The Most Countercultural Action We Can Do - Love The Other

Despondent times. Whether it’s the news or just life in our community at the moment. I know through conversations that we flirt with despondency and hopelessness these days and then hopefulness returns when we get our thinking in check. It may fluctuate every ten minutes. It may be a swing of days.

In wrestling with this, I found this quote that really spoke to me.

Ronald Wallace, back in in 1999, in Elijah and Elisha describes our situation with the following:

We need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth, for we may be sure that God, in unexpected places, has already secretly prepared His counter-movement...Therefore the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish, for at the height of the triumph of evil God will be there, ready with His man and His movement and His plans to ensure that His own cause will never fail.

When everything looks dark; when all hope seems to be lost; when the plan of God in this world seems almost forgotten, God steps in.

This was the example we see in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul wrote that at just the right time, God sent his Son. God’s solution was wrapping his divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus. 

God knew humanity had strayed. He wanted us back. God wanted to restore things to the way they used to be. When God created, God loved it all. He declared it good. Life was perfect in the Garden of Eden. We were in a perfect relationship with God and one another. We had perfect purpose. Perfect provision. Perfect protection from anything bad. It was even perfect in that we had a choice to keep it that way.

But humanity chose poorly then, and we continue to choose poorly now.

At this moment, we're starting from a fallen state, yet God still wants to set it right. That’s the process of restoration. And that is the goal of God coming in the flesh through Jesus—for God to reconcile people back to Himself. To take us out of the darkness. To show us what it means to really live—free from fear, free from slavery to sin, free from hate. God coming in the flesh is a story of suffering and hope.

Jesus took on flesh so that people could see God as he really is and see how God wants us to live. 

God is still doing the same thing through you, through me, and through all who believe and follow the divine story.

And this happens through us living differently than the world around us.

Let me repeat that because I think it is important for these times. God wants to show all of humanity how he wants us to live and this happens through us living differently than the world around us. This can only happen when we live differently than the world around us.

Love the other. The person who disagrees with you. The person who opposes you. The person who hates you.

That is about the most countercultural, radical yet totally faithful thing we can do right now as followers of Jesus. It is how we join in on Jesus’ great work.

Jesus taught:

You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

That’s about as clear as a biblical teaching can get.

And that is how we will be a witness – a sweet alluring aroma to a different way of living. We can choose to live a life that goes against the grain of hate in our society. A life of love.

As AW Tozer said,

We cannot pray in love and live in hate and still think we are worshipping God.

Now, I want to move this idea into how we are living. Possibly a dangerous thought, but I’m not going to apologize for going here. I feel it is my responsibility to address this. Probably one of the more prevailing fights in our society at the moment.

The conversation in our society has moved beyond whether one should get vaccinated or not. I want to be 100% clear. I would never speak from pulpit to give anyone medical advice because that is not my field. That’s a conversation for you to have with your doctor. So this is not me talking about whether you should or shouldn’t get vaccinated. I am deeply convicted addressing that is not my role as a pastor.  The conversation in society around us has shifted beyond that to now be about whether we will oppress those who disagree with us.

Now it doesn’t have to just be this issue. We can be filled with hate towards others on a lot of different views. It’s just that this one is new and vastly prevalent at the moment. So prevalent that hate in this context has almost become okay in our society.

As a pastor, I do have a role here. To teach that as Christians we should adamantly oppose oppression - people losing their livelihoods and means to support their family over a personal medical decision. Even if we disagree adamantly with people not being vaccinated, which we are all at liberty to do, we are called to love our enemies. That is one of the key elements that make us who we are as followers of Jesus.

Jesus taught:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:34-35 (NLT)

Love.

Love should be our defining trait. And that love will make us so much different than the world around us.

We may not be sure of the science - although maybe some are - but the idea that we are to love the downtrodden and oppressed is something that we can be assured of. That is in our field. That should be one of our specialties. That should be what we are known for.

So now is the time. Speak up for the people around us who are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Even if it means you will lose friends or influence. You were called to your role for this time. To be a voice for love in the wilderness of hate.

I have heard friends couch the whole medical choice issue in the language of you need to do it my way or you’re not loving others. Even if that is the truth, we are still left with this.

What do you do to people who choose to not love you or others the way you think they should love you or others? Do we make them lose their livelihoods, careers, and ability to feed their family? Or do we take a different approach?

There are so many things in the current situation, but in life in general too, that we are probably wrong on. This should free us up to being gracious to one another. But I propose this idea. We should not go along with our society taking away people’s livelihoods or ability to feed their family.

