"...and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men...
...unless they don't think like you think, look like you look, believe in what you believe in, vote the way you vote, sin the way you sin, smell the way you smell, eat what you eat, or are different from you in any observable way, no matter how minute the detail. Then it is okay to spew hate-filled bile and venom onto them, their children, and their children's children in the name of doctrinal purity and an uncompromised stand for the truth of God's Word until their contaminated bloodline is extinguished from the Earth." - Luke 2:14 (The Ignorant Believer's Translation of the Holy Scriptures)
Stop me if you've heard this one before:
A young twenty-something year old preacher's son reveals a secret about himself that he has struggled with his entire life. The revelation is that he is gay and the father's reaction to this revelation is a prime example of what is wrong with most of modern Christianity.
Ostracized and rejected, the young man moves away from his home and everyone he ever knew to seek refuge from the 'righteous' judgement from the only people on the planet who were supposed to show him unconditional love. I'm not just talking about his father or extended family members (who received this revelation about the way you would expect.). I'm talking about the larger family of believers who have benefited greatly from unconditional love and forgiveness themselves.
Now in his 30s, this young man still struggles with the pain and rejection he received, and continues to receive, from the Body of Christ at large. Yeah, it's a true story that has happened in my extended family and yeah, this story is repeated regularly within God's churches.
Now before anyone starts sharpening their pitchforks and lighting their torches, I need to make something very, very clear. I am in no way attempting to liberalize the scriptures and teach a very modern perspective on homosexuality. On the contrary, what this post, and indeed this entire blog is about is understanding the difference between our human perspectives and God's. If there is anything I have learned in the last decade of my journey with God it is that our perspective and God's are as far removed from each other as the East is from the West.
Of course, that fact doesn't stop God's people from operating from our own perspective while speaking on His behalf whether we know what we're talking about or not.
One of the most challenging aspects of Christianity, especially for ministers, is learning how to recognize the difference between our opinions and perspectives and God's. Much damage has been done to the Body of Christ by well intentioned but woefully misguided souls who sought to bring correction to a fellow Christian from a carnal position of human understanding rather than a Spirit-filled, Spirit led perspective.
Every minister on the planet struggles with this, including me. God knows I have mistaken my perspective for God's many times over the years. It is very easy to assume my thoughts on sin and God's are in lock-step and act accordingly. After all, we are all taught that if we observe activity that we perceive to be "sinful" we are to bring correction with the authority of scripture. If you have the title of "minister", it is your duty to correct sins, real or imagined, with the passion of Peter and the zeal of Paul.
Every minister on the planet struggles with this, including me. God knows I have mistaken my perspective for God's many times over the years. It is very easy to assume my thoughts on sin and God's are in lock-step and act accordingly. After all, we are all taught that if we observe activity that we perceive to be "sinful" we are to bring correction with the authority of scripture. If you have the title of "minister", it is your duty to correct sins, real or imagined, with the passion of Peter and the zeal of Paul.
While this may sound super spiritual and righteous, the reality is most of the correction performed in Christianity is baptized in carnal thought processes and pride-filled agendas that have more resemblance to rock-tossing Pharisees than Spirit-filled saints 'speaking the truth in love'.
For example:
The church I pastored in Galena Park was a very educational experience for me on how to NOT act in a Christ-like manner when it came to correcting sins. One occasion involved an unmarried young couple (who were "living in sin") whom I had the privilege of leading to Christ over an extended period of time of home Bible studies. They were excited to be baptized into their new church home and showed up at Sunday services just oozing with the energy that only comes from newborn Christians. I very happily baptized both of them and, as was our custom, invited their new church family to welcome them to the church at the end of the baptismal service.
The following Sunday, my newborn members were no-shows for service. Considering their 'unchurched' status prior to their salvation, I didn't think much of it. When you're used to sleeping in on Sunday, rolling out of bed for church can be a challenging adjustment to even the most radically saved believer. I reached out to them the following week and got no response. When the weeks turned to months with no sign of them, I knew there was a problem that went well beyond weekend sleeping habit adjustments.
