An Atheist's Anthem ...

 “If I only saw a sign, I would believe.”  This is a familiar chorus I have heard from nearly every non-believer I have encountered.  Sadly, it is also a familiar refrain I have heard from many Christians.  We look for the impossible to validate a faith that does not make any sense.  We ask to see the impossible for ourselves, unwilling to take the words or testimony of others on this account.  It needs to be personal.  It needs to be tangible.  Or else, how could I believe?  And in this we destroy our journey-of-faith and wish for certainty in its place.  But be honest, how could you ever be certain, of the impossible?  Even if you witness a single incident of it, will one witness be enough to believe in all the others, and for the rest of your life?  So if you must witness more than one incident, how many will be enough?  All of them?  Would it really take time travel to finally make us believe that what is recorded in scripture was real?  If you are looking here, you are cheating yourself.  There is another venue, and something a lot more personal for each of us.

To begin, certainty is not the goal.  If I asked you to trust me, how would you go about it?  You might evaluate our interactions, our history together.  You might conclude that if my behavior was always in line with your expectations, that you could extend trust to me, and then see what happens.  But therein lies the catch.  No matter how I have behaved with you in the past, no matter how consistent our history may be, each time you extend trust to me, you take a risk.  If past is prologue, then you may believe the risk to be low.  But that “belief” is still a “belief” you hold about my trustworthiness, based on a myriad of factors, but none the less a “belief” that I will not let you down.  This is how trust works. 

You may trust your mom for example, because your mom has demonstrated that she loves you.  Even if she screws up, she still loves you, though her mistake proves her human.  You may even elect to extend trust to her again after a huge mistake, because there has been only one (or few you know about), and generally she does not make them.  But even with mom (mistakes or no), every time you extend trust, you hold a “belief” that it is worth it, to trust her.  Certainty is impossible.  Because you cannot absolutely predict what anyone else (including God) may do, or why they do it.  In the end, you have ideas about it, guesses about it, even educated guesses about it.  But behavior is a tricky thing to absolutely predict, and so people surprise us sometimes (for better or for worse).  To trust anyone, is to embrace “belief”, at the exclusion of absolute certainty.

But where God is concerned, it is more blame that goes around, than trust.  That has directly to do with our picture of “who or what” God is.  The media, our parents, our church, our friends, our professors, may have all played a role in forming an image in your mind about who God is.  Suffice it to say, it boils down to one of 2 main images.  Most folks think God is a version of Santa Clause.  We go to Him to ask for stuff.  We are happy when we get it.  Mad when we don’t.  But are generally quick to ruthlessly blame God for anything bad that happens, under the logic that Santa should have been watching and been able to prevent the bad stuff before it ever happened.  After all, He has done it for others, why not me?  Way too many Christians have this exact image of God, despite all the scriptures.  Most Atheists just don’t believe in any kind of Santa Clause, or any god, but if there were a God, He would be to blame for everything.

In the Santa Clause picture of God, no trust is required.  Neither is certainty.  If you get the stuff you asked for, hallelujah.  If not, it must not be in God’s time yet.  So Santa has a slot machine sort of response to what you ask for, the odds are low, but you never know.  How could faith ever grow in you, if this is the image of God you believe in, or have the most experience with?  And believe me, Satan is WAY too happy to keep this image of God in your mind.  Perhaps enough to grant you some of those wishes himself, in order for you to never shed this image of the God you pray to.  But our real God, needs us to trust Him.  That trust is a critical component of His ability to save us – from us.  Denying yourself to let some random God you don’t really know remake who you are, is just not likely.  Better to keep the Santa image, and just hope for the best.

So God’s problem is getting you to stop thinking of Him in terms of doling out rewards and punishments, and start thinking of Him for the Being He truly is.  The other image of God (a saving God).  God wants to save you, from you.  He loves you (being the primary and singular motive of His).  God sees sin as the punishment and the addictive disease.  And He has only one way to rid you of it.  But for that to work, you have to trust Him enough to let Him do it, in spite of how it looks.  Trust, in spite of common sense.  Trust, in spite of what everyone else tells you.  Trust, that He is able to do the impossible in you, where history demonstrates, you are clearly unable to do it.  So if that is His mission, and trust is what He needs from you.  Offering you certainty does nothing to accomplish it.  If you witness a 1,000 different acts of the impossible, all you will have learned is that it is possible for God to do the impossible.  You might have already imagined that.  But you will still have no reason to let Him reconstruct who you are.  A thousand elements of certainty do not build trust, they build resentment.  Back to the Santa Clause image – now that I have seen 1,000 impossible things – I intend to open complaints about why I did not benefit from any of them.  A thousand acts of love and impossibility for others, does me not one bit of good.  So now I am mad at Santa, because there was only coal in my stocking, while my neighbor got Barbie’s playhouse.

