Here comes Santa Claus

Here we are again, only a month or so away from every western developed-nation child's favorite time of year, Christmas.  And no, I'm not calling it "Winter Break" because Jesus Christ is - and will always remain - the reason for the season, even if political correctness and atheism wants us to ignore this fact through, among other things, a name change.

But what started this degeneration in our understanding of Christmas, I argue, was the commercialization of Christmas nearly a century ago.  I won't get into the history of this because it can be found from other sources, but the figurehead of this "new" Christmas was a commercialized rendition of a third-century Christian named Nicholas.  His story can be found at this link, among others.  When the Coca Cola company created the modern rendition of Saint Nicholas, or "Santa Claus", bearing the red-and-white clothing that resembled the colors of the famous soft drink in order to promote sales, it can be argued that the commercialization of Christmas began in earnest.  And with that commercialization began the emphasis away from Christmas being about Jesus and remembering what his birth and time on earth meant for all humanity.

Now the world today is absolutely starving for a hero, craving a savior.  Anyone who doubts this need only consider the worship-like attention and money poured out by the masses into the coffers of media and sports personalities, including fictional personalities like comic book heroes.  Their popularity has grown in direct proportion to people buying into the lies that attempt to discredit the Bible and the historical accounts of humanity's only true hero and savior, Jesus Christ.

And Christmas is no exception.  When watching the animated movie "The Polar Express" for the first - and last - time two years ago with my wife and kids, I was aghast at just how far the deification of Santa Claus in place of Jesus has come.  When these kids finally made it up to the North Pole, it was as though they had reached every materialist's version of heaven.  And when they met face-to-face with its god, Santa Claus, they reacted as though this was akin to meeting face-to-face with God Himself.  As a Christian parent, I was absolutely dumbfounded - even angered - by this portrayal of a fictional character (again, based originally on the factual Nicholas) as though he was god-like.  It was then that I realized just how out of hand and ridiculous the attempt to remove Christ from Christmas had become.

I cannot finish this post without commenting on how too many modern Christians have been seduced by non-Christian influences regarding Christmas.  In particular, I can't believe that ANY so-called Christian parent would even entertain the notion with their child that the modern rendition of Santa Claus is for real.  Yet far too many take their kids to Santa Claus parades and wait in line to sit on his lap at malls and corporate functions.  They get their kids hyped-up on getting rather than giving by asking them what they want for Christmas, and they write "From Santa" on their kids' gifts under the tree.  Then their child enters school and eventually finds out that Santa is a hoax, that their parents fed them the lie in order to give them warm fuzzies so that Christmas could feel all good and nice and special for them - as though telling them the Biblical account of Christ's birth alone wouldn't cut it, nor the memories of special times with family and friends during the Christmas season.

I wonder if any so-called Christian parents have wondered how this might impact their children's trust level in what they they are told and taught by their parents?  I wonder how many kids in such families have secretly wondered whether what they're being fed about Jesus and the Bible are for real if Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were not?  Perhaps this is part of the reason why recent statistics show how at least 61% to 90% of all Christian kids (depending upon the study) grow up and leave home only to be indifferent about living out the faith they were taught or to abandon it altogether, especially if they go on to post-secondary studies. (Source:  Focus On Parenting conference, November 14, 2009.)

I am totally convinced that it is the indifference of Christian parents to the influences of the outside world that is causing the decay of Christian influence in the modern world.  And this undiscerning acceptance of Santa Claus into their homes and lives is one such example of how and why this is happening.

I will finish with how my wife and I have approached Christmas since the birth of our first child.  We have told them since they were old enough to understand that Santa Claus is not for real, that he was just made up by people who don't believe in Jesus.  We've also obviously never taken them to see Santa, or if one happened to be there they were perfectly okay with not sitting on his lap.  Rather, we have emphasized that 'Jesus is the reason for the season' and that the gifts we give AND receive symbolize the gift that Jesus was to humanity - of how he gave his life so that those who believe in him will have abundant life here on earth and eternal life after their body dies.

What has been the result of this experiment of taking Santa Claus out of Christmas:  Do our children mope around on Christmas morning wondering why they never got a gift from Santa Claus?  Do they resent us for telling them that Santa isn't for real?  Are they sad that we kept them from sitting on his lap, or writing a gift list for him, or sending a letter to him, or from putting out milk and cookies for him?

You might be surprised to know that our children get just as excited as any others do about Christmas.  They love giving and getting gifts and spending good times with family and friends.  They in absolutely no way have been saddened by the absence of Santa Claus from their Christmases and instead have a joy about the season based upon their good understanding of what Christmas is truly about.  As a Christian parent I am very glad about this.  We have bucked the massive forces of the non-Christian world that try to make us tow the line in this regard, and I believe that we as a family are better off for it.

My hope and prayer is that stories like this will inspire other Christian families to honor God and quit giving in to the ways of the world.  Many non-Christians think that to be a Christian is to be wimpy and spineless, but in reality choosing God's ways in a sea of ungodliness takes more strength than one can imagine, and the growth in godly character is well worth the effort.

What is love? Part II

The following passage on love is a favorite at most weddings:

"Love is patient; love is kind.

Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited;

does not act improperly; is not selfish;

is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs;

finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things."

Some people are surprised to learn that this beautiful passage is from the Bible.  Actually, it is an excerpt from an entire chapter of the Bible, referred to by some as "The Love Chapter" (chapter 13 in the book of I Corinthians), with this excerpt being the most popular portion of the chapter spoken at weddings.  Despite being in the Bible, this passage is so popular that I've not only heard it read aloud at non-Christian weddings, but even at weddings where neither spouse is a believer in God.

I thinks it's great that this passage is so popular even at these kinds of weddings.  But I wonder if either marriage partner actually thinks that he/she believes they can be consistent at living out more than a couple of these characteristics over a long period, especially if the true source of love - God's spirit, or the Holy Spirit - isn't living within them?  So although it's nice for a couple getting married and their audience to learn about the characteristics of what true love really is, living it out is very difficult - even for Christians.

In my previous post on this topic, I mentioned near the end how true love is choosing to stick with and support a person and deciding to serve the needs of that person.  In other words, it is a selfless act of service to another person, even when it's inconvenient and even painful.  Now I didn't just pull these observations out of thin air.  "The Love Chapter" is but a small taste of what the "Book of Love", i.e. the Bible, has to say on this subject.  So no, I'm not some kind of 'love guru', but I'm merely relating concepts recorded in God's word (the Bible) by the source or originator of love, God Himself.

So where am I going with all of this?  Well, since the Bible is authored by the source of love (men did the actual writing, but God revealed to them what they should write), then it should contain the best and most comprehensive examples of what true love is and how we should live it out - whether we're believers in God or not.  In other words, what's the point of having a passage read like the one above on a wedding day with no follow-up on what it is and how to live it out?  An understanding of this could save many marriages from disaster.

I'm sure most people have heard the phrase, "God is love" (I John 4:8), and the Bible is filled with examples that prove this.  Here is what God's Son, Jesus Christ, has to say about the ultimate gift of love to mankind:

"For God loved the world in this way:  He gave His Only and Only Son [Jesus Christ], so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish [spiritually] but have eternal life."  (John 3:16)

So God's gift of love to us is being able to live forever simply by believing in the One He sent to earth for us, His Son Jesus Christ.  One definition I've heard of "believing in" is putting the full weight of your trust in someone or something, in this case in Jesus Christ in order to save you from the penalty of your sins:  eternal punishment/damnation.

But later on in the same book of the Bible, John's Gospel, Jesus gave a command to his disciples during the last meal He ate with them before his crucifixion:

"This is My command:  love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do what I command you."  (John 15:12-14)

There's so much that Jesus tells us about His love for mankind in this passage, but the main thing is that the greatest act of love one can do is to die for someone else.  We've all heard this in many love songs and poems, but it's one thing to tell someone you'll die for them and entirely another to actually do it!  Well, Jesus actually did it, but not just for the sake of those disciples that He was eating with at the time, but for the sake of everyone who has ever lived.

By voluntarily being nailed to a Roman cross and dying for the sake of all humanity, Jesus performed the greatest act of love in history.  I'm sure that other people throughout history have sincerely given their lives in order to save the lives of others, but only Jesus' death meant something beyond this life:  if Jesus didn't die in our place to pay the penalty of our sins, NOBODY would be acceptable before a perfect, holy God and therefore nobody but Jesus would be able to enjoy an eternity with God after their bodily death.  Jesus' death was the fulfillment of God's love for humanity.  There is certainly no better example of sacrificial love than this!

