Is there grace for wrong beliefs?

Is there grace for wrong beliefs?

I asked that question last week with a purpose in mind. I was working on a sermon where a Roman officer came to Jesus. This officer misunderstands what Jesus would like, but he understands that Jesus is the one to go to. Despite the officer's flawed thoughts, Jesus worked. This was contrasted in the section of Scripture with the religious people of the day missing out on Jesus. They had religion down, but missed Jesus. Do we have all our "right beliefs" and miss out on Jesus? The opportunity is there for all of us who are willing to come to Jesus and let him improve our lives. We need to just come to him. Jesus doesn't expect perfect behavior or perfect beliefs. If he did, we would all be screwed. Instead, he desires relationship. He wants us to know him and his father who sent him.

The purpose of the question has both a political and spiritual ramification. I would love for people to be a little more loving toward those they disagree with. The way to bring someone to right belief is through love, not dogmatic statements. Not from being demeaning and the loudest. Not from being the best debater. Love. This is true in the political world and the spiritual world. Telling someone they are a libtard, a snowflake, a heretic, a nazi, deplorable, or any other demeaning label because they have a different belief is the path of self-righteousness.

Our world is overdosing on self-righteousness. It may make the person labeling someone feel lofty, but it is only a temporary high and actually destroys. We are called to teach the truth in gentleness and love. In that framework, there is grace. Without grace, there is no gentleness and love.

As our society has moved away from God, it seems that we are also moving away from speaking with love to those we disagree with. Although we Christians have failed at that way too often in the past and continue to fail at it, there is a clear correction in the teachings of Jesus. We are challenged to be loving to our enemies. We need to grasp hold of that and walk that less traveled path with that principle at the forefront. With Jesus at the forefront. Come to Jesus. It means more than just theology and doctrine; it means a life of love. Loving God and loving our neighbor. A life of joining in on Jesus' work of restoring this world to what God intended it to be. A beautiful calling.

It's the Christmas season. Spread Jesus and his love, not more hate. If God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, we can at least be loving to those we disagree with.

Grace When We Fall

When I was a little guy, I was playing in the backyard in the country. There before me, I saw the ladder to the hayloft that I was never supposed to climb. I was a little tow-headed four year old, but, as with things that we aren't supposed to do, I kept giving my attention on that ladder. I had all the other fun things that I was allowed to play with. There were balls, bikes, swings, and a yard that seemed totally massive to a little guy like me. But that ladder is what I wanted. Up there, at the top of that ladder, I knew I would find the perfect fun that was eluding me down here. Isn't that the lie that sin always tells us? On the other side of that wrong decision will be better days. That desire we are longing for can only be fulfilled if we cave just a little bit or for only a little while on this wrong thing.

One of favorite Christian musicians, Derek Webb, had an affair last year and published a telling confession a few days back on the Internet. His story seems to go the same way as the ladder but a little more consequential. He bought into the lie that on the other side of the affair would be the love he was looking for. Life would be better. He would finally feel complete. This last week, he wrote a confession and posted it online. In it he said,

"i was a fool. i believed lies, which led me to tell lies....what you think you want, what you think you can have, is not real, and you’ll lose real things pursuing it. as an unfortunately and extremely reliable source, please believe me."

I eventually gave in and climbed that ladder to the hayloft. Near the top, my young, small hands missed a rung, and I fell. Tumbling down, back toward the shadows, smashing my head on a wooden beam and busting my head open. Laying there, broken and bloody, I eventually found the strength to get up and head back to the house for help. 

This is the way of sin. It breaks. It destroys. It harms.

My words to my mom when I saw her, blood running down my face, was "I lost my shoe." Somehow, in the fall, my shoe had fallen off, and I was in no state to find it. I thought she would be mad at me for breaking a rule and losing my shoe. Instead, she saw her four year old all bloody. She reached out to help and love me.

This is the way of God.

Grace doesn't always make things physically better. I still had a cut on my head and blood running down my face. I still had a concussion, a massive headache, would need stitches, and would vomit. Some mistakes carry with them consequences that don't go away here on earth. That's just not the way that grace works. And that's why sin is so dangerous. It always causes consequences spiritually, and often physically, that just don't go away. But grace says, "I love you anyway." Grace says, "You don't have to hide what you did to have my love." You can go on from here and still live life to the fullest.

On the other hand, if you keep hiding in the barn, covered in your own blood - the mistake of your sin - seeking for your own shoe trying to make things right yourself - you won't get the healing you need. And I think a lot of our sin is like that. Our society tells us that we won't get grace and the we should be independent and fix it ourselves, so we keep it hidden. We wrestle with it alone. We want to fix it ourselves. But when we go back to God like I went back to my mom, grace wraps her arms around us, lets us cry on her shoulder, and says that, "It is going to be okay. It may not be the same, but it is going to be okay. I still have something in store for you. I love you."

A Dislike Of Deathbed Conversions or A Total Misunderstanding of Grace

Jesus shared the following parable:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.' they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.' And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first, and the first last."

This is one of Jesus' more famous parables. In it, Jesus tells about a master who hired workers early in the day to work the whole day. Then the master went out later in the day and hired more to work the rest of the day. Near the end of the day, the master did the same. Those who worked just a short while received the same pay as those who worked the whole day. Jesus described those who worked the whole day as being angry about those who worked just a short while receiving equal pay. A direct parallel at the time of writing would be teaching that kingdom of God is open to the Gentiles, as it always was, along with the people of Israel, who had been the people of God for a longer time. A modern parallel would be the people who have grown up in the church their whole life being frustrated with an elderly person accepting Christ in the last moments of her life. We see jealousy over those who got what they really did not deserve by those who felt they earned it.

A while back I heard a sermon on this parable. The preacher shared his own struggle with being jealous over death bed conversions and admitted that his jealousy was wrong. He will work his whole life for the Lord while the person who comes right at the end receives the same blessing; that's frustrating to my preacher friend, and it's also frustrating to others with a similar mindset. In the frame of worldly reason, that just does not seem fair. The source of this frustration is a misunderstanding of two things: the life God has planned for us and God's amazing grace.

When I look back on my years of wandering, I do not look fondly. I do not think those times were great despite the festiveness of the world being exemplified in the way I lived. I look back and wish that I could have been in love with the Lord the whole time. My life in the Lord is much better than that life ever was. I missed out on a lot by wandering aimlessly.