The first problem with asking for signs, is that it does not bring trust.  The second, is that it will only make you mad they were not for you, or selfish if they were (who does not want more miracles in their own lives).  And lastly they are usually requested as a condition of belief (instead of a result of it) doing nothing to foster trust, so there will never be enough of them, to really make a believer out of you.  You will either find a way to let your skepticism reduce the impossible, to a scientifically explainable trick (or perhaps a random set of circumstances that worked out just right despite the incredible odds, like say the hypothesis of evolution) - or you will find you have an insatiable appetite for more signs, at the cost of what you profess is a belief.  In any case, the mission God has to save you, from you, by remaking you fails because He grants your wishes for signs as a condition of belief.  A change in thinking, on the other hand, will pull back the veil that has blinded your eyes to the impossible.  What you witness after a change in how you perceive life, is going to be mind blowing.  Sounds crazy right now, but that’s the point.  It is crazy.  But it is also real.  And it will be a lot more personal to you than you could possibly imagine now.

Take as a case in point the story of two types of people in the gospel of Matthew the 27^th chapter.  Picking up in verse 38 it reads … “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.”  You could argue these men might have been believers in the Jewish faith (though obviously not perfect observers of the Law).  It is not known exactly what they believed at least from Matthew’s account.  However we know from other versions of the good news, that one repented before he died, the other did not.  Dieing in the company of known criminals tends to make one look like a criminal even if this is not true.  This death will do nothing to uplift the reputation of Christ.  But Jesus does not care about His reputation.  In His trial all manner of lies were told about Him, and His response was perfect silence.  No condemnation, no calling people out on their sins, only silence.  But Jesus was eager to speak to anyone who seeks salvation.  When the dying theif seeks Jesus, Jesus responds, no matter what kind of physical pain He was in.  When that same theif was hurling insults at Him, Jesus remained silent.

Matthew continues in verse 39 saying … “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, [verse 40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Dying in the company of thieves, and up on a Roman cross, was decidedly NOT the sign the Jewish people were looking for where it comes to proving Jesus was God.  These were believers.  These were those who studied scriptures.  And yet their ideas about what God was supposed to do – that is, to throw off Roman oppression and setup a Kingdom that would last forever – overpowered all the other texts and prophecies that predicted exactly this part of the mission of God to save us.  “Believers” who desired something else of God, and refused to accept what God was actually doing to truly answer their prayers.  When Santa does not behave how we want Him to, what good is Santa right?  And so in this case, the very fact Jesus was actually fulfilling prophecy, was the very fact that disqualified Him as being the Messiah in their minds.  Sound familiar?

How often do we ask God for a thing, and threaten Him that if He does not do it, we will believe no longer?  Save me.  Save my child.  Save my spouse.  From the disease and death that stalk them.  If the results are not what we expect – we become angry and decide there cannot be a God – or else why did He not answer my prayer.  But perhaps He did, just not in the way you expected.  Perhaps from Gods point of view, saving you, your child, your spouse, for eternity is most important to all of you.  Should earthly life end today, and infinite life begin tomorrow, reunited, with infinite love in all of your hearts – is this not the preferred outcome all of you would want, even if it comes at the price of shortening how long you live in this world today?  Let’s say instead of focusing on the eternal, that God allowed you the answer to your prayers, and saved that life in the here and now.  As time passes, you, or your child, or your spouse, begin to change (not for the better).  Perhaps over time, one of you decides there is no God at all, and if there is, He is not worth following.  Sin is more “fun”, instead of the disease it truly is.  If that is how you meet your end in this world, and the eternal world is sacrificed in the process.  Did God really do what was in your best interest all those years ago when He saved you only to meet this new end?  And God knows what you will choose long before it happens.  Santa might let this play out.  But God would rather it didn’t.  God would prefer to cherish you while your free will choice reciprocates that love, rather than let you exist long enough to discard it under the weight of sin’s embrace.