Now that we know what true love really is and who the source of it is, let's relate this to how we should live it out while here on earth.

As I alluded to before, a person is truly incapable of loving another person apart from the help of God's Holy Spirit living within them.  And the Holy Spirit only comes to live within a person once they've been cleaned or forgiven by God.  How is this done?  Again, believing in Jesus to forgive you of our sins is all it takes:  no religious rituals, no regular church attendance, no amount of trying to be clean or perfect, no amount of giving or serving.  If you've done all this and not asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you'll be one of the flabbergasted and horrified try-hards that Jesus describes in Matthew 7:21-23!

So does this mean that only Christians - those with the Holy Spirit living within them - are capable of expressing true love?  No, but it's a whole lot harder to express it without Him living within you!  I guess my real point here is that Christians have a much better understanding of true love because they've read many examples in the Bible of what this is and how to live it out.  I'm not saying that Christians are much better at living it out - God knows how selfish people professing to be Christians have withheld love and even harmed others throughout history.  I'm just saying that Christians should know better because they've been exposed to so many teachings about it.

Even if you're a non-Christian or non-believer, learning to better express true love to others involves opening your mind to some of the lessons in the Book of Love, the Bible.  You don't need to read or believe the rest of it, but the following passages might be of help in learning how to express true love to others:

"Husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her"  (Ephesians 5:25)

In other words, husbands need to express love for their wives in a selfless, serving, sacrificial manner.  I'm pretty sure that God would want wives to likewise love their husbands.

"... husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we [Christians] are members of His body." (Ephesians 5:28-30)

I've always chuckled as I read this verse, because Paul here is playing on the vanity of men.  Come on guys, I'm sure most of you have struck a pose in the mirror many times!  You've either checked out your hair or looked at what effect a workout (hopefully) had on you.  But all this passage is saying is that you need to also get your eyes off of yourself and onto the love and care of your wife.

"To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband."  (Ephesians 5:33)

Even though these last few passages have been geared toward married couples, it is my hope that believers and non-believers have been encouraged by learning about true love and how to live it out with all people, not just their spouse.  There's no question that our world would be a drastically better place if each one of us would strive to show just one act of true love per day.

What is love? Part I

At the risk of dating myself, I can remember growing up during the 1980s and hearing one of the more famous pop stars of the time lamenting in one of his songs, "What is love anyway?  Does anybody love anybody anyway?"  As I'll explain later, his cynical lament over love lost seems to represent the one main type of love song.  The other main type sings about the euphoric feelings that happen at the point where a person falls in "love".  But are these feelings really "love" or are they something else?  In other words, getting back to the question of the famous pop star, what is love, anyway?  And how can this knowledge help us understand and benefit us in our relationships with others?  I intend this understanding to benefit Christians and non-Christians alike, as well as anyone of any age whether single or in a relationship.

This past year in the area where I live, I have witnessed the downfall of three marriages in which at least one partner in the marriage claimed to be Christian.  Now I'm not here to debate whether any of these people were in fact really "Christian", but it was a tough time for my wife and I to see such marital disintegration so close to home.  I personally was frustrated at how people claiming to be Christian could have allowed their most important earthly relationship to slip away to the point where it seemed beyond recovery, but then I realized that this can happen to anyone - even me.  Nevertheless, I was bothered by this because I reasoned that divorce should never happen amongst Christians, yet it's sad but true that one of the most widely known statistics about divorce is that it happens about as often inside the body of Christ as it does outside.  And so, being the inquisitive type, I struggled to wonder why.

Then one day this past summer I was listening to a song when suddenly the thought leapt to mind about how nearly all "love" songs seem fall into one of the two camps mentioned above:  when a person falls in "love" and when a person falls out of "love".  'Why do songs never seem to be written from the standpoint of a happily married couple?' I wondered.  As I thought more about this, I realized that not just songs but books, plays, movies, TV shows, etc. all seem to focus exclusively on these two "love" situations as well.

Moving deeper with these thoughts, I began to think about how these types of media form the basis of our pop culture, and how this in turn has such a massive influence on our society's understanding of love.  And then suddenly it struck me about why Christian marriages are just as likely to fail as non-Christian ones.

I remember a breakthrough in my understanding of love while listening to a Focus On The Family radio broadcast a few years back, hosted by Dr. James Dobson.  From that day forward, what I learned helped me to understand so much about why relationships survive and fail, and hopefully my summation of this understanding can help you as well.

Basically, Dobson explained that the giddy, floating-on-air kind of feelings the first year or two after meeting that special someone is not love, but rather "infatuation" or "lust".  Any of you who've watched Bambi might remember the term "twitterpated" being used to describe these feelings.  The saying "Love is blind" was coined, in my opinion, by someone who did not understand what true love really is; this person was instead referring to a state of infatuation.  At a marriage seminar last fall, one of the speakers mentioned how these feelings have been scientifically discovered to be the result of a chemical release from the brain, and it takes one to two years for its euphoric effect to wear off.  This is the point where people claim that they have "fallen out of love", failing to realize that they had actually not been in love in the first place.

Anyhow, true "love", continued Dobson, is NOT blind, but rather it's the kind where you choose or decide to love someone long after the honeymoon no matter how they look or act.  Our world gets the two terms "infatuation" and "love" reversed/mixed up.  In actuality, infatuation is a self-serving emotion but love is a selfless choice or decision.  Love, in its truest sense, is not a noun but a verb - it requires action.

So while considering this misunderstanding of love, I also considered how so many modern Christians fail to block out the influences of pop culture.  Our Lord warned us to basically be in the world but not of the world, yet we so readily listen to the same songs, read the same books, and watch the same visual media as the non-Christian "world".  And in so doing we form the same perceptions of love (among other things) as the world does.

So when I mentioned before how I was suddenly struck about why Christian marriages are just as likely to fail as non-Christian ones, it meant that the little Christian girl who watched "Cinderella", for example,  likely carried some of those fantasy-based misconceptions of love into her marriage with her.  And when the chemicals that sparked the euphoric emotions toward her new husband have worn off - what people jokingly refer to as "after the honeymoon" - she begins to wonder if she married the "right person".  Now that the chemical-induced "blindness" is gone, she now no longer laughs as much at and is instead more annoyed about his less-than-flattering appearance or behavior issues.

I am absolutely convinced that nearly every divorce in the history of the world has been the result of this misunderstanding of what love really is.  The infatuated person is used to having been self-centered to that point in a relationship.  That person spends as much time as possible with the person they're infatuated with because s/he wants to fuel the emotions even more, to bring them to even greater heights.  Any selfless acts in this regard are usually done so the recipient can do something good back to them that fuels their euphoric emotions even more.

But once the chemicals wear off and the 'honeymoon is over', so to speak, a person has to decide whether they will stick with their spouse through thick and thin because their motivation is no longer chemical.  They have to now choose to stick with and support that person, they have to decide to serve the needs of that other person.  This action to do so is true love!  And when even one person in the relationship decides they want to stick to their self-serving ways of the infatuation period, the relationship starts to disintegrate unless things are realized and action is taken.

Even before I had this understanding of why Christian marriages fail at about the same rate as non-Christian ones, I had observed that every divorce I had analyzed was the result of stubborn selfishness on the part of one or both people in the marriage.  Now that I have had this observation confirmed, I hope you can benefit from this understanding if you're wondering 'whether anybody loves anybody anyway'.

I hope to discuss this issue of love from a different angle in a follow-up to this post.  Stay tuned.

"Indoctrination!"

I find it interesting when non-believers accuse Christians of "indoctrinating" their children to believe in Jesus, as though this is some great injustice.  I touched upon this idea several months ago when I referred to "brainwashing" in another post, but now I'd like to expand upon this in the context of raising children.

As a Christian parent, I realize that unless I make some radical (i.e. counter-cultural) and tough decisions to "indoctrinate" my children to believe that they are each a unique and special creation of the one true God, they will by default be indoctrinated by our culture via the schools and especially the media (the puppeteer of most modern cultures) to believe that they are each a purposeless mammal whose present form has resulted from billions of years of random mutations, natural selection, and blind chance.  If there is any good in this world today, it comes almost exclusively though people in communities across this globe, especially parents, who teach Jesus Christ and Him crucified AND THEN LIVE OUT THE LOVE OF CHRIST to their family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and complete strangers.