We find ourselves jealous of people in the world when we feel that the people in the world are living a life better than the one we are living in God. When we do not strive to experience God every moment of every day, we often miss out on what God's intention for our life is. Oftentimes we are not living in the joy and peace that God wants us to live in, and our sad, selfish spiritual life creates in us a secret love for the world. Eventually, this secret love, if left unchecked, could morph into indulging those secret loves. The cost of such an indulgence could be our faith. Whether we indulge in it or not, the secret love for the world is only there because we do not experience the Christlike full life - the life God has desired for us to live.

When we experience God to the fullest throughout our days, we will not be jealous of the people that come late in life and receive the same eternal reward as we receive because we know that the time we spent working for the Lord is also a great reward. We were happy to work because we love the privilege of being a follower of Christ. And we should be overjoyed, like the Lord becomes, to have more workers no matter what stage of life the new worker is in.

After the sermon, I went over and talked to my friend about what I just shared here. An elderly lady was there and she shared, "If you have a giant cup and it is full, you will be just as happy as those who have a small cup and it is full." She was implying that those who are faithful all day will have a giant cup while those who are faithful just a short while will only have a small cup. This idea that she will be rewarded more in heaven for her life of work compared to the reward that a recent convert would receive is a complete misunderstanding of grace. What she fails to see is that her works are not what makes her right with God. Her works are, in themselves, a blessing from God. We are privileged to be involved in His work. She is only right with God because God is infinitely gracious despite our failings. Our misunderstanding of the grace of God and an overestimation of our righteousness is what leads us to think we are more deserving than others. None of us are more deserving. It is only by grace that we spiritually breathe.

If we live in the realization that our life in Christ is a better life than the other lives we could be leading, then we will not be jealous of people who come late in life to the Lord. If we understand that our life in Christ is solely available through the grace of God, then we will not think that we deserve a greater reward than those who come to Jesus later in life. May we live life to the fullest in the grace and love that Christ shares with us.

Grace Shared or Grace Abused

A friend and I were having this conversation. He's a pastor and refused to baptize an individual because of sin in their life that they wouldn't repent from.

I said:
We have this massive sin of materialism in our lives. And for some reason, we are comfortable saying that we are better than some other person who struggles with a different sin. We deceive ourselves and think that we are worthy to be baptized because our sin is an accepted sin in American Christian culture.

We are so far from Jesus. We need grace. Grace that I receive. Grace that I also have to be willing to dispense. If Jesus doesn't want to accept the unrepentant sinner wanting to be baptized, that is between Him and them. But I am not going to refuse baptism to someone that is a sinner just like me.

If I will only be perfect on the other side of eternity, and I know that. If I know that my imperfection is covered by His undeserved grace. I know that if people could peer into my heart and told me to change the sins in my life right now, I wouldn't be able to. After all this, if I encounter a person who struggles with a different sin than I struggle with, a person who isn't willing to change that part of their life, yet they want the same grace that I revel in, should I deny that grace to them?

I share this here because I want other perspectives. I don't want to get the conversation bogged down in one specific sin, so I don't share what the sin was. But I was looking for input.

It's For The Better

You have probably heard the phrase, “It’s for the better.” We hear that after something tragic or terrible happens, after a broken relationship, or a failed attempt. The person trying to comfort you proclaims, “It’s for the better.” And then everything is better, right?

What if everything isn’t always for the better? What if that isn’t the way God works?

Take Saul for instance. God appointed Saul as the first king of the Israelites. Yet Saul disobeyed God. His greediness got in the way convincing him to not follow God’s directions to destroy everything that the Amalekite’s had. His disobedience led to God becoming angry and Saul’s removal as king. His unfaithfulness did not bring about the better.

Or Achan. After God miraculously delivered Jericho into the hands of the Israelites, the people were not supposed to keep any of the items. But the treasure was far too tempting for Achan. He secretly stashed away gold and silver. This made God so angry that he punished all the people  eventually leading to Achan’s demise. It surely was not for the better.

It’s never better to step out of God’s will. Never. Ever. It’s never better to cheat on your spouse. It’s never better to get pregnant as a teen outside of marriage. It’s never better to steal from a store, an employer, or a neighbor. It’s never better to consume too much of the wrong things and destroy your body. It’s never better to call people names and destroy relationships. It’s never better to take vengeance into your own hands. It’s never better to be lazy and not work. There are many things in life that are never better. The list could go on and on. We bring about a broken and failed reality when we give in to our own selfish desires. The end result is that we see a fallen world rather than the hand of God transforming our world into the better God has destined it to be.

How I long for the better.

What about the better that you would have experience if you hadn’t of slept around outside of marriage? Or that better that God has planned for you but your diet and disease prevents it from happening. Or that better he had in store for you but you failed to wake up and attend class. Or that better if you would have been loving toward someone rather than hostile. Or that better. Or the other better. Or that other better. It’s hard to live in the better because the impact of sin in this world is far-reaching.

It’s not always for the better. That’s what sin does. It destroys the better.

But here is the reassuring truth. When we are faithful, then we will find ourselves in the better. Though it doesn’t work with as well with just one being faithful. We all should be faithful. Our churches, our families, our workplaces, our communities, and our nation won’t reach the better that God has in store for us if only one or two of us are faithful. We all must be faithful.

This is not to belittle grace, forgiveness, and hope. When things fall apart and crumble, the Great Potter can build a new better. This actually brings those concepts into our fallen world. Nobody needs grace, forgiveness, and hope if they are always perfect. We need them when we are fallen, broken, and hurting. When we face hopelessness and despair. Grace, forgiveness, and hope are there in our darkest hours. Always.

So don’t be discouraged when things are in shambles. God has a new better. But be aware that the new better can be destroyed just like the old better was. By sin. By not doing the things God wants us to do and by doing the things that God knows we shouldn’t do. Sin destroys. God builds the better. God guides us toward the better. Remain faithful. Live in the better.

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalms 84:10 ESV).

Tony Campolo - Birthday Party for Agnes

Here is video from my favorite Tony Campolo illustration. When I met him, he told me that this story is real.

I am always broken and inspired when I hear this story. It's a great broken. It's like that moment where you glimpse that life is much more than we are currently experiencing.

When I ponder what is grace, this story reminds me of what it looks like today.

The story in written format can be found here.

A Grace That Heals

In the aftermath of apartheid's collapse in South Africa in 1994, the new government under Nelson Mandela established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission whose task it was to investigate specific acts of brutality committed in the name of apartheid and to seek some measure of resolution that would enable the country to move forward.

