Would Ya?

"If there were no heaven or hell, would you still follow Jesus? 

WARNING: This question exposes some things about our faith that can be either very troubling or hopeful.  This question is a real gut smack that draws out the core of our motives.

As you read and study the Gospels, take the time to look for what isn’t written that is often believed to be in there.  For example, regarding heaven, you will notice that Jesus NEVER uses ‘heaven’ as an evangelistic tool.  If there were such a thing as Jesus doing evangelism, the closest thing would have been when Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.”

Jesus did not promise heaven, forgiveness of sins or material blessings in order to get people to follow Him.  He tried to get people to follow him by calling them to completely changing their life and join the kingdom of God; a different way of seeing and living life.

I heard a sermon once titled “The Benefits of Being a Christian.” If you have been in the church scene long, you have probably heard something like it yourself.  It was basically a sales pitch for being a Christian.  The problem with this sales pitch is it had nothing to do with denying one’s self, carrying a cross, persecution, leaving family or any similar promises that Jesus actually gives to his followers. (Luke 9:22-26)

It’s like we use heaven like a sexy dangling carrot that leads the Christian forward through life.  In one sense, we use it to tempt Christians to keep going.  We say, “Press on and one day when you get to heaven, it’ll all be worth it.”  This would be great if the Bible actually taught this.

Another reason this question is important is because Jesus is never found using it as a motivation for faith.  It is something he promises as a gift, an extra bonus, sort of in secret to his disciples.  It isn’t a reality he proclaims to the public.  It’s his little secret that he only shares with those already following him.  Sort of like He was whispering, “Oh.  By the way...”

Why is this question so important?  Let’s begin with a relationship since that is what this is all about anyway.  For example, if I were to only want a relationship with you or anyone else based solely upon what I can get from you, then I am merely using you.  In a marriage we might call it abusive. This using is not love.  Love seeks to give without asking anything in return.

The quandary of Christianity in America is that there are many who claim to be Christians, who say they “love God” because they want to get to heaven, get blessed and get forgiven.  This is not love.  When someone does this in a human relationship we say they are “using” the other person.  That is not loving God… that is using God.

Loving God is listening to and following his example in Jesus simply because he is God.  And when we do that is when we view heaven, and any other benefit of Christianity, as it truly is… a gift.  It is no longer something we feel we have “earned” or “deserved” or “got into it for.”  It becomes a gift from our beloved… as it was intended to be.

Part of the problem in American evangelicalism is that heaven and hell are only spoken of in terms of distant after life places and not as Jesus spoke of primarily as current conditions.  When Jesus taught us to pray, (Luke 11:2-4) he wasn’t teaching a method to be memorized, instead in the prayer he taught us how to relate to God, as Father, AND that it should be our desire to see heaven happen here on earth. 

So some of our problem with heaven involves a clearer understanding of when and where heaven happens.  The sad truth is, heaven may only be a future reality for some people their whole life.  Maybe this is saying something about, “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)  This statement is present tense, not future.

So, do you love and follow God because he is a god of mercy, love, peace and justice, or to squeak through the pearly gates. Unfortunately, if it is the second I wonder if it is what God would consider the faith he desires.  I wonder if it is what Jesus would consider following him.  I wonder if it is love for God, or love for our self.  In the words of Bob Marley, “Could this be love?”

Just a look back into the first two chapters of the Bible we find a beautiful poem that describes how humans were intended to live.  We were created to live in harmony with God, each other, ourselves and the planet or garden.  It is worth everything to live as we were created.  To live otherwise is to live an illusion.  An illusion that leads us to live as somebody we aren’t.  This same illusion teaches that your ultimate reality is somewhere besides here and now.  The illusion that says we have nothing to do with the conditions others live in. 

This topic obviously leads to more questions and ideas, of which we can discuss later.  Heaven or Hell, Jesus is still Savior and King of all.  May every moment of life, lead you to a more loving relationship with the Father who radically loves you.  He desires things for you, not just from you.  What is your desire of God... for or from?

a church or THE CHURCH

Even though we as pastors say "It isn't about numbers.", it really is about numbers.  If you have a vision like ours that we believe was given to us by God, to lead other people to a connection with Jesus Christ, then it is about numbers of people making that connection and us allowing God to speak through us in such moments.  At the core of who Christ is shaping us into are people concerned about the eternal outcome of others.  We do not want anyone to perish.  Why?  2 Peter 3:9 says, "it is not God's desire that anybody should perish."

