Tweeting the Gospel, but Which Gospel?

January 23, 2013 by 3 Comments

I’m old enough to have remembered when Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now Barack Obama have been inaugurated into the office of the President of the United States. This was the first time, in my 20.5 years of being a parent, that I had our children watch a Presidential Inauguration. Regardless of how some of my Christian friends feel about Barack Obama winning for a second term, God calls us to love others as ourselves and to pray for government leaders. A prayerful heart doesn’t insult a person’s personal relationship with God.

rusty barbed wire by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere
free photo source Pix-O-Sphere

Mark Driscoll boasts himself to be a teacher of the Bible, but lacks the spirit of God’s gentleness when disagreeing with the President’s religious beliefs. He has assumed himself to be God’s spokesperson when it comes to judging President Obama’s soul.

“Praying for our president, who today will place his hands on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know,”~Mark Driscoll source

Driscoll’s assumption of President Obama’s ‘lack of belief in the Bible’ is a dangerous position to take. He’s making false accusation against a man who does claim to believe in God. The last I checked with scripture, we are called to a higher standard of kindness and hospitality. We can disagree with a person’s beliefs, but lets make sure to disagree with stated beliefs rather than assumed beliefs (or lack thereof). In addition to that, let us ‘rebuke one another in love’.

Perhaps President Obama does not believe the same things about the Bible as Mark Driscoll does, but that doesn’t mean a Mars Hill of beans when we meditate on Jesus’ admonition to ‘love others as yourselves’. No one has the corner market on what the Bible means. We have over 35,000 denominations of Christianity and if the Bible were really ‘clear’ on everything then we’d have one school of thought instead of 35,000. Mark Driscoll has no idea what the depths of President Obama’s beliefs about the Bible are and he has no idea what level of soul intimacy the President has with God. The very act of one small prayer shows a mustard seed of faith, which is all that’s needed to ‘move a mountain.’

In addition to this outlandish tweet, we have John Piper making his insults known in the Twitterverse as well.

“President Obama ‘spiritually blind’ or ‘evil hypocrite’ in claiming MLK and disregarding the weakest,” ~John Piper source

I wonder if John Piper reads the Old Testament.

1 Samuel 15:2-3 1And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. 2Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destructiona all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” ESV

Deuteronomy 20:16, “However, you must not spare anyone’s life in the cities of these nations that the LORD your God is giving you as your property.” God’s Word Translation

Numbers 31: 15Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. 17Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.” ESV

But as is the case of some denominations, people like Piper seem to think it’s okay to kill women and children, ‘if God says so’.

Deep inside my heart, I have a hard time believing the commands “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt kill all the women and children” at the same time.

Then we have scriptures that say, “Judge not lest ye be judged” and “whatever measure you judge will be judged against you”.

I also keep remembering how Jesus said the governments of the land are ordained by God and that we should obey them. I wonder if people like Mark Driscoll and John Piper ever consider these passages before insulting the God ordained office of the President of the United States.

Do they meditate on the story of King Saul and David? By many Christians’ beliefs, King Saul had lost his way with God, yet David did not dishonor the office of the King. He could have killed Saul with the sword, but he didn’t. Yet, these pastors who claim to teach the Bible are verbally and spiritually slaying their God ordained President on Twitter with their hypocritical tongues of fire.

Is it possible they have no more fear of the Lord?

Have they missed the scriptures “judgment begins in the House of God”?

I wonder if they forget that God judges the heart and man judges the outward man.

People like Driscoll and Piper appear to be making a living on the condemnation of others, but God calls us to preach the Gospel of grace to free the captives. If those men think President Obama is lost or in bondage then condemnation is not the message to be tweeting.

The message is freedom from bondage by God’s grace through the power of Jesus. The President is freed and included in the Good News of the Gospel.

“If anyone comes and preaches a different Gospel, let him be accursed.”

Ouch!

I don’t attempt to judge Driscoll and Piper’s relationships with God. Perhaps they just haven’t had an in depth revelation of God’s inclusive love and the finality of the cross. I admit that I need to work on being patient with men like these, but I can’t stand by and agree to disagree when it comes to faith in Christ. This isn’t about them as people, it’s about the message they preach.

