Last night we resumed our Comm Group study on The Person of Jesus. It was great to get back to centering our meetings around study of God’s Word, as opposed to just fellowship and outreach as we had been doing for the summer (though I did find such time quite profitable for both of the aforementioned purposes).

The main point of the study was the need to be honest before others, not wearing masks. That way your sin can be out in the open and can be addressed and confessed. Several different instances in the gospels picture Jesus praising or being extremely patient with honest responses. Even Nathaniel who said, “What good can come out of Nazareth?” elicited a praise from Jesus.

Time and time again we see the disciples messing up, but truly being honest and open with their thoughts. And so Jesus responds positively or gently. But the Pharisees continually keep their thoughts inside. And Jesus responds negatively and very sternly. He calls them hypocrites and children of the devil.

But as children of God, our sin and thoughts can’t be kept hidden. How will others correct us when we’re wrong? How will others be able to encourage or rebuke us? Yet we can be open and honest and we can be wrong. The one’s calling us to account don’t do so from a ladder or mountain top. They do so from the same level ground which we stand upon: Christ. He levels the playing field, enabling us to express what’s in our hearts.

I’m positive this will be my last “An Interesting Conversation” post. At least I think I’m positive.

There is legitimate persecution that goes on because of our faith. Randy and I just got an email from someone wishing us to pray for her nieces. They have been taken away from anything church related. Books referring to Jesus have been removed and the kids have been prohibited from even saying a blessing over a meal. That’s legitimate.

And then there’s also persecution which really has more to do with personality and methodology than it does with our faith. I’m calling that illegitimate or “bad” persecution. Not the kind we can thank God for, as the disciples once did. So here’s another Top Ten list, only I thought of more than ten. So its a Bakers Dozen. As I look back, I can see a number of mistakes I’ve made.

Top Baker’s Dozen Ways to Bring On “Bad” Persecution

13.) Always have an answer for EVERY question that people ask RIGHT AWAY. Never say “I’ll get back to you,” even when you’re not sure about something.
12.) Don’t listen to them share what they believe. If you do you might actually contextualize the gospel and show how Jesus really is the answer to their idols.
11.) Consider their objections to Christianity as simple hurdles they can overcome by just thinking harder. I mean the likelihood of Jesus fulfilling all of the prophesies is like 1/10000…. if He really wasn’t the messiah. That will get them!
10.) Make sure they believe that a Christian must vote Republican
9.) Make sure they believe that a Christian must vote Democrat
8.) Know as little as possible about current events, science, culture, etc…
7.) Don’t have them into your home, out to dinner, or any outside activity. Don’t share your life, only the message. And do not actually try to be their friend.
6.) Make sure that you share the gospel on your boss’s dime. Make them pay for it.
5.) Don’t take any interest in an anything that they take interest in. Don’t watch any movie, read any book, listen to any music that might give you better insight into what they hold most dear
4.) Make sure to be dogmatic about really “important” things like a literal 6 day creation period. You can’t budge on this one. But don’t forget End Times, or where babies go when they die-when in doubt, assume the worst.
3) Make sure to address their behavioral issues first (abortion stance, sexuality, drugs) before getting to their heart idols.
2) Isolate a passage from the Koran and act like you know a ton about Islam
1)Never confess your sin, struggles, doubts, or weaknesses to them. They can’t see you “sweat.” Make sure they realize that the gospel is for them, and not for you anymore.

This should be my final post relating to our friend the “conversationalist.” And seriously, I’m glad that we had the “conversation.”

He brought up a solid point about persecution. Persecution will exist for believers. Jesus said that folks weren’t fans of him, so folks would not be fans of his followers. Obviously some folks were fans of Jesus-they would clicked “become a fan of Jesus” links on Facebook, if they had Facebook or internet for that matter back then-and so some folks will be fans of Christians. Non-Christians can be our fans. I’ve shared the gospel with friends who are still my friends. So its not ONLY evangelism that causes persecution.

