Here is a story and some thoughts on the condition of the deception that sometimes takes place in our churches.
Jason, a believer, was looking to get married. To narrow down his search, he began considering the young women attending his church. After careful observation, he decided to pursue a young woman with who he saw himself matching well.
He saw Elizabeth as a woman passionate about God, a quality that was most important to him when searching for a wife. Though his heart pounded every time he set eyes on her, his top priority was that she be serious about the Lord.
Jason began talking to Elizabeth, and she seemed just as interested in pursuing a friendship. They became serious about their relationship and were soon talking about the great M word—“marriage.” Things naturally progressed, and they were happily married at their church.
After the wedding, life was roses for a short while. Somewhere during their first year together, Jason noticed a decrease in Elizabeth’s enthusiasm toward the marriage. The magnet that seemed so strong in pulling them together just months ago had lost some of its force.
On Sundays, Jason took Elizabeth to the church they had attended prior to their marriage. The sparkle in Elizabeth’s eyes had faded, though. She seemed restless and bored with the preacher’s message. As the weeks and months passed, Elizabeth became more reluctant to attend church.
Finally, one day she stopped attending church altogether. Being greatly concerned for the well-being of his wife, Jason inquired about the changes. Elizabeth was very up-front with her husband. She said that the life Jason had wanted for their family was not the life she wanted for herself. She was still young and wanted to live her life as she pleased.
To her, a relationship with God would restrict her from what she wanted to experience in life. This was crushing news to Jason. Why had the woman he married not chosen to tell him these things before they made a lifelong commitment to each other? Why did she lead him on in to a relationship that was not real? He did not have answers to these questions or peace in his heart.
Jason would sadly get up on Sunday mornings and make his way to church, now without his beautiful bride. His face was gloomy, and his eyes mostly avoided eye contact. While at church, he hoped others would not ask about his wife’s absence.
Elizabeth seemed so perfect during the months before their marriage. She seemed to have such a passion for the Lord with her interests being quite similar to Jason’s. Had he known that deep down she was not an authentic Christian, he would not have taken such a great step with her.
She had been so good at playing the role of a believer that Jason had not hesitated to make her his wife. She was able to cover her true character until she got what she wanted, or better said, whom she wanted and deceived a good man in the process. She sold herself to be someone that, in reality, she was not. She had put in to practice a great deception as though it was a work of art.
Some Christians are similar to Elizabeth. Much of their life is buried deep within their hearts. When observed at church, they are impressive, seeming to possess all the qualities necessary for a successful marriage, leadership position, or business partnership. They are godly, loving, caring, considerate, hardworking, and everything else one would want to see in a parent, child, spouse, and employee.
Sadly, the Christian life, as seen at church, is not the Christian life that many professing believers live on a daily basis. For many believers, their Christian talk is different from their Christian walk. The Christian talk takes place on church campuses and in the presence of other Christians. When with believers, the average Christian has it all together. He shows a passion and a desire for relationship with God and other people, an amazing insight in to what it means to know God and His word.
Outside of church it is a whole different story. Lying and cheating are commonplace. Greed and infidelity are in style. But the lying, cheating Christians puts forth a great effort to cover this part of her life. She makes sure that those in her church community don’t see her anger, jealousy and lust.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
A Willingness to Touch
Below are a few thoughts I have writen, from the passage in Mark 1 where Jesus touches a leper.
Though the leper was considered highly contagious, Jesus was willing to touch him. There is a very important principle that arises from the way Jesus acted toward the leper.
Oftentimes we will only be able to help those that we are willing to touch. If we look at people through the lens of favoritism, we will never get close to them; we will never be able to touch and impact their life.
There are many ways for us to touch the lives of the people around us. We can touch someone’s life through great things as well as the small.
If someone is drowning and I jump in and save them, then I have touched that person’s life in a great way. But in order to save that drowning person, I have to touch them. I can’t save him/her without jumping in the water and grabbing them. There has to be that willingness to touch.
I am much more likely to touch someone’s life in small ways however. In fact we can touch people’s lives in small ways every day. If I take my neighbor some cookies, I touch their life, but I first have to touch their doorstep. By helping a friend with his taxes, I touch his life, but I first have to touch his papers. In order to touch a life, we need to touch the individual.
The individual whose life I do not touch is being relayed a message. “You are not important enough for me to touch.” If I do not touch the life of family or friends, I am saying that I do not care about them.