I preach the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 15:22, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

God has reconciled mankind to himself through Christ. It is finished!

Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” NLT

2 Corinthians 5:18 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;” ESV

The rest is just discipleship.

Be patient with one another. It’s what love does.

SisterLisa

An Organic Minister of the Gospel of Inclusion, serving the Universal Church and ministering to InterFaith communities. Lisa is married with four children and has served in a variety of ministry circles for 20 years.

 

 


Failure of the Mega Church

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Love’s Evangelism Method

August 15, 2012 by 6 Comments

In the many years I was in church world I looked into various forms of evangelism. My initial experience with Jesus was so life changing that I wanted to share it with the world. I have read countless books and attended many classes, workshops, and conferences to learn how to be a better evangelist. I kept finding pretty much the same methods everywhere I looked. While I have had hundreds of people recite the sinner’s prayer I sense that was all it was, a recitation. My experience with Christ was not like that so why was I pushing that method on others? I used books and pamphlets from

  • Billy Graham
  • Billy Sunday
  • D.L.Moody
  • Jack Hyles
  • Chick Tracts

and more, but none of them really resonated with what I had personally experienced.

fuschia white and pink by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

Looking back now I can see what the difference was. My initial experience with Christ had nothing to do with a prayer or theological study. It had to do with the revelation of love. It was an awakening of him within, a personal resurrection. I can see now that trying to get people to submit themselves to a head knowledge of a perspective of Christ was not what true salvation is to me. For me, it was about a resurrection of his love within me and it had nothing to do with a theological pledge to follow the pastor’s interpretation of the bible and it certainly had nothing to do with condemning me to hell. Hell wasn’t even an issue. The revelation of Christ in my soul never spoke to me about hell, only about love. You see, love is what conquers everything.

  • Love wins
  • Condemnation loses

So then I read a book from Leonard Sweet called, ‘Nudge’. I love his philosophy on awakening the Christ within. How he describes it is how I experienced it many years ago. I also spoke with a Southern Baptist pastor once about evangelism and he was much on the same page with me. Jesus calls us to love others and allow the Holy Spirit to work in their lives through that love. Why is it that so many Christians don’t believe the manifestation of Christ’s love is greater than the words they say to people about how they view the bible? Perhaps because they haven’t really had a revelation of his indwelling and outpouring love.

“Awakening Each Other to the God Who’s Already There” ~Leonard Sweet

If you haven’t heard of Darin Hufford of the Free Believer’s Network, then please get acquainted with him through his book, ‘The Misunderstood God‘. His take on ‘God is Love’ is an excellent source of soul opening knowledge. He takes the Love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, and shows how God is everything listed in that chapter. When you look at it that way it’s easier to understand that God doesn’t insist on his own way as much as many Christians think he does. And while some Christians think God detests mankind, the Love chapter indicates his love believes in us!

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”(1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV)

Traditional Christianity looks for an outward repentance beginning with a verbal public confession, whereas the love of God just lavishes us with grace. When a person experiences love that washes over them they will know that experience is spiritual. Their experience doesn’t mean God doesn’t love them yet, as some Christians assume. A lack of this experience does not mean the love is not true unless you believe in it. Believing in something doesn’t make it true, the truth is why we believe it. If belief made things true then why don’t we see the tooth fairy taking up residence in all homes of small children and Santa Claus coming down our chimneys? God’s love is true and that’s why we believe it.

Christians know the passage of God loved us first, but that doesn’t mean God loved them first, it means God loves all of us before we ever love him. Loves chose us before we chose love. When we know love it’s natural to respond with acceptance. Think about your newborn baby who has no ability to choose you. You love the child before the child knew of your existence. This is love!

Ephesians 1:3“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined usb for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” ESV

hydrangeas by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

I do consider myself a missionary, evangelist, and ardent ‘soul-winner’. I have free reign to love everyone and no strings attached to try and manipulate them into pledging allegiance to my view of God. What better experience is there of proclaiming the love of God than actually living it out?!? It’s all about love! It’s not so much about winning their souls, as the term soul-winner indicates, it’s more about loving people into a reality of them receiving love.