At one meeting early in their work, the commission gathered to reach a verdict on a particularly painful case involving an elderly South African woman. At the hearing, a group of white police officers, led by a Mr. Van de Broek, admitted their personal responsibility in the death of her 18-year-old son. They acknowledged shooting the young man at point-blank range, setting his body on fire, and then partying around the fire until the body had been reduced to little more than ashes. Eight years later, van de Broek and his fellow officers had again intersected with the woman's life, this time to take her husband into captivity. And then, some time later, van de Broek had come knocking at her door once more. Rousing her from bed in the dead of night, he brought the woman to an isolated setting by a river where her husband lay tied to a pile of wood. As she watched, he and the officers doused the man with gasoline and then ignited a fire. The last words her husband spoke to her, in the midst of the blazing pyre, were "Forgive them."

Now at long last the time had come for justice to be served. Those involved had confessed their guilt, and the Commission turned to the woman for a final statement regarding her desire for an appropriate punishment.

"I want three things," the woman said calmly. "I want Mr. van de Broek to take me to the place where they burned my husband's body. I would like to gather up the dust and give him a decent burial."

"Second, Mr. van de Broek took all my family away from me and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him."

"Third, I would like Mr. van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him, too. And, I would like someone to come and lead me by the hand to where Mr. van de Broek is so that I can embrace him and he can know my forgiveness is real."

As the elderly woman made her way across the silent courtroom, van de Broek reportedly fainted, overcome by emotion. And then the silence was broken when someone began singing "Amazing Grace." Others soon picked up the words of the familiar hymn, so that finally the entire audience in the courtroom was joined in song.

From John Roth's Choosing Against War: A Christian View, 62-63. He claims to have "drawn extensively from the account of the story by Stanley Green, "When Reconciled, We are Free," Mennonite Weekly Review, Sept. 7, 2000, 4.

Ice Cream Grace

In Tony Campolo’s recent book, Stories That Feed Your Soul, he shared a story about when he was asked to present to a university class “how Christianity could be a movement that would foster positive and radical social change.” 

Campolo passionately told the students how Christianity could solve the world’s problems. The students were enthralled. They wanted that world that following Jesus could bring. But then the professor, who had invited Tony, interrupted him and shouted, “Tony! Tony! Be sure to tell them the cost! Tell them what it will cost them if they become the kind of Christians that Jesus expects them to be. Explain to them the sacrifices that they will have to make if they are to be true followers of Jesus.” In explaining the cost, Campolo lost the crowd. They wanted all of the benefits, but none of the cost.

So what is the cost to follow Jesus?

We have a tendency to confuse undeserved forgiveness with free forgiveness. We must realize that none of us can ever do enough good works to deserve forgiveness for any of the wrongs we have done, are doing, and will do in the future. None us can abstain from enough sins to cover up any of the times we have missed, are missing, and will continue to miss opportunities to love the people around us. Since we cannot pay the price, we do not deserve forgiveness. That is why it is a gift. But being a gift does not mean that it is given without cost.

I have fantasized about telling my kids that the ice cream truck was the boogey man truck. This way they would hide and cower behind the bushes, terrified of the music and the truck rather than ask me to buy them ice cream at the truck’s siren call. But I digress.

The other day, we were sitting outside at the lake with my aunt and uncle. The hypnotic music of the ice cream truck could be heard coming closer and closer. My aunt, upon hearing the noise, wanted to buy my kids ice cream, so she did. My kids were happy. My aunt was happy. Everyone was happy. And my kids became messy enjoying their ice cream. We wrongly visualize an image similar to this, where God is like my aunt and we are like my children, when we attempt to understand receiving God’s grace. God wants to give us grace, but there is a cost. It isn’t just us running happily to an ice cream truck.

Jesus taught, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” [Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV].

This is death imagery. It would be like Jesus saying, “Deny yourself, climb into your electric chair, and follow me.” The cross was a disgraceful, humiliating execution device.

The cost to follow Jesus is everything. It’s not going through a confirmation class. It’s not raising a hand in response to a commitment call. It’s not going to the altar. It’s not being baptized. It’s not saying a specific prayer. It’s not most of the things we confuse it with. The cost to follow Jesus is everything. It’s not attending Sunday morning gatherings, taking the Lord’s Supper, giving in the offering plate, or some other religious ritual. It’s everything.

It’s the giving of your whole life, everything from your time at work to your time in the neighborhood. From your time with family to your time entertaining yourself. God’s grace, given to us through Jesus’ death on the cross, is not a cheap grace, it’s an undeserved grace. It’s an expensive grace, freely given.

When young people are asked what they think of Christians, the first thought that comes to mind is that Christians are judgmental. Something is drastically wrong when followers of Jesus are known for a trait that was not modeled in the One they claim to follow. Christians suffer an image problem in our culture.  This is an inevitable result of watering down Christianity from a teaching of costly grace to one of free benefits. When our churches are filled with people who want the benefits of following Jesus without the cost of following Jesus, we will exhibit a Jesus who is selfish rather than serving.

There are great benefits to being a Christian, both on a personal and on a societal level. However, these benefits cannot be received until we give ourselves completely to Jesus. We must stop living for ourselves and start living for others. In doing so, we will find the grace that God provides through Jesus. The benefits we receive might not look like the benefits we wanted when we were living selfishly, but they will be the benefits we and the people around us need. May we find the strength to climb into our electric chair and follow Jesus.

Osama Bin Laden, Essentials, and Grace

As Americans, our emotions were all over the place after the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. Some danced in the streets celebrating, others mourned the death of one who we logically presume did not know Jesus, others bounced back and forth between those feelings, while others did not know how to feel. It was a crazy, few days in the life of America.

I want to tell everyone who doesn’t feel the way I feel, and understand Scripture the way that I understand it, that they aren’t right with Jesus. I have this terrible, evil instinct inside myself. A place of arrogance, pride, and self-righteousness. A place where I sometimes mistakenly think that God is confined to the nice, little box of my understanding. A place where I do not allow any grace for others but gladly except grace for myself. Maybe you can relate.

Even though I think the proper response is clearly expressed in Scripture, I must be gracious to those who disagree. One of the principles of the Christian Church since its beginning in the 1800s is that we believe that there should only be a minimal set of essentials. And the way one should react to the death of a terrorist like Osama bin Laden does not make that cut. If you want to read our church’s list of beliefs, they can be check out at here.