So because God does not do what we want or expect, does not make Him any less trustworthy.  Keep in mind Jesus was doing what ALL of us need for salvation.  Not trying to prove Himself to nay-sayers at the time and place of His death.  Matthew continues in verse 41 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, [verse 42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.”  And there we have it, the Athiest’s Anthem coming right out of the mouths of the very top leadership of the church at that time.  What image of God do you suppose they had, the one of a saving God who would die in our place, and fulfill prophecy – or the one of Santa who doles out punishment and reward emphasis on punishment.  And had Jesus descended off that cross in front of their eyes, gliding right down in front of them fully healed, what do you suppose their response would have been?  They would have hated Him all the more, because now Roman oppression still abounded, and Jesus would be impossible to kill after all.  Think about it, they already had ALL the previous miracles Jesus did to consider in weighing whether or not He was the Messiah, and NONE of them changed their course of action or belief.  They chose to dismiss every previous sign and still pursue killing Him.

And should Jesus have chosen to assuage His own ego, by proving to these priests He truly did have this power, what kind of God does that truly make Him?  A God of ego?  Who would gladly sacrifice our eternal considerations for those of the moment?  How could we be saved then?  It is often our expectations of what God should do, that could never be met anyway.  Because we come from a place of ego and selfishness, where God comes from a totally opposite perspective.  Jesus believes it is better to die to save all of us, than to do anything shortsighted, and gain nothing.  Jesus never used any of His power to benefit Himself.  Instead He used it unceasingly on us, the objects of His love, restoring us, removing the pain of sin and death from us.  Our restoration tops the mind of a saving God.  Not just getting rid our physical diseases, but getting rid of the way more deadly sinful disease of bad motives driving bad choices we continue to embrace.  Curing us of our desire to sin, is way more important.  Saving us from an eternal perspective way more important than saving us in the moment.

The ridicule continues as Matthew writes picking up in verse 43 saying … “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. [verse 44] The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”  Matthew hears the mockery of the thieves, but misses the repentance of the one.  Here we have an example of Jesus suffering the same fate as we do from time to time.  Jesus trusted in His Father.  And yet, He was dying, very painfully in this world.  The Father had NO interest in seeing His Son be tortured and die.  But the Father had a GREAT interest in seeing all of humanity be saved and reconciled unto Himself.  The death of His Son was that price.  In order that the need for Justice be satisfied.  So Jesus dies, in extreme pain we inflicted.  And the Father must sit there in silence and watch.  The eternal salvation outweighing the salvation of the moment.  This is how great our God desires to save us in the eternal realm, not just the here and now.  It is a different way of thinking.

So the repentant thief represents one kind of person, the mocking priests another.  For those mocking priests, no sign would ever be enough.  And frankly the next section of texts are going to have some doozies.  For the repentant thief however, for those of us who seek salvation from Jesus, what will happen in us is a change.  You will note that repentant theif was NOT saved from the cross.  He died in this world, but with certainty about his own place in the next one.  And change began to occur even in the worst dying circumstances any of us can imagine.  We too will become different than we are today.  Not because we work for it.  But because we begin to choose to trust Him, and allow Him to remake us however He sees fit.  Then change is surely on its way in us.  We read scripture differently.  We begin to see love as the primary motivation, instead of some wild afterthought.  We begin to reason differently.  And over time, the blinders of bad choices, the blinders of doubt, fall away – and what is revealed is a regular diatribe of the impossible happening all the time.  For example, the changing of hearts.  Not just of others, but of my own.  Learning how to love differently, and more deeply, than you had ever imagined.  No seminar could ever get this done.  But allowing Jesus full access sure does.  Without Jesus, things tend to degenerate.  But with Jesus, things tend to improve, especially in areas where it matters the most.

That sign, that impossibility, is very personal, very tangible, and you will live with its benefit every day of your life.  Does it cure your cancer?  No.  It could.  But it does not have to.  It fixes something more important.  The quality of your days expands exponentially, whether you are beset by physical pain and disease, or whether you are healed from them.  Keep in mind, disease does not exist in heaven.  So whether here or there, you are destined to see disease, pain and death no more.  And what happens to the desire to see a sign now?  You lose the selfishness part of that.  Instead of asking for goodies for yourself, you have no thought of yourself.  But you are swamped with thoughts of others.  You want to BE a sign for someone else, help them, meet their need if you can, no matter how you are feeling at the time.  And where you are powerless to meet their need, you do ask God for the impossible.  Not as a condition of belief, but because you are SURE He can, and will do what is right for that person’s eternal interest.  Where it comes to the removal of sin, 100% guarantee He wants that.  Where it comes to all the other worldly stuff, His gifts must fall in line with our salvation.  Knowing He longs to give them, and knowing He must hold them back, if they would add to our downfall.

