Bold As Love (Just Ask the Axis)

So there's this gas station a few miles from my house, out in Fairview, on Highway 100. It's just a little country store gas station, one of the few that's open 24 hours in this neck of the woods, and it's got a sign out front that normally displays people's birthdays or anniversaries, or some prayer request for a family touched by grief, or some other little personal message. The last time I drove by, it was showing one of those personal messages, and here's the message:

ID LOVE 2

GO WITH

U

SASHA

Now, I don't have any idea who put this up, what he'd love to go to with Sasha, or who Sasha is, but I sure hope she liked it. I hope she melted into a puddle of goo. I hope she had to park on the side of the road, take a picture, upload it to Facebook, and then wipe the tears from her eyes while calling her best friend just to say "Oh, he's just so sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!"

But I'll admit it: even though I'm a die-hard romantic, I can understand that it might not have gone quite the way I hope it did - or quite the way the guy who put it up had hoped it would!

It's entirely possible that Sasha saw this guy's bold declaration and was embarrassed by it. Maybe she was embarrassed that the whole town of Fairview saw it. Maybe she was embarrassed by the fact that it was on the sign at the gas station. Or maybe this guy who put up the sign is just completely nuts and she was embarrassed by having this weirdo publicly longing for her.

But in either case... Good for him. Good for that guy having the guts to put something like that out there in public for everyone to see. It thrills me - as a romantic and as a Christian - to see that there's still at least one dude out there who's not afraid to show love in a public way - boldly, even.

Love is tricky stuff. For those of you who know me, whether it's personally or just through this blog, you'll recall that I'm not exactly lucky when it comes to romantic love. (I'll fully grant the possibility that I'm not "lucky" in romantic love for the same reason I'm not "lucky" in Calculus - I could very simply just have no idea what I'm doing.)

But despite my failures and/or shortcomings as dating material, I think I'm starting to figure out some stuff about the Love that is all you need, which is - in fact - everywhere.

One of the things I've learned - I think - is that there is a certain boldness required in Love. A lot of times we see in TV shows (like House the other night) or movies where there's a guy completely lovestruck, but he's too afraid for whatever reason to confess his love for this girl who is just aching for him to say something, this girl who would love to be in love with this guy, but she won't say anything about it, either.

Now, I think it's fairly safe to say that I'm not taking any notes from TV in that area. Girls that I'm fond of tend to find it out. Sometimes it has worked for me. I basically made a bet with my ex-girlfriend Michelle that us dating would be a great idea. And it was, for a few months! But other times it just winds up being the elephant in the room, you know? There's a genuine friendship connection built up, and then "Oh, hey, here's a... ummm... poem. For you. That I wrote. Because apparently I do that?" But since we're already good friends... Yeah, it's a thing. (That one doesn't have a good track record so far.)

But the point is not that I share my dating woes with you (but I do hope you're laughing at them), the point is this boldness in Love thing. It might not be the greatest approach when it comes to romance, but I believe that when we're talking about the Love we should have for everybody, there's really no other choice.

In the first few verses of John 5, Jesus heals a paralytic at the pool. One of the things that I find interesting about this healing in particular is that Jesus just up and does it. In a lot of the other specific instances we have recorded of Jesus' healing miracles, He is asked to perform the healing, usually by the sick person, but occasionally by a family member of the sick. But in John 5, Jesus just walks up, sees a man, and goes out of His way to heal him.

In Luke 13, we see another instance of Jesus healing without being asked. This time, it's the story of the woman who was bent over and couldn't stand up straight - Jesus saw her, called her over to Him, and healed her.

So Love, right? Love means you go out of your way to make someone's life better. Love means you don't always have to wait until people ask - when you see something that you can do, you do it.

But even then, there's another miracle of Jesus that I really like. In Mark 10, Jesus and the disciples were leaving Jericho, and they come across a blind man named Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, and when Jesus talks to Bartimaeus, the first thing He says to him - and this is in verse 51 - is "What do you want Me to do for you?"

This is the first time Jesus ever met Bartimaeus, and the first thing Jesus asks is how He can serve Bartimaeus - how He can show His Love.

So Jesus sets a pretty solid example for how we ought to Love people, especially when gifted with the miraculous powers of healing. Snag is, I don't have that one.

But thankfully, the book of Acts is absolutely stuffed with examples of the apostles and early church showing Love through their actions, boldly preaching Christ, and serving one another in Love.

But it seems to me that we've lost sight of something in the years since. It seems that we've lost some of the edge, some of the boldness that Jesus and the early church displayed.

Love is not self-seeking, according to I Corinthians 13:5. But I look around - and look at myself - and see a Love that is hindered, a Love that seems to be sleeping, and that's not OK.

We've let the world talk us into shutting up. We've let the world talk us into calming down. We've let our own fear of looking weird or being mocked or persecuted push us back into our own little comfort zones where we don't step out and really confront people with the Love that we have been shown from God.

I know that I'm guilty of it, at least. I know that I am paralyzed by my own fear when it comes to showing Love for others. I'm weird enough as it is, there's no reason to go throwing fuel on the fire. I can't just go out of my way to be kind to strangers, can I? I can't make it a point in my life to improve the lives of those around me with every move I make, can I? I can't unashamedly speak the truth with every word, can I?

How would the world react to that?

Oh, yeah, that's right - they'd crucify me.

And I think that's part of why we've lost our edge on Love. I think that's part of why we're not being as bold as we should be. I think we've seen the world crucify one too many.

I think we've seen fellow Christians crucify one too many.

I think we've let sin and complacency and the love for "religion" rule our lives instead of the genuine Love for God, Love from God, and Love for His world. And I don't mean that to say that every one of you, any one of you, or really even myself, is guilty of some heinous sin where we've ignored God's commands to show Love. I think we're just holding back.

And I'd like to see that come to an end.

I'd like to see the body of Christ, His church, His people, His children, rise up in unity and in strength and say, "Hey! I'm gonna Love you, no matter what!"

And I'd like us to keep doing that even after the first shots are fired.

Because if there's any one thing that I've learned, it's that Love can be a tricky thing.

And sometimes even when you're showing Love to someone, they don't want it. Sometimes they can't see it as Love. Sometimes they do see it as Love, but still don't want any part of it, because Love is contagious, and Love means putting others before yourself. Love means sacrifice. Love means doing the hard things to help someone, even if they don't want it.

How do we show Love to someone who's crippled by a heroin addiction? How do we show that person Love when the very thing they want the most in this world - the thing that they in fact physiologically need - is also the very thing killing them?