So when you question my interaction with the GLBT and Pagan communities because you don’t see me condemning them to hell and pressuring them to recite a prayer and join a church, know that I am not called to do that to them. I get to love them, support them, and live out God’s love for them. I don’t need mankind’s stamp of approval on the ministry God calls me to. You can disagree with me all you want and it makes no difference to me. I know the message God has given me to preach to the world and it’s love. As Paul said so say  I, I received it not from mankind, pastors, or seminaries, but by the revelation of Christ my Lord.

The Message of Reconciliation

God has already reconciled mankind to himself through the finished work of Christ. So there is no pressure on me to try and make them believe this. People have the choice of what to believe and what not to believe. If believing in something doesn’t benefit them, then they won’t believe it. It’s no wonder they reject the condemning version of ‘god’, it doesn’t benefit them. However, a God who loves them and accepts them no matter what is worth hearing about! And if they know love, they already know God! When they freely accept true love, they are already accepting God. It doesn’t mean they are accepting God in the way traditional fundamentalists think they should. It’s a paradox! And isn’t that the way of Christ? His message is perplexing to self righteous people who look to please God in the literal realm with their religious works and practices of abstinence. But to spiritual people it is a message of life!

When you present God and the message you think he gives you to tell people, do they light up with joy or bow their head in shame? Real love has no shame! Not even a little bit! Presenting God as a lover with some hostility of threats if they don’t submit is abuse, not love. When real love is spoken and shown, the people know it!

If I didn’t truly love people, I wouldn’t bother trying to convince them. That would be manipulation. Because of the love God has lavished me with, I can’t help but to love others with that same love. When there is real love there is no need to convince. The Spirit of LOVE does the convincing. I’m not out to get people to accept me, to come to a church, or to take propaganda discipleship classes. I am free to love them as they are. If they desire to hear about the wisdom I believe to balance my life then I’ll gladly share that. If they want my personal counsel about something in their life, I will give it. But I am not out to get nosy into their lives and tell them how to live. If they want to know what I think about mentorship in Christ (by the way, I believe mentorship is not the same as discipleship), I will happily guide them through that. But again, I am not there to force, pressure, or insist on my own way.

Love is freedom and with wisdom we can navigate this life safer than trying to be free in foolishness, because that just leads to chaos. Love that does not insist on it’s own way is what will revolutionize the world. And isn’t that what Christ came to do anyway? I’d rather live my life in such a way that love nudges a spiritual revolution, than to exist in this world dying by every condemning word of tradition. Loving people can not be found in a cookie cutter type recipe with bullet points to adhere to. There is no religious tract to hand out and no script to follow. It comes naturally as you progress and mature in your spirituality.

Love’s evangelism ‘method’ is the best I’ve seen yet!

Sisterlisa

Biblical argument for Gays

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To Love Simply

August 19, 2011 by 11 Comments

cherries by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

This blog used to be of another name, in which had a different kind of draw of a different kind of people. When our family began to live out our faith in Christ in an organic way, I got some very negative feedback. In fact, the comments I got were rather hostile. After about 3 months of not posting anything here at all…I changed the domain and name of the blog to Soul Liberty Faith. I felt this name better reflected my journey and I was inspired to use this name from the early Christians who fled the religious persecution from other Christians in England and abroad.

Christians persecuting Christians.

Has anything changed in the last several centuries?

Missionary work has taken on a whole other direction as many churches seek to indoctrinate people by manipulative measures, threatening the people to convert or be shunned, excommunicated, or not helped in their time of need. And although I’m not a Catholic, Mother Theresa is such a wonderful example of loving folks where they are and ministering to their needs. She was a ‘Jesus’ to her generation.

My husband and I have considered ourselves missionaries for over a decade now…right here in America as we have ministered to people that many churches would shudder to even think about helping. It’s ok, it’s just not their area of expertise. Drug addicts, drunks, and parolees aren’t the most glamorous people to minister to, but then again Jesus didn’t mind much about that either..he ministered to prostitutes, gluttons, and tax collectors. In fact, he still does.

When the self righteous and fearful people refuse to hold the hair of a drunk woman vomiting to the porcelain god, Jesus is there.

I know this from experience.

Jesus doesn’t care about getting dirty, he cares about loving people.