Look at it this way. I can’t control whether someone is vaccinated or unvaccinated. No matter how passionate on the subject I am, I cannot control that. You cannot either.

But we can control whether we love people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated. We can always control that. We can always choose love.

What is more obvious than ever is that many people are following the wrong story at a crucial time in our history. Let that not be us. Let’s follow the right story.

We have this story of love and redemption that Jesus brought. A story we are called to live – to play our part in. And then opposing this story is a story of hatred and death. Division and destruction.

I see it any time there is a great act of evil, an attack, or the like. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram reveal the true nature of people’s hearts and shows me that many are filled with hate. People are selling out the true story—the story of God coming in the flesh—God restoring us and this world. Instead, they are buying into some tall tale, some fable, some flight of fancy that somehow takes the divine image away and replaces it with the idol of self. A story where it is more appealing to be practical than faithful. Like Adam and Eve, we also at times buy into a story of lies causing us to have these destructive yet timeless thoughts: “Did God really say that? You can’t be serious. God can’t be serious. Love your enemies? Pray for those who persecute you? That’s stupid. It won't work.”

From the beginning of time, there has been a little voice in our head that whispers the wrong story: "You don't really need to be holy - to be like Jesus. You actually don't have the time, and it won't work anyway. So just go back to your own life and try to survive as best as you can." And even when we fall prey and believe this lie at times, God is faithful when we are not and continues to seek restoration with us. 

We need to reclaim God’s story - our ultimate story. In the midst of all that is going on, this is what will bring a better world. The story of God coming in the flesh. The story of God in us. The story of God coming into the world, bringing light, bringing hope, and bringing restoration. If our story is anything other than that, if we let anything else other than that dictate our thoughts and actions – if we join in on the hatred of the moment, then we’ve been deceived.

We need more people like Antoine Leiris – If you remember back to November 2015, there was a terrible terrorist attack in Paris that killed 130 people. Antoine lost his wife Helene in the violence that shook Paris. He penned a poignant tribute to his wife, publishing it on his Facebook page:

On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you won't have my hatred. If this God for which you kill indiscriminately made us in his own image, every bullet in the body of my wife will have been a wound in his heart.

So no, I don't give you the gift of hating you. You are asking for it but responding to hatred with anger would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.  You want me to be afraid, to view my fellow countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have lost.

It seems that after almost any great tragedy, we see this same beautiful story. It resonates in our souls. The story of forgiveness. Of redemption. Of loving one’s enemies. It is these stories that make our world better and prevent us from falling down the neverending downward spiral of hate which leads only to destruction and hell.

Antoine modeled for us taking seriously Jesus’ call to love our enemies. That is a love that goes countercultural to the way of this world. It may be the responsibility of the elected leaders to figure out solutions, enforce laws, keep order, and look out for the general welfare of the constituents. But it is my job, your job, and every Christian’s job to bring the love of God to people. To be God in the flesh to all we encounter. To love people. To pray for people. To stand up for the oppressed and powerless. To be a light in the darkness.

Our world desperately needs to come out of its dark thinking and neverending cycle of hatred and violence. In this depressing, dark existence, our world needs light--the same light that entered our world some 2000 years ago. The words of Isaiah can be repeated about our generation: "They have no dawn." Yet Jesus came into the world to shine a light, to bring the dawn, and he continues to shine His light through us because we are made in the image of God.

Jesus became flesh to add an exclamation point to His perfect, divine story that we are called to join in on. He came to kickstart the process of reconciliation.

We have a tendency to think of change through a top-down approach. In that framework, it is believed that the politicians or the powers that be need to be convinced of the change that needs to happen in our society for it to come about. But Jesus had a different story. He brought change from a bottom-up approach. Through humility rather the worldly instruments of power. He never once tried to grasp earthly reins of power. Instead, he tried to change the hearts and the minds of the people around Him.

It is all too easy to make laws or mandates and force people to be the way you want them to be. It’s much harder to set an example of love and give the rest up to God.

But if this world is going to be reconciled with God. If it is going to have its heart changed, that reconciliation must start with us. In us. The way we live. The way we express ourselves. Loving our enemies.

Following Jesus isn't easy. Sometimes it is really difficult because the current of the world's story is trying to pull us under. But Jesus wants us to give Him our all. God wants to change the world and He does that by changing the way we live our life day in and day out.