Do you get close enough to people that you can see the pain in their eyes? Are you able to see the sad smile on their face?
I once drove somewhere with a couple of guys from the youth group. On that day, we spent a few hours chatting and enjoying the scenery. We then each went our separate ways, but I noticed that throughout the week, both guys that had been on the trip with me kept coming to my mind. Even as I prayed, they would pop into my thoughts, and I would bring them before God in prayer. I found it interesting that the guys kept resurfacing in my mind even after just a simple drive.
Looking back, I understand that God used the “touch” principle to push me to pray for the guys. Because I had seen these guys, I had in a way touched their life, and God was able to use that touch later to remind me to bring them in prayer.
If you want to be used by God in a great way, start by touching people’s lives. Touch them by spending time with them; touch them by calling them on the phone. These things can become a marker in reminding you to pray for a specific person and her needs.
I heard about a woman who loved to pray for the sick at the hospitals. She did not pray for them from the comfort of her living room or church pew, however. She made it a point to actually go to the hospital and pray for them there. She would walk from room to room praying for the sick, her experience being a prime example of the desire to get close and touch.
There are many in need of a touch. Let’s get out of our houses and our selfish lifestyles and begin touching people. We need to look beyond the extraordinary and begin touching everyone, even those that others might label untouchable.
Though the leper was considered highly contagious, Jesus was willing to touch him. There is a very important principle that arises from the way Jesus acted toward the leper.
Oftentimes we will only be able to help those that we are willing to touch. If we look at people through the lens of favoritism, we will never get close to them; we will never be able to touch and impact their life.
There are many ways for us to touch the lives of the people around us. We can touch someone’s life through great things as well as the small.
If someone is drowning and I jump in and save them, then I have touched that person’s life in a great way. But in order to save that drowning person, I have to touch them. I can’t save him/her without jumping in the water and grabbing them. There has to be that willingness to touch.
I am much more likely to touch someone’s life in small ways however. In fact we can touch people’s lives in small ways every day. If I take my neighbor some cookies, I touch their life, but I first have to touch their doorstep. By helping a friend with his taxes, I touch his life, but I first have to touch his papers. In order to touch a life, we need to touch the individual.
The individual whose life I do not touch is being relayed a message. “You are not important enough for me to touch.” If I do not touch the life of family or friends, I am saying that I do not care about them.
Do you get close enough to people that you can see the pain in their eyes? Are you able to see the sad smile on their face?
I once drove somewhere with a couple of guys from the youth group. On that day, we spent a few hours chatting and enjoying the scenery. We then each went our separate ways, but I noticed that throughout the week, both guys that had been on the trip with me kept coming to my mind. Even as I prayed, they would pop into my thoughts, and I would bring them before God in prayer. I found it interesting that the guys kept resurfacing in my mind even after just a simple drive.
Looking back, I understand that God used the “touch” principle to push me to pray for the guys. Because I had seen these guys, I had in a way touched their life, and God was able to use that touch later to remind me to bring them in prayer.
If you want to be used by God in a great way, start by touching people’s lives. Touch them by spending time with them; touch them by calling them on the phone. These things can become a marker in reminding you to pray for a specific person and her needs.
I heard about a woman who loved to pray for the sick at the hospitals. She did not pray for them from the comfort of her living room or church pew, however. She made it a point to actually go to the hospital and pray for them there. She would walk from room to room praying for the sick, her experience being a prime example of the desire to get close and touch.
There are many in need of a touch. Let’s get out of our houses and our selfish lifestyles and begin touching people. We need to look beyond the extraordinary and begin touching everyone, even those that others might label untouchable.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Lesson in Humility
I heard a story that put a smile on my face and also taught me a valuable lesson.
Johnny was trying to sell a car. He had posted it in the newspaper and a pottential buyer was on his way over to take a look at the car.
As Johnny was backing the car out of the garage in order to get it ready to show, he accidently hit the corner of the garage. The front end of the car, in the quarter panel area aquired a small dent.
Bewildered by the turn in his luck, Johnny, along with his brother, who was also present, tried desperately to fix the dent.
They grabbed a hammer and quickly tried to hit the small dent out of the quarter panel, from the inside.
It was tough however, because, as you may realize, it is not easy to fit one's hand and a hammer behind the tire of a car, toward the back side of the panel.