How do we show Love to someone in an unhealthy relationship? How do we show them Love when their current idea of love is filled with manipulation and fear, jealousy and insecurity, or lies and pain?

How do we show Love to someone who is blatantly, knowingly defying the word of God in the pursuit of their happiness? How do we show them Love when their idea of love is one that allows complete moral freedom without any reproach? How many times have you heard this? "If God/Jesus/you really loved me, He/you would let me do what I want, because it makes me happy. That's what love means - making other people happy."

Say it with me everybody! No. That's not what Love means. Letting others do what they want isn't Love, it's apathy. Love means helping others be their best. Love means showing others how to care for themselves as well as those around them. Love means all of us working to make everyone's life better today than it was yesterday, and then making sure that tomorrow is even better than today.

And sometimes that Love means telling people things they don't want to hear.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"

"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

Jesus looked at him and Loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

- Mark 10:17-22, emphasis added

What happened there? This young man, obviously enthusiastic about meeting Jesus, obviously enthusiastic about seeking holiness, obviously enthusiastic about knowing the heart of God... This young man comes up to Jesus and says "I want to do it right." Jesus checks him and finds him to be a righteous young man - except for one thing. And then, in the perfect Love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He tells the young man the last thing he wanted to hear. Jesus - in perfect Love - wrecked this guy's world. Jesus - the embodiment of Love - said something that made this guy sad! Jesus - who Loved us enough to die for us, even while we were still sinners! - showed this man Love, and in Love, told him the truth, even though the truth hurt.

So I don't know about you, but I've got some adjusting to do. I've got some learning to do. I've got to figure out how to Love people better. I've got to figure out how to get up the guts to tell people what they need to hear - in grace, truth, and Love - instead of just letting them live their lives in sin, deception, and pain.

I've got to move past my fear of the world and embrace the spirit of courage that I have been given through the power of Christ's redemption into the Love of the Father.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of Love and of self-discipline.

- II Timothy 1:7

Love others. Love all others. Love your family, Love your friends, Love your church, Love your co-workers, Love your enemies, Love everyone you come in contact with. Love them whether they're ready for it or not. Love them whether they LIKE it or not! Love every single person you come across in this world with the Love that has been shown to you, the Love that laid down His life for us, the Love that bled for us, the Love:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made Himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled Himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

- Philippians 2:6-11

God Loves you. YOU. You reading this right now. You, personally. YOU are His special child. YOU are His, forever. YOU have been bought for a high price. God loves YOU enough that He took on flesh and died for YOU.

And to the best of my limited abilities, I Love you, too. Yes, again - YOU. I Love YOU. Which is why I'm telling you to go out and Love others. Love them like you mean it. Love them like your very soul depends on it - because it does! Love them the way that you have been shown, with the Father's Love, through the Love of the Son, in the Holy Spirit of Love.

Next week, I'll be writing about how Love can save you. So look forward to that. (Also, I wanted to throw in one more tune.)

How Do You Not Get This?

You can ask anybody who really hung out with me when I had my (completely awesome) apartment back in Searcy... Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii was a thing. I would say that it's entirely probable that there were stretches in that year where the boys and I watched Pompeii at least once a week. And it wasn't just so much that we were all so eager to experience it again (even though there were definitely never complaints from any of us), it was just that every time we turned around and realized that another of our friends had never had Live at Pompeii happen to them yet... Well... We just had to fix that mess, immediately!

Apparently Live at Pompeii struck my friend Lane's resonant tone. He just DUG IT. Got big into the Pink Floyd. Actually had Pompeii on his iPod when he went to Europe over the summer and got to listen to the whole thing in the same ancient Roman amphitheatre where the show was recorded, in Pompeii. I envy him on so many levels for that.

I have been known to say that I would break up with a girl for the Beatles, and this is an entirely accurate statement. It's not so much that the Beatles have to be her favorite band or anything - they're not my favorite band. It's just that there are some ground rules for what constitutes "good music" as far as I'm concerned, and if a girl can't at least get on board with Revolver or Abbey Road, then we just ain't gonna have a whole lot of common ground to work with as far as music goes, and - call me a jerk if you must - I'm just passionate enough about tunes that I can't have a woman that doesn't get "She Said She Said" and really expect her to get me. It is just a thing that is.

Back in August I gave my friend Rebecca a copy of Revolver, which was her first exposure to the Fab Four... She is now a bigger Beatles fan than I am.

The other night my buddy Will and I met up for a few oat sodas and barley pops. Right about the time we were letting "Albatross" by the original Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac do all of its good stuff to our ears, I looked over at him and said, "Man... I just don't get how Rory Gallagher doesn't completely blow your mind. I know you like Peter Green, I know you like Jimmy Page, I know you like Eric Clapton... How does Rory not grab you?"

He looked at me for a second with a puzzled expression and said that he honestly couldn't recall ever having been exposed to Rory Gallagher. Now... that just ain't so. I know I'd played Rory for him - I've played Rory for everybody who'll let me. When I first heard Rory Gallagher about two years ago, I completely lost my mind. But when I first played Rory for Will, he just wasn't impressed. It didn't grab him, and I could not possibly wrap my mind around that.

But he said that he was willing to listen to it again. So once we hit the road, I fired up Rory Gallagher on the ol' iPod and cranked it up good and loud.

This time, Will got it.

After we'd parted ways, I got a text message from him which read, "I apologize for ever claiming that this is anything but epic."

He got Rory Gallagher.

All I did was turn it on for him.

Rebecca got the Beatles.

All I did was turn it on for her.

Lane got Pink Floyd.

All I did was turn it on for him.

Now why in the world can I not do the same thing for my God and Savior?

I fully realize that there's a bit of difference between introducing someone to a band or an album and introducing someone to Christianity. It takes an hour to watch Live at Pompeii, thirty-five minutes to listen to Revolver, and somewhere in the neighborhood of ten seconds for Rory Gallagher to completely wreck your mind.

But how long does it take to show someone the picture of Christ in my life? At what point in my friendships do I say, "Hey, wait, you're telling me you're not a Christian? Dude! You have no idea what you're missing! We gotta fix that RIGHT NOW!"

I can't help but think back to what I talked about last week with the guy driving by and verbally assaulting me and the guys with the Gospel... I really don't think that approach works, and I would be surprised to learn if it has ever actually worked on anybody.

Even Jack Chick tracts at least make an attempt to convince audiences of their sin and its consequences, and Jack Chick tracts are unbelievably horrid.

