What Would Jesus Post?

Evangelicalism today appeals to people on the basis of what they want. The contemporary church for decades has been more interested in meeting the needs of its members than urging them to follow the commands of Christ.

Neil Postman, a Jewish humanist from the 1980’s wrote a book entitled, “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” He felt back then that there was a tragic loss of serious thinking in Western civilization which he attributed to television. He could not have possibly imagined the big screen going to a small screen – from being a group experience and public experience to being an intimate, personal, private experience. 

The iPhone and other small screen devices enable every person to become a creator of his own private world. “It is a secret world,” explains pastor and acclaimed Bible expositor John MacArthur. “It is a secret world of preferences. It is a secret world of temptations. It is a secret world of relationships. It is a secret world that has a force and ubiquity that is unparalleled in human history. Unparalleled.”

The small screen is the most selfish necessity ever devised. Once, you had a phone to talk to someone. No more. Technology has put in the hand, and soon, on the ears and the nose, of everyone, the most constant, incessant, accessible, visual, private world of self-centered indulgence, temptation, and entertainment ever conceived.

“You choose everything,” MacArthur continues. “Choose your entertainment, and no one knows. You choose your music. You choose your relationships. You become God in your little world. And on your little screen, you create the world that you want. You are the creator of your own private universe.  And outside your own private cyberspace, and your Facebook friends, is the outer darkness of whatever and whomever you reject.”

Theologian Carl Trueman writes, “The language of friendship is hijacked and cheapened by the internet social networks. I don’t know what friendship is anymore.  The language of Facebook both reflects and encourages childishness. Childishness, he writes, “has become something of a textually transmitted disease.” 

A very astute comment by Trueman as the number one characteristic of a child is complete self-centeredness. He goes on to say that relationships play out in the disembodied world of the web. The latest statistics indicate that on average high school students look at a small screen nine hours a day. Nine hours. Trueman further writes, “Such are human amoebas, subsisting in a bizarre non-world that involves no risk to themselves, no giving of themselves to others, no true vulnerability, no commitment, no sacrifice, no real meaning, and no value.” 

Real fellowship cannot exist in a world of self-created avatars. It requires real persons.  Christianity is not an individual or private experience. We were not meant to live by ourselves in a world of isolation where we control everything without anyone else’s knowledge. That’s a recipe for disaster.

“The current trend is for people to create their own virtual world of virtual self,” observes MacArthur. “They recreate themselves as wonderfully as they would like themselves to be, and then project themselves that way. You can upload your self-creation into the Eden of the internet, the perfect you. Beautiful, indomitable, intelligent, wise, cool, self-actualized like some technological form of science. You can create a digitized self-projection of your idyllic design. I tweet, therefore I am.”

The culture of this is becoming more isolated, more narcissistic, more self-absorbed, more individualistic, more morally relative, more entitled. Deadly.

This might be tolerable and maybe understood if it stayed outside the church, but it doesn’t. According to MacArthur, the evangelical church has been trying to give the culture what it wants. And what is it that people want? “They want privacy,” he says, “They want convenience. They want low commitment. They want anonymity. They want unaccountability. And mostly, they want self-promotion and self-actualization. Church life is falling victim to this seductive self-design. People say, oh, it’s so hard to find a church. Well, of course. You have created the first church of my personal iTunes.  You’ve created your own music. You have your own playlist. You’ve created your own messengers. You know who you want to hear. You’ve created your own friends. You don’t feel comfortable at a church because you might run into an enemy.” 

And at the same time, there’s pressure from church growth experts saying, “What are you doing with social media? What are you doing with technology to help people know your church?” Of course the church has to embrace technology and social media on one level and use the tools for good – to connect and inform. But, as with everything, they can also be a source of isolation, disconnection, and ultimately temptation if not properly handled and monitored.