On the rest, we can disagree. And we will disagree. But we will disagree and still call all those who call Jesus their Lord brothers and sisters. This has historically proven to be a tough place to remain because we, the church, suffer from Essential creep. Another issue becomes important, and people want to make that an essential. Then another. Then another. And soon we have a whole handbook, often times unwritten and unknowable even to the individual, that holds all of the legalistic thoughts – a handbook that tells us what to think on a multitude of issues and who to consider not a Christian.

What if we have it all wrong? What if Jesus came to earth to free us from that sort of legalism? He could have given us a legalistic handbook if he wanted to. Instead he taught us that the most important things to do are to love God and to love one another. Simple. Pure. Two noble tasks that we struggle to aspire to. Instead of struggling and relying on grace, we make little legalistic rules that we can meet so that we can feel good about ourselves. Instead of comparing ourselves to Jesus and his perfection, we begin to compare ourselves to the prostitute or the drug addict and brag about how moral we are. We puff ourselves up rather than humble ourselves at the beauty of Jesus dying for us.

I don’t know everything, but I do know that I killed Osama bin Laden in my heart a long time ago. For that I need God’s grace. May I have the strength to show that grace to others.

Faking Grace Away

Do you ever fail?  I do. 

In the not so distant past, it used to be that people expected their pastors to be perfect.  The pastor had to exemplify the best.  Unfailing morality.  Upstanding ethics.  Uncompromising convictions.  Unquestionable theology.  Unwrinkled clothing.  But all that did was create a bunch of pastors who had to act fake around everyone else. 

Maybe you feel a similar pressure.  Everyone expects you to be perfect.  The perfect mom.  The perfect dad.  The perfect grandparent.  The perfect child.  The perfect student.  The perfect…you name it.  The list goes on and on.  The expectations that surround us are enough to smother us.   

Yet Jesus said, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” [Matt 5:48 (ESV)].   Then the next day comes.  You wake up.  And the next thing you know, you’ve already messed up.  Another perfect day marred by your imperfection.  Be perfect.  Yeah, right.  A noble goal.  But why even try?  We know we’ll fail.

So we take the easy way.  We can always fake it.  That’s the easy path that we sometimes find ourselves walking down.  Everyone expects me to be perfect, so I’ll fake it.  I’ll act like I’m perfect.  Inside though, I’ll know that I am living a lie.  And at the end, we find that a path of being fake leads to loneliness and despair.  No, that’s not the path for us.  Despite its allure.  Despite its ease.  Faking perfection will only lead to a charade that emotionally and spiritually destroys us.  We might receive praise from those around us, but inside, we will know they aren’t celebrating us; they’re celebrating our lie, our ability to perform, the fake person we have come up with.     

There is another path.  It seems sort of crazy.  This path is harder to travel but way more satisfying.  It’s to be real yet still strive for perfection, knowing that we will not attain it on this side of the grave, but never giving up.  It’s to try to achieve an ideal that we know we cannot attain.  Irrational, yes.  Liberating, completely.

John wrote, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” [1 John 1:8-9 (ESV)].  Sin is imperfection.  It’s missing the mark.  And we are all sinners.  And we will remain sinners.  Nothing we can do will stop us from sinning.  Unless, of course, we want to deceive ourselves and be fake.  But that’s not the path for us. 

We don’t need to be perfect.  That’s where grace comes in.  Sometimes the people around us forget grace.  Unfortunately, sometimes the church forgets grace.  But the Bible never forgets grace.  God never forgets grace.  John went on, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” [1 John 1:7 (ESV)].  The blood of Jesus.  It’s seems a little archaic.  But it’s still as powerful today even if we are so far removed from understanding a culture that required blood sacrifices.  Jesus’ sacrifice cleanses us from all of our imperfections.  Everyone of them.  Even that one that you’re ashamed to acknowledge to yourself.  All of them, removed by Jesus.  The beautiful thing in that statement is that we no longer have to live a fake life.  We’re free.  Truly free.  We can have fellowship with one another.  That’s just churchy-speak for saying that we can really, truly, be real and be friends with one another. 

Striving for perfection is what our response to grace should be, even when we fail day after day, hour after hour.  In a small town like ours, we encounter a lot of people faking perfection.  We have fake neighbors.  We run across fake people around town.  We have fake co-workers.  And if we’re honest, we can find ourselves being fake.  All of this faking life makes us forget grace.  Yet grace will persist in trying to release us from all the fakeness.  That real person we run into, the one that is flawed and comfortable being flawed.  Oh, how they are a breath of fresh air in a toxic, phony world. 

We need to be that.  A breath of realness in a town of fakeness.  A light in the darkness.  Because even when we have tried to act like we are perfect and don’t need grace, God has never stopped offering us grace. 

Grace is so often misunderstood.  Some use it as a license to sin.  Others view grace as a weakness to rely on.  But living right in the center of God’s grace is where we can take off our mask, throw away all false pretenses, and be ourselves.  There, when we are real, we can encounter God.  The wonderful, forgiving, awe-inspiring, God.  So great that He’s the creator of the universe.  Yet so close that He loves the real you and me.  A God that freely gives us grace so that when we fail, we won’t give up.  A God so loving, that when we are down, we are constantly reminded that we can get back up and give it another shot.  A God, who, through grace, encourages us to be whom He has destined for us to be, with our faults and all.  A real God for real people like you and me.

Grace For The Broken (Like Us)

When standing at the precipice of grace, we like to step back.  For down there, in the grace, we fear lies death and destruction.  But in that fear rests true life.  We just have to be willing to give up on the judgment we currently cling to.

Paul wrote, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” [Romans 8:1 (ESV)].

When I was a kid, I used to pretend I was a superhero.  I had a cape that my mom made for me and would fly around the yard under that majestic, clear, blue country sky with my arms stretched out like I was Superman.  Those were the days of innocence.  Now, I know I was really running and only had a towel on my back that had an elastic strap sewed on.  Reality is often a downer.

At other times, I would attempt to use the force on a light switch to turn it off.  Or I would try to turn on the sink with the force.  I was never successful at using the force, but I had fun pretending.  And many of us, kids growing up in the 80s, did those same things.  That’s why the Super Bowl commercial with the kid pretending to be Darth Vader was so effective.  Many of us who are of the age to buy cars ran around pretending to use the force as kids.  We were superheroes.