I've had evangelism sitting on the back burner of my mind for a while now, and with all the other stuff that's been thrown in over the past few weeks, it's finally all boiling over.

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me.

"Now My heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name!"

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to Him.

Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not Mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."

- John 12:20-32

There is a school of thought among smaller, more conservative churches - especially within the church of Christ (not like I know much about how other churches operate anyway) - that basically goes like this... A member from congregation "A" will state that if congregation B has more than X members (where X equals congregation "A" plus 15), then obviously congregation "B" is diluting the truth of the Gospel. There's no way the Gospel can possibly be presented in its full form and actually attract hordes of people. After all...

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

- Matthew 7:13-14

So - obviously - if there's "many" people at a church, then they're on the broad road to the wide gate of destruction, and the sign of a good church is that "few" people are there, since it's the narrow road and small gate.

I really hope you've never personally encountered this, but I assure you, it's real. And the saddest thing about it is that there's this underlying mentality that focuses not on the amount of people we could be bringing into the church and introducing to God and His awesome love, but instead, on keeping all the other people out, never opening up arms and hearts and homes and kitchens and minds and conversations to show people "Hey! This is what it looks like! This is what Jesus was talking about! This is how this is supposed to work!"

And the thing is... I really think that once everybody starts showing that...

Oh, man...

Then we'd just be irresistible.

Jesus said it - "...when I am lifted up from the earth [I] will draw all men to Myself."

So... Are we gonna take Jesus at His word here or what?

In the current socio-politically correct pluralistic world climate where there are no absolutes when it comes to philosophy, morality, or theology, it's kind of an unpopular position to say this, but yes, I do believe Christianity is better than every other religion on the planet.

I don't just believe it's better for me... I believe it's better than any other option out there.

And - through that - I also believe that if we were to actually show the world what Christ's message really meant, if we can get over ourselves and really love each other and love our neighbor and love God and feed the hungry and clothe the naked and care for the sick and visit the lonely and the prisoners and look after the widows and the orphans and keep ourselves from being polluted by the world...

I really think that when that happens... The whole world will get it.

I think that too often our approach to evangelism is simply to talk to people - or even shout at them - about Jesus instead of just showing them who He is by showing them who He's made us.

I can talk to you about how awesome Live at Pompeii is for longer than it takes to actually sit down and watch the thing. I can show you, literally, entire books worth of material talking about how incredible Revolver is and the impact it has had on music. I can tell you stories about the reactions I've gotten from every person I've sat down and shared Rory Gallagher with.

Or I could just sit down with you and watch Live at Pompeii. I could just play Revolver for you. I could just let you actually hear Rory Gallagher.

See, the thing is... I'm not gonna be able to represent any of those three better than they already represent themselves. It doesn't matter how much I tell you how awesome it is until you actually experience how awesome it is on your own.

So what I am attempting to do when it comes to giving you the blessing of awesome music is to just shut up, push play, and let the music do everything for me. There is nothing I can do to make what comes out of the speakers any better than it already is.

And that's how I think it's gotta be with Christ. I can't make Christ any better. I can't show you anything about Jesus that He didn't already put out as complete perfection. I can tell you about Jesus all I want, but it really doesn't matter until I show it.

Turn to Me and be saved,

all you ends of the earth;

for I am God, and there is no other.

By Myself I have sworn,

My mouth has uttered in all integrity

a word that will not be revoked:

Before Me every knee will bow;

by Me every tongue will swear.

They will say of Me, 'In the LORD alone

are righteousness and strength.' "

All who have raged against Him

will come to Him and be put to shame.

- Isaiah 45:22-24

It seems to me that there is an inevitability to the recognition of God by everyone in the history of ever. I will just go ahead and say right now that I don't understand a whole lot of the Revelation to John, but it really doesn't leave a lot of room - in my understanding - for atheism or anything else other than the absolute recognition of God and His Son.

So here's the way I see it....

Everybody's eventually going to recognize that God is real anyway. That's just gonna happen. I hold the belief that once someone experiences God, sees God, knows God... well, that's it. It's not like you've got any options after that. You can listen to Revolver and still like Abbey Road more. I don't personally understand it, but hey, it's not like I can say I don't completely love Abbey Road a whole lot anyway. But once you know God... I don't see how someone walks away from that! It's GOD! He IS Absolute Truth! He is Absolute everything! Everything that is is because He is! There aren't options! His business cards read "I AM" for a reason!

And so, we chosen, down here on the ground, are meant to serve as guideposts - no, as lights! Lamps on the tables, cities on the hills... We're meant to shine a light that shows everyone the Truth. We're meant to shine our light - which comes from God - straight back to God to show the entire world how He meant for this to all work out, how He had this planned from the beginning.

There are some folks who aren't gonna get it.

There are some folks - close friends of mine - who weren't impressed by Live at Pompeii. I still love them, but... Man... I just don't get it.

There are folks - not as many of them on the "close friend" side here - who don't dig the Beatles, whether it's Revolver or Abbey Road or anything else. I just don't get it.

There are folks out there who don't dig Rory Gallagher. I don't know that I've actually met any of them, but I'm kinda forced to assume that to be true because there are way too many people on the planet who've never heard OF Rory Gallagher, much less ever actually heard his music. I still just don't get it.

There are some folks out there who - for one reason or another - don't get God. They don't get what this is about. I think that, in most cases, the only reason people don't understand it is because they haven't actually seen it.

Yeah, they may know Christians... But they haven't known Christ's universal love.

Yeah, they may have been told the Gospel... But they haven't been shown the effect the Gospel has on someone's life.

And what's worse is that there are folks out there who - for one reason or another - almost got it, but then lost it, or walked away, or gave up, or moved on... And I still think that the only reason that ever happens is because they still haven't actually seen it.

Yeah, their parents may have taken them to church when they were kids... But I don't think they ever really experienced a connection with the Father that changed their life.

Yeah, they may have studied the Bible, may have read it all the way through, may know every word it says... But I don't think they've ever actually heard God speak to them in a way that redefined who they are.

God still works wonders in this world today without our help. He does not need us for anything. He can accomplish everything on His own just fine.

But since we're already here...

What if we started showing people what God is really all about? What if we really lived out the life Jesus prescribed for us, the way He meant it to be, not filtered through some political label or national identity or social status?

What if we completely died to ourselves and took on the very identity of Christ in this earth and spread a message of love and peace and holiness and patience and understanding and kindness and gentleness and joy and self-control and faithfulness and mercy and truth and everything else that God calls us to be?