Some Christians may not like the idea of other Christians ministering to, loving, and helping folks who they deem as unworthy derelicts, filthy homeless people, or those of alternative religions. It makes them uncomfortable and if they can successfully stop the rest of us from doing so then they will feel better about themselves for not doing it. So they criticize us for not “ministering properly” yet what do they know? They won’t even think about reaching out and being gracious. They have no right to tell the rest of us how to love others.

Each denomination has a different manner in which they express their faith to the world around them. We have freedom in that area of our faith. Some knock on doors, some hand our tracts, and some serve in the food line at the soup kitchens.

Even Paul told Timothy that a woman can win her husband without her words by the way she lives out her faith in love. The unspoken love of gracious hands that serve others. This reminds me of the Good Samaritan that Jesus spoke of. This simple servant cared for a dying man without any dogma, rules, or restrictions. He loved simply.

Simple love. It’s so sensible and easy that anyone can live this way, but it comes from the abundance of the heart. It comes naturally and manifests organically as you live out your life.

Many of you know that I have friends of all kinds of diversity. I embrace diversity! This isn’t a popular thing among some Christians and after my post about attending a pagan ceremony in honor of their ancestors (which happen to be my ancestors too) I lost a lot of readers and followers on Twitter. I even got a lashing from a Christian women in Direct Message from Twitter dictating to me that I wasn’t ‘sharing the Gospel correctly’ and it lasted all.day.long. She wouldn’t stop harassing me. So I unfollowed her.

It is not my job to indoctrinate people. I will never force or coerce someone into a dogma relationship with religion.

That would be taking the name of the Lord in vain. How dare anyone use His name to get people bound up in religion.

Jesus is the One for me, he is my Savior and because of him I can love freely. It’s all by grace and my faith in the Divine has not stopped nor diminished, in fact, my faith has been strengthened and it has been my pagan friends who have shown me what it’s like to be gracious in the face of persecution. It’s rare to find Christians who know how to be as gracious.

I have no agenda in the lives of my friends. I have met with pagans, addicts, and sat in prison visiting rooms, and never had to preach dogma. I listen and I love. The Gospel is grace and that is what draws people to the message I live out. It’s love. And do you know…they ask tons of questions about my faith and I’ve never been rejected by any of them. I’ve only been rejected by other Christians.

But not all Christians…don’t misunderstand. Not all Christians are the same. Christianity is a huge melting pot of folks from all walks of life. After living in the Christian Religion for 15 years and not seeing the program actually work…I began to see that it’s not about the program or the dogma, this life is about faith and grace. It grows organically and sprouts fruit in times, seasons, and places you would least expect it to.

There is faith, hope, and love and the greatest among these is love. Do we forget what kind of fruit to look for?

Galatians 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

You see, there is no law against these fruits. There is no law telling me I can’t simply love..to love simply… to be at peace, to be kind, show gentleness, be faithful, having self control..this is what happens naturally in the lives of those who understand grace. And I am full of joy!

So while some may not like that I extend grace and friendship to drunks, addicts, pagans, prostitutes, those of alternative religions and even to gays… well, you’ll just have to take that up with Jesus. He’s the one who invited me to the table with them.

In the meantime… my Twitter account is looking rather bleak..are you interested in connecting with me there? @SouLbrtyFaith

Sisterlisa

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How the Gospel Divides

July 3, 2011 by 5 Comments

There are some perspectives in the teachings of Jesus and Paul about division that seems to pull a popular audience of those who think they need to be offensive with the Gospel in order to be like Jesus. They are under the impression that they are justified in being offensive and that their manner of presenting the Gospel is meant to divide.  But lets take a deeper look at just what is divisive about the Gospel. Some believe that this division is how God divides between who enters the Kingdom and who doesn’t. Of course, people from over 30,000 denominations have their prescription for how one enters the Kingdom, but we won’t get into that this time. In this article my reference to the Kingdom is about the here and now, not the after life.

In the book of Hebrews we see the unknown author explaining his/her perspective on entering the Kingdom. I like to look at passages like this in the ESV since it clarifies which statement is of the author and which is a quote from a previous book of the bible. In Hebrews chapter 4 the main point of entering the Kingdom is to enter into his rest. It was being explained that there are some who did not enter his rest (the Kingdom) and some who did. The author goes on to explain why some didn’t enter the Kingdom. It was through their disobedience to rest.