But we cannot ignore what Jesus says, though we often play the out-of-sight-out-of-mind game with scriptures we don’t like.

To say that we’ll be persecuted the same way in the U.S. as in Asia is the other side of ludicrous. People aren’t allowed to sell our kids to slavery, throw us in jail, and beat us senseless (at least this is not normal practice here). So instead of focusing on what it would look like, I’d like to reflect upon “how” we may get that point of persecution. Or rather, “how not” to get to that point.

So here is my Top Ten ways NOT to get legitimately persecuted for your faith (as opposed to methodology or personality.) BTW-These sound angry, but I’m not angry at all. Most of them I put down because I’ve experienced them personally or “a guy I know” has struggled with them.

1o.) Don’t ever point out sins in other professing Christians. Keep quiet and pretend you are just loving them.
9.) NEVER intentionally direct conversations toward anything which could eventually lead to the gospel
8.) Always stay shallow. If you only talk about Fishing and Football, you’ll be safe and never offend anyone.
7.) Be like Oprah. Agree with everyone, and don’t ask others to question “questionable” things. If you disagree or question anyone, you could be labeled “intolerant” and will not be The Nice Guy everyone likes.
6.) Don’t have any standards in who you date. As long as they have a pulse, it doesn’t matter if they are Christian or non-Christian.
5.) Blend in with unbelievers. Behave just like them. Drink as much as them, use the same language as them, have the same aspirations and life goals.
4.) Don’t love your neighbors, and for goodness sakes, don’t seek out new relationships with unbelievers. If you love folks, you might actually enter into their lives and they could reject you. On the contrary, if you isolate yourself, no one can hurt you.
3.) Just live for the American dream. Don’t care about missions or your local community.
2.) Don’t ever invite someone to church, bible study, or give them a book to discuss.
1.) This is the most important one, on which all of the aforementioned hinge. Forget the security you have in Christ. If you forget the security you have in Him alone, you’ll seek approval from others and always try to keep them happy. Impossible, but you’ll do your best to hide any truth that they will need.

I referred to a third category of thought in my last post regarding an interesting “conversation” I had with a visitor at church. And by the way, if this post makes no sense, I now officially have no excuse (Connar, my 2 month old, has slept through the night on consecutive nights for the first time in his young career).

This visiting lad spoke to me of persecution in the context of evangelism. Jesus said that we would be persecuted. So did Paul to Timothy in the third chapter of his 2nd recorded correspondence: “anyone who wishes to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

That’s a pretty darn challenging verse. If you are a true Christian (not just professing one), you want to live a godly life. And if the conditions of “A” are met, then “B” will inevitably follow.

The question is what does this look like on a daily level? In other words, how does this persecution come to us? Do we bring it on ourselves through evangelism and the persecution is their immediate response to us? Do we bring it on ourselves by living godly lives, and that inevitably offends people (i.e. not letting people cheat, confronting sin and injustice, etc…)? Or do we bring it on more through our methodology (how we share the gospel, disciple, discipline, teach, etc..) than our theology (understanding of God that we communicate with others)? And if that methodology brings about persecution, should that be subject to change?

First of all, in an attempt to make my blog entries shorter, I will just address one area of this idea of persecution and non-Christians (and unrepentant professing Christians) not liking us.

Let me give an example from my college ministry experience. Most big colleges-and UCF is a big college-have shouting evangelists in the designated “free speech” areas. They shout for people to repent. They really have no clue who they are shouting against. They have no clue of personal struggles, personal idols, or the personal beliefs that are stumbling blocks to even sitting down and talking about the gospel (and these must be addressed or people won’t listen).

And they get made fun of. That’s not being persecuted for Jesus’ sake. That’s being persecuted for not loving people where they are at. The shouting evangelist is hyperbole. You’re probably not one per se. But if we fail to listen to others (which ticks people off), and simply make them listen to us, I wonder if that’s really persecution. It’s more likely that we’re being persecuted for being a jerk and not loving others well.