Life, instead of existence, is a very tangible, and personal thing.  No one else can define it for you.  No one else can deny the impossible you are witness to in your heart and life.  For you know what is true for you.  You see what God does in your life.  What you suffer from in the eyes of others matters not.  Whether you are burdened with wealth, sickness, persecution – those do not represent the favor or curse of God.  They represent the danger of evil in this world, and are used by Satan to try to get people to believe in a Santa Clause image of God doling out rewards and punishments.  But for the one who truly believes, and chooses to truly trust, the curtain is pulled back – and the impossible is revealed every day no matter what our circumstances or positions may be.  Certainty has never been the goal.  Trust in spite of not knowing has always been it.  That kind of trust prevents the next Satan in the world to come.  And creates a new creature of you in the world we live in today.

 

Fire and Brimstone, with a Twist [part two] ...

You should have known better.  Are there any more condemning words than those?  And so much the worse when they are true.  Sometimes it is even our job to know better.  And when those words strike the deepest chord; is when we did know better, and made our choices in spite of knowing better.  Those kinds of decisions and actions, of doing something in spite of knowing better, reflect a hardness alive and well in our hearts. 

Behavior like this in a child seems more forgivable.  Perhaps a child with minimal personal experience chooses to do something they know they should not, for the personal experience of having done so.  As their parent, we hate this; not because it hurts us from the suffering of that action, but because it hurts us to see our children suffer from the hurt of that action.  It hurts a parent to see their child suffer.  When the child suffers from bad decisions, we still suffer.  When the child suffers from bad decisions, and they are fully equipped with the knowledge of what would happen, we still suffer.  Our love of our child, will always lead us to suffer when our child suffers.  What we as parents want, is for our child never to suffer.

And what happens when you get a bad egg?  No parent ever wants to admit, that their little Johnny has grown up to be a bad egg, even if Johnny has become a serial killer.  But it happens.  And perhaps worse than a serial killer, is a leader in the “right” church, teaching all the “right” things, to those who do not understand, but completely devoid of love.  At least a serial killer only murders the body.  But a religious leader has the potential to murder the soul, kill hope, and portray an image of God that resembles Satan instead. 

Who would want to serve a God that looks so much like Satan?  And who would want to serve a God, when all His servants are so mean, or so apathetic, or so hopeless?  And His servants, employed in His ministry, are the very ones who should know better.  But too many don’t.  And still our heavenly parent looks to redeem what causes Him so much grief, and destroys so many other of His children.  Our Heavenly Father looks to redeem bad eggs, even ones that should know better, even ones that continue to do so much harm, from the pulpit.

John the Baptist had a message for these religious leaders.  Keep in mind these leaders had the right Bible.  They were not Hindu’s or Buddhists, or pagans.  These were Jews, and considered the top leaders of their faith.  These were Jews who had access to scripture, and debated it for a living, and in all their spare time.  They were supposed to be upright.  They were supposed to know more about the Bible than any other living person on planet earth.  Nobody was supposed to know more than them.  Nobody.  These men could have been a shining example of what love for others looks like in the flesh.  But they were not.  They were serial killers of hope in the pulpit instead.  They were obsessed with offerings, tithe, and the financial wealth they would bring.  They were obsessed with “control” over the faith, over doctrines.  They were obsessed with keeping the church pure.  Sound familiar?

As we read the message of John the Baptist for the religious leadership back then, let us instead apply it to ourselves as we should know better as well.  Matthew continues his account of the fire and brimstone preaching of John in chapter three of his gospel picking up in verse 7 saying … “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  Am I the snake John pleads with?  Do I slither between the pews, acting just interested enough in my neighbor to fool them into thinking I care for them, but maintaining my heart of stone within?  Is this the plight of my generation, and the one to come, and the one behind?  What wrath does John speak of? 