Anyone protesting this claim that Christians living out their faith are primarily responsible for the good in this world might point to the Oprahs and Dalai Lamas of this world and their contributions in the form of humanistic feel-good messages and pleas for a better world.  But these people, despite their popularity and good intentions, are not in the trenches feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and protecting the weak.  They also do not have the power to cleanse my heart so that I am renewed from the inside out in order to have compassion on the poor, naked, and weak.  And they have not proposed a way for me - or for themselves or for the poor, naked, and weak - to 'get right' with the one and only God who created them in order to be forgiven and made clean and thereby enjoy an eternity with Him.  This is because they do not preach about the one and only Mediator between man and God, Jesus Christ - the only Mediator who can give us the forgiveness, love, and peace that we are all really seeking.

Their message is instead one of human well-being here and now, on this side of eternity.  They speak about finding peace and fulfillment here on earth without considering what will happen after a person dies.  They believe the lie that human efforts and intentions that are good and righteous will be enough to get them into heaven "if" God should happen to really exist.  The problem is, their idea of God is not that of the one true God - the God described in the Bible as having a Son whom He sent to save believers in His Son from eternal torment.  Their God is not the capital-g God but any "god" contrived in the hearts of men.  They have the audacity to think that somehow we humans have the power to create gods that in turn have the power to determine whether we live for an eternity or cease to exist after we take our last breath.  Since they assume that the one true God is likewise a figment of human imagination, they create their own gods based on this false assumption, mostly in order to not feel that they have to be accountable to their Creator.  They would rather be accountable to a god on their terms instead of finding out that they have offended and sinned against the one true God.

This concept of "create-a-god" then transmits into how these people and their masses of followers live their lives.  Since there is no one true God in their minds, there can be no one absolute truth and therefore no right or wrong ways of thinking or living.  So Ms. Winfrey, for example, will invite a smorgasbord of guests onto her shows over the course of a year representing all schools of spiritual thought - including sometimes the most sincere Christians - because in her mind, sadly, Jesus is not God in human flesh that He repeatedly proved Himself to be in the historical Biblical accounts.  He is instead, in the mind of all humanists and not just Oprah, demoted to the ranks of simply a "great teacher" or "prophet" and not one of the three persons comprising the one true God described in scripture as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Because there is no absolute truth, more and more people swayed by humanist teaching become less sensitive to practices like euthanasia and abortion while ironically decrying murder and capital punishment and war.  They think that it is justice for the homosexual lifestyle to gain legal and social acceptance but nearly have a heart attack wondering what people will think if one of their children declares that he/she has become a homosexual.  Because there is no absolute truth, no right and wrong, those who are indoctrinated by humanist philosophies and teachings get tossed by the seas of life and wonder why our culture and society are spiraling downward into greater depths of confusion, chaos, and violence.

My children may be young, but they already seem to have a keen sense of the one true God because of the non-religious, biblically-based notion of this God that they have been exposed to since day one.  They realize that they are not perfect, but also how God doesn't expect them to be on their own strength because we all mess up our relationship with God ("sin") no matter how hard we try not to.  But they also know that believing in Jesus means they have been cleansed of their sin, and by this simple act of belief they are new creations; they are no longer condemned by God even when they do mess up and sin because God sees them through 'Christ-colored glasses', as some Christian teachers have put it.  They have been forgiven once and for all (Hebrews 10: 11,12), and nothing can separate them from the love of God (Romans 8: 38,39) after they have put their faith in Him.

So does this mean they deliberately don't care about whether or not they sin, since they know God has already forgiven them?  Because my children know the incredible love of God in their lives, they in turn love Him and out of this love naturally wish to please Him by being obedient to not only Him but also their parents whom God has entrusted as their earthly guardians and teachers.  Are they perfectly obedient?  No more than their parents, who are continually tempted to think they know better than God  and have to live with the consequences of foolish decisions made apart from asking God for wisdom and direction.

Most people in western societies today fail to realize that it was Christians living out their faith who established the first hospitals and universities, not to mention the compassionate aspects of government operations and systems such as the legal system.  It was also Christians living out their faith who created organizations of compassion like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Y.M.C.A./Y.W.C.A. that probably all westerners have heard of and benefited from in some way.  The original intention of all these institutions and organizations was to act as means by which the love of God through Jesus Christ could be acted out and preached.  Unfortunately, now that the western world is post-Christian, only the former is true.  These are now humanistic in the sense that they only help people on this side of eternity instead of also preparing them for the reality of meeting Jesus face to face (whether Christian or not) after they die.

So by "indoctrinating" my children about the one true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - I believe that I am doing the greatest possible service to my local community and to our society as a whole.  I don't believe that my actions will restore our society or world to a place of openness to hearing the message of the Gospel, but I do believe that they will do so - plus slow the rate of moral decay - at least in our sphere of influence.

We as Christian parents may not have the exposure that the Oprahs and Dalai Lamas enjoy, but at least our message is one that will actually change lives for real instead of trying to bandage the gaping wounds in our lives and society through humanistic feel-good thoughts and ideas that ultimately benefit no one - except for the pocketbooks of those who blindly or willingly spread these messages of false, empty hope apart from those found in the Bible.

Entertain us!!

Nearly twenty years ago, the unknown singer of an unknown band suddenly propelled both into massive overnight fame when he shouted, "Here we are now, Entertain us."  The song, the singer, and the band quickly became synonymous with the dissatisfied youth of that day, and the emptiness and dissatisfaction of the singer culminated in his apparent suicide only three years later.  Even if it wasn't a suicide, as some theorize, his life was still an empty one of self-absorbed pity that no amount of fame or wealth was able to change.

What has transpired since that time, combined with a new generation of youth, is technology that entertains us like none that could have been imagined nearly twenty years ago.  Yet that entertainment seems to have produced an even less satisfied generation of youth.  It is now to the point where these youth - and their parents of the previous generation - cannot be entertained enough.  Gone are the days when a movie had no sequel, or when one had to make an effort and spend time going to a store in order to buy music.

Today, an original, fresh blockbuster needs to be re-hashed over and over to attempt to squeeze every last ounce of warm, fuzzy feelings out of it until people get bored and no longer wish to spend a profitable amount of money on sequels.  And the entertainment needs to be here, now; waiting is no longer acceptable.  And people no longer want to read a paragraph that's longer than three or four sentences, so people like blog writers have to conform - despite their convictions otherwise - and dumb themselves down to the level of our fast-food, information-overloaded society.  Otherwise, they risk their impatient readers becoming "bored" and looking for that ever-elusive fulfillment with the next click of their mouse.

Entertainment has become like an addiction, a drug where each injection into our senses gives us the illusion of excitement, but it only lasts for a moment, quickly fading away and making us long for more.  But every time the entertainment industry strives to top what caused a sensation before, it seems that the new high is less intense and doesn't last as long.  Our technological society has basically been numbed by entertainment and information overload.  And its inhabitants wander mindlessly around, numb and bored, looking for their next fix and wondering why nothing satisfies any more.

The saddest part about this progression (or regression?) is how educators and the body of Christ are starting to succumb to the idea that they need to come up with some sort of song-and-dance in order to try to capture the attention of their audience.  It's as though they dread the thought of - gasp! - "boring" their audience and thus losing them for good.  Educational training institutions are trying to re-invent teaching so that students get up and move around more and aren't 'restricted' to one type of task for too long.  And you'd better use multi-media or else you might really bore your students! - as if modern educators don't already have enough additional burdens and pressures upon them.  Yet despite all these good intentions at pleasing rather than instructing, North American educators in particular are scratching their heads and wondering why academic standards and results have taken a nosedive in recent years.

As for the church, the body of Christ, I've come across reports the past couple of years about church youth groups trying to entice kids to show up through things like video game nights.  The problem with this approach is how, for example, one church in the U.S. was letting kids blast beings apart while playing Doom then afterward trying to teach them how to 'love their neighbor.'  In the desire to entertain, it seems as though the church can run the risk of sending contradictory messages.

Another risk the church faces is how trying to entertain forces it to take the low road of the lack of depth and substance that entertainment is all about.  The one true God and the Bible that writes of Him are intensely deep - too deep to ever fully fathom on this side of eternity - and therefore a great deal of energy and concentration are required to try to make sense of them.  Yet there is enormous reward in doing so because of the peace and fulfillment that come from knowing God in a personal way.  This peace and fulfillment are what our entertainment-seeking society is really searching for, yet they aren't finding it outside the Bible.  But then the church expects people to try to understand God through trying to put together the most entertaining music team or sermon at the expense of depth and substance and wonders why the depth of peoples' relationship with God is as shallow as the attempts to entertain them.

