Ask me about my Humility

Recently some friends of mine were talking about how this would be an awesome bumper sticker. I agree, I would laugh and honk if I saw it.

But this is not how humility works. It has been said the minute you got it you have lost it. But is this really true?  Is humility so elusive that you can't really even talk about it without failing the test and losing any credibility to speak on it?

So before I continue I want to emphasize that I do not think that I have it down. There, am I qualified to go on?

No I struggle with pride as everyone does. I own a mirror just like you do. Is the fact that I write a blog mean I am smug jerk who thinks he knows it all? Perhaps, but I am trying. Does that confession mean I am now humble? No, it may be elusive, but it can be talked about, because it is so important.

Humility is not simply an attitude or else we could easily attain it. Humility is a decision, but not simply one decision but ongoing decisions to not exert or demand your way of thinking. This gets hard because sometimes there is a right way to think on something and if you agree with this way of thinking then it becomes your way of thinking and then I fail the test again, Dang!

But thankfully humility in verse form is spelled out for us by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2.

3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Great he brought Jesus into the mix, yes Jesus, Jesus himself is the ultimate example.  We cannot obviously follow this specific example of giving up on the benefits of Godhood and becoming a mere human, but he does get the point across. I believe this passage reveals the parts of humility.  Verse 3 hints at our motivations.  Verse 4 hints at our actions. Verse 5 hints at a mindset. Verse 6 hints at selflessness. Verse 7 hints at servant hood. Verse 8 hints at obedience. 

These do not sound naturally fun. That is the point, being humble is not natural. We naturally want to look out for number one. Naturally I want my motivations to benefit me, my ambitions are about my prosperity.  Naturally I want my actions to benefit me, I want to improve myself, I want to be who I want to be.  Normally my mindset is set on me, I am selfish. I want to have servants rather than serve, I want others to listen to me, to read my blog? And nobody likes the word obey, we do not want to be obedient.  We react negatively to rules, this is that whole sin nature thing.   

So humility is the opposite of what I naturally want.  This is why James writes:

⁶ But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.

Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 18:2 
Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

Jesus says talks about the importance of humility from Luke 18.
⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus' parable is very telling in regards to our sin and humility, it is not the one who doesn't sin but the one who admits it and asks God for forgiveness. Humility is the only way to repent of sin. Without humility we will live our whole lives apart from God because we will not see our need for him like what happened to the Pharisees. Humility is the only way to approach God, humility is the only way to possess faith. Humility is disarming. Humility is how you keep your cool under pressure. Humility is approaching God on bended knee and not with a closed fist.

God emptied himself.  This is not simply the "kenosis" passage for theological purposes, but God's own example of humility to us. He wanted a relationship with us so he humbled himself. God willingly limited himself to take on the likeness of man in humility to reach us. This is not just a useful virtue, this is the only way to have a meaningful relationship with God. As it was his way to have one with us.

If God actively resists the proud, don't be someone who God is against. That seems wise.

So I write today about Humility not because I have it down, but because it is so important.  

thanks

Hit you where you Live

Back when I was a youth pastor in Prescott, Arizona I had the privilege of co-leading a youth mission trip to skid-row in LA. There I met a man just out of prison. We had just finished conducting a service for some of the people in the community and I got to speak to the man afterward. He greatly appreciated the message we brought but he was regretting his life and lamenting that fact that he had wasted so much time. He was overwhelmed with sadness that he had not met Jesus until he was way past his mid-life and wasting away in prison.

I was overwhelmed and at a loss for what to say, but after we talked for a bit God brought this verse to my mind. 

Acts 17:26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

I pointed out this verse to the man and explained that God graciously draws us to himself in the situations we are in.  I went on to explain that the verse seems to indicate that not only is God not far from us but that God orchestrated our each and every completely different situations. He not only set out the boundaries of our lives but the locations we would live on the earth.  He did this so that we would respond to him.

In other words God put us in the situations that we are in so that we would have the best possible opportunity to respond to his call. 