God became flesh and came to dwell among us as a baby in a manger. God is the master of creating compelling story. Eventually this led to the cross. He was willing to go through all of the pain and suffering of life to reconcile this world to Himself. He was telling a different story. Because God turns crucifixions into a resurrections. Darkness into light. Hopelessness into hope.

Restoration is the goal of the God coming in the flesh. Jesus wrapped himself in flesh to put an exclamation point on the story of restoration. We then turn around and do the same in our world. To our neighbors, to strangers, even to enemies. We let transform us. And through us, God wraps His love around others. We exemplify a different story by the way we live. Our humility and living the way God wants us to live is the way God coming in the flesh becomes real today and changes our world. It's light in the darkness. It's the broken being repaired. It's restoration. This is our story, and the next chapter isn’t written yet! Is it going to be about faithfulness to God or living like the world? That’s up to you.

You Are A Child Of God or What Does It Mean When God Doesn't Answer My Prayers

 

You are a child of God.

An old preacher named Fred Craddock used to tell a story about vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One night they found a quiet little restaurant, where they looked forward to a private meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. [It wasn’t Colonel Sanders. That would be Kentucky] Craddock leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” He didn’t want anyone intruding on their privacy. But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. “Where you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Oklahoma,” Craddock answered. “Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University,” Craddock replied. “Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a story to tell you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife. Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly and thought to himself, “Oh, no! Here comes another preacher story! It seems like everybody has at least one.”

The man stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Hooper,” he said. “I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born, so I had a pretty hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and lunch time because the things they said to me cut me so deep. What was worse was going to town on Saturday afternoons and feeling like every eye was burning a hole through me, wondering just who my father was. “When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in the church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me. ‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’ he asked. I felt this big weight coming down on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’

The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, “Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I’ve never forgotten them.” With that, he smiled shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends. And as he walked away, Craddock – a native Tennessean himself – remembered from his studies of Tennessee history that on two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected to the office of governor men who had been born out of wedlock. One of them was a man named Ben Hooper. (Source: http://www.calvaryfullerton.org/Bstudy/49%20Eph/2005/49Eph01e.htm)

You are a child of God. 

And once we realize that, we can live free. As Jesus taught here.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of Godabove all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Matthew 6:25-34 (NLT)

And then I want to pull in another passage.

At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

Matthew 17:15-20 (NLT)

But you know what he follows that story up with, a story that bad things are going to happen.

After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Matthew 17:21-23 (NLT)

Despite being a child of God, bad things happened. He’s warning them, but he also just gave them the teaching of having a mustard seed faith that is linked to God working in that teaching of Jesus.

Mustard seed faith. I want to propose one thing. That size of faith is just the request. Our faith isn’t magical. Just necessary. But it doesn’t have to be giant.

I can’t tell you why God doesn’t just always automatically heal. I think in the world where we have two competing sides in Christianity – one that seems to oppose healing and one that seems to have a God that just heals quickly and automatically – we struggle to make sense of the struggle. Neither camp provides a way of thinking to carry us through that time in between asking and receiving. That time of the valley. I can’t tell you why you sometimes suffer despite being a child of God.

But What if just praying is enough faith? What if that is the mustard seed? And then how do we deal with not receiving the healing? 

In the end, we have to just continue pushing in. Our faith isn’t dependent upon a healing. Maybe today is the day for the miracle you’ve bene seeking. And then that is where we feel like we have to stop because talking about how today may not be the day goes against the grain. It goes against the false name and claim it way of thinking. But I want to tell you today that learning to cope and grow with the struggle does not mean that you are lacking faith. You are a child of God whether you get the healing or not.

You don’t need Superman faith. You don’t need a rambunctious, flamboyant, exuberant faith. Just faith like a mustard seed. A faith that is willing to just come to God and ask him what you desire. Just a faith that is enough that leads you to God’s throne room in prayer.

Just enough faith to pray. Now is the time for simple prayers. Like a child can pray.

The things you care about but feel stupid praying about. God wants to hear about them. God wants to have a vibrant conversation with you about those things. And that won't happen if you think they are just too stupid to bring up.

Because in the end, God cares about you and the things you care for. As we grow closer to him and allow the restoration of our broken places to happen, the things we care for will shift closer to the things that he cares for. But until then, we are who we are right now. So feel free to pray what is on your heart. Don't be fake with God. He won't think you're stupid. He loves you. He can handle your request. He can handle your disappointment. He can handle reality. 

