Christians can be so hard-nosed and bull-headed sometimes about returning to fellowship with Christ.  I know – I’m one of the worst offenders in this regard.  You can see a brother or sister in the faith struggling to win out over temptation and sin or simply walking in it, regardless of the consequences.  You can plead and urge and cajole, and still they will not be moved.  Their choices, their actions, their decisions can inflict deep pain on those they love and do great damage to the cause of Christ, and still they will not be shaken from their lifestyle of sin.  And then one day, it all changes suddenly, and they fall on their face before Almighty God, repent, and return to the fold, leaving those who pleaded with them for so long in confusion as to what finally made the difference.

Part of the answer to this question is that the individual must want to change and must want it enough to be open to answers and to facing their own inward ugliness.  It’s one thing to want to change just a little bit, yet still not actually change because you have not yet come to the end of yourself, have not yet completely hit bottom.  And it’s one thing to want to change enough to start making changes but then quit when the going gets rough because you are not relying fully (or even partially) on the power of God to work.

I have a theory about another part of this answer, and you can tell me what you think about it.  I think that part of this, maybe even the biggest part of it is that some of these people have not yet encountered something that fully meets their need.  For instance, say that a particular believer has fallen into habitual sin.  This individual desires a life-altering change and has, in fact, attempted to change at several points in the recent past.  This individual has been unwilling or unable to completely yield control of their life to God, for whatever reason, and has had trouble letting go of the sinful indulges they have been seeking out.  Yet, this individual is miserable and wants something to change.  In short, this individual feels stuck, unable to move forward in their spiritual walk.  This individual also knows all the Scripture verses that apply to their situation, has heard all the traditional responses by church folk, such as “Give it God,” “Get on your knees and pray for forgiveness and God will rescue you from your sin,” “Get some good biblical counseling; that’ll help,” and countless other bits of wisdom.  This individual tries all these things at some point or another and yet sees no change in their heart or their life. 

Then this individual encounters something new.  Maybe it’s a personal encounter with a friend or a respected elder.  It could be a seminar that presents truth in a different light.  It could be a song that speaks powerfully into this individual’s situation.  Whatever it is, it speaks directly to this individual’s need, to the emptiness in their own heart, to the longing that the individual tried to fulfill in their pursuit of sin.  It is the sort of thing that might tell them something they already knew but through an entirely fresh, new, and clean perspective that addresses the longing of their heart exactly and completely.  This, then, makes all the difference in the individual’s life.  It is like being able to get a cold, crisp drink of water when you have been dying of thirst.  It’s like a cool breeze that suddenly springs up on a scorching summer day.  It soothes the burning itch, the searing passion, the smoldering need in that individual’s heart that nothing to this point has been able to quench or satisfy.  It is, in fact, the Holy Spirit’s arrival via this unique message at exactly the right moment in this individual’s life when they are ready to receive it.  It is the combination of the seeker seeking¹, the heart softening, and the message arriving at the right time and in exactly the right way to meet the innermost need of the individual.  It is a wholly beautiful event that brings the lost lamb back into the fold and imbues the lost-now-found one with an excitement, energy, and richness of faith that was once thought lost forever.

Some Christians never experience this, choosing rather to follow their own desires² or endlessly pursuing solutions that never fully or completely speak to their need.  To some extent I think that the Church’s lackadaisical attitudes these days has contributed to the problem of lost sheep who cannot find their way back to the fold.  We have carved out too many cookie-cutter answers that allow us to keep our distance from other people rather than getting intimately involved in the lives of our brothers and sisters and tailoring answers to their needs that speak powerfully to their hearts.  I can only hope that we will soon shake ourselves of this indifference and begin to do more to minister into the lives of our brethren than we have in recent days.  I cannot do anything about anyone else, but I know that I will strive to shake free of my own indifference and aloofness and allow Christ to speak powerfully through this vessel.  May it ever be so.

1. and yes, I believe that even Christians can be seekers, albeit of a different kind.[back]
2. at which point one has to question whether or not they were ever truly a follower of Christ to begin with.[back]

Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | ‘Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion’

The columnist that authored this blistering review of the new Chronicles of Narnia movie wrote a lot that was response-worthy, but perhaps this was the part that rankled me most:

Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to?