As a church body, we have to keep fellowship at the forefront. True, personal fellowship is the foundation of the church as underscored in the Book of Acts which details the early church and its ability to sustain its existence largely because of the strength of its fellowship. Everything about Christianity fights against privacy, and yet, we live in a world where privacy dominates. If we are not actively fighting against it than we are being pulled into it.

As ambassadors of Jesus Christ, it is our mandate to share his gospel – the forgiveness of sins at the cross of Calvary. It is a personal relationship that Christ beckons and then bids us to share with others. Fellowship at its essence.

Healing through Christ’s Sufferings

“God lets Himself be pushed out of world on to the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which He is with us and helps us. Matt. 8:17 makes it quite clear that Christ helps us, not by virtue of His omnipotence, but by virtue of His weakness and suffering … Only the suffering God can help … That is a reversal of what the religious man expects from God. Man is summoned to share in God’s sufferings at the hands of a godless world.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christianity is full of paradoxes but perhaps none bigger than a crucified Christ offering liberty from the power of the present time, from the laws and compulsion of history, and from sin. Only the crucified Christ can bring the freedom which changes the world because the fear of death is defeated. 

In his landmark work, The Crucified God, Jurgen Moltmann asserts, “We have made the bitterness of the Cross tolerable to ourselves by learning to understand it as a theological necessity for the process of salvation.” Of course, theological necessities do not sweat blood in the night. Yet the Son of God did.

“The passion of Jesus did not take place on a cold, intellectual, starlit plain,” declares Brennan Manning in his book The Signature of Jesus, “It occurred in the deepest expression of emotion, amid dirt and sweat, blood and tears. Christ’s passionate outpouring of love on the cross is not only the source of our salvation; it is the source of God’s power and wisdom in our daily lives.”

There is no mention in the gospel of Christ’s sufferings coming from nature or fate or from the economic hardships of being a carpenter’s son. "Rather, His [Jesus] sufferings and humiliation came from His actions," underscores Moltmann. "From His preaching of the imminence of the kingdom as a kingdom of unconditional grace, from His freedom towards the law, and from His table-fellowship with ‘sinners and tax-collectors.’ Jesus did not suffer passively from the world in which He lived, but incited it against Himself by His message and the life He lived. According to the gospels, Jesus Himself set out for Jerusalem and actively took the expected suffering upon Himself. The more the mysticism of the cross recognizes this, the less it can accept Jesus as an example of patience and submission to fate. The more it recognizes His active suffering, the less it can make Him the archetype of its own weakness. If men and women in misery understand Him as their brother in their sufferings, they in turn do not become imitators of His suffering until they accept His mission and actively follow Him.”

The cross of Christ is not some relic that we wear around our necks. In the first century, the crucified Christ was regarded as a scandal and as foolishness. As the Apostle Paul confirms in I Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Today the church must turn to the crucified Christ in order to show the world the freedom He offers. Everything else is ornamental. Christ crucified is the very fingerprint of our faith.

Following Him means living dangerously and without compromise; it means living outside of our comfort zone and preconceived notions; it means reaching out to the outcast as well as the religious fanatic; quite simply it is having His signature written on the pages of our lives.

Living with Thanksgiving

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice." ~ Meister Eckhart
 

Once again the holiday season is upon us. The stores are filled with Christmas decorations, children are wondering what they will find under the tree, and Mom and Dad are wondering how they will pay for it. These days Thanksgiving is basically a pre-season holiday, something you do to get in shape for Christmas. We eat, we sleep, we watch football, and we don’t stop until January.

That’s a shame because the art of giving thanks is one thing that separates man from the animals. To receive a gift and say, “Thank you,” is one of the noblest things a man can do. There is nothing small or trivial about it.

To say “Thank you” is to acknowledge that we have been given something we did not earn and do not deserve. Happy is the man who understands that all of life is a gift of God and that life itself is the ultimate gift. Which is why the Bible says, “In everything give thanks” (I Thessalonians 5:18). When we can’t do anything else, we can always be grateful. As someone has said, “If you can’t be thankful for what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.”