What if I did that?

Would the people around me get it? Would it finally hit them? Would they finally see it? Would they finally go, "Oh, man! Aaron! You weren't kidding! This is awesome!" and let God change their lives the way He's changing mine?

I guess there's only one way to find out.

So What's the Point of All This, Anyway?

When I posted a copy of the "Freethinking In Christ" post to Facebook, the comments got really in-depth really quick. I'll let you read it for yourself if you want, but just be warned - it gets WORDY.

But in the midst of all the chaos, my dear friend Peggy made a point that I really latched on to, and it's actually the whole point I want to make with this post. This is just an excerpt, but here's what she said:

...religion could be the earthly method that tries to train men into beings who can discern the truth of God's reality even in the middle of a world like ours...

So... uhh... Yeah.

Wow.

That is a particularly humbling statement for me, especially in light of the last few posts I've put up. I don't consider myself to be any great scholar or anything like that, but I definitely do put a lot of emphasis on theology and understanding scripture, understanding the Spirit, understanding God. And there's nothing wrong with a desire for understanding those things, so long as that understanding leads to a transformation of my life.

Too often I see people who get caught up in the minutiae of doctrinal issues, who take hard-line legalistic stances on things that Jesus obviously doesn't take the same stance on, who put so much focus on making sure they look like they're doing the right Christian thing.

Too often I meet people who are mired in tradition, who believe that their church is the church and there's no other way anyone could ever possibly please God, who believe that asking questions about the nature of our faith and our God is the most heinous, offensive, earth-shattering blasphemous act one can perform, when the Bible itself is chock full of great heroes of faith who question God, who aren't sure if God knows what He's doing, even in the midst of miracles being performed right in front of their very eyes - miracles that they themselves were taking part in!

Too often I have discussions with people who are too focused on the right thing in the wrong way. They're too focused on what the Bible says instead of what the Bible means. They're too focused on getting people to church instead of getting people to God. They're too focused on Christianity instead of focused on Christ.

By the way - all of those people? They're all named Aaron J. Rushton. I'm the guiltiest one in the world of all of everything I just listed. I get trapped in myself and my way of doing things. I question someone else's motives if they don't act exactly like me. I obsess over details of interpretation that really aren't even close to being "salvation issues," I get trapped up in thinking that I'm a terrible Christian for ever doubting or questioning God, and I spend a whole lot of time focused on making sure I'm checking off my list of "How to Be a Good Christian Today" instead of surrendering my will to the Father, accepting the presence of His Spirit, and simply living my life in singular dedication to loving God and loving others.

Which brings us back to what Peggy said:

...religion could be the earthly method that tries to train men into beings who can discern the truth of God's reality even in the middle of a world like ours...

What's the point of being a Christian? What's the motivation behind the message? Why bother in the first place?

Sometimes people emphasize the danger of an eternity in Hell as a motivator for taking up the Christian lifestyle. But that's like teaching a little kid not to start fights just because he's liable to get beat up.

Sometimes people turn to the message of Heaven, an eternal reward for a life of sacrifice and piety. But that's like teaching a little kid to be nice to his sister because he's going to get ice cream if he does.

There's not really anything wrong with either of those... But I don't think they're really good enough.

If the only reason a kid has for not starting a fight is so he can avoid pain, he isn't understanding that there's a better way of life: being a positive influence on the people you find surrounding you, showing patience, kindness, gentleness, understanding and love to everyone you come across.

If the only reason a kid is nice to his sister is so he can get the ice cream, he's not going to learn that good, long-lasting, honest relationships with other people are built on a genuine connection, a genuine desire to do the best possible and be the best possible for the other person's sake, sacrificing the desires of the self in the interest of others.

Don't get me wrong - Hell is real, and it is bad, and I don't want to go. Heaven is also real, and it is good, and I would very much rather be there than here.

But focusing solely on the reward or the punishment isn't going to inspire the change in the world that I believe God wants to see.

So what is the proper motivation? What will inspire that change in the world?

I believe that the ultimate goal of life, the ultimate goal of God's plan for humanity, the ultimate goal of the teachings and the sacrifice of Christ, is that we learn to be good.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

- Matthew 22:34-40

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

- I John 4:7:21

The whole point of Christianity - as I see it - is not to eventually experience Heaven, or to eventually be wrapped up in the presence of God, or to eventually do anything. The point is to do something NOW. It's got to matter right here. It's got to change who you are now in order to affect where you go later.

The whole point is to reshape the entire world, one person at a time, to bring all of humanity into a perfect union with God, and therefore also with itself.

All the theology in the world is completely useless if it doesn't actually change lives or bring people closer to God. In the passage from Matthew I just quoted, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Too many people focus so strongly one one aspect of those three that the other two are completely ignored. All heart with no soul or mind leads to an empty, superficial show of love for others without a genuine connection. All soul with no heart or mind gives us a vibrant worship experience that doesn't actually relate to anybody on a communal level. All mind but no heart or soul produces an environment where people become proud of their own righteousness, and especially proud of their own "understanding" of the Bible in a textual sense, able to quote passages at great length, but completely ignoring the message contained within. Straining out gnats but swallowing camels.

That last one - all mind, no heart or soul - is the trap I most often fall into. I want my "great theological understanding" to be enough of a devotion to God that I don't actually have to reach out to people or allow an emotional investment in worship, because hey, I'm a big tough guy and I'm not supposed to ever get all emotional. It is a constant battle for me to actually let down my defenses and be genuine with people. And, for the moment at least, it is a battle I lose far more often than I win.

(Please assume the " " around "great theological understanding" to be sarcastic finger-quotes, because I don't actually think for a moment, even on my most arrogant days, that I've really got ANYTHING figured out...)

I Peter opens up with an exhortation to the Christians reading it that our salvation has been in the works since the time of the prophets. God's plan for Christ on earth has been in motion since the beginning of time. But to what end?

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

- I Peter 1:13-16

In all of it - in all of the redemption from our sins, in all of our reconciliation to God, in all of our love for Him and for each other, it all serves to bring us to one purpose, and that purpose is a life of holiness - and holiness is defined as the pinnacle of moral behavior. God has set up Christianity as a way for us to understand Him, know Him, and love Him, so that - through that understanding, knowledge and love - we would understand how to behave.

So... uhhh...

Be good.