Why is personal sacrifice so repugnant to some people?  Grant that a large portion of the world’s population has no recognition of its sinful nature, does not recognize or acknowledge that anything is wrong with their lives.  Hence, why should some nameless, faceless God, at whose very existence they scoff, offer up His Son, a part of Himself, to take some unknown, unacknowledged penalty for an evolved race of homo erectus with non-existent sin natures?  There is no problem, there is no need, so of course there is no personal request for such sacrifice.  Such individuals are answerable only to themselves, for there is no other authority but to make sense of the world as one perceives it and to live as ‘rightly’ as one can.  Rules and morality are derived from personal observation, shaped by experience and interpretation as founded upon circumstance and perception.  It is an ever-changing, always-twisting, perpetually-shifting code of ethics with the self as the focal point (for what other focal point could possibly make sense in a world in which God does not exist?).  Self is set up as the ultimate god, personal need is disavowed, disregarded, disdained; hence, the idea that someone else perceives a need in self, it is the worst sort of insult, to offend the sensibilities by suggesting that self might possibly not be as perfect as one perceives self.  In a world with no God, where self is god, notions of perfection and imperfection have no meaning, except as someone else defines them.  There is no final destination, no higher goal, except to live life as one pleases, to do what feels good, and to reject, ignore, and deny that which does not fit this ideal conceptualization of the world.  A perfect God is, therefore, offensive and repugnant because the existence of such insinuates, nay, directly states, that the world is not perfect, that self is inherently flawed, that self is, in actuality, answerable to something higher than self.  This is hateful, intolerant, distasteful, for it violates and shatters the illusion that one has only to live for oneself in order to attain happiness and enlightenment.  People would much rather live in their carefully crafted glass houses of personal illusion than admit the existence of a God to whom they must one day answer, and Christianity is, therefore, terribly repugnant.

Listening to the Gospel of John, as recited by Jason Nightingale of WordSower International, I realized just how much patience our Lord Jesus had for the people to whom He ministered.  Again and again, he performed miraculous works and wonders that proved His divinity and validated His message, and again and again the people asked, “By what sign can we know that you are the Son of God?  Show us a sign so that we may believe.” And again and again Christ responded by saying, “I have already told you who I am.  You ask for a sign not so that you may believe but so that you may be fed.” (How like so many people even today.) Even Christ’s own disciples did not fully believe until that fateful night when he was betrayed, and then their faith was limited by their understanding, since they did not know (a shortcoming of the religious leaders of the day?) that He meant to rise again three days after His death.  Listening to Jesus interact with the people, I knew that my patience would have given out long before.  There would have come a point where I would have responded in anger and frustration, and I probably would have written off the followers completely and ended my ministry in despondency and burnout.  Yet, Christ persisted, preaching His message over and over again, knowing then that most would not understand, let alone believe, knowing what He was facing for a people who would be ungrateful and unforgiving.  With this knowledge He continued His ministry all the way to the cross and gave His everything to save His people.  I would have given up long before.  This Christ, this Yeshua, this Jesus of the Jews, Messiah, Savior of the world, was, and is, a better man than I. 

The news story and the auction.

“When a man takes revenge, he becomes equal to his enemy, but when he passes it by, he becomes superior to his enemy.”

This is the difference between seeking ‘justice’ and granting mercy. I think even Christians get drawn into this pattern of thought. Someone wrongs us, someone slights us, and we want justice. More than that, we want our dignity returned to us. We’re angry, we’re hurt, and we just want things set right. I think sometimes, people get their desire for justice confused with their desire for revenge. I know I do. Someone messes with me, and while I phrase my desire in terms of justice, what I really want is payback. The trouble is, I forget that Christ urged his followers to turn the other cheek. He Himself countered anger, bitterness, and personal slights with love, mercy, and compassion. It took a lot to make Him angry, and I know that I become angry all too easily and at the smallest personal injury. He was a man who died painfully, accused of some of the worst things, and yet He remained silent, speaking only to offer forgiveness. Vengeance is the Lord’s, and justice is His, as well, to mete out. I should content myself only in showing God’s love and tender mercies to those who hurt me, even (especially?) when it pains me further to do so. I mean, how else are we, as Christians, to make an impact on this world, if not in doing this?