As Johnny and his brother were struggling with the dent, Johnny's wife walked out of the house.
She asked the two men what they were up to. Without looking up Johnny explained the situation and the urgency in trying to solve the problem, before the pottential buyer was going to show up.
Johnny's wife, who knew nothing about cars, chimed in her two cents.
"Why don't you take the tire off the car, so that you have more room to work with in hammering out the dent, and after you hammered out the dent you can place the tire back on the frame."
Johnny thought for a minute and then snapped at his wife.
"Are you trying to teach me how to fix a car? What do you know about cars anyways?"
As soon as Johnny's wife stepped back into the house, he and his brother did just as his wife suggested. They put the car up on a jack, took off the tire, hammered the small dent out of the panel and then placed the tire back on.
I thought it was humorous how Johnny was too proud to follow his wife's advice, which was better than what he had come up with, and then followed her advice once she left.
I think this is sometimes a 'man' thing. It is hard for us men to humble ourselves about certain things even though it would be beneficial. Is there any areas in which us men can humble with ease?
Johnny was trying to sell a car. He had posted it in the newspaper and a pottential buyer was on his way over to take a look at the car.
As Johnny was backing the car out of the garage in order to get it ready to show, he accidently hit the corner of the garage. The front end of the car, in the quarter panel area aquired a small dent.
Bewildered by the turn in his luck, Johnny, along with his brother, who was also present, tried desperately to fix the dent.
They grabbed a hammer and quickly tried to hit the small dent out of the quarter panel, from the inside.
It was tough however, because, as you may realize, it is not easy to fit one's hand and a hammer behind the tire of a car, toward the back side of the panel.
As Johnny and his brother were struggling with the dent, Johnny's wife walked out of the house.
She asked the two men what they were up to. Without looking up Johnny explained the situation and the urgency in trying to solve the problem, before the pottential buyer was going to show up.
Johnny's wife, who knew nothing about cars, chimed in her two cents.
"Why don't you take the tire off the car, so that you have more room to work with in hammering out the dent, and after you hammered out the dent you can place the tire back on the frame."
Johnny thought for a minute and then snapped at his wife.
"Are you trying to teach me how to fix a car? What do you know about cars anyways?"
As soon as Johnny's wife stepped back into the house, he and his brother did just as his wife suggested. They put the car up on a jack, took off the tire, hammered the small dent out of the panel and then placed the tire back on.
I thought it was humorous how Johnny was too proud to follow his wife's advice, which was better than what he had come up with, and then followed her advice once she left.
I think this is sometimes a 'man' thing. It is hard for us men to humble ourselves about certain things even though it would be beneficial. Is there any areas in which us men can humble with ease?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
What "limitele harului" means
The name of my blog talks about grace. “har” is theRomanian word for grace. Limitele Harului, translated literally, means “the limits of grace”.
A more appropriate translation would be “the boundaries of grace”. I am sort of playing with words because, biblically speaking, there are no limits or boundaries to God’s grace even if some people have a tendency to fence it.
Growing up, I often dealt with rules.Even though I was aware of God’s love, I knew Him as a God of “Fire and Brimstone.”
I have since grown to understand that even though I am to reverence God, I should not be terrified of Him. I am so grateful to God for the Grace He showed me through Jesus Christ and the love He continues to shower me with daily.
As a side note, this does not mean that I do not embrace Jesus’ words from John where He says that if we love him we must keep his commandments.
In a nut shell, the nature of my upbringing has helped me become ever so grateful of God’s grace which has no boundaries. I thought this was best expressed in Romanian through the words "limitele harului."
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
A more appropriate translation would be “the boundaries of grace”. I am sort of playing with words because, biblically speaking, there are no limits or boundaries to God’s grace even if some people have a tendency to fence it.
Growing up, I often dealt with rules.Even though I was aware of God’s love, I knew Him as a God of “Fire and Brimstone.”
I have since grown to understand that even though I am to reverence God, I should not be terrified of Him. I am so grateful to God for the Grace He showed me through Jesus Christ and the love He continues to shower me with daily.
As a side note, this does not mean that I do not embrace Jesus’ words from John where He says that if we love him we must keep his commandments.
In a nut shell, the nature of my upbringing has helped me become ever so grateful of God’s grace which has no boundaries. I thought this was best expressed in Romanian through the words "limitele harului."