But then real life caught up to us.  We started noticing flaws in the way we looked.  We started to recognize that others were better at some things than we were.  And the superhero charade wore off.  Reality crashed down.  For some, that reality crashing became too much.  That’s why suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds and the sixth leading cause of death for 5-14 year olds.  They’re learning to deal with their kryptonite for the first time, and their kryptonite is their own flaws and mortality, and, on those unfortunate and tragic times, kryptonite proves deadly.       

Those flaws and disappointments are no reason to give up.  We always have another dream waiting to be realized.  I remember when I was most down in life and ready to give up.  It only took about two hours with a friend, a Pepperoni Lover’s from Pizza Hut, and some Crash Test Dummies to figure out how to cope with things and to dream new dreams.  It might not happen that quickly for some, but there is never a reason to give up.  There is always hope in Jesus because there is no condemnation for the faults in your life when you are in him.  The death of dreams is always tremendously tragic.  It never gets easier.  But it’s when those first dreams smash into broken shards and are impossible to put back together that we can fail to realize that there is another dream just waiting to be noticed.  

Wake up, oh dreamer.  There is another day.  Another dream.  There is grace for all our mistakes. 

Jesus, Forgiveness, and Suicide

The other day, while counseling students at the school after the tragic and unfortunate suicide of Dalton Skeens, I was asked whether a person could go to heaven who committed suicide.  This is a much more exhaustive answer to that question.

The Bible does not address the subject of suicide directly.  

First, I will start by debunking a false idea that floats around.  Sometimes suicide gets labeled as the unforgivable sin (Mark 3:22-30, Matthew 12:22-32).  "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" [Mark 3:29 (ESV)].  The context shines light on what this means.  After Jesus healed a demon-possessed man, the Scribes and the Pharisees who were out to get him claimed that Jesus was in league with Satan.  Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to claim that an act that you know is from God is from Satan.  The unforgivable sin has nothing to do with suicide.  

  

I like what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches on suicide.

Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance (2280-2283a).

In the end, the only thing that prevents people from going to heaven is not knowing Jesus.  It seems kind of strange, but it's like going to an invitation-only party without the invitation.  Hopefully, the guy that invited us will be at the door, but we don't know that he will be.  We have all been invited, but we need to bring the invitation.  

But it's more significant than that.  Jesus claimed to be "the way, and the truth, and the life."  He followed that up by saying, "No one comes to the Father except through me" [John 14:6-7 (ESV)].  It is through him that we receive forgiveness of our sins.  At the very core of the message of Jesus is that we are all sinners.  This sin separates us from the presence of God because God is holy and only allows the purified into his presence.  God became flesh in the form of Jesus to show us how to live and offer the perfect sacrifice for our sins that when accepted, covers our filthiness in holiness.  We accept that forgiveness through giving our life over to him.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  He is worth living for.

Jesus taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep [John 10:7-11 (ESV)]. 

The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus came so that we might live an abundant life.  Committing suicide is an act of theft, murder, and destruction.  However, that does not mean that committing suicide is unforgivable.  It just puts us face-to-face with a grace that is bigger than we can comprehend.  The grace of God expressed through Jesus is bigger than the greatest sins that we can think of.  

We just need to realize that no setback is to big too overcome.  We need to follow Jesus and live in the hope and the knowledge that life goes on no matter what the circumstances.  Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" [Romans 8:1 (ESV)].  What kind of grace would grace be if we were condemned to hell when we died while committing a sin?  The grace we receive from God covers all past, present, and future sins.  One might feel that this gives us a license to sin, but exactly the opposite happens when you experience this grace.  It isn't a license to sin; it's a freedom to live. 

God's grace is big enough for suicide, but God's plan for your life is so much greater than the permanent setbacks that emotionally engulf you.  There is always another change that can be made and another road to go down.  Don't give up.  We serve a God of hope. 

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,even as we hope in you.

                       Psalms 33:22 (ESV)

The Uniqueness of Christianity

How does Christianity differ from other religions?

Although there are similarities with other religions here and there, Christianity does have a few points that distinguishes it from other religions.

Christianity teaches that Jesus is the only way to get into heaven (John 14:6).

Being right with God is a gift of grace, not something that we can accomplish through our own works (Ephesians 2:8-10). By the book, Christianity is not a religion of works.

Christianity teaches that we are to love everyone, including our enemies (Matthew 5:43-44) and the poor (1 John 3:17). Followers of the faith have not always lived this out, but it is a clear teaching of Jesus.

Christians are supposed to continue living on the life of Jesus in the here and now (Ephesians 2:18). They are to love the way Jesus loved, do the things Jesus would do, and continue on His mission to liberate mankind from the sins that shackle them.

**


I took some time to answer questions on Hubpages, where I post on occasion.  These questions are from there.

Death Bed Conversions - Do They Take?

Is repentance at the last minute to death a ticket into heaven?

The joy of the Christian life is much more than just getting to heaven but about living in the presence of God every moment of every day.

Eternal life begins when we know God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). This can happen on someone's death bed.

Jesus shared a parable about people who come late in the day to work; they received the same wage as the people who worked all day (Matthew 20:1-16). When the workers who worked all day were upset the master told them, "Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?." Jesus added, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." They had forgotten that it was a privilege and blessing to work for the master all day long rather than worry about whether they would get to work.

So we can receive salvation at the end of our day, but we miss out on living the life God intended for us to live. So why wait?

**

I took some time to answer questions on Hubpages, where I post on occasion.  These questions are from there.

A Message for the Depressed and Hurting

I received a message from a friend who is depressed about his life, where he is, and how he feels.  This is what I wrote in response.  Maybe it will help someone else feeling the same way.

I'm reminded of Nine Inch Nail's Hurt, preferably the Johnny Cash version.

That song was originally released on Nine Inch Nail's Downward Spiral.  In an interview, Trent Reznor noted that he wrote the album to be one whole message.  In it, he rejects God, he lives for himself, but by the end, he wishes he could throw it all away and start over.  You seem like you are in a downward spiral of sorts, and at the end of that spiral is Hurt.  A place where you wish you could start again and throw everything away.  That place is always now.  We constantly have to throw away the hurt others have inflicted on us, the hurt we have self-inflicted, and the dreams we have missed fulfilling.  That's what forgiveness is.

The problem is that people don't think that it is possible to start over, but with God it is possible.  Jesus offers grace, a grace that helps us overcome the failure we feel like we are and sometimes have been.  A grace that will give us the strength to continue on despite continuing to be a failure.  A grace that helps us become more than we can be without it. 

