So today I walked into the office to hear a sermon broadcasting from Charles’ computer.  Yes, Charles is a Christian and I have to admit, he’s really on fire.  He has a great heart and yearns to know more of God, and at times I feel as though God placed Charles here to bless me. 

However, the sermon being played kind of pissed me off.  (Yes, I can say that all in one sentence!)  First of all, I have to be candid in that I have NEVER liked preachers who scream at the top of their lungs.  Never.  So I already was biased against him just by hearing his yelling voice.  But moreso was his message – you really can’t know you are truly saved unless you prove it with things such as going to church, avoiding worldly things of all kinds, etc.  He went onto say that you “better be scared” because you could lose your salvation at any moment if you don’t watch out. 

I must add that, usually when Charles has these sort of preachers on, I just pray that the Holy Spirit reveal himself to both of us and that there might be a balance to His love and also to our role as ambassadors for Him to the world.  However, LOSE YOUR SALVATION?????  I cannot STAND this sort of crap!  How can I have more power than Jesus Christ Himself when I had nothing to do with my salvation in the first place????

So, just hold up a second, please.  I am NOT saying we as Christians should be willy nilly and do anything because we have this “sure fire” thing called salvation.  When we accept Christ, we ARE changed and the Holy Spirit indwells us and makes us a new creation.  And we SHOULD be new, should seek to be more like Jesus everyday, and become sactified by the Holy Spirit.  But, let’s face it, we still suck apart from Christ and we are so gonna fail in many, many ways.  I tried to articulate these thoughts to Charles, but he told me that we are slaves to Christ and therefore should not sin.  I said it was impossible.  He said I might need to get right with God (not directly and not mean spirited……)

So I instead wrote this email:

I agree with the CONCEPTS of the pastor speaking today, but I think there is too much emphasis on the outward.  The Pharisees in Jesus’ days knew the law, did many of the outward things required by the law (and like us, tons of things we as humans have added to the law), yet Jesus was clear that their arrogance and sick hearts were wrong and kept them from knowing God. 

For example, his words “you are known by your fruit” and should not “be of the world”.  I have heard some claim that if I, as a woman, wear pants, I am of the world and beyond salvation.  I have heard that if I drink beer, I am of the world and cannot be a Christian.  (keep in mind, the Bible says “be ye not DRUNK”).  I have heard that, if I listen to secular music, I am not saved.  All of these are outward signs and have nothing to do with the heart or even Jesus Christ.  However, many Christians who go to church and tithe and cut their hair a certain way (aka, “like the Pharisees), treat a homeless person like crap and turn their backs on “sinners” in the world and justify those actions by saying “we are not of the world”.  But when the scriptures tell us to follow the law – which I am not even saying we shouldn’t – I believe Jesus set the heirchy for this following.  Matt 22:34-40 NIV (emphasis mine) says:

The Greatest Commandment

 ³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

 ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[b] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[c] 40}All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So, the way I see it, if we do not love our God and our neighbors, no other adherence to the law matters, as everything hangs on these two things.  And who is our neighbor?  They are the ones that society tells us to hate (Samaritans), they and the sinners (aka the adulterer who was not stoned), they are the world.  And, by Jesus’ own actions (as he did everything the Pharisees thought was “of the world”), we need to love and reach out to all people no matter what their circumstances and LOVE THEM EVEN IF THEY DO NOT ACCEPT HIM!

And again, focusing too much on the outward “fruits” (that really can be defined in world ways, don’t you think?  Going to church, looking a certain way, speaking a certain way – cliques do that too!) is dangerous.  Jesus himself shared in Luke 18:9-14:

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 ⁹To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood up and prayed about^[a] himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

 ¹³“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

 ¹⁴“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So, I am NOT saying we should not put on the garments God provided through His Son at the point of our salvation – I am not saying there should not be a change in us when we accept Him as Savior.  But I also do not want to take other scriptures that promote fear or make me feel as though I need to put on the garments of man to “prove” my salvation.  I rely on the Holy Spirit on a daily basis to fight the flesh that is still present in my life (just as Paul shared in Corinthians).  I hope and TRUST that I am being sanctified each day by the Holy Spirit and that HIS LOVE is manifested in me and that I truly follow His greatest commandments – to love Him and love others – before I get all arrogant to measure my other fruits in a greater way.  And I am will based my faith in the Bible that says I am saved because I accepted Jesus Christ, and I will not worry about “losing” my salvation or question that salvation because I may not adhere to one or another “rule”.  No matter how great I am with the “clothes” or outward signs, I am really and truly like that tax collector – I so suck and I am 100% a sinner and really, I do not deserve a damn thing.  And even if I get some sense of “godliness” with my “walk” or my “talk” or my church attendance or anything else that I can do to separate myself from the world, I still suck except for the blood of Jesus that has given me something I do not deserve.