Hebrews 4: 6 “Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,”

The author clearly says that it was those who DID receive the Gospel, but they didn’t enter into the rest of the Kingdom. It’s important to understand that this Kingdom is here and now. Jesus said in “The Kingdom is within you”. {Luke 17:21}

The Old Covenant gave a clear instruction that the 7th day was a day of rest. It was the foreshadow of the “rest” to come, which is in Christ. The 7th day was God’s day of resting from His works and thus he wanted the people of the old covenant to also rest and it was to reveal to them that the day would come when they could spiritually be at rest in the Kingdom. This Kingdom rest is while we are here on earth. Just as the 7th day was on this earth also.

Hebrews 4: 10 “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

The Kingdom is not a place where we have to work, it’s a place of rest. We are not bound to perform religious rituals (works), we are free to rest. When we cease from rest and attempt to perform religious rituals thinking that those works make us something special or better people, then we have disobeyed what God has said, rest. Any time we begin to partake in religious rituals in our attempts to be ‘something’ in the Kingdom, it is then that we have shut ourselves out. In the Kingdom, it is all about resting from our religious works.

This is an offending Gospel to those who want to work towards their own righteousness.

In verse 12 it says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” It’s important to see that it’s the LIVING Word that is active and causing a division and the purpose is for God to discern the ‘thoughts and intentions of the heart”.

God is discerning the hearts and thoughts of the people. His LIVING Word is searching us and by His Spirit, we will hear him tell us to rest. He knows if our charitable works are done with a deceptive heart or not.

The entire chapter is devoted to pointing out that we have that rest today in Christ and that God wants us to rest from our works based religion so we can be at rest as He is. No where in this chapter is the author indicating that we need to divide people by condemning them with sin. The only ‘disobedience’ mentioned in this chapter was that of ‘not resting’.

In verses 14 and 15 the author says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” I find great comfort in knowing that Jesus understands our weaknesses! No matter how weak we are in our faith, he understands. The author goes on to explain in verse 16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The Gospel is an open door to come with confidence to the throne of grace to receive mercy in our time of need. This is a divisive teaching to the works based religious crowd, because it points out their error of not halting their works. It reveals that those who stop their religious works can not only be at rest, but they can still come to the throne of grace, without works, and still receive mercy. The religious crowds who do not halt their works and enter the rest, will not be pleased with this grace. This grace is what divides.

Now we also need to take into consideration that there certainly are times when the Spirit says to reach out to those in need. In the book of James we see him correcting the churches in the matter of their works. This book has been the center of much controversy over the years as people think they still need to “work”. But as we saw above in the book of Hebrews, that we are indeed at rest and to do ritual religious works towards our own righteousness is an act of disobedience.

In James chapter 1, he rebukes the people and tells them,  21“Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

When you read the entire letter of James, it is evident that he is speaking of how we live our lives in the Kingdom now. So put aside the thoughts you have of the after-life. No where in the book of James will you find him speaking of what happens after we die. In verse 21 he says that we need to have meekness. To receive the implanted word requires meekness. Then the question of what does it mean “to save your souls”?

A quick reminder to help with this study is that God already reconciled us to himself through His Son. {2 Corinthians 5:18} So I do not believe that James is speaking about us needing to “do” anything to “get saved”. There is another context in which we need to understand this word, “saved”. For surely we know that it’s “not by works lest any man should boast”. So just what is James talking about? I believe he is referencing the saving of our souls from religious works.

I believe that James’ letter was a letter of correction to the early churches. James rebukes them first of being angry people. James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” When I look in the Greek literal translation, this is what is revealed.. ‘the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God’. This is a very important concept to understand as it seems that James is rebuking the people of attempting to use anger to bring people into Kingdom living. He says it does not work! He calls it filthiness and rampant wickedness.

He then goes into telling them about being doers of the word. Keeping in mind that we are at rest and need no more religious ritual work to enter the Kingdom, what is James talking about? In verse 25 he speaks of looking into the perfect law of liberty. Liberty is the freedom we have in Christ because of God’s grace. We are free from religious rituals for our righteousness, because we have the righteousness of Christ. Then James hits the nail on the head when we mentions the widows and the fatherless.