Seeing the Love of the New Testament In the Wrath of the Old Testament, Part II

Last time:

• There was a big unresolved nuclear warfare introduction.
• The universe itself was created with morality in mind.
• Morality and mortality are inextricably linked.
• Abraham was called by God to be different - signified by a physical marker.
• Moses and the 12 Tribes of Israel were called by God to be different - signified by a legal marker.
• The law serves as the foundation of God's standards for morality, anchored to three different reasons for obedience:

1. Material prosperity
2. Because God said so
3. Pursuit of Holiness

And now... a segue!

When God set up the Law, He filled it with some pretty strict punishments. Ostracism from the people of Israel, death by stoning, banishment from the presence of God in the tabernacle or, later, the temple... Pretty harsh stuff.

In today's laissez-faire society, insistent that morality is merely subjective and personal, it's hard to see how commandments to stone blasphemers or to deny someone's sacrifice and cut them off from the people of Israel for eating their leftovers on the third day make any sense. What we forget, though, is that the Law was not born in a vacuum. Israel was surrounded by other cultures who held worship practices that were similar in many ways. Israel was not the only culture to practice circumcision. Israel was not the only culture to sacrifice the firstborn of their flocks. Israel was not the only culture that viewed certain animals as clean and others as unclean.

I have heard people say before that all of the dietary restrictions are there for health reasons. For instance, God did not allow the Israelites to eat pork because Bronze Age understanding in the Near East had not yet developed to a point that pork was cooked throughly enough to avoid the dangers of trichinosis. That's a cute theory and everything, but it's also completely wrong. For starters, Isaiah 65:4 mentions people "who eat the flesh of pigs." Obviously somebody in that time period had figured out how to make pork chops without getting sick. It's really not that hard to figure out. Besides the Biblical evidence, there is plenty of archaeological evidence of pig bones in the areas surrounding Israel. Bacon is not a new thing.

Now I will admit that God probably was putting up a few health codes for His people with some of the Law (take a look at Leviticus 14:33ff), and it's perfectly OK to recognize that God created the Law with at least some practical down-here-on-the-ground purposes in mind. But there are some things - a whole lot of things - in the Law that just don't make ANY sense unless we understand that it is God's Law, and that God's Law is meant to set Israel apart from the cultures around her. (While you're in Leviticus 14, read verses 1-7. Go ahead, tell me the medicinal value in that one. I dare you.)

The Law, for whatever practical purposes it may have served, had one primary purpose: to make the people of Israel different from the cultures around them. These differences served one purpose - making Israel holy.

It's not that wearing clothes made of two materials is an especially profane act, or that any one material is more holy than another; it is the attention to detail, the observance of regulation in every aspect of daily life, that serves as a step-ladder to holiness.

And here's how that works.

The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul.

The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,

making wise the simple.

The precepts of the LORD are right,

giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the LORD are radiant,

giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is pure,

enduring forever.

The ordinances of the LORD are sure

and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold,

than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey,

than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward.

- Psalm 19:7-11

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

bind them around your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart.

Then you will win favor and a good name

in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

fear the LORD and shun evil.

- Proverbs 3:3-7

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

- Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Even from the very beginnings of the Law, when Moses told the Israelites the terms of the covenant laid out between them and God, there has been an impetus towards a holistic inclusion of the Law into one's life, ingraining it into not only the soul of the personal self, but into the corporate soul of the family, the community, and the nation. God set up the Law not to keep Israel in line, but to transform them. The Law was meant to rewrite the Israelite culture, separating them from the cultures they were surrounded by, but also instilling them with a sense of what it means to live for God.

Think about it like this. In the United States, we take for granted our freedoms of speech, press, assembly, petition, and religion. If you're a native-born American, you've just lived with that understanding your whole life. You have the right to say what you want. You have the right to believe what you want. You have the right to be who you want.

But imagine the difference it must be for someone who leaves a strict totalitarian rule and comes to America. Imagine their awe at the permissiveness of our country. It is ingrained in our culture - soaked all the way through to our cores - that we have those basic freedoms, and that idea shapes how each American lives. Our laws shape the national moral fiber, one way or another. The American view of inalienable rights is passed down even to young children, establishing a framework for how we all think, and therefore how we act.

God's Law for Israel was designed to meet the same end. If Israel had stayed true to the Law and had allowed it to change their hearts, change their minds, change their lives on an intimate level, they would have found themselves living lives singularly dedicated to a pursuit of holiness, focused solely on understanding the wisdom of the Law, and applying it to every single aspect of their lives, putting God first in all things, and reaching out to those around them with every action they made.

But that didn't happen.

And when Israel messed up, God had to use pretty strong corrections - punishments, even - to remind them to get back onto the path. In the years between the Exodus and entering the Promised Land of Canaan, God uses disease, poisonous snakes, 40 years of walking around in the desert wilderness, and even mass deaths to remind His people that there are consequences for straying away from the Law.

So how is that "the love of God"? How could God send so much destruction and pain to His people if He really loved them?

Well...

My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline

and do not resent his rebuke,

because the LORD disciplines those he loves,

as a father the son he delights in.

- Proverbs 3:11-12

Didn't your parents punish you when you did something wrong?

"Oh, well, sure," you might be saying to your monitor, which is dumb because it can't hear you, and neither can I. "But the worst thing that happened to me was that I couldn't sit down for a while - they didn't KILL me."

And that's a fair objection - IF we're only focusing on the moral growth and quest for holiness of an individual. God is not focused on YOUR moral growth or MY holiness. He is focused on the holiness and morality of the entire world. Think back to Exodus 32, the story of the golden calf. God was ready to wipe out all of Israel and start His whole plan over with Moses. Moses managed to talk God out of a complete annihilation, but the Levites still killed about three thousand people (v. 25-29) and God still sent a plague on top of all that (v. 35).

So, yeah, that's a pretty strict punishment. But hey, it's a pretty big sin! Worshiping a false idol at the very base of the mountain where God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments?

The life of holiness is a war. It is a war between our own personal will and the will of God. Sometimes God has to use the nuclear option (you thought I'd forgotten all about that, didn't you?) to push us, to break us, towards a more complete and more perfect surrender. Sometimes He had to push Israel really hard.

But even in God's anger, we still see His love, at least in His restraint - God was perfectly within His rights to kill everyone at that moment and start all over - He is, after all, God, and the cost of sin, since the beginning of time, has been death. That any of us - here and now or then and there - survive our first sin is a testament to the grace of God.