This was a message of shock and awe.  John was talking straight to people who demanded respect and he offered them none.  They were snakes to him.  They were snakes for what they did to the flock of God.  And then beyond the insult of calling them snakes, John throws the end of days in their face.  John brings up the judgment past, and the flames as destiny for them.  This was beyond unthinkable.  How could I be a snake when I only try to do good?  How many people rationalize their religion with just such a question?  They never seek perfection, believing it impossible.  They are right.  For perfection is only possible when Jesus does the work of transformation within us. 

But instead of seeking Jesus, we choose to continue to do the work of perfection upon ourselves, by ourselves.  We talk of partnerships with God, but this is deception.  It is only an excuse to do work ourselves, and then blame God because we cannot finish it.  We are snakes obsessed with control over our salvation.  We are snakes spreading a gospel of self-salvation to all who will listen, but this gospel leads only to flames of destiny.  We call the gospel of self, truth, when it is the farthest thing from it.  And in so doing we pave a highway to flames, instead of freedom.

Matthew continues in verse 8 saying … “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:”  Time to let our deeds reflect our reality.  We are not to try to do good works.  We are to submit, be transformed, and develop a passion for others that cannot sit still.  A transformed heart loves others so much it cannot sit still, it must reach out in love to help them.  A transformed heart would never think to allow the words that proceed from the mouth to ever be interpreted as hateful, judgmental, or condemnatory.  Words that flow from a transformed heart are pure love, pure support, and ever point to Jesus as the only way to find salvation.  The fruits we are to bring are NOT our own.  They are fruits of the Spirit.  They are gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit to be employed in the tireless ministry of God.  These fruits show all who look that our heart is ever filled with repentance and love.  These fruits alone are worthy to bring.  Our fruits, our skills, our offerings are as the offering of Cain, based in self, and reflective of snake behavior.

Matthew continues the admonitions of John in verse 9 saying … “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”  John the Baptist at last removes the only surety Israelites had, he takes away the relevance of their ancestry.  The faith of Abraham belongs only to him.  It does not belong to those men who have no faith in God for their salvation some 2000 years later.  It is no different with us.  Our church fathers may have had great faith, and done great deeds in the eyes of the Lord.  But their faith belongs only to them, not to us, if our actions do not reflect the transformed heart that drives this kind of passion.  John the Baptist makes no excuses for them.  They will each face eternity for what they have done, for what they have believed.  Transformation is personal.  What my wife experiences is not my own.  What my mother believes is of no consequence to me.  My heart must be transformed by Jesus, or my heart remains in the provinces of snakes.

John concludes his warning in even starker language in verse 10 saying … “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”  Our ancestry is terminated.  From this day forth, each man will face his fate, based on the submission to Jesus Christ he has pursued.  John was preaching of the nearness of God in human form.  John was saying it is here, it is now.  Now is the time to abandon trust in self, trust in self-made interpretations of the law, and instead seek the author of the law.  Every prophecy ever given could be rightly interpreted by the God who was walking the streets of Nazareth and the roads of Galilee.  No more need for majority opinion, each leader could seek the author Himself.  What remains in the province of snakes after this opportunity was destined for the flames that will someday purge the earth of all evil.

John then shifts the focus even more squarely upon Jesus as the only way to avoid this fate as Matthew continues in verse 11 saying … “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”  Here is where the twist re-emerges even for bad eggs, even for vipers, even for me.  The offer of baptism unto repentance is freely offered to ALL of these same men.  Notice, John never once calls out any of them for the specific sins he knows they are guilty of.  Notice, that John only continued to offer repentance, and to starkly make them aware that even as religious leaders, they need it too.  Perhaps their need is greater than all.  And now he offers a promise, and a prophecy.  John foretells of the baptism of the Holy Spirit by fire to all who believe.  John is offering this promise and this prophecy to these very men.  These vipers could become baptized by the same Holy Spirit that would baptize the other followers and disciples of Christ. 

Think of this offer for a minute.  Not only is God interested in the redemption of these men, He is willing to restore them to what proper leadership means in the New church, in the New faith.  If anyone was less deserving it is these very men, yet it is to these men who God appeals to.  To receive this offer, one must only embrace humility and submit before Jesus who is right around the corner.  Think of the freedom of that embrace.  All your questions answered.  All your words motivated by the Holy Spirit from that day forward. 