26If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Remember that the Gospel can discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart and God knows if our works are genuine or if they are empty religious rituals. Jesus saved us from religion, but James seems to be putting a stark truth and rebuke in the faces of the people. He mentions the widows and orphans. Such a serious rebuke and so applicable to the churches of today. Most widows are on SSI and orphans provided for by the state while the churches pour their finances into fancy buildings and $500 suits for their pastors.

What did James mean about remaining unstained by the world?

In James 2 he addresses the problem at hand, wealth. There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy, again the Gospel  discerns the intents of the heart. Is the wealth being shared? It was shared in the book of Acts, so equally that no one had lack. But now James reveals a different progression of the lives of the people.  Lets stay on topic though, the topic of the Gospel being divisive and living in the Kingdom.

James’ words in chapter 2 has been a hot topic for centuries. What is it about our faith and works, when we know our works has ended and we are at rest in the Kingdom? It takes faith to enter the Kingdom we have on this earth and we can only enter in as we rest. So what is James speaking of?

Those who live in the Kingdom can rest all they want, but where is the love for the widows and the orphans? Does the fact that we rest mean that we neglect the widows and orphans? God forbid! Our faith in God organically manifests from the outpouring of love and compassion we have for those in need. James’ letter was rebuking the wealthy for their ambitions to be rich while neglecting those in need. When we walk in the Kingdom we become people who make a difference in this world. He gives us the illustration of Abraham, whose faith manifested in his willingness to sacrifice his own son.

In James 2:22 we see in the ESV “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;” and a closer look at the Greek gives us a clearer picture of what was meant. The words in ESV ‘active along with’ is sunergeó, which means ‘to cooperate with’. The words ‘completed by’ is teleioó, can be said ‘accomplished’. So the popular AKJV says “See you how faith worked with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” has been misunderstood by many as saying ‘your faith doesn’t save you unless you also perform works’. He goes on to explain in verses 18- 26 that our faith will manifest in our lives by works. But remember that the works he used as an example was caring for the needy. When we care for the needy out of a compassionate heart, an outpouring of God’s love, that is a manifestation of our faith. Do not perform religious ritual works in an attempt to ‘prove’ your faith. To do so would be arrogance and a lack of faith that God already performed the final work through His Son on the cross.

It’s important to understand the context in which James was writing about and take into consideration all of the letters from the apostles and the very words of Jesus as well. Remember that in James 1 he rebukes them of anger? Then in chapter 3 he brings it up again in how they used their tongues to cause chaos in their churches.

James 3:6 and the tongue is a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the Gehenna.

Ouch! James uses the scariest place in their earth at the time to describe their angry tongues, Gehenna. The garbage dump where the Sanhedrin would burn the bodies of those they judged as ‘sinners’.

He brings up the context of the letter again in 13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Here it is again, the consequences of their actions 15 “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

We live in the Kingdom, at rest. Yet we have an outpouring of organic love and compassion when we reach out to help the needy. When we make our lives into selfish ambitions to become wealthy, and deny the outpouring of love to those in need, we forget the Kingdom in which we have been given entrance to. When we rest in the Kingdom and do not follow the outpouring of love, we remain idle in our faith. We become lazy and forgetful of what we have been forgiven of and we neglect others who need so desperately to enter the Kingdom and also be at rest.

Yes, we are at rest, and we also have a work to do. But our works do not gain us entrance to the Kingdom, our entrance is by grace. However, being a citizen of the Kingdom will have it’s organic manifestation of compassion that pours out to help those in need. We see the encouragement in verses

17“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Our manifestation of faith is pure in heart (no secret agendas to become wealthy or gain popularity for our works), to be gentle (not aggressive with angry tongues), open to reason (understanding), full of mercy and good fruits (loving compassion that pours out), impartial (not showing preference to the wealthy or popular over the poor), and sincere. Then we will have a harvest of righteousness (justice) and it is sown in peace (not anger) by those who make peace.

