether Christian or not, generally those type of people generally referred to as human beings. We make mistakes. When you stop making mistakes, then you are no longer human. Human people have a hard time relating to people that are not human, so God leaves us human after He redeems us. Much as I would like to stop making mistakes...
Let me just throw in 3 quick links: Two for commentaries in Christianity Today magazine: one, and two; and one in Newsweek here.
Somebody told me recently that he had noticed a sign of political correctness creeping into the church: Where we used to talk about 'Saints and Sinners,' we now say 'Churched and Unchurched.' I don't think that it's got anything to do with PC, I think it's just a casting off of naiveté. We used to think that when people became saints, they stopped being sinners. We have come to realize that we still fall short. Apostle Paul wrote extensively about his own struggles with sin in Romans 7.
It has been pointed out that, during the early years of the United States, it was common practice for preachers to preach using passages of Scripture that talked about servants pleasing their masters to justify slavery. In retrospect, that was obviously wrong. On the other hand, who were the abolitionists? Do you know of any abolitionist that wasn't a Christian? We can look to the Spanish Inquisition, and see what a horrible thing that was, done in the Name of Jesus. We can even look to the stories in the Bible. Scripture tells us that David was a man after God's own heart, and yet David had an affair with Bathsheba, and then had her husband, Uriah, killed, to cover it up. Does that sound like something God would do? Of course not; but it shows that even the best and most blessed of us make mistakes. No wonder David said that he was shapen in iniquity.
I've commented before that we, as human beings, are capable of great monstrosities. Even those of us who call ourselves Christians sometimes make horrendous mistakes. I've known people that were 'unchurched' who lived better lives than some of us who are 'churched.' Why does God allow such things? God gave us free will. We are free to do what is good, or what is evil (as melodramatic as that may sound). The nice thing about freedom is that it makes it pretty easy to tell who does the right thing simply because it is the right thing, as opposed to those who do the right thing simply out of a sense of obligation. Unfortunately, it also makes it easy for some people to just not do the right thing at all. If you can come up with a system in which all human beings have free will, and yet no one ever wants to do anything selfish or just plain wrong, I'd love to hear it. Or better yet, explain your idea to God (but try not to talk down to Him too much).