It is this transformative power of the Law that sparked Jesus' ire at the Pharisees in Matthew 23.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

- Matthew 23:23-28

That whole chapter is nothing but Jesus roasting the Pharisees, the scribes, and the teachers of the Law on a spit over an open fire. Their dedication to carrying out the letter of the Law had blinded them to the transformation that the Law was designed to spark inside the souls of those who followed it. In Matthew 9, Jesus, quoting Hosea, says "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." The Law is not the ultimate will of God. The entire point of the Law was to guide people into an understanding of how to behave in a life that pursues God's righteousness.

But if the Law was God's guide for Israel to lead them to righteousness, why don't we observe it anymore? What about Jesus' words in Matthew 5:17-20?

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

- Matthew 5:17-20

The question here becomes one of discerning what Jesus meant by saying that He came to "fulfill" the Law.

Think about the sacrificial system required under the Law. Sin meant death. Sacrifice - specifically a sin offering - was the shedding of blood that satisfied the wrath of God. By blood, Israel's sins were forgiven. But these sacrifices had to be made regularly - a bull or a goat had to be sacrificed for every sin!

But in Jesus, we have a sacrifice that blows bulls and goats out of the water. God Himself came down to earth and shed His own blood to satisfy His own wrath to take away the guilt of His own creation. The law was fulfilled. The sacrifice was finally big enough to cover everything.

This is why the veil on the Holy of Holies ripped in the temple. The Law has been fulfilled in the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. By fulfilling the Law - ALL of the Law - the physical marker of circumcision was no longer a prerequisite to a relationship with God. The legal marker of the Mosaic Law was no longer the only steps that could be taken to approach God.

God used circumcision to separate His people from the world. God used the Law to tell His people how to behave in His world. God used Jesus to show us how to behave, how to escape this world, and how to focus on the next.

Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of the moral training of God for His creation, mankind. Jesus takes the Law and tells us to look at its intent. Jesus tells us that the Law was only the beginning. Living a life that abides by the rules is good. But living a life that understands the holiness at the core of the rules is better.

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

- Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus was telling people not to treat the Law as a limitation on how bad they could be, but as a guideline for how good they should be! It's not enough to JUST love your neighbor - you've got to love EVERYBODY! That's the point! That's what the whole Law is about!

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

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

- Matthew 22:34-40, emphasis added

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

- Hebrews 7:18-19

The Law would never have been able to make men perfect. The Law served a purpose in showing a standard of righteousness. But nobody could keep the Law perfectly - so it also served as a standard of sin. God's Law paved the way for the moral development of Israel, and through Israel, the moral development of the world, through its sanctification through the blood of Jesus.

So that's what I've got. That's how I see it. I believe that God loved Israel, but He had to rewire an entire culture, and that takes a lot of time. Sometimes He had to use drastic measures to get their attention, to correct their behavior, to remind them to focus on Him. Sometimes we - at least some 3,000 years removed from the events recorded - look back and want to say that God wasn't justified in His use of such extremes.

But doesn't God sometimes use drastic measures to get your attention, to correct your behavior, to remind you to focus on Him?

And don't you feel the pain when it happens?

But doesn't it lead you back to Him?

And can't you look back on it now and say, "Wow, God has brought me closer to Him through all of it"?

And since He loves you enough to do that for you, wouldn't you agree that it was worth it for Israel?

God's Role in the Story of Jephthah

Hoo-boy. Jephthah. I guess I'm doing this. Let's see what happens. It's gonna be a long one, so I hope you've got some time set aside.

Once you start getting deeper into the Bible than the typical Sunday School curriculum (complete with feltboard and fill-in-the-blank workbooks), you start to come across some stories that really don't get brought up very often from the pulpit. Some parts of the Bible just aren't used in youth group devotionals. Some Bible verses won't ever get a t-shirt, not even the really cool ones from the KJV.

Sometimes there are parts of the Bible that are brought up as accusations against the Christian faith, or against God Himself. The objection seems to be that since God allowed horrible things to happen, even within the confines of the Israelites, God's chosen people, then He's obviously no God worth following. It's an extension of the entire "problem of evil" or "the problem of pain." If God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-benevolent, how can evil or pain exist? Why isn't life just a flawless paradise already?

I'd like to take a moment here to say that I'm not really sure if I'm stating the case for objection correctly, because it's never really made sense to me. My own personal objections to God didn't have much to do with how He treated people 5,000 years ago on the opposite side of the planet. So I realize that if I'm way off base with the objection, my defense won't necessarily work.

In this post, I'm going to be talking about the story of Jephthah, found in Judges 10:6-12:7. I realize that this is not the only problem people have with the Bible. A lot of people have a hard time reconciling the Jealous "I AM" of the First Testament to the Father God of the New Testament, especially in light of the Mosaic law's tendency towards capital punishment for seemingly minor offenses, implied acceptance of slavery, and marginalization of women, as well as the brutal nature of the conquest of Canaan as recorded in Joshua and Judges.

Rest assured, I'll get to that. Just not in this post.

For now, though... Jephthah.

I'm not going to put the whole story of Jephthah here. If you'd like to read it all, go to Judges 10:6-12:7. I will post the most troublesome part, though - this is where the objection comes in for a lot of people.

And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."

"My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."

"You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

- Judges 11:30-40

That's pretty awful.

From a purely humanistic point of view - not even bringing questions of religion into play - this is pretty appalling. A very young girl - remember that in ancient cultures, marriage usually came pretty close to puberty - is sacrificed as a burnt offering, dying a horrifying death as a result of the religious folly of her father.

It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely terrible.

And yet it is in the Bible. And it would seem, after a surface reading, that God condoned the action, accepting the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter. It is this specific point - that God allowed the sacrifice to happen - that seems to be the most prominent problem presented in this story.

So how do we reconcile this event to the story of a holy and loving God? How can we possibly accept this story as the will of God?

Well... I don't actually think we can. I don't think we should.

I think there's a really important clue as to how we're supposed to take this story - as well as the rest of the book of Judges - in chapter 2. In Judges 2, Joshua has died, and the Israelites have begun their long-standing and oft-repeated cycle of abandoning their covenant with God. When Israel turns away from God, God allows Israel to be overtaken by one of the remaining Canaanite nations. After a while, Israel gets its mind right and calls out to God once again, and God sends a judge to deliver Israel. But as soon as the judge dies, Israel falls away again, and the cycle is repeated. That's what leads to God's decision at the end of the chapter, and a really important lesson about the educational philosophy of God.

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did."