Please don't get me wrong:  multimedia and social networking sites need to be included in how Christians today send out the message of this amazing God of the Bible that will transform their lives in ways that absolutely nothing else can.  However, this needs to be done wisely.  We need to be wary that we aren't watering things down through entertainment just to try to win people.  Again, we can only expect watered-down faith and commitment on the part of believers if we water down the message of Christ, so we as a church need to hold fast to the things that have worked well to this point.

So what does this mean with our youth?  What things have worked well to disciple youth to this point in history?  I dare youth leaders to start doing verse-by-verse Bible studies with youth.  Sure, start out with one or two carefully-chosen activities or games to help them burn off some energy and/or set the context for the study time.  But then I dare a youth leader to tell their group that they have decided to start reading the Gospel of _____ or the Book of _____ verse-by-verse, starting now, then of course facilitating the understanding of the group as they read.  Maybe study only about 20-30 minutes per youth meeting, but keep at it until the entire book is read.

Why do we always resort to only a verse or two, completely out of context of the chapter or book, to form the basis of the message for a youth meeting?  To me, the more I think about it, this seems as absurd as trying to get a math student to understand algebra without them first understanding addition, subtraction, etc. and the order of operations, for example.  And how do we expect them to get excited about God when only a few verses not explained in context hardly give them any kind of understanding about who God really is and what He offers them through belief in Jesus Christ?  Most youth have never read the Bible on their own, so we need to start with milk before expecting them to understand the main course.  This is best achieved by tackling the concepts of a book of the Bible one verse at a time so that they remain in context to one another, since each concept will build upon another in order to create greater understanding.

The only risk that is run by such an approach is the reduction of a youth group from several mostly non-committed and indifferent believers and non-believers to maybe only two or three solid believers who sincerely want God to rock their world.  God is more concerned with quality, not quantity - refer to the account of Gideon's army as an example - because discipling a handful of solid, hard-core believers will transform a community far more than trying to keep a group of self-conscious youth entertained.

We need to stop fearing that we'll "bore" our youth and instead trust in the power of God and His Word to radically transform them.  I dare youth leaders to rise to this challenge and thereby begin to fear God more than man.

The Blame Game

I've always found it interesting since I've become a Christian to notice how some people who want nothing to do with God in their everyday lives suddenly decide to blame Him when something goes wrong.

A few years ago, I was watching the news one night during the annual wildfire season that always strikes southern California.  I was surprised to hear the reaction of one homeowner who had just lost his home as he mentioned God along the lines of, 'If God was real he wouldn't have let this happen!'  The expression on his face and his tone of voice was one of defiance and anger.  It was pretty clear to me that he was one of those kinds of people I described above.

When I get angry about something (and yes, Christians DO get angry, although they try to restrict it to the "righteous anger" that Jesus talks about, i.e. those things that displease God as well), I usually say, "Ah, man!" or "Aw, crap!" instead of blaming God or Jesus for my misfortune.  We humans are the ones who destroyed the perfectly good relationship that God originated with us in the Garden of Eden, so I'd rather be mad at them than at God.  I also don't say "Geez" or "Gosh" because these are derivatives of "Jesus" and "God" that I find too many Christians use without realizing that they are really affronts to God.

More interesting to me is how people claiming to be agnostics or atheists will use "God" or "Jesus Christ" as derogatory terms or in a derogatory statement when they are angry about something.  Why are they even mentioning the names of beings they claim not to believe in?  By doing so, they are contradicting what they claim to believe, and it would make more sense for them to use four-letter derogatory terms instead.

I realized only a few years ago why it is so instinctive for humans to think that God's has a last name when they get angry or why shouting out to Jesus at the top of one's lungs is often their first reaction upon striking their finger with a hammer.  It's because God once gave a commandment to people saying, according to one translation,

"Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will punish anyone who misuses His name." (Exodus 20: 7, HCSB)

Once that command was given (along with several others), people were now accountable to God in this respect.  If they broke this command, or "sinned", they were now guilty before God whereas before they were not.  (The book of Romans, Chapter 7, verses 7-12 explains this concept in detail.)

Now the Bible also describes how there is an enemy of God who wants us to screw up every chance we have to be reconciled to and forgiven by God through Jesus.  Why?  So that we can face the same eternal punishment as he already knows he's going to face after the Day of Judgement.  He wants to drag us into destruction along with him, much like how Hitler dragged the German nation into destruction rather than signing a peace agreement that would have saved thousands of lives and many historical landmarks and treasures.  He is named Satan and also goes by the title of "devil".  He is also known as the "accuser", the one who accuses men before God for their sins against God:

"The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have now come, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out:  the one who accuses them before our God day and night." (Revelation 12: 10)

I've learned through observation and experience that Satan is a masterful theologian of deceit who has had thousands of years to perfect his twisting of the Bible in order to drag people into sin (sin = thoughts, words, or deeds that anger God or are contrary to His will).  It is very apparent in the book of Job that Satan has a primary role in testing humans to see whether or not they will take the low road of getting angry at God and thereby sinning against Him.

One way that Satan does this is by appealing to the sin nature that we are all born with and possess until the day that we get forgiven through the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ.  This sin nature is the one we have inherited from Adam and Eve that naturally wants to rebel against God.  This is why it is very easy for non-believers to use the terms "God" and "Jesus Christ" when they get angry.

And although believers no longer possess a nature that wants to sin, even though they have been reborn and have a new nature since the Spirit of God now dwells in them (Romans 7:13-8:11), they can still succumb to the same urge to curse God because of the sinful body and world they still live in.

In either case, the act of "[misusing] the name of the Lord your God" by cursing His name or using it in vain (i.e. saying it in casual conversation outside of actually seeking Him or calling out to Him) adds a sense of guilt to the non-believer and believer alike that deep inside - either consciously or subconsciously - makes that person feel as though now that they've degraded God in this manner, God will no longer accept them if they actually were to want to come to Him.

When God was getting through to me in my early twenties, in the back of my mind I didn't think God would accept me because of all the bad that I had done, including the horrendously obscene trucker-mouth I had used to curse God and use His name in vain for most of those twenty-odd years.  Fortunately, Satan didn't win that battle in my life because I realized that God accepts all who come to Him seeking forgiveness through Jesus, regardless of appearance or any degree of past wrongdoing.

What I have learned within the past two years is how those thoughts inciting us to sin are whispered into our minds (not our ears, or else we would know those thoughts are not our own) by none other than our accuser before God, Satan.  If you want to read a remarkable book about things like how Satan works against us, read "What God Wishes Christian Knew About Christianity" by Bill Gillham.

If you doubt this above argument about why I believe that it is so instinctive for humans to curse God or to use His name in vain, ask yourself this:  Why, when people get angry, don't they instinctively say "Oh, Buddha!" or "Oh, Mohammed!" or "Oh, Satan!" when they curse?  Why do people have to consciously develop the habit of saying "Aw, man!" or "Aw, crap!" in order to override the natural tendency to curse God?  Perhaps there's some force opposing God at work in us, say, an accuser who wants to create division between us and Him?

So now that you know a very plausible explanation of the reason behind the game of blaming God, maybe realize instead that it is a combination of our desire to sin and the helping hand of our accuser that is truly to blame for our misfortune.

"Absolute futility"

My family recently spent a couple of days in a small city famous (or infamous, depending upon your perspective) for its acceptance and promotion of New Age philosophies.  Stores and shops abound that cater to books, clothing, counseling services, and so forth that reflect and promote these philosophies.  Several of the citizens also have the modern-day "hippie" appearance that is often associated with the New Age lifestyle.

Being the deep thinker that I am, I was struck by the profound thought at one point about how these folks, just like me, are seeking answers through spiritual means.  However, unlike me, they are looking to every form of spirituality apart from that set out in the Bible.  (As an aside, New Agers that do look to the Bible minimize Jesus to the status of prophet or 'wise teacher' as opposed to the one and only representative of God in the flesh - and one and only mediator between God and mankind - that the same Bible describes Jesus as.)

With this thought in mind, I looked around and wondered how their spiritual quest was working for them.  What I saw is the same thing I see everywhere else:  people who were no closer to finding answers than those not seeking spiritual answers.  If they were finding answers, there wouldn't be the diversity of paraphernalia and services that the New Age movement provides to its followers.  Instead of a multitude of books on eastern religions and philosophies, there would be only one source like the Bible is for believers in the one true God.  It seems instead that New Agers have no one source for answers, which makes their quest nothing more than a crap-shoot of try-this and try-that until a person finds what 'works best for them', even though most answers are never found and any feelings of peace and fulfillment last only for a time.

And the saddest part is that no god or gods or philosophy they choose to follow apart from the God of the Bible can usher them into an eternal existence after this one of bliss and oneness with their Creator that most of these folks seem to be longing for.