In the end, a life filled with God's spirit, forgiveness and grace will be a life that will end that downward spiral; a life that wills stop the hurt; a life that will reflect the glory of God; the life you were intended to live.  Don't give up.  Be real, be honest, and pursue God with your whole heart.

"Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;  his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" Isaiah 40:28-31 (ESV).

Jesus Fulfilling the Law - An End to One Era and the Beginning of Another

A comment on the article Why Evangelicalism is Failing a Generation asked another poster a tough question.  I thought I would give a shot at answering it

How does your church (or how do you personally) reconcile the fact that all modern christians choose to ignore most of their god's unwavering laws that appear in Leviticus and Deuteronomy?

The ones about not wearing clothes of two different materials, putting unruly children to death, shunning menstruating women and not allowing them into holy places - these laws are laid down in verses immediately proceeding and following the ones that call homosexuality an abomination.

I cannot for the life of me understand how humans who believe in a law-giving god can cling to some laws (mostly those that conveniently sanction or oppress someone else) while utterly ignoring others.

Much greater theologians than me have wrestled with this subject, but here is how I currently work through that great question.  For this article, I am going to ignore the specific issue at hand and deal with the broader principle of the law.

The role of the law in the life of believers was a debate even in the early church.  The whole letter of Galatians was written to a group of Christians who were still living under the law and trying to force others to do the same.  Paul wrote to explain why they did not need to live under the law.  He said, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" Gal 5:1 (ESV).  By this time, Paul was describing the law as a "yoke of slavery."  That is not a kind description.  Then he summed up the law after explaining why circumcision was no longer necessary:  

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Gal 5:13-14 (ESV). 

In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus claimed that he came not to abolish but to fulfill the law.  The end result is the same - the law no longer applies, but the explanation on why it stopped applying is different.  He did not get rid of it.  Instead, he brought the law to its natural conclusion.  The law was like a seed that would spring to life in a new and better way to live with God (Hebrews 7:22, 8:6).  Paul would later explain that the law was not wasted for it revealed sin and led us up to the point of realizing our need of a Savior.  Jesus then went on to say that people would have to be more faithful than the most faithful legalists of his time in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus' teaching is that without his grace, which came through his fulfilling of the law, nobody would be able to be right with God.

In Romans 3:19-3:31, Paul wrote that nobody would be made right by the law.  The way to righteousness is by faith.  We are each sinners and have violated the law.  Paul states that the law's purpose was to show us what is sin.  He elaborated that we would realize the futility of trying to be righteous under the law.  For once we break one small part of the law, we have broken the whole law (James 2:10).  The law should leave us realizing our great need of grace. 

The writer of Hebrews 7:11-28 talks about when the priesthood is changed, there is a new law.  With Jesus, we moved out of a priesthood of the line of Aaron into the priesthood of Jesus, so we moved out of the Levitical Law into the law of Jesus.  The writer calls this new era a "better covenant."  No longer is there a need for ritual sacrifice because Jesus was the sacrifice for all, and the law has been simplified. 

Jesus narrowed the law down to just one teaching.  He described it as a "new commandment" when it was not new.  One would need to assume that Jesus was not just ignorant or forgetful but that he knew that his "new commandment" was an ancient teaching from Leviticus 19:8.  So what was he saying when he said it is a new commandment when it was an old one?  It would be an inference to the ten commandments and the entire law being fulfilled and the establishment of a new law.  No longer do we need to adhere to the old commands, which allowed people to be legalists and parse the law in such ways that they could follow the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of the law.  Jesus' new commandment sums up the spirit of the law and in a way that both narrows and broadens it.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  John 13:34-35 (ESV)

And now I ask you, dear lady— not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning— that we love one another.  And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 2 John 1:5-6 (ESV) 

Moral Resposibility, Bystander Effect, and Grace

A friend wrote in reply to my article Taxation is Stealing, Health Care, and Jesus' Teaching on Caesar:

Nice blog entry, though I am a bit uneasy with the second sentence in the following quote:

"Christians can disagree with the government and express our opinion. In a democracy, it is our Christian responsibility to do so."

This use of "responsibility" triggers my Niebuhr meter.

Is that a bad thing?  Here is the section in question that I have since changed due to my friends persuasive arguments.

Christians can disagree with the government and express our opinion.  In a democracy, it is our Christian responsibility to do so.  We only stop going along with the government when what they propose is in direct violation of Scripture.  This teaching excludes taxation because Jesus taught that we are to give to Caesar financially what Caesar demands.  If Caesar tells us not to love a person, we still love them.  If they tell us to only express certain beliefs, we still express what we feel is the truth.  But when it comes to taxation, we still give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. 

When writing that sentence, I did think that a cerebral person could have problems with my wording, so it says something good about you.

For starters, the Bible never addresses how we should behave as followers of Jesus in a democracy.  So this is more of a philosophical argument based upon the biblical principles of peace and justice. 

If two of us are in a room, making a decision together, and we decide to commit an unjust act, I would be guilty even if you were the only one that perpetrated the act.  If we are in a group of twenty people who decide on an unjust course of action yet we stand up, disagree, and try to prevent the others from the unjust act, we would be recused from responsibility?  Those who silently acceded the point to the ringleaders and did not stand up against them might not be as guilty as the ringleaders, but they would carry some guilt for not standing up to them?  The dilemma in this concept comes with the dilution that occurs in talking about a community, state, or nation.  In those cases, we are no longer are we talking about small groups where we naturally understand the distribution of guilt.  When we start talking about our responsibility as individuals or as a small community in a group of 300,000,000, we begin to feel less responsible for the decisions of that group.

It is an unfortunate result of the Bystander Effect.  More people involved in a situation causes each individual to feel less responsible for the actions of the group.  We see this in the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 and the 2009 gang rape outside of a homecoming dance in Richmond, California.  People don't feel responsible when there are more people involved.  We have a tough enough time saying that we are sorry and taking responsibility for our own actions, let alone the actions of others that we could have stopped.  If we can easily pass sin off, we gladly do so.

History has shown that those who stand up for people's rights can change things.  People could have changed the circumstances for the better in either the case of the gang rape or the case of Kitty Genovese.  It only takes active, small groups to make a difference and divert the course from one of evil to one reflecting God's kingdom.  In our nation, we need more people to stand up for the convictions of peace and justice to reel in the fallen tendency that lures us toward selfishness, overconsumption, and individualism.   