As Americans, our hearts should continually overflow with thanksgiving. Author and Bible teacher Beth Moore, in her DVD study series on the Book of Daniel, acutely captured what it means to be "rich" when she contrasted resources and education in America with the rest of the world. She said that if a person has the resources to buy a book and the education to read it then that person is rich compared to 80 percent of the world who live in extreme poverty with no access to books or the ability to read them. That is a staggering thought as I own hundreds of books and have read thousands since I first learned how to read in first grade.

But as Christians, our thanksgiving should never cease because of the One who gave everything for us. We understand that happiness does not "consist in the substance of things possessed" ... but by "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

And this really is the key to sustained happiness and thanksgiving - a relationship with the Living God. While we need to be thankful for the material things we possess and our family our friends - true thanksgiving flows from a heart knitted together with the God of the universe.

The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that "while we yet sinners, Christ died for us" and that "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." This is the greatest love story ever told - the God of the heavens becoming a man, suffering and dying on the cross of Calvary to pay for men's sins and then rising on the third day. For those that put their faith in Him and His sacrifice for sin, He promises that they too will rise one day from the grave as He did.

When one begins a relationship with Jesus Christ, God takes out his stony heart and replaces it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26 ). The happiness that results from this miracle of God does not fade when life takes a sharp turn and leaves us homeless, jobless, or parentless. No, this joy is rooted in a God who promises His followers "a future and a hope." A God who tenderly whispers that "He will never leave us or forsake us." And a God that comforts us with the reality that "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." 

This Thanksgiving season, let's do what the psalmist says in Psalm 100 and "enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." There is much to be thankful for and a God who awaits our presence.

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"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed.  Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." ~ D. Waitley 

Jesus Is Not a Brand

“Doth that man love his Lord who would be willing to see Jesus wearing a crown of thorns, while for himself he craves a chaplet of laurel? Shall Jesus ascend to his throne by the cross, and do we expect to be carried there on the shoulders of applauding crowds? Be not so vain in your imagination. Count you the cost, if you are not willing to bear Christ’s cross, go away to your farm and to your merchandise, and make the most of them; only let me whisper this in your ear, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Spurgeon preached those words more than 100 years ago as a warning to his Christian peers and their adoption of early modernism, which he rightly saw as a threat to biblical Christianity.

In 2013, no one disagrees that modernism has infected the church but just how far away have we moved from the historical positions of Christianity?

Last year the Wall Street Journal published an article about a bar in Brooklyn in which two worship services are held – reminders to tip the bartender are heard alongside entreaties to love thy neighbor and praise the Lord.

According to Jay Bakker, the son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, “The bar is common ground. People can come in and have a beer and have a drink, and I think for a lot of people that is comforting because church has been a painful place for them.”

“My whole life I have gone to Catholic church and hated it because it was boring and miserable,” said Will Zucconi, 27, who has been attending the services for a year. “I like to drink and I like to go to church, and if I can do both at the same time then that’s cool.”

As we make our way into the 21st century, there never has been a time in Christian history when the name of Jesus Christ so frequently is mentioned and the content of His life and teaching so frequently ignored.

The church by and large has become marketers of Jesus – trying to sell His message of love while omitting His call to sacrifice and obedience. After all, who does not want to serve a deity that loves them unconditionally and expects nothing in return?

If the gospel were proclaimed without compromise, the roster of card-carrying Christians in this country would shrink. It is no wonder that the most popular preacher today is televangelist Joel Osteen. He “pastors” the largest church in America, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, which boasts an average weekend attendance of more than 43,000; almost double that of its nearest competitor.

Southern View Chapel offers its take on Osteen's ministry and message, “Osteen has no theological training and it is obvious from his books, sermons and interviews on television that he has little knowledge of the Scripture. Nevertheless, he has caught an unprecedented wave of popularity and could clearly claim the title as the most admired pastor in America. 