Along with the the doctrine of God's sovereignty this shouldn't be too hard to swallow. So I will just place these verses here.

Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. 

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Ephesians 4:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

What this means is there really isn't the situation of the poor tribesmen across the world who doesn't have the opportunity to hear the gospel.  Or for that matter a man trapped in prison away from the possibility of meeting God. He may very well currently have that problem but this verse seems to imply that God is ultimately not far from him. This is not to introduce deterministic language into the mix but for us to recognize God's hand even when we can't see it.

I believe that I am in the best situation to respond in faith to God. I like the idea that perhaps if my situation was different I wouldn't have responded to God's call in my life.  If I lived in The Hamptons and had a cushy life perhaps I would have never have recognized my need for the Lord. Or if I was raised in a poor third world country perhaps I would have simply followed the culture and not been open to other ways of thinking. Or if perhaps I was born in England, I would have been too distracted by mine and my fellow countryman's sweet accents to bother with Christ.

This is not to say people in those situations cannot find God as I previously stated, but for me I am in the best situation for me, so those others will not suit me better. I should not lament what could have been or be overcome with what is, but recognize I am a short prayer from reaching out to him where I am.

After our conversation the man was drawn to tears to learn that God may very well have been drawing him throughout his journey and not delaying him because of it.

God is not waiting for me on the other side of my problems, for me to get my act together, he is graciously drawing me to himself while I am in them. God is not waiting for us to arrive before he gets involved. God hits us where we live.

So when I look in the mirror I should say: "This is who I got to be, this is where I got to be, now what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

I will leave with a quote from the J.R. Tolkien from the Lord of the Rings.
"I wish the ring had never come to me, I wish none of this had happened".
Gandolf responds. "So do all  who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.  There are other forces at work in this world Frodo besides the will of evil..."

thanks

Worship (preference) wars 4 of 4

Of the many church problems one problem seems to always rise to the top. I have tried to emphasize the importance of Church unity already but this issue really needs its own blog. Why? Because music is a polarizing thing, it shouldn't be but in the church it is. Some like classic, some like instrumental, some like country? Some like pop. Some like hip hop, Some like alternative, yes! Not only this but there are so many sub genres of music that the ones I already mentioned are already archaic, it is impossible to keep up. Some like this, some like that, some speaks to some and some speaks to others. This unfortunately bleeds into the church when it comes to worship. Some is more holy than others, wait, what the!?

Some churches are not even aware of it while some are fighting over how it should be done. Some don't even realize that others do it differently. This seems to be the major problem. While some churches have the concert model down they don't realize others are still struggling to get there, or to get somewhere. We have failed to realize that we have made our music preferences into a war of worship. 

In our culture we have put our preferences of how it should work over what it actually is.

Biblically speaking worship is offering to God his due. On the most basic level worship is literally bowing down. Which person with what music preference would be more comfortable with a half hour of silence on your face in the sanctuary every week? In the Old Covenant part of this submission surrounded the offering system, this was worship, to offer his due of our allegiance, our repentance, our peace. But under the New Covenant we do not operate on the sacrificial system because Christ made the final perfect sacrifice of his Son.  So what do we do?

Well, another way Old Testament Jews worshiped God was through songs of praise. The book of Hebrews in chapter 13:15 affirms that this is what our worship looks like now instead of burnt sacrifice.  In case that is difficult, we have a whole book of music written to bring God praise. We have a whole collection of songs to God in the book of Psalms. Not to mention that many instruments are often assigned to play them and a church organ isn't one of them.  So we can safely agree that now worship looks like singing to God. 

Here is one of my favorites from psalm 118:

"A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand."

The first instances of praise is simply the Israelites praising God for his victories by recounting his deeds when God delivers the Israelites from the Egyptians from Exodus 15.

20Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. 21Miriam answered them, "Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea."

We have two camps of worship unfortunately, one that believes it is better to sing theologically thick words with little variation in meter and tone while reading from a book, while the other camp is a little more free form with less theology and more emotion and modern instrumentation. 