If I do not speak out against the atrocities committed by my nation, then I am responsible for those atrocities.  It is my moral responsibility to speak and act in ways to try and bring about change.  You understand that I am speaking of only doing this in peaceful and non-violent ways; not in ways reflecting the Christian militia that began their trials this morning.  We change this world by prayer, truth, and love, but love means that we stand up for the oppressed, clothe the naked, help the homeless, and look out for other ways to reflect God's light in this world. 

Although I do not expect my nation to behave in a Christian manner, it is Christians who hold us back from the cliff of complete selfishness and moral destitution.  That might be arrogant to say.  Maybe it needs to be reevaluated.  But righteous people, maybe of all religious persuasions, are the people who stem the tide of depravity that inevitably leads to cultural destruction.

And in the end, I rely on salvation by grace because I am responsible for some terribly atrocious acts. 

I have never read Niebuhr, although The Responsibility of the Church for Society seems to be a good place to start.  I just googled his name and responsibility; however, I did not have time to read him before writing this and will not tomorrow as I have an insanely busy day.  But I look forward to.  Is there anything else I should read in regards to this?

Walking the Tightrope of Faith Toward Love - Avoid the Pitfalls of Selfishness and Empty Religion - Finding Meaning in Life

We can stray to the right or to the left, but God has designed us to be on a path of faith.  It's like a balancing act on a tight rope; it's tough to do.  But unlike normal balancing acts, this one is filled with grace.  When you fall, you can bounce right back up onto the tight rope and continue where you left off.  If you teeter to the one side, you fall to short-term thinking seeking temporary pleasures; on the other side is seeking stability in religious traditions and rituals.  We're quick and often eager to point out sin in the form of living on short-term decisions, but the Bible does not ignore the stifling nature of empty religion. Galatians is a whole letter about the latter, which is just as dangerous as the former.

"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Gal 3:3-6 (ESV).

The Galatians had a dangerous tendency to depend on religious rituals to make themselves feel right with God.  Paul wrote to remind them that it is not religious rituals that makes them right with God, but faith.
The Galatians were becoming strict adherents of a clear, Old Testament teaching, circumcision.  Abraham was the patriarch of the Israelites who was given the promise and told to circumcise himself and all of the males with him (Genesis 17:1-14).  The Old Testament was clear that those who were not circumcised were excluded from the promise (Genesis 17:14).

The fulfillment of that Old Testament covenant in Jesus changed things.  No longer was a religious ritual necessary to be right with God, it was now faith: Not just an intellectual faith that causes one to participate in religious rituals or abstain from short-term actions but a faith that spurs us on toward loving those around us.  Abstaining from selfish actions is painful because they produce short-term pleasure.  Refraining from relying on religious rituals is difficult because the ritual provides comfort and stability.  But love is where it's at.  Love is how we move further on the tight rope toward who God designed us to be, not refusing to be selfish or adhering to rituals.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery...For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love...For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”  (Galatians 5:1,6, 13-14). 

There was nothing wrong with circumcision; it was the sign of the covenant between God and His people.  The problem came when His people lost focus of the larger purpose of that covenant, and in so doing they really lost the meaningfulness of their relationship with God.  God blessed them so that they would become a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:1-3).  That is where the meaningful life is found.  It isn't found in us worrying about ourselves but in giving away ourselves to others through faith in love.


We're not called to be hermits.  We can enjoy the pleasures of life that God has blessed us with and we can find joy and encouragement in religious rituals, but when they keep us from moving forward in love, they become sin and prevent us from the life God has intended for us to live.

We Don't Rob God, We Rob Ourselves

We don’t rob God of anything when we don’t do His will. He does not need us to do His will. God does not sit around and wonder how He is going to get His will done. He does not sit up in heaven saying that He needs Regan to be faithful or else He cannot achieve what He wants. No, He lives in our hearts trying to guide us to do His will because He knows that His will is what is best for our lives. We only rob ourselves when we live selfishly outside of God’s will. God has blessings in store for us. He has a great life planned for us. When we live outside of His will, we rob ourselves of that blessing.

I can go on living life the way I want and I will receive what I deserve through my own merits. For some of us that might not be much; for others, they can earn the possessions of this world and live the high life. Or I can live life as a child of the King and get what I do not deserve because of His merits. When I realize that I am His child and He wants to take care of me like I want to take care of my children, then I will want to please Him like a child wants to please their mom and dad. His love is amazing. And his grace is also amazing.

Religion, including Jesus’ Church, has a tendency to be pulled toward a culture of ungrace. One in which you need to appear perfect in order to serve in any meaningful capacity; a culture where we will hold your mistakes against you until you die. The place that should have the most grace in whole world has morphed into a place where sinners – but only those who are caught – are spiritually shot and killed. Is that really what God intended His family to be like? My children make mistakes and they screw up just like I do as a child of my parents, but my parents still accept me as their own. We all make mistakes, but God still accepts each of us as His own. It is sometimes difficult for people to realize this because we are surrounded by so many dysfunctional homes where a parents’ love has to be earned rather than it being freely given. But God freely gives.

So when we come to a warning in the Bible to not behave in a certain way, it is not a command from a god that does not have our best interests at heart. It is a command from a loving Father who wants us to be all that He intends for us to be. I don’t know what God has in store for everyone that reads this. He might want someone to change their community by helping the poor in incredible ways. He might want you to invest your life investing in children so that they can reach their God-given potential. He might have a widow in mind for you to give love and friendship to. He might intend for you to be a silent prayer warrior empowering all of the ministries around you.

But know that God has a greatness in store for each of us. What parent does not want their children to be great? He has a plan for each one of us. However, we need to make sure that we allow God to define what greatness is rather than swallow the definition this world shoves into our mind through commercials, entertainment, and those who have yet to realize God’s purpose for their life. The world tells me that greatness is wealth and power. God tells me that greatness is humility and love. Some, including myself on bad days, will look at the wealthy and powerful and say that they have greatness and will strive to have greatness the world’s way. But that path will only lead to a temporary greatness, a greatness that will lead to a dead end.

We need to surrender ourselves to our loving Father and let Him shape us into the greatness He wants us to be. That is a greatness that will last.