The Gospel is good news to everyone, but is divisive to those who puff up their own self righteous works, that are motivated by selfish ambition, and tainted by the world of wealth and popularity. The Gospel brings peace and division. But the division is not done in haste, anger, unruly tongues, or condemnation. The Gospel simply divides the oppressors from the oppressed. The Gospel gives entrance to living in the Kingdom to the weak and weary. Our genuine faith will have an outpouring of love and compassion to others as we reach out by that faith and bring them into the fellowship of rest. They are included and as we welcome them into the Kingdom that is theirs, it divides the hearts of the self righteous, revealing to them that their ambitions are deceitful. It is then that they realize that they have left living in the Kingdom and have been put out into the darkness again, making them blind due to the beams in their own eyes. They will gnash their teeth as the weak and oppressed enter into this fellowship of Kingdom living.

So in my conclusion, I present my view that James is cautioning the people not to be idle in their faith, but to respond to the compassion of the Lord by caring for the weak and abused, the widows and the orphans. In our world today, that includes anyone that the self righteous have pushed away from this fellowship of the Royal Priesthood. You can read more about James’ rebuke to the churches in the final 2 chapters (4 and 5) of the book of James.

We are at rest and this Gospel of inclusion is surely offensive to the self righteous and divides them from living the Kingdom life and from partaking in the fellowship of the Royal Priesthood.

Filed Under: Grace, Kingdom Living Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

A Beautiful Heresy

June 25, 2011 by 7 Comments

Back through the ancients of time we find a belief that has been widely ignored and yet vehemently refuted by a lineage of Christians whose ideals have long usurped the liberty of the souls and conscience of mankind. Regardless of what anyone in the opposing lineage has said, even some historical Baptists have held fast to their soul liberty in matters of conscience. When Thomas Helwys split from King James, he wrote a book entitled, “The Mystery of Iniquity” in which Thomas accused King James of being a “tyrant” and who “molested the conscience of the people”. Thomas adamantly refuted the king’s claims that he had divine right to choose the clergy who would serve the king’s church. So do we only believe in soul liberty if we follow the Baptists? Does anyone else have soul liberty outside of the baptist camp? Of course we do!

We are told by Paul to “study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed” and to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”, and to “let each man make up his own mind”. We know that even the Bereans studied diligently to make sure the apostle Paul was teaching truth. Could you imagine double checking the speaking of the apostle Paul? That’s like double checking the work of the modern popular church leaders of today. Yet so many would say, “How dare you question Pastor Popular!”

And we should be double checking the theological works of others. We are to question and wrestle with our beliefs to see if there be any virtue or praise worthy things to be said of our conclusions {Philippians 4:8}.

During this kind of inquisition we are to love the brethren. It is obvious by the evidence of over 30,000 denominations of Christianity world wide, that not everyone agrees on every perspective. Each lineage of Christianity states that they have it “closer to the truth than anyone else” and even if they refute my claim on this, just try to see how they feel about you disagreeing with one of their sacred cow doctrines and holding fast to one that opposes theirs.

When I read through the letters to the fellowship in Corinth, I tend to see a church we know of today called Pentecostalism. I’m not saying that Corinth was a Pentecostal church, but the things Paul rebuked them of, seems to be found in many Pentecostal churches today. The thing that catches my eye is that even though Paul is sending two letters to correct them, he still calls them brethren and says they are under the grace of Christ. So although he is not in agreement with what is going on in their church, he still loved them and considered them brethren.

If only we could glean this powerful truth of grace from these epistles. We really should be able to love all the brethren even when we disagree. Jesus himself informed the disciples that they should not send away those who cast out devils, just because they didn’t know them. He clearly said that since they were not against them, that meant they were for them. Then immediately after that, Jesus admonishes them to be salt to the world. He went even deeper and explained that if you cause one to stumble then it would be better to cut off the offending body part and throw it into the burning garbage heap in Gehenna. He explained that it would be better to live in the kingdom maimed than it would be to continue causing people to stumble from the truth of Christ. I believe Jesus was speaking of this kingdom life here and now within us. {Mark 9:38-50} Jesus began this section with discussing those who are serving the people with the gospel of freedom in Christ, they were casting our devils in Christ’s name. In the here and now.