Some people might argue that if Christianity and the Bible alone provided all the answers, there wouldn't be the enormous diversity of denominations, books, and ministries devoted to providing answers to its followers and followers-to-be. But any of these things that are truly Christian have as their foundation the one source - the Bible - that is able to allow them to provide answers.  They simply seek to break down and explain the teachings of the Bible in ways that an enormous diversity of personalities can try to understand.

As I watched people go about their daily life in this city, I thought of the opening passage of the book of Ecclesiastes, authored by a man perhaps never excelled in wisdom and wealth by anyone else in history.  Most Biblical translations from the original Hebrew and Aramaic into English use the word "vanity" in  verse 2 of Chapter 1 as follows:

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." (NKJV, New King James Version)

However, a newer translation that claims to have benefitted from more recent advances in translational accuracy renders this verse in a more interesting way:

"Absolute futility," says the Teacher.  "Absolute futility.  Everything is futile." (HCSB, Holman Christian Standard Bible)

In other words, as I watched those citizens of this city who hold to the New Age philosophy, I thought of their absolute futility, the total pointlessness of their trying to seek spiritual answers outside of those provided in the Bible.  I could just tell by their behaviors and the looks on their faces that they 'still hadn't found what they were looking for.'  I knew this because they were just like me many years ago, although I was agnostic and proud of it, seeking answers and never finding them - or at least the right ones - and going through the turmoil and depression that characterizes those who seek but never find.  Even though they tried to hide it, again I could see it on their faces and by how they behaved.

Jesus, however, invites everyone (drug-free or not, virgin or not, criminal or not, rape victim or not) to

"Keep asking, and it will be given to you.  Keep searching, and you will find.  Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you ... If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7, 11)

It would seem to me that no other spiritual leader in history ever offered such a promise to anyone!  This passage, when taken in context with the surrounding verses, seems to indicate that God is promising answers to those who ask Him, to those who

"... seek Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29)

But Jesus makes it clear that He is the only means - the only mediator - through which we are supposed to come to God (see I Timothy 2:5), and not just to find answers:

"Everyone who drinks from this water [in the well] will get thirsty again.  But whoever drinks from the water that I will give them will never get thirsty again - ever!  In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life." (John 4:13-14)

Again, taken in context, this passage not only indicates that Jesus will provide answers, but also peace and satisfaction and the ultimate: eternal life.  He alone provides the "nirvana" sought by Hindus and Buddhists that they will never find.  He alone provides the "paradise" sought by pleasure-seekers that they also will never find.

So I guess to avoid futility, you need to choose who or what you will believe and serve.  Will you ignore or reject the God of the Bible and live in futility, never truly finding what you're looking for, or will you accept this God and find answers and lasting peace?  Obviously, the choice is yours since God is not a tyrant but a gentlemen who doesn't force Himself on anyone.

"As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

Perspective changes everything

Before choosing the small-town life, I lived the first 33 years of my life in a city of nearly one million people. After going for several weeks without any sort of trip out of town, I would begin to forget that this city was actually an island in the middle of the prairie with no city larger than it for nearly a thousand miles. Until I actually got out of it and spent some time away, I would almost forget just how out of place it seemed in its vast, sparsely populated surroundings. In other words, it took a change of perspective for me to realize that I really didn't live in an urban environment as much as I was actually living in an island in the midst of a vast rural expanse.

We humans have the same lack of true perspective about who we really are. Many of us think and act as though somehow the world revolves around us, as though it's entirely subject to how we think and act. Yet only once you get up in an airplane or climb to the top of a mountain and look down upon whatever we have created do you realize just how tiny and powerless we actually are. Even though our influence looks expansive and powerful in the form of infrastructure and development like roads and fields and buildings, it takes only one swipe of the hand of nature for people to (temporarily) realize that they really aren't so mighty after all.

The same realization happens when people with immense fame, power, and/or wealth succumb to illness, disease, or untimely death and no amount of money is able to help them. And even if they overcome for a time, they eventually experience the same uncontrollable, unconquerable fate of all humans: death.

Yet despite constant reminders that we are subject to forces infinitely more mighty than us that we have absolutely no way of controlling, we continue to act as though we're invincible. We have this rebellious spirit toward the outside forces that control us as though we'll someday conquer them or be free from their control. We continue to climb treacherous mountains and build taller buildings in vain attempts to defy the force of gravity. We continue to explore hostile environments in vain attempts to conquer the forces of nature. And we propose theories, write books, and form conferences and committees that actively and purposely seek to undermine the belief by some humans that we are created beings, created by a mighty and unfathomable force that in the English language has been given the name of "God".

Forty or so proponents of this belief, over the course of nearly two millennia, claimed to have been spoken to and even visited by this God and recorded their encounters in numerous books that were eventually coalesced into one volume and given the title of "The Bible". In this Bible, there are numerous accounts of people who thought the world revolved around them or were invincible, only to be put in their place by this mighty God who these authors claim is not only the creator of these people, but also of the world and the entire universe. Some of the people most famously humbled by this God include Job, Jonah, and Saul of Tarsus (later named Paul).

These people realized the hard way just how tiny and powerful they were once they encountered this God, causing the likes of Isaiah and Saul to cower in fear, awe, and reverence. They had a radical change of perspective to the point where they tirelessly stood up for God in the face of ridicule, torture, and even death by those who had not encountered Him. They stood up because they knew that He who they had encountered and experienced was for real. They had experienced a miniscule taste of His indescribable power and realized that they really weren't so mighty after all.

The next time you look at the sun, ask yourself what is keeping our planet from being drawn into its fiery inferno. The next time you draw a breath, ask yourself what will allow your lungs to draw the next breath. The next time you curl and uncurl your fingers, ask yourself what series of physiological, biochemical, and neurological processes and components are responsible for this ability plus how they came to be.

In our modern age, phenomena like these are only considered from the scientific perspective and all other perspectives - especially spiritual - are ignored and even ridiculed.  This perspective does not take anything seriously that cannot be quantified, i.e. touched or counted or measured, and will dismiss experiences and emotions for this reason, such as the radical psychological and emotional transformations that countless people have reported throughout history once they've truly opened up to and experienced this God.

Yet this scientific perspective that its proponents claim has all the answers clearly does not.  In fact, an honest scientist would admit that at both the macroscopic level (ex. the universe) and the microscopic level (ex. atomic particles and structures), technological advancements have revealed a vastness and complexity to our universe and world never remotely imagined even a decade ago.  As one school of thought puts it, our universe and world are "irreducibly complex".

So while those who adhere to the scientific perspective find themselves uncovering more questions than answers with each passing minute, people who have decided to view life from the Christian perspective - at least in my experience - have found more of the bigger questions being answered:  I know why I was created.  I know the One who created me.  I know the meaning life.  I also know my fate - and those of non-believers - after this life.  And the list goes on.

Perspective changes everything.  Because I see myself as truly helpless and powerless apart from God, I know who to turn to when life gets tough.  My "crutch" has helped me through numerous struggles that those who say they don't need a "crutch" like God can't seem to find their way through.  Or if they do, it's often at a tremendous cost emotionally, physically, and/or financially.

Sure, I put a good effort into everything I do - God gave me a brain and hands and feet, after all - but I stop when I perceive that I'm on a path that God doesn't want me to be on.  By doing so, I save an incredible amount of stress and emotional investment in things that are a waste of time and energy so that I can focus on the more important things in life - God, family, friends, (this blog!), etc.

You can continue to plod along with the mindset that you're big and tough enough to conquer any obstacle (even though, once again, you'll never conquer death), or you can realize that you're really not so big and tough after all and that God's help will get you through the struggles of this life.  And to top the cake, the Bible also explains how you can enjoy God's presence forever when this life is over.   But this realization takes a change of perspective, and this can only be achieved by having an open mind to the idea that the God whom the authors of the Bible wrote is truly for real.  Actually, this open-mindedness takes faith, and you can read more about this in other posts of this blog.

The Hole

What do Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain all have in common? Well, their fame is the most obvious. They were all revolutionary musicians in their time. Most of them had an addiction to one or more type of drugs. Some of you may even note how their names have been listed in order of their date of death, from earliest to most current. Some of you may even know how they all ironically died at the age of 27, forming part of what some refer to as the "27 Club" or "Dead at 27".

They experienced pretty much all of the success that the non-Christian world places the highest importance upon: fame, money, and material possessions. And despite the fact that they all had relationship problems and were mostly lonely and depressed - hence the drug abuse - countless musicians in their wake still aspire to their fame and lifestyles. It's as though they think fame and wealth will make them immune to what befell their idols.