It was several months later when I finally found the young man at his home. To say his reception of my unannounced visit was awkward is an understatement of Biblical proportions. He clearly did not want to talk to me but since this was my first interaction with either of them since their baptism, I knew I had to take advantage of this opportunity to find out what had happened. After several minutes of lame excuses (sickness, change in work schedule, more sickness), the truth finally came out. By the time he finished telling me why they had not returned to church following their baptism, I was physically ill.
It seems that my well intentioned, but horribly misguided church family decided that this young couple's baptism service was the perfect time to start 'correcting' their obvious sins. As the church membership filed past the young couple to welcome them to the family, several members informed them of their need to conform to the church's dress code. One member let the young couple know the Bible tucked under the young man's arm was the wrong translation. Of course the biggest issue on the table for correction was their marital status. Obviously wedding plans would have to be made immediately so these babes in Christ could be 'accepted in the beloved'.
To be fair, it was not all of the members. Most of the people in my church simply hugged their necks and welcomed them to family. But it really doesn't take too many self-appointed spiritual watchmen to transform what should have been a celebration of God's grace into a spiritual flagellation session in the name of doctrinal purity. Needless to say, this young couple never darkened the doors of our church building again and I cannot say I blame them in the slightest.
Naturally I knew who the offending parties were. This was hardly the first example of people being run out of our church by members who were chock full of Bible knowledge and completely devoid of anything resembling spiritual wisdom. When I called them into my office to instruct them to cease and desist from bringing any future correction to church members, I was told in no uncertain terms that they had no intention of putting an end to their destructive practices. After all, they informed me, they were to obey God rather than men.
The idea of bringing scriptural correction to sinners is a very popular one in Christianity. The truth of the matter is there are scriptures that speak of taking action against sin in the camp. Anyone with even a thimble-full of Biblical knowledge understands the danger of compromising Biblical truth in order to attract a larger audience. There is certainly no shortage of watered-down gospels circulating the evangelical airwaves that have led people down doctrinal roads that appeal to our human perspectives rather than God's.
But on the opposite side of that ditch lies a different type of doctrinal danger that is just as destructive as believing God is our personal Santa Claus who only wants to bless and prosper us. I'm referring to the absence of Spirit-led wisdom to accompany all of the Biblical knowledge our churches have been pumping out for generations.
If you aren't familiar with what 'wisdom' is, allow me to define it for you. Wisdom is knowing how to effectively use knowledge. Just knowing what the Bible says about any given subject doesn't actually do much to help the average person. There has to be an infusion of divine guidance, or Holy Spirit led wisdom, to know when and how to disseminate and apply that information. Without wisdom, the Bible can be (and very often is) clumsily used as a blunt instrument of destruction wielded with the intent of eradicating sin and sinner alike instead of as a surgical tool in the hands of a literal follower of the Great Physician used with the intent of bringing health and restoration to the afflicted.
Without Holy Spirit's involvement in the dissemination process, much damage can be (and has been) done to people within and without the Body of Christ. In order to effectively use God's Word in a practical way, we must have God's perspective. If we come at this from our own understanding, we are going to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Our vision is cloudy. We can't see and know what God sees and knows unless we are plugged into His frequency (for lack of a better analogy). That's just one of Holy Spirit's many functions in our Christian walk; to empower us to see and hear with God's vision and understanding.
But to consistently and habitually plug into God's perspective of things, we have to cultivate a healthy spiritual relationship with God. This is a daily, moment-by-moment lifestyle not a weekend-only excursion into the spiritual realm. Only by yoking up with Christ and following Him on a consistent basis can we develop ears to hear what the Spirit is saying in any given situation. Gaining these attributes takes time to cultivate and grow and that growth is a primary part of the Potter's perfecting process.
Unfortunately, many in the Body of Christ are ignorant of these things. Many believe the only thing they need to do battle with the enemy is a collection of memory verses and tenure in a church of their choosing.