He continually teaches us to love one another and especially the believers. Those that are of the household of faith are to be loved and respected. Far too often we see Christian leaders behaving with the immaturity of a playground bully. (A word to you my friends, they aren’t true leaders.) Jesus came to be the ultimate example to us and he served mankind. He laid down his life for the world. What an amazing act of love, to serve others. A true leader is the servant among you, the one with no title, who washes the feet of others, who loves and who befriends the sinners.

The ancient lineage of Christianity that I alluded to at the beginning of this article is alive and well, yet many of the brethren refute the validity of their message, although their focal point is Christ. Yes, they are brethren and under grace and if Paul were here today he would call them brethren and Jesus would say they are for Him, not against him. Every man’s work will be tried with fire and we are not to pull up the tares or you might pull up the wheat as well. He said to let them grow together. This is what grace does. Anyone we think are tares, we are to leave a lone and still love them.

If you were to ask what these Christians believe about certain things, you might get a few different answers, and yet this lineage embraces this kind of diversity. They do not refute that some are not brethren, nor do they resist offering them grace if they disagree. They don’t want to be called a denomination or be labeled with broad brush strokes. They’re on a journey like everyone else is and their focus is Christ and his finished work on the Cross. Isn’t it Jesus that holds us in the bondage of love with one another?

The belief that the Anointing has come and defeated death and the grave through the completed work on the cross is an offensive message to many, and even among some Christians. The divine desire of God’s will is that all would come to repentance and the hope of all mankind is in the completed work of the cross. It’s the hope that God’s will is done on the earth as it is in heaven.

The part of this message that seems to get tricky for some is the lingering question of what happens to those who don’t come to the saving knowledge of Christ? In so many passages Jesus is clearly speaking of the consequences in this life time. He makes a point of speaking in depth on living the kingdom life now. He goes to great length to conceal the simplicity of the cross from those who are proud and self indulgent and he reveals the plain truth to the simple and poor in spirit. Does that mean that Jesus doesn’t want the proud to enjoy the kingdom? Absolutely not! That would be working against the will of God to see all come to him. Jesus works only that which the Father reveals to him.

So why present such a mystery to one crowd and yet give the answer sheet to the others?

He came to call the sinners to change their minds about God, not the ones who have their ducks in a row. The ones who already believe don’t have need for a doctor. Those who are ill are the ones who need him. Quite a paradox isn’t it? Who are the believing and who are the unbelieving? The answer will appear to be different depending on your perspective.

The Pharisees were unbelieving and blind. Jesus explained to them that because they claim to see is why they are still blind. The self righteous, the proud, the self indulgent religious leaders needed to be healed of their blindness. They were knocking into one another every day because the beams in their eyes caused them to stumble. Jesus’ prescription was to gouge out your eye so you can live the kingdom life maimed instead of walking around stumbling into life’s garbage dump that burned day and night. Those who refused to believe would be burned, like the chaff on the threshing floor, to reveal what is good for the Master’s table. If we don’t gauge out our own offending eyes then the beams will be burned so that we can see clearly what is set on the table before us. He calls the unbelieving to change their minds. Do not continue to fall into pits blindly. Stop falling down over the stumbling blocks. Ask to be healed so that you can see. It takes humility to admit you don’t have all the answers. It takes humility to admit your are ill and in need of the Doctor. “But I do many works in the name of Jesus!” Yet you fail to walk in the kingdom of grace.

The hope of all mankind, the glad tidings of great joy which is for all people, the evangel that is spread abroad to all nations that Christ is risen and offered himself for all of mankind. The message of reconciliation says that God has redeemed mankind through His Son. It is a finished work on the cross.

1 Timothy 4:10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Back in Mark 9 he closes his thoughts with these words, “be at peace with one another.”

It is with those words that I declare that this lineage of Christians who dare to go against the grain and actually believe in the hope that Jesus really is the Savior of all mankind, are our brethren and are to be loved as brethren…even if you happen to disagree with them. They are under grace and seek to further the kingdom with the message of reconciliation. In all the flavors, diversity, and varieties of Christian Universalism, their focus is Christ and the finished work of the cross. It’s high time we put down our hatchets and shake hands with all the brethren as we all seek to love others into the kingdom.

2 Timothy 1: 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

One man’s heresy is another man’s truth. It is a beautiful heresy to have hope that God’s will…will actually be done.

Filed Under: Grace Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,