So THAT is what I was trying to say.  And there is no scripture that says what we need to “listen to” specifically…….because just as I sent this email, the preacher dude said if you listen to secular music, you just might not be saved……and used the scripture “you called ‘Lord Lord’ but I did not know you” as proof…….sigh.

And maybe the next conversation we can have is – can a secular job be your ministry?  J

I am posting this mostly because I would love to hear your thoughts about this.  Am I wrong?  Should we focus more on things like music, clothes, church attendance, and less on loving others or maybe working on our hearts? 

And on a side note, I have words of advice for business owners.  If you do not pay withholding taxes to the IRS and State you’re located in, they can and WILL take all of your money out of your bank accounts and will not care if you just sent our payroll checks or your opinion that “you can’t stop our operations like that”.

Okay, I am at work (YES!, I add, I AM working on my day off!  Gasp!) and waiting for some info from our new San Diego restuarant and thought I’d post a blog.  My boredom is your reward!  🙂

So, a friend is having this online “debate” of sorts with someone who used to be their teacher or youth pastor or something.  The essence of his stance is that Christians cannot drink, dance, or sin – well because that would test the whole grace theory and is wrong.  And I WILL agree that we, as Christians (well, for those of my readers who ARE Christians….) should not TRY to sin just because we know we will be forgiven (or, more theologically correct would be “we know we are already forgiven”).  We should not say “well, I probably know this is wrong, but I am gonna do it anyway because I was promised salvation.”  But to say we STOPPED SINNING when we became Christians is a crock of you-know-what.

However, the context of the argument was raised because some “self professed Christians” had shared publicly that they could do things like drink beer, go to clubs to dance, and still be very spirit filled.  The pastor disagreed, saying – to paraphrase – “people who don’t even go to church have no business talking about God”.

Now, I am just a human, and as such am very flawed.  And I was not directly involved with this debate, and may now be focusing on one small point he was making and may even be taking it out of context.  But I CAN say, I have been involved with enough Christians who have held the view that, if you are a Christian, you are 1) without sin or stop sinning all together (at least, you must to REALLY be a Christian) and 2) have to spend all extra time in church or you are taking the chance of losing your salvation.

Case in point – when my friend wrote back quoting the Bible/Paul where he said he struggled everyday with sin, the pastor wrote back and said, “well, that was before he was a STRONG Christian!”  His response has NO reference in the Bible at all, but rather the dogma of his faith! And another former pastor chimed in with more verses by Paul that indicated it was an ongoing struggle….

Why am I sharing all of this now?  Well, I am personally tired of “the righteous” taking their seats of judgment and acting like they have somehow found “the way” to perfection.  Like going to church 4 days a week or women only wearing dresses or never watching movies.  I argue that some of the very people in these sort of congregations are the most unhealthy spiritual people on earth!  I mean seriously, I went to a very “righteous” church last year and someone hit my car in the parking lot and dented it badly…….and didn’t leave a note!  On one hand, I thought “well, we are all sinners, what can I expect?” but on the other I thought, “I just sat thru a sermon saying how this group of people were above the rest of the world because they followed very precise rules.”  Yet I have been hit by non-Christians who have left notes on my cars.  Hmmmmm.  Morality is not exclusively a Christian thing perhaps.

And what about the Sunday School Teacher that is accused of murdering that 9-year-old girl in Tracy, CA?  If “going to church” and “not drinking beer” means you are “righteous”, what happened here?  Or, can it be said that every beer-drinking person is horrible?  I think not.