This bears repeating ad nauseam. If God is not involved in the process of speaking the truth of His Word to the masses, then all we are left with is leaning unto our own understanding of things. To approach disseminating God's truth from our limited human perspectives is to put ourselves in the position to commit sins equal to or greater in severity than the sins we are attempting to bring correction to. As we have already discussed in earlier posts, God's list of sins he hates and ours aren't even in the same zip code. While zealously attacking homosexuality (for example), many of God's people are completely blinded to their own sins of pride, ungodly judgments, and sowing discord among God's people.
It happens every day in every church and it is the primary reason why the Body of Christ at large has the reputation among unbelievers that it does. Instead of focusing on the discriminating language used by agnostics and atheists in our society, if God's people were to focus on our individual walk with God and learn how to consistently live our lives with God's perspective, in time the attacks against Christianity would be based on bias and hatred for the name of Christ rather than on legitimate points of contention like hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and intolerant judgment on people who do not sin the way we sin.
I often wonder what kind of world we would have today if our churches had produced generations of Apostle Peters and Pauls instead of generations of zealous Simons and Sauls...
But on the opposite side of that ditch lies a different type of doctrinal danger that is just as destructive as believing God is our personal Santa Claus who only wants to bless and prosper us. I'm referring to the absence of Spirit-led wisdom to accompany all of the Biblical knowledge our churches have been pumping out for generations.
If you aren't familiar with what 'wisdom' is, allow me to define it for you. Wisdom is knowing how to effectively use knowledge. Just knowing what the Bible says about any given subject doesn't actually do much to help the average person. There has to be an infusion of divine guidance, or Holy Spirit led wisdom, to know when and how to disseminate and apply that information. Without wisdom, the Bible can be (and very often is) clumsily used as a blunt instrument of destruction wielded with the intent of eradicating sin and sinner alike instead of as a surgical tool in the hands of a literal follower of the Great Physician used with the intent of bringing health and restoration to the afflicted.
Without Holy Spirit's involvement in the dissemination process, much damage can be (and has been) done to people within and without the Body of Christ. In order to effectively use God's Word in a practical way, we must have God's perspective. If we come at this from our own understanding, we are going to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Our vision is cloudy. We can't see and know what God sees and knows unless we are plugged into His frequency (for lack of a better analogy). That's just one of Holy Spirit's many functions in our Christian walk; to empower us to see and hear with God's vision and understanding.
But to consistently and habitually plug into God's perspective of things, we have to cultivate a healthy spiritual relationship with God. This is a daily, moment-by-moment lifestyle not a weekend-only excursion into the spiritual realm. Only by yoking up with Christ and following Him on a consistent basis can we develop ears to hear what the Spirit is saying in any given situation. Gaining these attributes takes time to cultivate and grow and that growth is a primary part of the Potter's perfecting process.
Unfortunately, many in the Body of Christ are ignorant of these things. Many believe the only thing they need to do battle with the enemy is a collection of memory verses and tenure in a church of their choosing.
This bears repeating ad nauseam. If God is not involved in the process of speaking the truth of His Word to the masses, then all we are left with is leaning unto our own understanding of things. To approach disseminating God's truth from our limited human perspectives is to put ourselves in the position to commit sins equal to or greater in severity than the sins we are attempting to bring correction to. As we have already discussed in earlier posts, God's list of sins he hates and ours aren't even in the same zip code. While zealously attacking homosexuality (for example), many of God's people are completely blinded to their own sins of pride, ungodly judgments, and sowing discord among God's people.
It happens every day in every church and it is the primary reason why the Body of Christ at large has the reputation among unbelievers that it does. Instead of focusing on the discriminating language used by agnostics and atheists in our society, if God's people were to focus on our individual walk with God and learn how to consistently live our lives with God's perspective, in time the attacks against Christianity would be based on bias and hatred for the name of Christ rather than on legitimate points of contention like hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and intolerant judgment on people who do not sin the way we sin.
I often wonder what kind of world we would have today if our churches had produced generations of Apostle Peters and Pauls instead of generations of zealous Simons and Sauls...
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