Sometimes the two meet but not always. I am not talking about content of the actual song. That is a separate issue, a song with bad theology should not be used despite it being a hymn or contemporary tune.  But this is part of the problem. One kind of music is assumed to be better which is simply not the case.  Just because a song is newer does not mean it is theologically bad nor does an aged song mean it is theologically sound. The issue is bad writing not bad genre, let's stop confusing the two and making sweeping arguments for one over the other.  

The argument usually begins from the older generation liking what they are used to and the younger generation likes what they can relate to.  

Biblically however it seems to be a song either just reflecting God's deeds and attributes. Sometimes it is a lament that cries out to God about the pain and misfortune they are experiencing. The great thing is that it always ends with joy and with a recognition of God's greatness such as Psalm 73.

Worship is always about God but our wars over it have made it about us, our preferences, our feelings, our music. But worship is foremost about humility because without humility we can never ascribe to God his due worth. Without humility we are never concerned about anything but our self.

Let me add one more point to this which is hard to write. This unfortunately has ended up with old churches with little to no youth in them and young churches with little to no old people in them. With the mid-lifers having to draw lines in the sand of where to go. I have seen this many times across the country. Why? Because the music reflects the tone of the tradition and the tradition sets the tone of the decor. The traditional takes on the decor of a Cathedral and the contemporary takes on the decor of a concert hall. And the appropriate people report for roll-call. This is sadly a large degree of simply ageism in the church. Some churches wonder why they can't attract/keep certain demographics into their churches without realizing they have tailor made them for the people who are already there. Slowly the people who do not fit slide out the back door if they were ever there in the first place.

Now having preferences isn't really the problem as I have already said, we should have different churches with different flavors. This only becomes a problem when we have churches with people who don't want to share.

But if worship is about God then it isn't about what you prefer or what I prefer.  It is sad, but a blended service really should minister to us all, but it still bothers us if it isn't completely about us. 

Unless we can come to a cease fire and make some sort of agreement, we will continue to not worship, because his people are not looking up to him. Let's unfold our arms, un-clench out fists and raise up our hands to God. 

The style will always be the issue when God's glory isn't. So let's see about making worship about God again, then perhaps the style won't be as big a deal, because it isn't he is. 

thanks

Raging Against the Machine much? (numbers and disciples) 3 of 4

I wrote the previous blogs about different church experiences to point out that we are all different and have different filters from different experiences and backgrounds.  This was in hope for us to be better at gathering together. Gee, Gabe why it that? Well I frequently see open letters to churches about why they are doing a poor job and why people are leaving. These along with how to find a "better" church seem to be on the rise. This is really not surprising as the church is made up with people and people are not going to agree on a lot of things as I said.

Now it is one thing to want to find another church because of gross theological concerns, but often these are usually about preferences and offense. So after reading yet another article on how the church or leadership needs to change or else, I thought I would add a thought to the discussion.

It is true the church has been poor in some areas. Sometimes we are poor at love, sometimes we are poor at evangelizing, sometimes we are poor at charity, sometimes we are poor at outreach, and sometimes we are poor at worship (this is coming), and sometimes we are poor on the Bible.  

As much as I agree with some of this I think it is important to note that these types of articles seem to share a common denominator. They include that they at one point felt judged, or encountered something they didn't like, and then they proceed to finger pointing and departing. I am starting to get the feeling that these writers would rather that doctrine and sin not be talked about at all; and to empathize, I suppose I can sometimes understand that to a degree, but it really misses the point.  

We are obsessed with love in our culture. Which is not really a bad thing. But how some of the church seems to have adopted this mindset is that love is looking the other way and being as inclusive as possible. But for Jesus love was meeting people where they were at, for sure, (which we like) but he never failed to tell them the truth. (which we don't seem to like anymore). Jesus' exclusive message of the Father and himself divided people, further the doctrines from the Bible will contain some exclusive truths and theology as well.