But these non-Christian famous (and not-yet-famous) people have another thing in common that only a Christian in a close walk with God would notice, an all too common and tragic ailment: they all had a hole in their heart. They all achieved most of the worldly plateaus of success, but they were still missing that one thing that would have filled this hole and given them the peace, joy, and satisfaction - the ultimate aims of success - that were eluding them.

Their bank account wasn't able to fill it. Drugs filled it for a time, at the beginning, until they did what all drugs do, which is to drag their users to the brink of death and despair and sometimes into death itself. Not even Yoko Ono could fill the hole in John Lennon's heart, nor Courtney Love in Kurt Cobain's heart. Nor their lavish homes or lifestyles or possessions that so many common people covet.

Their hole was not something that physical or emotional things are designed to fill. Their hole was a spiritual one.

A man whose teachings have had an enormous influence on my Christian walk since it started, Charles Stanley, once remarked that we cannot find our fulfillment in physical things because we were designed as spiritual beings. His point is that we can only find our fulfillment in - have that hole in our hearts filled by - spiritual things.

Now his argument would not have made sense to me when I heard it if my experiences - and those of so many other people - weren't able to back it up. But when I heard this argument around ten years ago, I had just turned my back on a lifestyle that defied and rejected God and coincidentally had left me with no peace, joy, or satisfaction whatsoever. In my old life, I turned to everything that these famous people did to try to fill the hole in my heart and my life was as unfulfilling as theirs were.

My new life, however - which started by getting right with God through asking Jesus Christ to forgive me of my sins and to have Him live His life through me - had already given me peace, joy, and satisfaction that I had never experienced before nor realized that I could ever have through something so simple (and weird sounding!) as placing my life into the hands of this Jesus.

Even after reading this, some people still can't imagine how people with such fame, money, and material possessions could still possibly have unfulfilled lives. But check out the cover stories at your nearest magazine stand: Jen still seems so lost and empty without Brad. Heather has left Paul heartbroken and also ripped a gaping hole into his bank account. Then there's the ongoing saga with Britney and Justin and their dysfunctional kids. And on and on. When they realized that their fame, money, and material possessions didn't fill the hole, they turned to other people - imperfect, flawed, physical beings - to try to fill it. And then the mess that ensues ends up on magazine covers everywhere.

Jesus remarked that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24) and "You can't be slaves to both God and money" (Luke 16:13). It's not that the rich and/or famous can't know God or enter His kingdom, it's just that their fame, money, and material possessions make it hard for them to believe they need God even when their self-made attitudes and attempts to find fulfillment end up in a miserable mess.

Knowing God is the only way for the famous person and the regular person to fill the hole that exists in their hearts. How have your attempts to fill this hole apart from God panned out? If they've ended up in a miserable mess, or even just left you unfulfilled, then continuing to reject God is holding you back from the peace, joy, and satisfaction that you're really searching for and that only God promises through Jesus Christ.

Too much church?

When a person reads or hears about the miraculous works and healings in the Bible, particularly in the Gospels and in the book of Acts, there's a misconception that such events are ancient history and that they have no place in this day or age. That God is somehow finished with using miracles to reveal His power in peoples' lives and win them over to belief in His Son, Jesus. Sadly, there are many Christians in the western world who would agree with this point.

But anyone in touch with events in the numerous parts of the world where being a Christian is illegal and/or violently opposed, particularly in Asia, realizes that God is working amazing miracles in these places in ways that make the Bible read as though one is flipping through a current newspaper. (By the way, the body of Christian believers living in these circumstances is said to be part of the "persecuted Church".)

For example, while thumbing through the most recent magazine put out by a Christian organization called Gospel For Asia (GFA), I read of people being freed from the bondage of demonic possession, healed from various illnesses and diseases, liberated from paralysis, and rescued from snake bites. And all of these miracles, according to this magazine, have resulted from GFA native missionaries praying for these people in the name of Jesus.

So why aren't such things happening en masse in the European and North American Church? (And by capital-c Church, I'm referring to the body of believers in Jesus Christ and not a building.) Why aren't we reading of genuine, miraculous healings in the Sunday morning services, Bible study groups, and other gatherings of Christians in the western world?

Before I go on, I wish to briefly address the perception of some in the western Church that healings do in fact regularly take place there. These are typically and pretty much exclusively believed to take place whenever a "healing crusade" or some event with "healing" in the title is held. In other words, where some self-proclaimed healer comes supposedly in the name of Jesus to some huge church, perhaps stadium, and with certain words and gestures causes the paralyzed to rise up out of their wheelchairs and the like.

If anything, these spectacles are a major reason why people mock the God of the Bible in western culture. Unbelievers, and fortunately most believers, have grown wary of these yahoos parading around as if they're God's gift to everyone and everything, accusing the handicapped, crippled, and diseased people in attendance to believe that if they don't get healed then they "don't have enough faith". So never mind the inability of the supposed healer; the true problem is the believer who lacks faith, in their eyes. Many have turned away from God and from the saving power of Jesus when they leave a healing crusade because they witnessed the staged healings (not realizing they weren't for real) and are devastated and angry at God because they themselves weren't healed. If you're a Christian and you believe that healings at these mass events are for real, then you should contact ministries like the Christian Research Institute (CRI) and start to learn about the shady characters behind these sorts of teachings who claim the name of Christ.

In the persecuted Church, none of the claimed healings occur because a time and place was arranged for them to occur. They happen as a missionary comes across a situation where a person is in crisis and then asks God for His intervention. As God chooses in each situation, He either heals or he does not heal. And if these events are rare, then why are there constant reports of such things being reported by the numerous ministries operating in these areas, and with witnesses - believing and non - to back most of them up?

So again - and finally - back to before: why aren't we reading of genuine, miraculous healings in the gatherings of Christians in the western world? Quite simply, I believe it all has to do with how we in the western Church think we need to relate to God.

In the Christian world, there is a wonderful and very accurate phrase that goes something like, 'Christianity is a relationship, not a religion'. In other words, the people with the deepest knowledge and reverence of and relationship with God across the globe are not those who regularly do all the things they think they need to do to please God. These are not the people who think that regular church attendance, regular taking of communion, regular giving of money, etc will draw them closer to God and vice-versa.

Rather, the people who know God best have included Him as a part of their everyday lives. They aren't trying to score 'brownie points'. They aren't putting on an image or a front of spirituality. They aren't doing nice things then making sure everybody else knows about them. They're regularly trusting in and communing with God by praying to Him and thinking about Him (meditating in its intended sense), reading and studying about Him in the Bible, and looking for ways to serve others and not just themselves.

Now what I've discovered to this point in my Christian walk is that the "religious" Christian makes church attendance and the like the focus of their faith. They're so consumed with ritual and putting God in a box that they miss out on what God really wants from them and for them: they miss the opportunities to give of themselves and serve others, plus to be open to new and fresh things that God wants them to learn and experience. They see God as ordered and structured instead of the dynamic, exciting, radical God He actually is. As a result, theirs is often the stale, boring, ritualistic faith so common in the western Church that turns off multitudes of people from realizing who God truly is and causes them to end up lost for eternity.

The "relationship" Christian, on the other hand, makes church a minor part of their overall faith. As I mentioned in another post, church to them is like the icing on the cake of their weekly walk with God and not the cake itself, as in the case of the religious Christian. Church is more a chance to catch up with other believers, and to encourage and practically serve those in attendance who have needs (like praying for them, inviting them over for lunch, helping them with yard work, cooking them a meal, etc). During the rest of the week, they are not the "Sunday Christian" like their religious counterparts. Instead, as mentioned before, their week is consumed with seeking then doing what God wants them to do, and this can only result from being in constant communion (i.e. communication, fellowship) with Him.

In parts of the world where Christians endure hardship much greater than us spoiled Christians in the West could ever imagine, a genuine, real, relational faith in God is much more common than the religious faith that dominates and corrupts the western Church. In these places, the "relationship" Christian seems to predominate, and they have given Jesus the freedom to work through their lives to produce all the miracles that the outside world has a hard time believing. Whenever I've heard of genuine healing occurring in our western culture, it is from relationship Christians praying for others on a one-on-one basis, as needs arise and without the hype of a formalized healing event.

I believe that if western Christians would only get away from the notion that church attendance and formal, pre-arranged church activity is the main way to know and commune with God, then our culture would see the dynamic power of Jesus in peoples' lives that non-believers are currently seeing through the persecuted Church. Instead, once again, all western culture sees for the most part in the western Church is stale, boring, religious ritual.