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Fake Obedience
I have recently written on what I like to call 'fake obedience' and started my writing with the following childhood story:
"I was the second of nine children born in my family, and growing up my father wanted us children, to know the Lord.
He did everything he could to make us have a relationship with the Lord. He made church attendance a priority; at home he challenged us to pray; he explained Scripture to us.
His desire to help us mature led him to be a strict father. Living under his roof, meant living a life of restrictions. Things we enjoyed, such as sports and television, were forbidden or allowed only in moderation.
My father was especially harsh with his three oldest boys, my two brothers and I, knowing that we would set an example for the rest to follow. In order to ensure excellent behavior, he monitored most of the activities in which we participated.
If we wanted to go to a friend’s house, we needed to give him details of what would be happening there. If we wanted to play at a park, he needed to know where we would be playing, who would be there, and when we were coming back. We were not to watch movies, play video games, or listen to questionable music.
I had a brother who was one year older and one that was one year younger than I. The three of us did much of everything together. The one thing we enjoyed doing together most was playing sports.
Because of his traditional Christians views, my father was not crazy about sports. He saw sports as worldly and not something that a Christian should engage in.
Knowing that our father disliked sports we were not eager to ask for permission to play at the park. So that no one had to carry all of the responsibility of asking, we would take turns, requesting play sessions at the park.
Understanding that we needed to burn off energy, my father allowed us to go to the park, a ten minute ride from our house.
Before leaving, my father clarified the terms of our contract. One of the clauses would include the time we were to be back home. We were usually given a couple hours to play.
The park was a different world to us. Everything in life became secondary to our play. There was so much enthusiasm in kicking a soccer ball or playing catch. Our fun became so central that time was no longer of the essence. Our allotted playing time would come and go as we continued, hard at work, in our play.
And sometimes, we did not forget about the time, we chose to ignore it. The longing for play was stronger than any restriction placed on us. We were willing to have fun then and deal with the consequences later. Not giving much thought to our defiance, we would merrily continue chasing down fly balls or shooting jump shots.
Once we finally stopped from our play, the sobering reality, of our disobedient behavior, quickly settled in. We knew it would not be easy to explain our disobedience to our father.
The bike ride home was long and agonizing. As we pulled around the corner, house coming into view, we hoped dad’s car was not in the driveway. If he was not home, the heart of our mother would be softened with ease. She was quick to forgive our disobedience.
If dad’s car was home, we were doomed. Actually, there was one glimmer of hope. We needed to sneak into the house, without being seen, and give the impression that we had gotten home on time. While dad was busy with work, we might be able to get away with our insubordination.
Of course, we had not been obedient, we had just faked obedience. By sneaking into the house without being seen, we were sometimes able to trick our dad into thinking that we had been home on time.
In tricking him, we could avoid the punishment that was rightfully ours. The fact that we were able to trick my father did not mean that God was deceived. He was still able to see that we had not been obedient. We had covered disobedience with a façade of obedience. We had been deceptive in order to give a false impression of obedience."
"I was the second of nine children born in my family, and growing up my father wanted us children, to know the Lord.
He did everything he could to make us have a relationship with the Lord. He made church attendance a priority; at home he challenged us to pray; he explained Scripture to us.
His desire to help us mature led him to be a strict father. Living under his roof, meant living a life of restrictions. Things we enjoyed, such as sports and television, were forbidden or allowed only in moderation.
My father was especially harsh with his three oldest boys, my two brothers and I, knowing that we would set an example for the rest to follow. In order to ensure excellent behavior, he monitored most of the activities in which we participated.
If we wanted to go to a friend’s house, we needed to give him details of what would be happening there. If we wanted to play at a park, he needed to know where we would be playing, who would be there, and when we were coming back. We were not to watch movies, play video games, or listen to questionable music.
I had a brother who was one year older and one that was one year younger than I. The three of us did much of everything together. The one thing we enjoyed doing together most was playing sports.
Because of his traditional Christians views, my father was not crazy about sports. He saw sports as worldly and not something that a Christian should engage in.
Knowing that our father disliked sports we were not eager to ask for permission to play at the park. So that no one had to carry all of the responsibility of asking, we would take turns, requesting play sessions at the park.
Understanding that we needed to burn off energy, my father allowed us to go to the park, a ten minute ride from our house.
