Fear

Franklin Roosevelt famously said, "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," as he tried to encourage the American people to see the future as full of possibilities rather than full of terrible, fearful things. Not as famously, he also stated that the "common difficulties" concerned "only material things." I think what Roosevelt was saying that the economic problems in the country at the time were not the most important thing, that there was something greater. That something was the spirit of the American people to pull together to do what needed to be done, including defeating the greatest worldwide threat the world had seen.

Centuries before, Jesus said to his followers, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom." He could easily have also said that difficulties they would face are not the important thing, that they paled in comparison to the kingdom. For at least a few hundred years, Jesus' followers went about their day-to-day fearlessly; facing rejection, misunderstanding, persecution, torture, and death. They were able to do so because they had confidence that the kingdom had been give to them, that they were subjects of the King of Kings, and that everything he had was theirs. They knew that absolutely nothing could separate them from their Father's love. These early Christians also could live fearlessly because they knew that the sufferings they did endure somehow were what the King used to bring kingdom on earth as in heaven. As Tertullian said, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

Today, I look around and see a group that is fearful. All it takes is some time spent on social media to see the fear that controls a great deal of what people say and do. Whether it's fear of a certain political party taking away freedoms, fear of the other side waging a war on Christians, or fear of a certain group coming and taking away jobs or our lives. This fear can lead to saying and doing things that hurt others, ruin relationships, and cause the name of Christ to be slandered. We can easily tend toward fear in our day-to-day as well. We fear that disease will strike us or those we love. We fear that we may lose friends. We fear that we can't do our jobs well. We fear that we simply aren't good enough, that eventually people will see through our charade and reject us.  This fear drives us to perfectionism, to overwork, to self medication. We hide behind masks because we fear that others will reject us if they learn the real us. Sometimes we fear facing ourselves.

There is much that can make us fearful. But, as FDR said, those are only material things. Those are things that are inconsequential compared to the kingdom. Compared to the great inheritance that is ours, all of the things of this earth are nothing. Compared to the life that we have been given, the life we fear losing is nothing. Because Jesus died and was raised, the new creation has begun. We are citizens of a kingdom that will never be defeated, that will never pass away. The King has come! We don't always see his reign in this life, although we do catch glimpses now and then, but he is in control. All the stuff of life that hits us, all the things that our enemy throws at us has already been overcome. We need to live from that reality. Will we still experience bad, even terrible things? Yes we will. But, those things can not wrench us out of our Father's hands. They can not ultimately harm us because our destiny is settled. It's hard, I know. I have to remind myself constantly that the things of this world are not the kingdom. Let us all continually remind each other of who we are and whose we are, and of the glory that will be revealed in us when the King finally comes to sett all things right.

Fear not, because your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.        

Challenges and Opportunities

As this year draws to a close, and we enter a new year that promises to be very different, Christians in America will be faced with many challenges. Along with the challenges, there will be plenty of opportunities.

This year has been hard on the church as a whole. Deep divisions have been revealed. Along with that, there is a growing distrust of Christianity. While some of these problems are a part of the way the world naturally views followers of Jesus, others are of our own making. One challenge is to be agents of healing where there is division. For too long, we have worried more about the things that make us different rather than the things we share. I know that there are issues that are important that must be dealt with and may be cause for separation. That is not what I am talking about. Much of the time, the things we divide over have more to do with preference and style than substance.

Another challenge we face is the way we are perceived. Jesus said that we would be hated and persecuted. That is true, and I think it could very well be worse than it is now. We need to make sure that we are really being persecuted, and then if we are, that it is because we belong to Jesus and not because we are arrogant jerks. We should be known more by our love and grace than by the size of our protests or the condemnation we speak. We should be known for our allegiance to the King of Kings, and not who we voted for.

I believe that our faith itself is going to be challenged. The days of Christendom are gone. I really don't think the incoming president will keep his promises to make Christians influential again. If he does, I think it will end up hurting the church. We can no longer expect to have government enforce our beliefs. We can probably expect to be looking more and more at a society that is indifferent to us at best, or hostile at worst. The time may be coming when we will be forced to consider whether our faith is worth all of the stuff that will be happening.

The future may be quite challenging, but it will also present the church with opportunities. As we face more hostility, we will have the opportunity to examine ourselves for the reason behind it. If it is truly because of Christ, then we can rejoice that we have been counted worthy to suffer for the gospel. If the hostility comes as a reaction to our own hostility, then we will have the opportunity to repent and become the disciples we can be. We will have the opportunity to show the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus. As the face of the church changes and those who are not committed to following Jesus fall away, we will have have the opportunity to show who we belong to, not by our stands on issues, or our style of worship, our our doctrinal statement, but by our love to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to our neighbors. As our influence wanes, we will have the opportunity to affect culture by speaking and living the gospel.

May God give us the grace to be people who love, who are willing to live as a spiritual family which puts others first, and who show the world that the gospel is indeed Good News.