So in some ways, I think we may offend people by the methodology, and not the gospel. And that’s neither the kind of persecution that is promised nor is it ‘good.’ So if its only the methodology that’s bringing persecution, that ought to be evaluated.

I had an interesting conversation (although I had to take more of a listening and defensive posture, so I say ‘conversation’ for lack of a better word) after church this Sunday. The subject matter included evangelism. I love it when someone I don’t know comes up and tries to tell me using preselected passages from the bible (ignoring one’s that I pointed out) in an geographical area he knows nothing about (you can’t go door-to-door evangelizing in this neighborhood when they won’t even come to the door for carolers!), how to do ministry. Specifically evangelism.

After I left the ‘conversation’ (it would have never ended), I had a few thoughts, some positive, some negative, and some I don’t know. I’ll pursue the latter tomorrow.

1.) Positive-I’m a crock pot evangelist (wish I could say that I coined that phrase) who believes in sharing the content of the gospel in the context of hospitality, community, community groups/bible studies, church (preached word), and one-on-one relationships. Folks like me, who focus on the context can sometimes neglect or put off sharing or discussing the content of the gospel. We may not be intentional in looking for opportunities that WILL come up in conversations. So I need to surround myself, or at least be in communication (or accosted by out of town church visitors) with folks who are ‘quicker on the draw.’ This man was and he reminded of the sense of urgency that must be considered. None of us are promised tomorrow. So I’m glad we had the ‘conversation’ even though it bothered me some. It did challenge me.

2.) Negative-If you ignore the context of relationships and mercy, I think you neglect to do evangelism the way Paul the apostle did (Paul was his example for why you need to go up to pretty much everybody you see and ask them, “If you were to die today…..”). I Thessalonians 2:8 reminds us that Paul’s missionary team shared not only the gospel of God but “our lives as well.” That spells relational ministry to me.

If one ignores the context, there is danger not only in ignoring relationships, but in ignoring real Kingdom work. For instance on Saturday, we worked from 8a-12 pm on a Habitat for Humanity house. Foundation work is a blast. But even if we are never able to share the gospel with those who eventually move into the house, we played a part in bringing the Kingdom (God’s invisible perfect will done perfectly in heaven) down to Earth. And there is a real danger in ignoring stuff like that if one thinks that saving souls is the only thing that matters ‘down here.’

I used to think changing my kid’s diaper would be like eating vegetables: a necessary evil. However, it has really become a delight. I love changing Connar’s diaper. Well, usually. Since I don’t usually do much breast feeding, this is our time to bond. This is THE time I’m guaranteed to get him to smile at me and do his baby noises. The Changing Table is one of my new favorite places.

I guess I’m learning a bit more about how God as a Father delights over His children (Zeph 3). When we sing in Sunday worship, I think its kind of like “cooing” before our heavenly Father. I think Sunday worship is like a big changing Table. Instead of the sound of one coo, there is a chorus of coos. And I know our Heavenly Father delights in the sound of His children even more than I delight in Connar’s enjoyment. Our delight in our heavenly Father brings Him the most glory.

Here’s a short video of Connar’s changing table excitement (and his mom and dad’s as well).

This is just a” follow-up post” reflecting on Marc Antony’s Soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar: “the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Providentially, yesterday, was the 25th Anniversary of George Brett’s pine tar incident. He used more pine tar than was allowed (allegedly) and his game winning walk-off homer instead became just the last out of the game. The evil Yankees won.

But George Brett is a Hall of Famer. He has over 3000 hits, which is way good, and a career batting average above 3oo. But the first thing I think of George Brett is him running crazily and angrily on the field to argue this call. In fact I just found out Amy’s Uncle Earl played ball with Brett down in Sarasota in the 70’s. Apparently he’s a heck of a fisherman and a nice guy. But when he mentioned George Brett, the first thing I brought up was the pine tar incident of 1983 (in which he is sorry for).