Before leaving, my father clarified the terms of our contract. One of the clauses would include the time we were to be back home. We were usually given a couple hours to play.
The park was a different world to us. Everything in life became secondary to our play. There was so much enthusiasm in kicking a soccer ball or playing catch. Our fun became so central that time was no longer of the essence. Our allotted playing time would come and go as we continued, hard at work, in our play.
And sometimes, we did not forget about the time, we chose to ignore it. The longing for play was stronger than any restriction placed on us. We were willing to have fun then and deal with the consequences later. Not giving much thought to our defiance, we would merrily continue chasing down fly balls or shooting jump shots.
Once we finally stopped from our play, the sobering reality, of our disobedient behavior, quickly settled in. We knew it would not be easy to explain our disobedience to our father.
The bike ride home was long and agonizing. As we pulled around the corner, house coming into view, we hoped dad’s car was not in the driveway. If he was not home, the heart of our mother would be softened with ease. She was quick to forgive our disobedience.
If dad’s car was home, we were doomed. Actually, there was one glimmer of hope. We needed to sneak into the house, without being seen, and give the impression that we had gotten home on time. While dad was busy with work, we might be able to get away with our insubordination.
Of course, we had not been obedient, we had just faked obedience. By sneaking into the house without being seen, we were sometimes able to trick our dad into thinking that we had been home on time.
In tricking him, we could avoid the punishment that was rightfully ours. The fact that we were able to trick my father did not mean that God was deceived. He was still able to see that we had not been obedient. We had covered disobedience with a façade of obedience. We had been deceptive in order to give a false impression of obedience."
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Me and Religion
I want to start off with what is most important in my life. Let me say that differently. I would like to start with the one thing that I constantly strive to make most important in my life.
My greatest desire is to serve God with all of my heart. I am a Christian, wanting to live my faith in my every day life. But as my wife will be able to tell you I am definitely not perfect. Especially when I don't take out the trash as I had promised.
I want to give every part of my life over to God and be a good example of Faith for my wife and my daughter. I want to be a role model to my family. I want them to be able to follow in my footsteps as I follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
All this said, I see how there are times where my walk with God becomes a religious practice. I get so consumed with my church and the activity there that I forget about what God truly desires.
I do not want to be a religious person that practices certain rules and rituals. I don't want to be a Christian that is always preparing for the next church meeting. I want to go deeper than religion.
I want to go to a place of relationship; a place where I can actually meet with God. I want to have him close and personal.
And often I have to remind myself that the things I am involved in are not themselves that relationship. The fact that I work with young people is not what composes my relationship with God.
Instead, it is because of my relationship with God that I desire to work with young people. I want to share with them the things that God has done in my life and how He wants to be involved in their life as well.
So what is the scoop on me and Religion? I want my religion to be a true dedication to Jesus Christ. I want to love him wholeheartedly and in the process help others do the same.
There are those that try to bring people to rules. I want to point everyone to Jesus Christ. I know that as long as I am pointing people to Him, I will be engaged in something more than empty religion.
My greatest desire is to serve God with all of my heart. I am a Christian, wanting to live my faith in my every day life. But as my wife will be able to tell you I am definitely not perfect. Especially when I don't take out the trash as I had promised.
I want to give every part of my life over to God and be a good example of Faith for my wife and my daughter. I want to be a role model to my family. I want them to be able to follow in my footsteps as I follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
All this said, I see how there are times where my walk with God becomes a religious practice. I get so consumed with my church and the activity there that I forget about what God truly desires.
I do not want to be a religious person that practices certain rules and rituals. I don't want to be a Christian that is always preparing for the next church meeting. I want to go deeper than religion.
I want to go to a place of relationship; a place where I can actually meet with God. I want to have him close and personal.
And often I have to remind myself that the things I am involved in are not themselves that relationship. The fact that I work with young people is not what composes my relationship with God.
Instead, it is because of my relationship with God that I desire to work with young people. I want to share with them the things that God has done in my life and how He wants to be involved in their life as well.
So what is the scoop on me and Religion? I want my religion to be a true dedication to Jesus Christ. I want to love him wholeheartedly and in the process help others do the same.
There are those that try to bring people to rules. I want to point everyone to Jesus Christ. I know that as long as I am pointing people to Him, I will be engaged in something more than empty religion.
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