Now, admittedly, I am judging so am no better than anyone I am ranting against.  And, as the “salt of the earth” Christian DO have standards and a challenge to be different from the world.  But, as such, I contend that more damage is done when the “zealots” of the world scream on their corners like some crazy Pharisee – not out of love, but out of pride.  Pride?  Yes, in that moment I believe this person felt we was above my friend and anyone other BROTHER OR SISTER IN CHRIST because they were “more righteous” based on OUTWARD ITEMS (going to church, abstaining from beer, etc.)  When the BIBLE tells us the heart is what is true, and what God sees.  Finally, I will say this again – I am saved thanks to no part of ME…..I am not worthy of salvation.  I suck.  But for the blood of Christ, I would be toast.  And He saved me and I am now His child.  ONLY CHRIST HAS A RIGHT TO FEEL RIGHTEOUS, AND I AM ONLY RIGHTEOUS BECAUSE OF HIS BLOOD, NOT ANYTHING I CAN “DO”.  And I argue that, if that is the case, what now can I do to cause my salvation to end?  Because, if I truly have the power to do that, I am more powerful than Christ Himself!

But I am rambling.  and I am not a theologian.  And I don’t know, I kind of wish more Christians would leave room for the Holy Spirit to do His job and stop acting like God…….or maybe rebuke out of LOVE instead of pride…….

Gina OUT

So, blame this shocking event on John Shore, who wrote this blog post. On the surface, I was interested but the comments afterward got me thinking…….and combined with my own experience, I can say that the word “tolerance” has been a four letter word in most of my Christian circles.  I have been taught by more than one Christian leader that tolerance equates to acceptance, which waters down my own faith in Christ.  For example, if I tolerated someone who holds the Jewish faith, I would validate their view of denying Christ.  Instead, I have been taught (by a few leaders) that to “prove” my faith, I need to at least attempt to share how their Jewish faith was wrong and leading them to death……in other words, NO TOLERANCE.

Now don’t get me wrong…….I hold a strong belief in Jesus Christ.  I believe the Bible.  But, I also think that there are many roads to evangelizing.  And I would like to point out that TOLERANCE can – and in my opinion, DOES – mean something else all together.

For me, tolerance is allowing others to believe what they want.  Tolerance is loving them (aka, your neighbor) even if they don’t deserve it.  I believe it means treating them the same as the Christian to your left.  And, once you maybe connect with them as a human being (aka, God’s creation) and perhaps SHOW them how powerful God is through your actions……like maybe “doing what Jesus would do” and all that.  THEN, perhaps, they might even CONSIDER discussing religion with you.  Because, let’s face it, if a non-Christian immediately went into a speech about how our faith was so wrong…..we would probably not be that receptive.

Or, I could be wrong.  Maybe we should be more like this post…..after all, all Muslims are terrorists or something……not sure what exactly he is trying to say…..but here is my paraphrase: “I have my own dictionary, I can say what words really mean, and it’s okay for us to hate others and that doesn’t mean we are like those Taliban scum with their hatred of Christians, and btw they are going to kill you.  And you should homeschool your kids.”

But really, and I am being sincere here – I am not being very tolerant of him now, am I?  And that is the point.  He – and everyone – have a RIGHT to think what they will.  And I need to love him even if I think he’s irrational.  I need to TOLERATE that I totally don’t agree with him, that his views are irrational, and let him live his life.  In doing so, I have NOT diminished my own beliefs, nor have I given credence to his.  Just like if I remained friends with my Jewish acquaintance and even asked about their life or discussed their theology, it wouldn’t negate my faith in Christ.  And, while I HOPE to have a deep conversation about my own relationship with Christ, it’s really the Holy Spirit that will change a person’s heart anyway.  You know?

And, really, what WOULD Jesus do?  While I do not speak for Him, I do have His Word to reference.  Actually, I am stealing this from a commenter on John’s blog:

“To say that Jesus condemned people who don’t believe in him sounds, to me, pretty presumptuous.

Most of Jesus’ condemnation in the gospels is reserved for the religious folks who think they have it all figured out.”

Now, maybe things are too complicated to really come to a specific conclusion about everything, including the whole idea of tolerance.  But I can know without a doubt that loving my neighbor – with no condition regarding their faith – is a direct quote from Christ.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” NOT “Love your neighbor if they are a Christian, and don’t irritate you or otherwise mess up the world.”

And with that, no more thinking!