I think the balance and the key to remember is that the numbers of which we speak of shouldn't be "member" driven.  If we are driven to UP the number of members, and then the temptation to push the gas for growth hits us, then it becomes our vision for ministry instead of God's.  Jesus is no longer savior, but a means to a worldly end.  This is why our vision directs us to care enough about other people and ourselves to not care whether someone joins our specific community, but that more importantly, that we care deeply that they become members of the same Kingdom through which Jesus is building.

So, if you are part of a church and during a time of worship you notice more empty seats than people, there is a good question to ask.  "Who have I led to Jesus Christ this week?  Is there anyone seated in the Kingdom because I shared good news with them?  Am I truly passionate for the right numbers?  Am I part of 'A' church or 'The Church'"?

Why do numbers matter a great deal to Hillside Community Church?  Acts 2:21 says, "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  We believe it to be at the very core of a follower of Christ to desire to see others meet Jesus.  Why?  Because our lives have been changed by this one we call Jesus.  This is more than attendance in a religious gathering.  In fact, we don't believe attendance makes or keeps anyone "saved".  High attendance in worship should be birthed primarily from a desire to worship God, not out of obligation to attend.  Again, a church wants your attendance to improve.  When it comes to "The Church", you can't attend something that you are.

Are you a member of a church?  or... Are you a part of "THE CHURCH"?  The latter involves life.  The first has a long history of hurting people, slavery, and even starting wars.

"Get Gracie!"

Written 3 years ago.

Abby requests, “Get Gracie!”  This is her usual response to her sister when she runs in her room uninvited.  Too many times to count, we would hear Abby down the hall voicing, “Get Gracie”.  Not an angry yell, but one that began to sound like an alarm with no emotional attachment as to whether anyone would come and hit the snooze button.  If we didn’t respond, Abby would just gently grab Gracie under her arms and walk her out of her room leaving her in the hallway while quickly shutting the door behind her.  Then a large cry would swell from Gracie who knew that once again, she was booted from big sis’s room for no apparent reason, other than she was out to oppress her.  Gracie’s tenacity and Abby’s stubbornness about Gracie’s invasions reminds me of the intro of the Flintstone’s when Fred is trying to put the cat out and eventually gets locked out of his own house.  I keep waiting for Gracie to find a way to trick Abby and lock her out of her own room.  I have a feeling it won’t be long before this naturally takes place, and then, as if the parrot had been set loose in the house, we will hear the lament of Abby, “Get Gracie”.

            These words, “Get Gracie” mean more than just Abby wanting her parents to step in and take action.  It means that Abby knows discontent.  She understands what it means to be private and to find joy in how her stuff is arranged.  She likes order enough to protect it fearlessly in the face of a 14 month old terror named Gracie – who is obviously out to take control of the world and all energy resources for her own pleasures.  Even it that means mind control or nuclear threats, Gracie will control the world.  In Gracie’s defense, she never had a chance when it came to Abby’s room.  But, in Abby’s defense, her announcement, “Get Gracie” was more like a raised voice tone like in talking, never really a yell of anger, just frustration.

I can picture Abby and Gracie ten years from now.  It’s no longer that room she protects, or the arrangement of her stuff.  Abby will be talking with a cute boy on the porch, and Gracie – by that time the ruler over all humanity through mind control – will be making faces at Abby through a window distracting her from the cute boy.  I look forward to hearing that old record play again, “Get Gracie”.  That is when Greta or I will then enter Gracie’s evil laboratory and disengage the electrodes to her evil schemes helmet.  

Give Back The Elephant

I wrote this when Abby was in 2^nd grade while living in Bowling Green, KY.  SOME TEACHERS ARE SIMPLY CALLED OF GOD.

Abby was having a break down at the school lunch table this morning while waiting for class to begin.  The teacher came over to see what was the matter.  Abby was crying hard as two little boys sat across the table from her looking suspicious.  Concerned, the teacher asked her what had happened and Abby said, “They took my elephant!”

Thinking Abby brought a toy elephant to school, the teacher told the boys to give Abby back her elephant.  The boys said they didn’t have an elephant.  While Abby cried, the teacher searched the boy’s pockets and hands for a toy elephant.

The boys argued, “We don’t have an elephant.”

Then one boy said, “It was a pretend elephant.”

The teacher turned and asked Abby, “Was it a pretend elephant?”

Sadly, Abby sobbed, “Y- Y- Yes.”

The teacher looked at the boys and ordered, “Give back the elephant.”

Quotation Smarts

"Don't feel like Satan, but, to them I am.