When we treat Jesus like a one dimensional character like Cupid who is only concerned about "spreading love" we miss the point.  Jesus admits that what he is most concerned about is doing the will of his father. Fulfilling that will meant bringing a message and going to the cross. Both of those points were and are hugely divisive. That message was repentance and the kingdom. Repenting and joining the kingdom meant leaving things behind. Mathew left behind the tax collector life, the cheating and stealing and swindling his fellow Jews for money. The love is the sacrifice for sin, the calling is fellowship with him, and the relationship is following after him away from our selves. Romans 6 makes this clear.

So let's not confuse what love is. This confusion has led to the very issue of church's tailor making their services after felt needs. So then we get other articles that are pointing out that the church is shallow busy creating a big production and missing people. But could it be that church has fallen into being producers because the people have fallen into being consumers looking for their needs to be met?  

I am not saying this is right, but demanding that felt needs be met is another reason why the church is doing exactly that. For the church to be a body we need to pay attention to what the head who is Christ is saying. If God is bringing issues of sin up in his church then our response should be to repent, not whine about our toes getting stepped on and then leave and find another church that is more lax with that sort of thing.

It is sad, but if we are prepared to leave church because of an offense then some churches unfortunately will continue to change tactics to be as unoffensive as possible. And the ones that don't? Well they get articles written about them. But when did the church becomes about getting as many seats filled as possible?  The Gospel is an offense and a stumbling block. Pointing to sin and the need for a savior is offensive and has been driving people away since the time the Pharisees first heard it. But that message is also the same one that has been bringing people in. 

If you are a disciple then you will allow correction into your life. When challenges come you will meet them, when hard encounters happen you will work through them. When offense happens you will use compassion and grace to attempt reconciliation. When sin is addressed you will seek forgiveness. In short, you will grow. But if you are a merely number in a church, then you will leave when uncomfortable and find another church to add to their count.  

My point is not that we shouldn't encourage our leaders to do better, as I have already added my own critique, but church will probably always offend in some way.  We need to work on this internally.  Not leave and then hurl criticism from the outside. As Christian leaders we should be working for more than increases in numbers and people should be desiring to become disciples closer to Christ. Are we going to be a family and stick it out, or are we going to take our spiritual toys and go home?

It is so easy to blame institutions for personal problems but institutions are made up of other people. The church specifically is not an institution but when articles are written this way it makes them out to be. It seems to often follow the rebellion of rock n' roll against "the man". The church gets equated with being "the man" so of course we should rally against it!  But the church is not "the man" but it is about a man, Jesus. So when we are quick to pick up stones against it we should really consider what Jesus said about it.

Jesus tells us that his church is the group that he if for on the earth. The church is the ones who will not be triumphed over by evil. The church is the one that Jesus left behind to carry out his will. The church is the bride of Christ. So before we rally against her let's remember what we are doing. We are actively raging against the body of Christ. We are actively warring against his bride to be. Christ does not want his body abusing itself. Christ wants his body at harmony with the head which is himself. Christ is not angry with his body and disappointed with his body. Let's stop threatening to take away the golden lamp-stands before their time.

It is easy to draw lines in the sand with ambiguous institutions, but the church is you and me. The church is the people and we are all a part.  If you want change then be the first to do it. But do it while you are a part, not after you have written them off.  This is how gossip is minimized and relationships are restored. But when you do, make sure you are wanting change in accordance with the head who is Christ. A church attender always complaining about the church is as out of place as soldiers on a aircraft carrier rocking-out to Rage Against the Machine. 

Now before we say "well if I am the church, then what's the problem?"  The answer is because finger pointing is not self criticism. The Church is a body as we gather together and not as we depart. These open letters and articles pointing out the reasons for leaving, and affirming them, is simply under-girding the emerging philosophy of the church which is "If you offend me I will leave". This is not unity nor is this helpful. Let's work on these problems together not after we have jumped ship.

Christ's prayer before he went to the cross was for our very unity, because he knew that our tendency is to depart, just as the writer of Hebrews also reminds.

So before we encourage more dismemberment, remember: A dismembered body is a corpse. In our critique of the church are we contributing to life or death? If the church is you and me, who exactly are we Killing in The Name of?

thanks