This popularity of course is due largely to his message. Eschewing anything controversial or negative (such as hell or judgment or even sin), Osteen proclaims a message of pure positivism. The title of his first book, “Your Best Life Now”, summarizes what Osteen has to offer his many audiences. If we will follow certain principles or steps (seven to be exact), so the storyline goes, our existence will be happy, healthy, and blessed with everything that would make this life wonderful.”

English Christian Evangelist Leonard Ravenhill once said, “Christianity is not measured in success but in sacrifice.” This truism is lost in today’s climate because the church no longer believes the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is no clarion call to the body of Christ that we are crucified to the world and the world to us. Somewhere along the way, the church became marketers of Jesus Christ instead of imitators.

This should not surprise us. The Apostle Paul warned his protégée Timothy of this very thing, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

We need to come to the place where our lives mirror what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “that I may know Him [Jesus] and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” This is our charter as believers. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to be ready to obey Christ as unconditionally as the first disciples. That is our calling, not barroom worship services.

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"If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself." - Apostle Paul (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

What a Picture is Worth

This would not have happened a decade ago.

When the editors at Rolling Stone magazine decided to put a photo of Boston bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a Bob Dylan-style pose on its cover they knew the shrapnel of criticism that would come their way and they didn’t blink.

As Boston area businesses including Walgreens, CVS, Roche Bros., and Cumberland Farms pulled the magazine from its shelves, Rolling Stone maintains that it covers “falls within the traditions of journalism.”

In a note appearing on the online version of Janet Reitman's cover story, titled "Jahar's World," the editors also expressed sympathy for the victims of the bombing, before going on to cite "Rolling Stone's long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day."

Readers, particularly from the Boston area, slammed the magazine on its Facebook page, charging that the cover treatment turns the accused killer into a "rock star."

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wrote to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner accusing the magazine of offering Tsarnaev "celebrity treatment" and calling the cover "ill-conceived, at best," in that it supports the "terrible message that destruction gains fame for killers and their 'causes.'"

Surely, the editors at Rolling Stone had to see this backlash coming. So the logical question becomes why?

Because they knew it would sell.

Rolling Stone has been in existence since the 1960’s and while it is primarily a music magazine, it also has forged a reputation for hard-hitting pieces on national affairs, politics and popular culture.

This cover story, appearing on the heels of one of the most horrific terrorist attacks ever experienced in the city of Boston screams, “You want to know this man!”

Ten years ago there would not have even been a discussion in the editorial room about putting a terrorist on the cover. But in 2013 not only was it discussed, it was approved and published.

On the surface this seems shocking but when one stops and reflects on the fact that the US homicide rate is still among the highest in the industrialized world and that 1.2 million abortions are performed annually then the reasoning behind the cover becomes clearer – we are a society of murderers.

One needs to look no further than our entertainment to see this gruesome fact on display. Our movies, TV shows and music all glorify violence and murder. We are hooked on gangster rap, intrigued by the inner workings of the mafia world and glued to cop shows that prop its villians up on a platform to be admired.

Rolling Stone understands that we are no longer horrified by the Tsarnaevs of the world, we are infatuated by them and what makes them tick as the title of the article suggests, "The Bomber: How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam and became a monster."

As Christians, this should not surprise us. Jesus told us in Matthew 24 that the days when men would love lawlessness would surely come. And here they are.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 1:28-32 that those who practice unrighteousness not only perform the acts themselves but also approve of those who practice them.

While Tsarnaev graces the cover of Rolling Stone, we need to have the gospel of grace on our lips and “always be ready” as the Apostle Peter urges us to “give a defense to everyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is in us.”

As Christians, we serve the One that promises men a future and a hope. We worship the One that gave His life as a ransom for many. And we love the One who first loved us.

I would rather read about this man then the one on the cover of Rolling Stone.