- Judges 2:20-22, emphasis added

I believe that the story of Jephthah is an example of Israel failing that test.

I've mentioned before that sometimes loving parents have to deny their children something they want - or at least think they want - because the consequences, whether immediate or delayed, are detrimental to the overall health and happiness of that child more than the benefits of gratification would be a positive in that child's life. To reuse my original example: letting a child eat an entire bag of Oreos may result in temporary happiness - because, hey, Oreos are delicious - but it will also result in at least a stomachache for the night, and possibly, if the Oreo buffet continues and becomes a regular thing, cavities and Type II Diabetes.

But on the other hand, sometimes loving parents have to allow their children to make the poor choices that lead to negative consequences in hopes that the negative outcome will serve as its own deterrent punishment and will allow the children to learn from their own mistakes. And sometimes, even if their children aren't actually making the mistakes themselves, parents have to allow their children to see the consequences - gruesome as they may sometimes be - when someone else chooses poorly. (By the way - my own parents were pretty big fans of both of those ideas. Remind me to tell you the story of our cat, Oatmeal, and how I learned at three years old not to play in the road...)

That's what's going on here. God is allowing Jephthah to make a horrific mistake so Israel can learn from it. It's a hard lesson for Israel to learn, but it seems that it was a necessary one.

I want to point out a passage from Leviticus that sheds some interesting light on this event.

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.

"'No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.

"'Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.

"'Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.

"'Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.

"'Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

"'Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.

"'Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.

"'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

"'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

"'Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

"'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

"'Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.' "

- Leviticus 18, emphasis added

I used to be kinda confused by this chapter. I always thought there was just something strange about the way it flowed: "Here's a big list of all the people you can't have sex with. And while we're at it, don't sacrifice your kids. Also, here are more people you can't have sex with."

But the thing is, it really makes sense once you recognize the conditional aspects of the morality being prescribed here. God is telling Israel not only that there are certain things that they, as the chosen people of a Holy God, cannot do, but He is also laying down a conditional aspect, telling Israel that the nations who were in Canaan before their arrival had been completely depraved people, sleeping with animals, having sex with their parents or children or even grandchildren, and sacrificing their children to Molech.

So Canaan has already become a place where the sacrifice of children is acceptable. Israel, now living among these Canaanite nations, has been seduced by the false gods of the surrounding nations (quite probably because they were also seduced by the temple prostitutes of those false gods). As time goes by, as the connection to the Mosaic covenant weakens in the hearts and minds of the Israelites, they begin to absorb the theology of the Canaanites on a cultural level, which replaced the cultural understanding of God that had been established during the time under Moses and Joshua.

So let's see who's been paying attention... In Judges 10, Israel has turned away from God, and has been conquered by the Ammonites. Take a guess at who the chief god of the Ammonites was.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.

- I Kings 11:7, emphasis added

So here we see that Israel is surrounded by a culture (the Ammonites) that practices the worship of a false god (Molech) which requires the sacrifice of children (which is completely horrible, and specifically forbidden by God on pain of land-vomit). We also see that God is allowing Israel to find their own way, testing them, to see if they will "keep the way of the LORD" or not.

Jephthah's view of how God works had been distorted by the culture he lived in. Jephthah believed that God, like Molech, was bound to the invocation of a worshiper. When someone made a sacrifice to Molech - or Ba'al, or Ashteroth, or Chemosh, or any of the other gods - it was with a sort of "payment" idea in mind. "If I slaughter this calf for Ba'al, that means that Ba'al is obligated to bless me with fertile crops this coming season." God didn't - and doesn't - work like that. Sacrifices were made to God in thanks for everything He had already done - like delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, bringing in good crops, or, you know, creating the universe - as well as sacrifices made for atonement of sins and sacrifices made just in praise and worship of the one true holy God.

So what happened? Israel fell away from God, embraced the culture of idol worship they were surrounded by, which in turn distorted their view of God when they tried to return to Him. Jephthah, operating under that distorted view, sacrifices his daughter. God does not stop Him, but allows Jephthah's truly awful sin to take place.

Jephthah's sin is so heinous, so abominable, so detestable, that the writer of Judges cannot even bring himself to write down what actually happened to Jephthah's daughter. Notice that in verse 39 it simply says that "he did to her as he had vowed."

BUT! There is something VERY important to notice here! Notice the last phrase of verse 39, and then verse 40.

From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

What is this commemoration about? Is it a thankful celebration to the God who delivered Israel from her captors, taking only a young girl as His payment? Or is it a somber memorial of how far Israel had fallen away from God? Is it a ritual to help remind Israel of their own past sin? Is it a wake-up cry for the people of God to remember that not only have they been delivered from a life of slavery in Egypt, but that they have also been delivered out of a life of slavery to sin?

God called the Israelites to live as a holy and righteous people. Several times in Leviticus, God says, "I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy." Their ethical behavior, specifically prescribed by God, was to be in pursuit of the holiness of God. The sacrifice of an innocent young girl was enough of a shock to wake Israel up, shake her out of her theological confusion, and bring her back closer to God.

Did God allow the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter to happen? Well... He didn't stop it, so I guess that counts as "allowing" it, yeah... But God also allowed Eve to listen to the serpent, and Adam to listen to Eve - but they learned from it. God also allowed me to make all the many, many, many mistakes I've made in my life - but I've learned from them. So did God allow Israel - through Jephthah - to make a mistake? Yes. But they learned from that mistake.

Did God accept Jephthah's sacrifice? There's nothing in the story that suggests He did. In Judges 11:29, the "spirit of the LORD" has already come over Jephthah when he makes his foolish, rash vow. This vow, by the way, was already going to get Jephthah in trouble no matter what happened. By vowing to sacrifice "whatever," Jephthah is violating Levitical code, which specifically listed the requirements for what could and could not be sacrificed to God, as well as how the sacrifices were to be made. He's also violating the very spirit of sacrifice. God wants our sacrifice to be intentional, planned out, and deliberate... not just "Well, I'll give God whatever I've got laying around when I think of it."

We also see here the danger of allowing the mindset of the world to become intermingled with our faith. Are we as Christians today in danger of sacrificing our children as burnt offerings to God if we aren't listening to the pure truth of the Gospel? Well... Probably not.

But are we in danger of leading our children down paths that aren't where God intended for us to go? Very much so.

Joel Osteen has made a bajillion dollars telling people that a life of good Christian piety leads to worldly success. The Prayer of Jabez put forth the idea that if you just pray like a guy mentioned exactly one time ever in the entire Bible, you'll be able to have an enormous stock portfolio and 3 BMWs in the garage. And of course there is always just the idea that "God wants me to be happy!"

