Does it really matter?

"Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

Tim Kizziar

The Prodigal God

I have recently discovered this awesome book: The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.

Timothy Keller uses the Parable of The Two Lost Sons (Luke 15) to show God's perspective on the church vs. unchurched. He points out how the parable wasn't to show the waywardness of the sinner but actually, the "waywardness" of the religious people even though they were living according to the Bible! Keller argues that the point of the parable wasn't to create categories between the prodigal son and the good son but rather to shatter our categories of who we think are the righteous vs unrighteous.

Keller says, "[Jesus] is on the side of neither the irreligious nor the religious, but he singles out the religious moralism as a particularly deadly spiritual condition."*

I like what Keller has to say. We need to not judge others' relationships with God based on the normal views of religious actions vs lack of religious activities. We do not know what God is doing in people's hearts, and simply the outward appearance is no way to determine one's salvation.

Is it even up to us to determine another's salvation??

I think it's truly only up to us to encourage others in faith and let God do the knowing.

Above judging others' spiritual conditions from afar, Keller challenges our view of Jesus. Similarly to the message Andy Stanley gives in the video I posted on 6.21.09 (in the blog entry titled, "Jesus Liked People Who Were Nothing Like Him"), Keller points out that Jesus often got along better the unreligious people of his day more than the religious people!

Here's an excerpt from the book:

"The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus's life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the [religious person] does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders 'the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you' (Matthew 21:31).

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect! The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to [the liberal and unreligious], they must be more full of [the closed-off and piously religious] than we'd like to think." **

*Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Pengiun Group: New York, NY. 2008. p. 13
**p. 14-16

I want the glory back!

I've become tired of people-pleasing "churchiness" where God is just the excuse (of our own ways). The Glory of God has left and we don't even notice because we're so busy "playing church." I want the Glory back!
Look at 1st & 2nd Samuel and notice throughout how God's people today, The Church, is sooo similar to God's people in the Old Testament, the Israelites, in all of this!

Beginning with 1 Samuel 4: The Israelites are about to battle the Philistines and decide that the guaranteed way to win is to take the Ark of the Covenant (out of it's God-ordained location) to the battle field with them. They use God for their own desires. To their huge dismay and confusion, God let the Israelites be defeated that day and the Philistines capture the Ark.

When the Ark finally gets returned to Israel (not because they asked for it back or were even missing it), they just place it, to their convenience, in some random guy's house. God is put "on the shelf." (I Samuel 7)

The Israelites just keep doing their thing. Sure, they're following God's laws and doing life God's way...but they've left God out of the picture. They got the rules and boundaries down so they no longer need God. They become religious instead of God-led. Until they reach a problem, of course, then they go to God's prophet...but just for help in that one area, then they forget God again and just follow the laws and boundaries they know oh so well by heart.

God raises up a man after his own heart, David. But it even takes David years before he notices that the Ark isn't in its rightful place. When he finally does notice, he doesn't go to God and follow God's ways on how to get the Ark back to where it needs to be...instead David just uses "common sense." They got God's vision but then left God out of the "how to execute" plan because they ran ahead with their own "practical" ideas. Well..."common sense" kills a man (2 Samuel 6:1-10) so they again leave the Ark in some random guy's house, and go on with their lives again, dismayed and confused. They didn't ever stop to think that God's way of doing His will might be different to their own ideas. And when their ideas and common sense didn't work, they just gave up and walked away.

Months later when they hear that the guy housing the Ark is getting extremely blessed they decide to try, one more time, to put the Ark in its rightful place. This time around they finally think to find out God's way and do it accordingly. And they finally get the right perspective about all this - this time they want to truly honor God in how they transport the Ark. This time their approach is right - after 6 steps of moving the Ark they stop in gladness and thankfulness to honor God through sacrifice and dancing before Him. They honor God with every step as they take the Ark to Jerusalem...it's on this trip where David is soo happy that He dances naked in the streets! (2 Samuel 6) This time they didn't just want to use God and try to have Him back simply "because it's just the right thing to do," but they honestly desired Him, and felt honor and joy to be in His presence. And finally, the Glory of God is returned to Israel!

Doesn't this just sound like what we do these days at church? We take the time to find God's will and ways, and work to make sure we do them. But once they become routine we forget God and keep doing churchy stuff without ever consulting God or really putting Him in the picture. We sell out, even, by completely dishonoring God - and without ever realizing it too. God is on the shelf even in the middle of all that we're doing to "abide by His ways." When we know what's right in God's eyes, we do it but we use our own "common sense" to execute God's will. We haven't really taken the time to know God or hear from him in months or even years and yet we assume our "common sense" will get the job done right. Then when we fail, we get sooo confused and question everything. We question ourselves. We question God. We question life. But even in all this, we never take the time out to really hear God or know Him.

And this is where I think we find ourselves at large today.

Enough relying on our religious routines! Enough churchiness! It's time we "know Him" again and bring His Glory back into our churches!!

*This was brought to light by Louie Giglio's sermon at Passion City Church's 2nd gathering on March 22 in Atlanta, GA, where Louie Giglio talked about God's Glory.

For Doing

"A man is not saved by doing, but rather, for doing."

- Sheperd's Chapel broadcasting, 1:30pm, June 25, 2009, 57 WATC