So am I proposing that us Christians in the western Church decide to stop attending the four-walled building we call "church" and forget about all the activities we do there? I am instead proposing that we not make Sunday mornings the central time of our faith, the overarching focal point or crux of our Christian walk. We need to pray, read our Bibles, get together with other believers, and serve the needs of Christians and non-believers throughout the week and not just during a formal, pre-arranged time and place.

As more Christians in our spiritually messed-up western culture realize these things and put them into practice, I believe that reports of genuine healing and other miracles from God - not the wiles of people - will no longer be stories from ancient history or things that only occur in other parts of the world.

God is NOT your dad!!

Okay, before any believers get unglued about the title of this post, let me explain!

It's been said that people will form a perception of God - their heavenly Father, or "Dad" with a capital 'D' - based upon the relationship they had (or didn't have) with their earthly dad, lower-case 'd'. People who grew up with a dad who was very critical or judgmental, for example, will find it very hard to believe that God accepts them with an unconditional love. And those who grew up with an absentee dad will have a hard time believing that God wants to have a deep, loving relationship with them.

To this very day, I have a hard time fully trusting men - including God - because of the relationship I had with my dad as a kid. He was the kind of dad who would be home every night, but he would usually retreat after supper to the front of the TV or to his den, where he would read or even do some work.

Now I was the type of kid who was perhaps more needy than others, craving the attention of people in general, but especially and most naturally my parents. My mom was very good at keeping me company and so her and I had a relatively close bond. My dad, however, always seemed grouchy while I was growing up; I can relate as a dad now myself, with the pressures of life overwhelming at times (whenever I'm not trusting God to work them out, that is). So when I would ask him with childish enthusiasm if he would like to play toys with me or to go out and throw a ball or frisbee, he would almost always grumble that he was too busy, or give me the "Not now, maybe later" response. Often, the "maybe later" never happened.

It wasn't too long before I began to think that perhaps I wasn't too important in his life, but I would continue to ask although less often and more sheepishly as I assumed that he would shoot down my request yet again. And sure enough, far more often than not, he did.

So as a teenager I basically tried to stay out of his way, and I no longer made the effort to bond with my dad. I was too hurt by that time and felt he truly didn't care about me. I had subconsciously begun to push him out of my life and the reaction on my part was to become more bitter about him and to be not trusting of men in general. I realize only now, years later, that I also began to distance myself from some uncles of mine that I had been very close to up until my teenage years even though they never rejected me like my dad did. I found it much easier to talk to girls, mostly because of hormones working overtime, but also probably because it was easy to talk with my mom.

By the time I started university, I remember imitating my dad on several occasions with a best friend of mine, and he would laugh hysterically as I made fun of his voice and gestures and annoying habits. I had reached the point of my greatest resentment toward my dad, which coincided with my greatest degree of rebellion against the notion of there being a God.

After God got a hold of me in my early twenties, I came to some realizations about my dad. I realized from one book I had read that "your parents raised you the best way they knew how". Such a realization was a huge bombshell of revelation in my life, and God used it as I began to grow in my Christian walk to become less resentful of my dad. I realized that perhaps my dad treated me the same way his dad treated him, and perhaps didn't feel as though there was anything wrong with that.

I moved out a couple of years after I graduated from university and saved up some money. And it was then that I finally realized just how much my dad had regretted the missed opportunities with me while I was growing up. For example, not long after I had moved out, I believe it was he who asked if I wanted to meet at a restaurant for either his or my birthday (they're only five days apart) to have supper.

By this point, God had worked to a degree where I was ready to forgive my dad for not being there for me while I was growing up. Now, I didn't ask forgiveness to his face, because quite frankly I'm sure he was already feeling bad, but I forgave my dad one day while alone praying with God. If you've never felt the release and peace of finally forgiving someone after years of resentment, then you have no idea what I'm talking about nor what you're missing!

Anyhow, I gave my dad a card for his birthday as well that basically said that even though we had missed out on opportunities in the past, we still had the present and the future. God had brought our relationship full circle, and ever since I've been able to carry on a real conversation with my dad and to enjoy his company. Even though some regrets come to mind from time to time - such as while typing this post, for example - I don't recall feeling any bitterness toward my dad since I forgave him that day with God.

But unfortunately, even though I've gotten right with my earthly dad, the mistrust I still feel toward men in general has carried over into my relationship with my heavenly Dad. Other posts have alluded to how God has been challenging me the past several months to trust Him to a degree that I never have before, to finally just let go of my fear of 'what if I get burned?' or 'what if God doesn't really care about me?' But giving the full degree of my trust to Him has been extremely difficult, although progress has been made over the past few years not only in my relationship with Him but with other men.

So I guess I wrote all this to not only encourage you that it is possible for God to heal the wounds that an abusive or absentee dad might have created, but also to hopefully make you realize that it's not a good idea to assume that God is like your earthly dad. Yes, He's your Father, but he's nothing like the imperfect earthly dad that you did - or didn't - have.

I wish we men could realize just how immensely and passionately the God of the Bible loves us, and that it's okay to love and be loved by Him. It's not un-macho or uncool to give in and accept His love. In fact, His love has been a model to me of how to love my wife and children, and to hopefully not repeat the pattern of resentment in my children that was built in me when I was growing up. Imagine how giving in to His love can help improve and heal all other areas of one's life?

I realize only now that I'm writing this post-Father's Day, but my prayer for me and for anyone reading this post is that we would get over our fears and stereotypes about our heavenly Dad and just accept His love and not be afraid to love, adore, and worship Him in return.

The Great Facade

I was watching a video a couple of nights ago where some non-believing youth were being asked their opinions about various things related to God. One was, "What do you think about church?" The answers were not surprising to me, because I was also once a non-believing youth who felt precisely the same as they do. They referred to some stereotypes that are common in only a few churches, like the mention of "smelly old people", but other answers were sadly all too common, like "boring", "outdated", "irrelevant", and so on.

On arguably one of the greatest Christian music albums ever recorded, wonderfully named "Jesus Freak", the group dc Talk wrote a song called "What If I Stumble?" They open the song with a spoken audio clip of some guy who says

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

What God has been showing me the past few months to a greater degree than at any point in my Christian walk is examples of people who call themselves Christians but who put on what I like to call The Great Facade. I have been anguished at times how their claim to be followers of Christ could not be more opposite in the reality of how they live their lives.

It is the existence of these people who are responsible for the opinions given by the non-believing youth in the video I mentioned. These people also give total validity to the above quote in that dc Talk song.

Now referring to them as "these people" doesn't imply that I'm looking down my nose at them or having hatred towards them. Sometimes I say and do little things that put me in the same category for a moment and leave me crying out to God and asking about why I was so stupid! But my anguish is for "these people" whose facade is continual, whose outward actions and appearance are put on to hide their actual lack of true understanding and relationship with God/Jesus. A facade that creates a Jeckyl-and-Hyde sort of approach to being a Christian that causes great damage to the reputation of God/Jesus as outsiders scratch their heads and wonder if their hypocrisy and inconsistency in life is what it means to be a "Christian".

Here's just one example of sadly many people I've personally known who've put on The Great Facade. An acquaintance of mine and his wife - both Christian by title - are almost at the point of separation. He wants to make things right again but she refuses, adamantly stating among other things that it won't work between them any more. She has seen her lawyer and is on the verge of leaving. At stake are their three young children who dearly love their mom and dad. She in particular is very proactive at school to make sure her children are doing well and being kept safe from bullies. However, among many measures she is taking, she no longer wants their dad to attend the same church as her and the kids once she leaves.

I cringe at how this woman claims to be a Christian but doesn't realize how leaving her husband will do infinitely more damage to their children than poor grades or a bully's actions could ever possibly do. And I almost gasped with disbelief when he told me that she doesn't want him to attend the same church any longer. Basically, she wants to put on The Great Facade at church to appear as though she's right with God, yet she won't humble herself before her husband to whom she once pledged her life - and Jesus who she claims to believe in and therefore follow - in order to make things work again.

Unfortunately, any non-believer who might learn of these things will only see the hypocrisy of a Christian couple divorcing despite the Christian belief in the sanctity of marriage. And they'll wonder why someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus would take so many actions that reflect the total opposite.

The host of the video followed up the answers of the non-believing youth by re-affirming much of what they said, but he then took things in a brilliant direction by commenting that perhaps the church has given God a bad rap. That for a non-believer to form an opinion of God based upon the mess that humans have made of the church that was created and is headed by Jesus is a crucial mistake to make.