World Vision Wednesday

Here are some frequently asked questions about the Syrian refugee crisis.

No Fear

Fear. It seems as if the world runs on fear. A whole industry has evolved that is fed by fear. Organizations on both ends of the political spectrum raise money by appealing to the fear that those at the other end are going to destroy our country. Even Christian organizations use fear as a motive for giving money. The common thread that runs through the billions of dollars that are raised is fear of the future. Fear that things are not going to be good unless you give us money to fight "evil."

Those of us who follow Jesus should not allow ourselves to get wrapped up in fear of the future. In Romans 8, Paul tells us that there are two reasons we shouldn't fear. One is the spirit of adoption we have been given, and the other is the wonderful future that lies ahead of us.

We need not fear because the Creator and King of the universe has given us a spirit of adoption that causes us to call him "Abba," or "Daddy." Think about it. The sovereign God invites us to call him "Daddy." That blows my mind! Think about the most wonderful father you can imagine. Now consider that God is infinitely better, more powerful, more loving than that. If we are children of God, we have a daddy who desperately loves us, who cares about our good, and who is powerful enough to bring our good to pass. Our future is secure because our Father is in control.

So, why do we suffer? I believe that we suffer because Jesus suffered. The early church believed that the suffering of Christ on the cross and his resurrection inaugurated the Kingdom. They saw their own suffering as building for that Kingdom little by little. Paul wrote to the Galatians that his suffering somehow filled up what was missing in Christ's suffering. The church grew in the first three centuries through suffering and bloodshed. Look around the world today and you will see that the church still grows in suffering and bloodshed. It is in the West, where the church has grown comfortable and rich, that there is stagnation. Even so, we here in West do suffer. We may not be persecuted, but we suffer from sickness, disease, heartbreak, death, and sometimes it is hard to see any good in it. I believe even that suffering somehow builds for the Kingdom. There is hope for the future.

Our future as children of the Father is so bright that shades won't do any good. Somehow our future is so wrapped up with the restoration of all things that creation itself is waiting with expectant groaning for our final redemption. The glory that will be revealed in us will make our suffering in this life seem like nothing! Wow! When we come to the end of our rope, we can look ahead to a future that will far surpass the worst we can go through. I don't totally understand all of it, but there have been days when that truth was the only thing I had to hold on to. The good news is we do have that to hold on to in the midst of the worst storm.

Brothers and sisters, take heart! Your Abba loves you with an infinite love that will never let you go. Your suffering is being used by God to bring his Kingdom to bear in this life. Nothing that this life throws at you can ever prevent the glory of God from being revealed in you when the final restoration of all things comes to pass. Fear not.

World Vision Wednesday

Christians and other minorities in Iraq are undergoing severe persecution. World Vision is working to bring aid to displaced families. For more information see this.

The Larger Story

This past summer, when the wildfires hit Colorado, John Eldredge and a friend were having a meal together. They were discussing the fires and the possibility of being directly affected. They talked about what they thought Jesus was saying through everything. They both said, "Trust the Larger Story."

This is a good thing to do throughout life in general. We live in a world that is broken, and we deal with broken people. Not only that, we are broken ourselves. Stuff happens in our day-to-day lives and all around the world. Not a day goes by that we don't hear or read about tragedy and death. Sometimes we are the ones experiencing those things. We get sick, jobs are lost, friends disappoint. Sometimes we just struggle with living. But, that is not the whole story.

The story is not about us. We are not the heroes. We are living in God's story, the story of a Kingdom and the restoration of all creation. It is a much larger story that spans eternity. We are in that story, and we all have a part to play, whether big or small. It is that story that gives us hope and encouragement.. The thing we need to do is take our eyes off ourselves and focus on Jesus and what he is doing. That's the hard part. We tend to be so wrapped up in what is happening to us in that moment that we forget that there is more going on than what we can see with our limited vision.

A few weeks ago, Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum wrote a good post about Romans 8:28. In this post he spoke of the good for which God works all things, and the fact that the things that happen to us don't always seem to fit into this verse. Dan asks,

"What if the Creator's intention for 'those who love God' isn't primarily for the individual crushed by circumstance? What if the 'those' consists of the greater mass of Christendom?"

 What if the intention is for the overall good of the Kingdom? The early church believed that the Kingdom spread through their suffering, just as it had been inaugurated in Jesus' suffering on the cross and his resurrection. Believers who have suffered for Christ through the centuries have understood this. Here in the West we have a hard time grasping this concept. Our vision of our faith is extremely personal.

Remember that the Larger Story began long before any of us arrived, and it will continue to be played out long after this life is over. It is a story that is about the Creator and the love he has for his creation. That story will come to its climax. Perhaps then, we will look back at our part in the play and say, "Now I understand."