That's the world talking. That's not God.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

- James 1:27, emphasis added

Make sure you know what you believe. Make sure you believe what you say you believe. Make sure you live what you believe. Love God, love others, and do it in that order. Anything else just slows you down.

I would like to extend very heartfelt and sincere thanks to my dear friend Peggy Thomas for all of her help on this one. I could not have written this without her. (Well, at least not the coherent and sensible parts - I got stupid covered just fine on my own, thanks.)

Do I Surprise You?

So a few nights ago, I went out to Nashville with my buddy Will to catch the Umphrey's McGee show at War Memorial Auditorium. That it was Umphrey's McGee doesn't really have any bearing on the story, I just thought I would throw that out for those of you who actually know who Umphrey's McGee is, so you could be jealous. (As you all should.)

While we were standing in line for our tickets, we got to talking to this guy - well, OK, he got to talking to us - who really liked letting us know just how connected he was. He said he was college buddies with the guys in the opening band, and would have been on the guest list if he'd wanted to, but he felt like paying for his ticket to support his friends. He pointed out a name on one of the bronze plaques commemorating all of the soldiers from Tennessee who died in WWI, and proudly said, "Well, there it is! Cunningham!" (or whatever his last name was, I forget), as though Will and I should have already known who this guy was. As time went on, he kept name-dropping all these people he'd worked with, places he'd gone, how much he paid for the rarer brands of Scotch he had in his cabinet back home...

But then he started talking about his break-up with his girlfriend. They'd broken up two months ago, and he was showing incredible maturity and restraint by not just immediately seducing any of the dozens - nay, scores! - of eager, nubile women he could have easily attained at any moment. Instead, he told us, he was taking some time off from the dating scene. After all, he knows they'll wind up back together eventually. And besides, he's still good friends with her father, since, as he pointed out to us, "he's a Christian, I'm a Christian, we're both Christian men, so there's been a reconciliation..."

Now... PLEASE don't think that I'm making any sort of judgment call on this guy. There was nothing about his behavior in the 30 minutes or so that Will and I were waiting in line with him that was characteristically un-Christian. He was kind of long winded, maybe, but hey, so was Paul. I definitely don't have any problem with Christians drinking, and there's nothing in the world wrong with a Christian being at an Umphrey's McGee show.

But at the same time, I was surprised when he just dropped that tidbit on me. It's not so much that there was anything in his behavior that made me think he wasn't a Christian, it's just that there was absolutely nothing about his behavior that made me think he was a Christian.

I really hope people aren't surprised when I tell them I'm a Christian. I really hope it makes sense. I really hope they don't even need me to tell them!

People are consistently surprised when they find out I'm an Eagle Scout. Honestly, I can see how that happens.

People are consistently surprised when they find out I'm actually a pretty good cook. This is an absolute mystery to me.

But I really hope my faith comes as no surprise to people. I am striving to present an endless, selfless, deep, genuine love to everyone I meet - a "love that surpasses knowledge."

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

- Ephesians 5:1-2

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

- II Corinthians 2:14-16

So here's how that's all coming out in my life right now.

I am becoming less and less of a jerk with each passing day, and quite frankly, it's exhilarating.

I am becoming more and more of the guy I've always wanted people to think I already was. I'm more patient, more sympathetic and empathetic, more generous, more self-controlled, more gentle... All around nicer! I'm just becoming a nicer guy! And it's fantastic!

I'm telling you all this not to boast in my own accomplishments, or in any way to glorify myself, but to sincerely give all credit and praise to God for the work He has done, is doing, and will continue to do in me.

I look at the guy I was five years ago, the guy I was three years ago, the guy I was one year ago, the guy I was yesterday, and I see so many parts of my life where God has refused to let me stay the same, even if I was perfectly content to do just that.

I've been through some pain, but that pain served to buff out my rough spots. I've been through some really high points, but those high points served to show me how well my life can work when I have love on my mind and Christ in my heart. I've been through some really hectic, frenetic, manically busy spots, but being so busy served to show me that there are some things I don't need to worry about, because God has it taken care of already. I've been through some really slow, dull, empty stretches, but those slow periods served to teach me the value of meditation and time alone with God.

So why am I telling you? What good does it do you? Well... I don't really know.

I hope my testimony can be a point of hope for you in your walk with God. Maybe you're already beyond where I am right now, or you're getting there with me, and this is simply an opportunity for you to join me in thanking God for the transformative work He does in all of us when we open up to Him. If you're not quite there yet - if you're still struggling to allow God's will to supersede your own, if you're still having a hard time hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit over your own voice - then I hope this can serve as a point of encouragement for you. I hope that you can see where God has brought me in my walk with Him, and let that show you that you can walk just as far, and even farther.

You CAN have an intimate, personal, vibrant relationship with God. Believe me. If I can do it, anybody can. If God can take me - arrogant, skeptical, impulsive, greedy, selfish, impatient, lustful and bitter as I was - and turn me into a new man - a more humble, more faithful, more self-controlled, more generous, more selfless, more patient, more pure and more joyous man - then He can certainly do it with you, or anyone else for that matter.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

- I Timothy 1:12-17

I can take no credit - and don't want to anyway - for the changes that are coming around in me. The glory belongs entirely to God, who reconciled me to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, and who guides me in His Will for me through His Holy Spirit.

I want to be Christ to the world around me. I want to show everyone I come in contact with the same love that has been shown to me. I want to build a reputation as a man singularly dedicated to the expansion of the Kingdom of God. I want to love, share, teach, preach, reach, serve, feed, clothe, visit... I want to do it all. I want to be God's conduit. I want to be unstoppable.

My friend Corwin and I have had a couple of conversations lately that have led us to an idea we're both really fond of. It's sad to say that in today's world we are not unfamiliar with religious extremists who are willing to die violent suicidal deaths, taking out groups of innocents and themselves as well in the name of their faith.

But what if we had that same zeal? What if we had that same unstoppable, fanatical faith that would lead us to sacrifice our own lives? And what if, instead of sacrificing our lives in the name of violence and terror, we sacrificed our lives in the name of love and peace? What if we decided that we weren't going to be suicide bombers, but instead, suicide lovers? What if we decided, "OK, world... You know what? I am going to love you, no matter what. I am going to show you what love really looks like, even if it kills me."

I imagine that would be something of a surprise, wouldn't it?