In the end, it’s God’s responsibility. If you have asked, you have exhibited the mustard seed faith. And if he doesn’t heal, discouragement often sets in.

I remember the night our twins died. We came home from the hospital, with the dead babies still inside Lindsay. And we anointed her with oil and prayed for healing. I wanted God to give me a miracle story to tell the world. And I had the faith that he could do it. Lindsay had more faith. The next morning, we arrived at the hospital and asked them to do another ultrasound because we were wanting to see the miracle that I would tell the whole world about. My dead twins would be alive….They humored us with another ultrasound, but they were still dead. And instead of a miracle story to tell the world, God gave me this story. And as we wept throughout the delivery and the day with them in our room, as we held our dead babies, we were left wondering why God didn’t give the miracle we desired. The miracle we had faith for.

We are God’s children. Why did this happen to us?

And in some circles, people would tell me that I didn’t have enough faith. In other circles, they would tell me that it was unrealistic to expect the miracle. And yet, I’m somewhere in the uncomfortable mystery without an easy answer. God could heal but didn’t. I had faith but God didn’t respond with healing. 

But then we come face to face with the story of Job. It’s Job ranting and raving and arguing with friends for page after page about a tragedy that happened to Job.

God answers all the bickering in the conversation between Job and his friends.

“Who is this that questions my wisdom

with such ignorant words?

Brace yourself like a man,

because I have some questions for you,

and you must answer them.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me, if you know so much.

Who determined its dimensions

and stretched out the surveying line?

What supports its foundations,

and who laid its cornerstone

as the morning stars sang together

and all the angels shouted for joy?

“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries

as it burst from the womb,

and as I clothed it with clouds

and wrapped it in thick darkness?

For I locked it behind barred gates,

limiting its shores.

I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.

Here your proud waves must stop!’

“Have you ever commanded the morning to appear

and caused the dawn to rise in the east?

Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,

to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?

As the light approaches,

the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;

it is robed in brilliant colors.

The light disturbs the wicked

and stops the arm that is raised in violence.

Job 38:2-15 (NLT)

It goes on and we won’t read it all here, but God concludes his first rebuke with this.

Then the LORD said to Job,

“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?

You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”

Then Job replied to the LORD,

“I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers?

I will cover my mouth with my hand.

I have said too much already.

I have nothing more to say.”

Job 40:1-5 (NLT)

So we enter into this age old struggle. A struggle shown in the ancient book of Job. A struggle where we could cite so many stories in our days, whether friends dying way too young or other tragedies and disease. We have these promises from Jesus that God will take care of us. We know we are children of God, yet we find ourselves at times in unresolved valleys. We have faith. We have asked, yet it doesn’t seem that God has delivered. The healing, the deliverance, the blessing that we want – still not realized.

I want that realized for all of us. It starts with a faith like a mustard seed. A willingness to pray. To be honest with God about your feelings and ask. The simple prayer that you feel foolish praying. Ask it.

And then it continues by not giving up. I picture Job just saying, “Screw it, God. I’m out.” I’m the type that would do that three chapters in to his forty-two chapter story. And then the blessing, the true realization, would never come. Instead, Job wrestled with it. And the blessing eventually came.

But we need a belief system that can get us through those days where the healing doesn’t come. And in many instances, like the instance with my twins, there is no waiting for a deliverance or healing. The moment is gone.

But what do we do with all of this? Thankfully, Scripture gives us that too.

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:1-5 (NLT)

So drop the empty platitudes. Don’t tell someone who has prayed in faith that they don’t have enough faith for a healing. Don’t tell them to find the sin in their life as if Jesus’ blood doesn’t cover all our sins. Jesus has already brought victory. They have already exhibited the mustard seed faith in prayer. Don’t tell someone to just deny their illness as if lying to themselves is a way to manufacture faith. Laying claim to a miracle is not denial and lying. Lies never produce faith. Faith must stand up to the reality we find ourselves in and go to God to fix this broken place.

And then continue to push in toward God. You are his child after all.

Suffering does produce hope. We must allow ourselves to grow closer to God in all things. Grow in hope. Learn to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” in all situations. Be the opposite of the world. Instead of despair, hope. And keep pushing on. That opportunity, God will deliver. That healing, God will bring. God doesn’t cause bad things, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t happen, although we can be assured that he will use them for good. In all things grow closer to your Father.

And live in the truth that God will provide and what he provides is sufficient. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Push into God. And he will give you the strength you need. You are a child of God. No matter what happens.