Keep on rockin' in the free world

Keep on rockin' in the free world"

                  -  Neil Young

"To live outside the law, you must be honest." - Bob Dylan

Back When All Was Real

At the very end of nothing, or as the ancient poets penned, “In the beginning, God created” and something real began to take shape.  For the first time, the nothingness was complete and new spirit formed the first water and landscapes.  This new beginning was spoken into existence by a God who was and is the ultimate reality.  A reality who could not help but create things out of joy and love.  He was preparing a place for His greatest creation to follow… people.  From this early reality of nothing, appeared a real God who spoke into existence something genuine.  Something real.

It was in this formative moment, which could have lasted centuries, that this real God was preparing something for something else.  It appears that this God desires to be a provider for what He creates.  As the poem goes, we, the image bearers of this creator, set foot on the untrodden ground of a garden called Eden and begin to live as God intended.  Everything was good and we, well… the creator said we were “very” good.

  The reality of heaven speaking through time and space filtering into a moment of divine “somethingness”.  Life was real. The garden… real.  God, real.  Eden was as real as heaven.  The animals, the fruit, the air, oceans, mountains and valleys… all real.  All was tangible and all was divine.  The created things could now be sensed by other created things.  With the creation came the existence of awareness, knowledge, emotion, and a sense of what is physical.

The idea of something being an illusion was not introduced until the third chapter of this great poem.  Until then, complete honesty was reality.  Nothing was hidden.  Nothing that was created was ever intended to be hidden.

Strange that the first thing to be hidden was humanity.  Illusion was introduced and put a new twist on reality.  So much of a twist that the most treasured of all creations received the most damaging of blows.  The Serpent introduced the greatest of all illusions to date.  This same illusion has helped on the one hand to pen some of the greatest love songs, on the other, it started wars.  This illusion continues to flow out from the garden and into humanity.

Now immortality wasn’t an illusion in the beginning.  You could say immortality was jusy something to be understood.  After the serpent’s lie, immortality became illusion.  Immortality was now unreachable.  What was once real had become unreal.  The serpent took what was tangible and made it illusion.  Worship of the creator was replaced with worship of the created.  God himself had become to much to be real for humanity.  For the first time, the Creator wasn’t the only one creating worlds to live in.  One of the creations created something powerful enough to entice humanity a different direction than they were intended to move.  A new invitation was in the air.  Just like the Garden peace, everyone is invited to this new world.  The serpent’s inviation is simple.  “You are invited to live in a world that doesn’t exist… as somebody you are not.

First, what about this world that doesn’t exist?  This illusion is simple.  It’s like living with blinders on.  Dishonest living.  Like geting dirty, yet never coming clean.  But more important, this illusion we are tempted should take us back to the simple truths of the Garden.  The illusion says that God is not real or tangible at all.  Swallowing this temptation is like believing that you are miserable all the days of your life while praying Jesus would come back to end it all.  This illusion teaches that heaven is some far off place, not here and now.  In other words, “Anti-Garden”.

Second, to live as somebody you are not, is pretty much self explanitory.  It is the invitation to never look at a mirror, and if you do, never look too deep.  Never examine your life.  Just do the best you can to stay out of trouble until the day you die.  It is the drive to humbly approach death safely.  The result is often very obvious in conversations.  Listen closely next time you or someone you are talking to says, “That’s just the way I am”.  Stepping fully into this invitation disables us from allowing ourselves to live as forgiven people.  Instead we feel the need for control to such an extent that we can’t receive a free gift without feeling obligated.  In other words, you cannot allow grace to rule over your life.

Finally, the devil adds a stunt best described from a line by a character (Verbal Kemp) played by Kevin Spacey, in a scene from a movie I like called Usuall Suspects, when he says, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.”  Just another example of the replacement of reality with a lie.

Now… how do we step out of the illusion, and begin the journey back to when all was real?  I believe this begins with a simple question, “Is Jesus enough?”  What Would your life look like if you had nothing to hide?  What if you could stop hidding?  What if you knew who you were in the sense the same way God knows you?  What if you were to “Lose your Illusion” and live knowing that God is the ultimate reality and that His Son Jesus was enough?

 We have a choice I believe.  Run with the illusion, which is safe and superficial, or step into living simply as honest as possible, which is chaotic and meaningful.  This life of faith is scary and exciting at the same time.  He doesn’t promise an easy journey, just a perect destination.  Like the Beaver speaking of Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, “Is he safe. Oh no, Aslan’s not safe, but he is good.”