Don't Forget

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• A few years ago I watched a video from the "That the World May Know" series. It was titled "Walk as Jesus Walked: Don't Forget Us". It's about following Jesus in suffering and persecution. I'd always thought that while Christians in countries such as China or the Sudan were suffering for their faith, we here in the "Christian" West had it easy. And that is true to a great extent - the biggest thing we have to worry about is having someone make fun of us. The video showed me something that I had never thought of before. In 1 Corinthians 12:12, 26, Paul writes, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ....If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

  Do we suffer with the parts of the body that are going through persecution and suffering? Do we even know when they are suffering? I think the fact that we generally don't enter into or even know of the suffering of our brothers and sisters is because we have lost that sense of oneness in the body that the early church had. Most of the time we don't even know the struggles that others have in our local churches, so how do we expect to know what goes on around the world? There is no excuse for not knowing what is going on out there. Voice of the Martyrs and other organizations are constantly giving accounts of the suffering in the body. It does take a little work, but it can be done. Find out.

  If you want an object lesson about what it means when the whole body suffers because of one part, hit your thumb hard with a hammer. Then tell me if your whole body feels it or if you can keep the effects localized on your thumb. That is how the body of Christ is. Or at least how it should be.

  Find out how your brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering. Pray for them. Let their suffering affect you. Above all - never forget them.

Half Empty or Half Full?

There is a lot happening in the world out there. And it's all good, or all bad, depending on your point of view. We know that the American economy is in bad shape. The recession/depression is expected to last until the end of 2009/2010/2011... Some think the economy will come back stronger, as it did after World War II. Some think America is going to drift into becoming an underdeveloped, powerless nation.

Some are predicting a cataclysmic event that will bring God's judgement on us. Others are foreseeing the collapse of evangelicalism within this generation. All the while the number of folks who identify themselves as Christian is decreasing and the number who identify with no religion is on the rise. Some say that America is heading down the same path that Europe has travelled.

Is our glass half empty? Is it half full? Or should we wonder who the heck has been drinking out of our glass? As a follower of Jesus, the Lord of lords and the King of kings, I believe that in the midst of all that is going on around me I can be confident in the goodness of my Father and his care for me. This doesn't mean that I just throw caution to the wind and continue to live as if the economy was humming along smoothly and there was no evil in the world. It just means that I know who is in charge and trust the Father to do what is right.

I also see a great opportunity for the Church to be the church. For so long the message of Jesus has been obscured by those who have attached it to realizing the American Dream, or by those who have made it a question of morality and being a "good" person. It has been reduced to a formula where a prayer is prayed and a set of propositions is assented to. Now, as more and more people reject the "gospel" of the modern church, the spiritual landscape seems to be moving toward what it was in the first century.

As the economy continues to slide, the church has an opportunity to show the love of God to those who are impacted by job loss, home foreclosures, etc. It's possible that churches will be more concerned about the hurting in their midst than the next building program. That concern may even spill over into the surrounding community. Some churches may be forced out of their facilities by the economic problems in their area. What would it look like if churches had more to give to the needy around them since there was no need to spend on upkeep of buildings?

As the American Dream fades, those who have attached themselves to Christianity for the sake of material prosperity will drop off, leaving those who are more committed followers of Christ. As this happens, those who are left can be discipled and taught what it really means to follow Jesus. As the number of Christians shrinks (possibly to a minority, as it has in Europe) there will be a more stark difference between believers and the rest of society. The hostility to the church from those in power may continue to grow, and it may actually become somewhat dangerous to proclaim allegiance to Christ above all else. It has happened and is happening around the world. What makes us think we are exempt?

While it may look like a grim future, remember what the church in the first century faced. They had no political, economic, or social power. They were seen as atheists and were considered enemies of the state. They were driven from their homes, imprisoned, beaten, and killed.

Yet, they turned the world upside down.

Now, is the glass half empty or half full?

China

In the midst of the coverage of the Olympics and the gushing about how wonderful things are in China, please don't forget that there are many in that country that do not have the freedoms that we enjoy here in the United States. This comes from Voice of the Martyrs:

Pastor Zhang “Bike” Mingxuan, known for traveling across China on a bicycle to evangelize, was arrested by Chinese police just two days before the Olympics began. Pastor Bike was the inspiration for the recent partnership between The Voice of the Martyrs and China Aid Association to create the Olympic Prayer Band.

Pastor Asks for Prayer BandEarlier this year, Pastor Bike pleaded with VOM staff to ask Christians to pray for persecuted Christians in China during the Olympics. The pastor voluntarily preaches the gospel openly in China despite being persecuted. He has asked for his identity to be revealed to bring continued attention to the persecution of Christians in Communist China.
Thanks to Pastor Bike’s inspiration and the commitment of concerned Christians across the United States, more than 800,000 prayer bands have been circulated. On Aug. 6, Pastor Bike was arrested while trying to deliver medicine to his ailing wife. His wife and another pastor were also arrested. We have also learned this week that Chinese officials are opening a full investigation of the Olympic Prayer Bands that were distributed to house church members within China. Despite this increased pressure from Chinese authorities, Chinese Christians continue to ask for prayer and to make their plight known.

You can learn more about the Olympic Prayer Band here.