Oh the evil that men do does live after them. If you think of Bill Buckner (who had a great career), you think of his error that cost the Red Sox the World Series. Fortunately. If you hear the name Scott Norwood, you think of him missing the field goal that sent the Buffalo Bills to their 4th straight Superbowl loss.

If we only did this with sports figures that would be one thing. But we do this with people who have wronged us as well. I look back on my past and see myself doing this. For instance, I saw a high school classmate’s name pop up on facebook and one thing popped in my mind (that was the guy who talked his way out of his responsibility for a ticket only to convince the cop it was solely my fault-its a long story and don’t have time to tell it). That’s the only thing I remember! of him. One of my college friends showed gracious hospitality to me over the years, paying for expensive dinners (never really sure where he got the money, though), and for a long time-not any more-the only thing that I remembered was his driving past my broken down Volvo in South Carolina.

Everything in us wants to run to the one ‘evil’ that lives on in our hearts and minds. But I think the gospel enables us to remember the many good things that people do to us as well. And remember those. And again, I would hope that people don’t ignore the things I do well, and only remember my failures. So I we ought to do what we expect others to do for us, eh?

Here’s the video of George’s “evil” that has caused people to forget his great baseball achievements.

As I was studying John 11 yesterday I came upon a few verses that made me think a little more than usual.

….Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”….Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin,(1 )said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Here are a few thoughts:

1.) Thomas is known for one thing: his doubt. Yet at this point he has no problem with risking his life to stay be Jesus’ side (and encourages his boys to do the same), even though the ‘goons’ have it out for Jesus. As Shakespeare (via Marc Antony) reminds us, “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” Doubting Thomas was ready for the stones, and all we remember of him is his failure to believe. I wonder what my bad nickname I’ll have after I’m gone.

2.) It’s amazing to me that a man would find it easier to risk his life than to believe that Jesus truly did bodily rise from the grave. It took Jesus himself showing up and setting the records straight for Thomas to believe the resurrection really happened. For many people, it’s the other way around. Believing isn’t as hard; it’s the facing persecution that can become a stumbling block. Different folks have different struggles. Some struggle more with intellectual matters, some struggle more with fear. Of course the Holy Spirit is aids us in dealing with either or both. That’s our advantage.

Different folks in different contexts have different styles of worship which honor God the same. And during some worship services there will be a prelude, or an offertory, which is sung, instead of merely played. It is not for the congregation to sing, but to reflect upon. And by reflecting we participate. I personally love this time.

I don’t know exactly what part of the service this clip fits into, but it is definitely unique, biblical, and challenging. It’s a rap song. While I don’t usually dabble into the rap scene, I still think it is legitimate and God honoring. Yes, even in church. Click here to watch some rap which is couched in this theology: missions exists because worship does not, so send me. In other words, God is not worshiped by many folks, so let us reach them for His glory. Wherever they are.

I’m really not super politically minded. I understand the importance, at least somewhat (I’m referring to my understanding here) of being well versed and aware of politics. I watched an interview with McCain the other day and had some thoughts.

One of the reasons I find it hard to follow politicians is something that really isn’t their fault. At least not totally. They really have to look like they have it all together. And I get that, in part. People wouldn’t vote for them. And it seems like they really can’t admit their faults. They can’t be broken because people attack that brokenness. And if they were on one side of an issue, they really can’t re-evaluate and change later, because if they do so, they’re blamed for flip-flopping.

I’m glad I’m allowed to evaluate my philosophy and practice of ministry without being accused of flip-flopping. But if someone accused me of flip-flopping, I wouldn’t mind. I’d just say “Always Reforming (I’ll spare you the Latin).” That was the battle cry of the early protestant reformers.

Anyhow, I follow people most closely who will recognize they are broken. If they’ve never admitted their weaknesses, need for prayer, apologized, then that person will not get my ‘vote.’ Pastors need to continually be reminded not to walk the road of the unbroken politician. So do all folks who lead. From churches to families. Fortunately my senior pastor has modeled that well for me.