When I was "unsaved", my opinion of God - as you will read about in other posts - was initially totally formulated by the particular "spiritual morgue" that I attended as a kid. It was reinforced by people who didn't have a real relationship with God - like people in the media and in academic circles - but still thought they had God and Christians and the Bible all figured out and discredited.

In other words, I was basing my opinion of God on bad sources of information. It was akin to asking an artist how to diagnose and fix a problem with my car, or asking a medical doctor to help me draft a plan to get out of financial trouble. I was using the mistakes and hypocrisy of believers and the lies and subjective opinions of non-believers to form my false understanding of God.

Now I have no idea how or why God began to unravel my totally false understanding of who He is, but He began to do so by exposing me to the Bible. He did this through books and preachers and teachers - including those on Christian radio broadcasts - who began to show me the truth of God and what a relationship with Him is really all about. In other words, I began to see God from His side, and I was so impressed by the non-religious reality of who God is that I was intrigued and eventually gave my life to Him through His only appointed Mediator, Jesus.

I began to realize how religion is not from God, but rather a means created by people to try to relate to God outside of what the Bible teaches. They have a beef with this-or-that, like the claim by Jesus that He is the only way to come to God and to know God, so they make up their own rules and think that God will somehow honor these man-made substitutes by forgiving them and letting them into heaven anyhow. Such religions include Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

In the case of some sects that call themselves "Christian", they claim to relate to God according to what the Bible teaches, but they twist the Bible just enough to deceive people into thinking that their beliefs are still Bible-based when they actually are not. Such sects include Mormonism (or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the Jehovah's Witnesses, and such sects are typically and more appropriately called "cults".

Why have I shared this last bit about my realizations and about religion and cults? Because I want you, if you're a non-believer, to be careful about the sources of information you use to form your understanding of God. Quite simply, if these sources discredit or mock the Bible, or if their information doesn't line up with the Bible, then you should ignore them entirely until you have a better biblical understanding.

So how come so many Christians put on The Great Facade? I believe the #1 reason is because they don't make the effort to know and understand who God is. Because they don't know and understand Him, they don't trust Him and therefore don't allow Him to control their lives. So the root causes of a divorce or financial ruin never get dealt with because the Christian tries to fix these things himself/herself. And these disasters occur in the first place because these people never formed a daily relationship of dependence upon this God whom they've claimed to put their trust in. Doing so would have prevented many of these disasters from ever occurring. So these people claim to believe but they don't actually trust, and this makes their belief very shallow and superficial.

They don't read the Bible themselves and ask for God to help them understand it because they don't make the time and the effort to do so, and then come up with excuses. So they instead listen to a teacher's or preacher's opinion and claim that to be truth instead of consulting the source of truth itself. And when one is not familiar with the truth presented in the Bible, it's easy to fall for teachings that sound biblical but actually aren't. Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses live on today simply because Christians don't know their Bible (and don't understand what the cultic versions of the Bible are and how they differ from the real one) nor apply what the Bible teaches them.

They also don't really commune with God, which means spending time getting to know Him. They resort to prayer during an emergency or to present their wish list; they don't pray to ask God to show them what to do in life then ask for the patience to wait for His answer. They sing at church so they don't look unholy, but they don't mean what they sing nor give their reverence and praise to God because they fear being vulnerable plus looking wierd to their friends.

So on and on The Great Facade goes. The Christian puts on their "Sunday best" but then lives not much differently from the non-believer during the rest of the week. It doesn't help that they watch the same TV shows and movies and listen to the same music, either. And all the while the mighty power of Jesus that is available to work in peoples' lives gets overshadowed by the hypocrisy and mistakes of multitude Christians who've put on this facade and don't allow this power into their lives.

These are the main reasons why so many churches become "boring", "outdated", and "irrelevant". The people are there pretending to know God when they actually don't, so they tolerate and never question all the irrelevant (i.e. non-biblical) religious ritual. The religion becomes a safe alternative to actually becoming vulnerable to a relationship with God that will bring about change and growth. They want change and growth on their own terms even if they realize that God's plan is a much better one.

And the net result of all these factors is Christians that are far too often ineffective and hypocritical to the outside world.

Do you need "church"? Part II

I guess I decided to tease you by waiting until this post before giving my thoughts about whether or not you need "church". Actually, I didn't want the first part to be longer than it already is! So here goes.

If you're a willing, open-minded non-believer, going to a four-walled church might be a good way to learn about God as I mentioned in Part I, but provided only that you're in a good environment. It would be better for you at this point to ask God to make Himself known and real to you, then to ask Him if this is the time for you to look for a "good" church (i.e. biblically grounded) - and of course to ask Him to lead you to such a church! God will lead your heart to the right place for you if you open yourself up to Him and trust Him. I'm confident that He wouldn't lead you to a spiritual morgue like the one I was forced to attend as a kid!

If you're a believer, I firmly believe that no matter what kind of perceived or actual experiences or hang-ups you've had at a particular church, you need to first attempt to find and become a part of another one. And I don't mean make that building the center of your faith, but rather the center of your fellowship.

When Christians decide to shy away from other believers, iron can't sharpen iron. Disagreement and debate and even conflict are the root causes of growth, and sitting at home in your bell jar on a Sunday morning makes you a weaker Christian if you aren't at least spending that time in prayer and Bible reading. If you're spending that time shining your car or reading the financial headlines instead, then your relationship with God throughout the week is probably not a priority at any point, either. And the resulting dryness of your spiritual life and therefore life overall - hand-in-hand with your increasing selfishness and desire for worldly things - can come as no surprise.

Also, by shying away, Satan has you right where he wants you. His favorite tactic is to divide and conquer the body of Christ, and he has succeeded marvelously by making countless Christians think they don't need regular fellowship with a body of believers at or through a local church. What often follows is what I alluded to above, and that is substituting fellowship with pursuing worldly things that have left far too many Christians wondering why their lives aren't anywhere near as satisfying as they could be.

Far more often than not, Christians who avoid attending a local church often end up being a Christian by title only, and not by their impact for Christ on the world around them.

However, some Christians who have had truly frustrating if not severely damaging experiences in a four-walled church still need to attempt to seek fellowship. Seeking this in what I call the "true" church, or with other believers in the body of Christ outside of a four-walled church, is better than nothing at all. These believers could start a home Bible study, or they could attend one hosted by someone else. It is often in a small, close-knit environment with other wounded Christians that they can feel open to share what might have gotten them ostracized from a four-walled, or congregational church.

So really, I firmly believe that everyone needs "church", but frankly for a small few believers this may be best achieved outside the large, four-walled congregational kind that has a label attached to it like "Lutheran" or "Anglican" or "Pentecostal" or "Catholic".

What all people ultimately need, however, is to be part of the body of Christ, that church that extends world-wide across all cultures and boundaries. And again, a person becomes a part of this body once they've gotten right with God, which results from asking Jesus to forgive and cleanse them of their sins, which then re-establishes their relationship with God. Such a "saved" person is then known as a Christian.

And whether a person decides to meet with other members of that body in a congregational church with some fancy label or title or simply in someone's living room should result from earnest prayer and waiting for God's answer on the part of a believer. This should not result from peer pressure, but strictly from what one is firmly convinced that God is speaking to them.

My concern is again with those who say they are Christian but who never make the effort to fellowship anywhere with any other Christians, or at least to extend their fellowship beyond, say, their family. Christians MUST make the effort to be willing to trust God by stepping out and fellowshipping in a broader context. Perhaps you need to attend that home Bible study group that your friend or neighbor told you about, or that you read about on a poster or on the internet.

Whatever means you choose to fellowship, you become like a lake that has a stream flowing into it and another flowing out of it. The new experiences you have with different believers is like fresh water flowing in, used by God to bring about cleansing and change in your life, and this forces the selfishness and worldliness away like the stream flowing out.

However, refusing to fellowship at all, or to not extend your fellowship beyond family makes you like a lake with no inlet or outlet stream. There is no freshness in your spiritual life, so after a while the algae and weeds begin to kill your spirit, and the waters of your spiritual life and therefore your life overall eventually stagnate and die.

So the most important question is really not whether or not you need church, but rather whether or not you need fellowship with other people who believe in Jesus. Although I believe the latter is best achieved in a four-walled building, it is obvious throughout the entire body of New Testament scripture - especially in the book of Acts - that regular fellowship in some kind of group setting is crucial.

Otherwise, you are at the mercy of the devil and your spiritual life will stagnate to the point of no longer being effective for Christ. And not being of effect for Christ means that your existence on this planet is essentially a waste.