A Response to "Intro and Question #1: Good News?" - The Struggle of Two Gospels - The Message of Jesus and Paul

A link to another article, Intro and Question #1: Good News?, was posted on my post, What Is Really The Good News Taught By Jesus? - The Gospel Is The Kingdom, and I just never noticed. Today, I began looking through old posts for a class I am teaching, and I saw the link in a comment. The timing of this discovery was great, despite nearly three years after it being written. It appears that Kelvin has since become a missionary in Venezuela to help bring about the Kingdom of God.

These are the thoughts I had while reading the article. They might not be disagreements; they are just my stream of consciousness. The thoughts are written in reply to his article and to him; hence the use of the word "you."

Romans 1-3 (especially when it states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God) is a proclamation that we can only be saved by grace. When you wrestle with whether we can be righteous or not, that is a different wrestling match than whether we can be saved by our own works or not. The latter is what Paul addressed in Romans when he wrote about us all being sinners. Jesus, at the end of Matthew 19, also touched on it when he was asked by the young man what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus pointed out that salvation was impossible for man yet possible with God. There are no works that we can do to be right with God; it is purely through his grace. As Paul said in Romans 3, God's grace is a gift.

Galatians 3 states that we were initially saved by grace and are continually made right to God by grace. When we think our works are what makes us right, even after we have been a Christian for many years, we run into the problems of pride and losing the blessing of God working among us. God does great things through the willing, not the prideful or "perfect."

You explained the two approaches to the Gospel in the following:

To sum up for side A, I see this as the message of salvation, which is true but not necessarily the gospel. Where I see it falling short is although there is a promise of love, peace, joy and new life, the emphasis is on snatched from Hell, wait for Heaven and don't do anything really bad till you die.

And what of Side B, pray tel? Side B relies heavily upon the life and teachings of Jesus, and not so much His death. After all, Jesus did do much more than just die. He lived: He was a little kid, He was a teenager, He worked, He learned a trade. Before He started His ministry, you probably wouldn't even have given Him a second look. In fact, He wasn't even physically handsome. (Isaiah 53:2). Once He began His ministry, He began with the poor. Many of the people that came to Him were broken, either poor, physically ailed, someone in their family had problems, etc. And, never, never once does Jesus ever turn away someone who is desperate for Him. He does turn away the pride and arrogance of the pharisees. Jesus even forgave sins of the people that came to Him . . . and He had not died yet to forgive them. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God while on Earth, and He said the prostitutes and charlatans were entering before the pharisees. He came to establish the Kingdom and He did. Its not something you can point to and say there it is, or here it is, rather it is within you. (Luke 17:20-21).

I’ve been wrestling with the two approaches toward the Gospel that you address, and I think it is a blending of the two that is true. Jesus is the entry to the Kingdom, but within the Kingdom is where disciples are made. You can substitute the word community for Kingdom, but Kingdom is great, albeit archaic, in that it signifies a community with Jesus as the ruler. The problem with the two gospels you address is that the one is good at making converts but not in shaping disciples. The other is good at shaping disciples but not good at making converts. That does not mean that disciples are not made in the one and converts are not made in the other; it just means that those two Gospels, when purely approached, do not naturally lend themselves to making converts in one case or disciples in the other.

If your goal is to transform the world, then many systems need to be transformed as well. If you are going to bring peace to the world, then wars need to cease; oppressors need to see the slave as their brother, not an object of hatred. If you aim to end poverty, you need to establish a just system of wealth and economics. How does Jesus address these issues? He doesn't.

I could not agree more. The goal of the Gospel is not to transform governments. Although I do believe a nation that consisted of Christians would steer toward being Christian in its policies, but that is not the goal of the Christian. We are focused on our citizenship in God’s Kingdom and the opportunities that being a follower of Jesus entails. In our life and our circle of ministry, we need to strive to bring about peace, justice, and an end to oppression. I am not worried about systems but hearts, mine included. I need to live at peace with those who attack me. I need to make purchasing, employment, and consuming decisions that do not proliferate this economy of oppression that we live in (and I am terrible at this). I need to live my life in such a way, along with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are an adequate representation of the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is such an amazing analogy. That means Christ is our head, but we are the body. The head sends us signals, and we are to do them. We are his hands and feet in the world. We bring about his will. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I think we do a disservice when we get this message confused with political activism rather than on the street love. I am not going to make a legalistic rule that there is never a place for political activism. I know that is not what I am called to. If someone else is called to political activism, who am I to say that they were not really called to that.

Transformation or peace corps can look the same.

I could not agree more. That is why we need to make sure that our transformative actions are rooted and expressed in and through Jesus. Many loving things can be done because of our love of Jesus, but we need to make sure that Jesus is proclaimed through our loving actions. Hmmm…I might even disagree with what I just wrote. Because if I love to just transform others’ hearts, then that love is manipulative. I need to make sure the love I express is an overflowing of the love that God has for me. It is not manipulative, despite proclaiming Jesus, because it is an overflowing of God’s love through me.

The Gospel that the Galatians had strayed from was a Gospel that included grace. As I previously mentioned, they were trying to say that works made a person right with God. Grace was the key omission of the Gospel in the case of the Galatians.

I think you wisely discern a difference between the Gospel Jesus taught to the Jews and the Gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles. The Kingdom analogy only works when one has a good grasp of the Old Testament Kingdom and God’s transition of that Kingdom from one of the nation of Israel to Cross-Nation Kingdom of people whose hearts are surrendered to God. In one sense, the Kingdom really is useless as a message to the non-Jew. However, it is still the concept that Jesus taught. To his audience, it was easily understood. The Jews were waiting for that new Kingdom to be ushered in by the Messiah. Jesus was at work transitioning the Old Testament Kingdom into a new Kingdom that had no partialities, hierarchies of leadership, boundaries, and concern in regard to the economic and political standing of the people that are part of it.

In the end, the key is that people surrender their hearts to God. The rest will fall into place after that. Although useful, whether a person understands the teaching of the Kingdom does not really matter. Teaching about the Kingdom is beneficial in that it focuses on us being a community under the King along with having a citizenship that is higher than our earthly citizenship. We are in relation to one another; that is an essential part of following Jesus. Too often, the gospel of just giving your life to Jesus for eternal salvation never really entails being part of the fellowship of believers. Teaching the Kingdom inevitably emphasizes that. Also, we must never compromise the Kingdom for our earthly nation. That is also an inevitable teaching of the Kingdom.

In the end, I find myself somewhere between a social gospel and a gospel of personal salvation. It is still working itself out. Thanks for your thoughts.