A new gospel.  A new method of preaching and teaching by testimony, instead of by intellectual awareness.  They are each and all offered a personal experience with God on earth.  This is not fire and brimstone, this is heaven reaching out to each of them.  This is not the punishment that vipers deserve, it is the honor of becoming a participant in the ministry to redeem others.  This is not a message of fire and brimstone based on fear to motivate, only shock and awe to awaken how desperate the need is.  And it is ONLY this way of frank speech within the leadership of the church.  As it is in ours, never intended for the common sinner.

John then describes Jesus as more than God in human form, but God in eternal form as Matthew continues in verse 12 saying … “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  The God of eternal judgment is also the God of eternal redemption.  To refuse to allow our salvation from Jesus, is to embrace self to try to find the same result.  But self can only fail at salvation.  Only Jesus can succeed at that work, at the work of perfecting us from us, saving us from us. 

Should we refuse to trust Him, refuse to accept His gift of salvation to us, we are destined to become the chaff of eternal history.  The mercy of God to extend time to try to save every last soul that can be saved is not infinite.  Time will one day reach its end, and the days of sin have been numbered.  The method of escape is so easy, and so clear.  It should be best understood by those in ministry.  Yet John shows us, that those in ministry often have the greatest need.  Learning to be devoid of self, to forego trusting in self to save, is sometimes hardest for those involved in religious things.

John the Baptist has said harsh things.  He has preached fire and brimstone, but only to the leadership of the church to wake them up to their great need.  But his twist has ever been the hope of Jesus Christ.  Even to those bad eggs who should have known better, and most deserve condemnation, John has offered none.  Instead he offers continued opportunity to be baptized not only to repentance, but with fire by the Holy Spirit in days to come.  That is quite a twist, and it is one we should all seek.  And then, if only to add heaven’s stamp of approval on the ministry of John, Jesus would enter the scene …

 

Little White Lies ...

The concept of degrees of evil is one created by our common sense, and reinforced by our judicial system.  We expect “the punishment to fit the crime”.  Excessive jail sentences, or death penalties imposed for trivial misdemeanors make no sense to us; and cry out that the injustice must be reformed.  Yet our God only lists one “punishment” for sin, more precisely only one “wage” earned by the sinner, and that is death.  To our human sensibilities “punishing” someone for telling a little white lie, or engaging in idle gossip, hardly seems fair, if death is all they earn when so embracing these “minor” evils.  How could the damage caused by sin be so great it must be met with death?  For many, this seeming injustice is enough to cause non-believers to reject the idea of a loving God.  The situation only worsens when people who call themselves “Christian” further the idea of a vengeful God who lives to “punish” evil doers in the name of justice, often coupled tightly with intolerance.  Peter understands this cognitive dissonance, he understands on a personal level how much the weight words carry.  He knows firsthand what seemingly little white lies can do to the soul of one who tells them.  So in his first letter to the churches in Asia Minor, he continues his admonition.

In verse one, he writes … “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, [verse 2] As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: [verse 3] If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”  Laying aside all malice and all guile top the list of advice for Peter.  So often, even within the church, our arrogance leads to division, division to resentment, and resentment to malice.  We allow doctrinal disputes, and scriptural interpretation to become such a rigid topic for us, that we learn to despise other believers who refuse to share our particular views.  The malice takes flight in our speech.  Our motives are less hidden as we “talk down” those illiterates who refuse the knowledge we so graciously impart.  If we are unable to win a debate based on logic and fact, we, like Satan before us, introduce guile into the equation.  One third of a perfect heavenly angelic host did not abandon intelligence in their choice to follow Satan.  They fell to self-deception as they preferred to believe a lie that might indulge self, at the cost of the truth that happiness could only be found in loving others.  Lucifer introduced guile and lies into a society who had never known anything but truth.

His technique of mixing truth and distorting truth only slightly was so effective, he used it against Eve in the garden and she fell as well.  For beings who have only known truth, deception is harder to beware against.  So founded in the root of evil; self-love gives birth to deception and guile to advance its cause.  Peter then extends the diagnosis for where the cancer of idle words will spread next.  Hypocrisies, envies, and evil speaking leave the tongue and enter the world.  To cover our own ill motives, based in the self-love or arrogance of our own opinions, we must cover our sin and speak righteously while doing evil.  We state our righteousness, but love only self.  We state our purity of motive, but do nothing for anyone other than self, and those who will return our good deeds.  We become hypocrites to protect a false image of righteousness, because the cancer of self-love has already ruined our hearts.  We envy those who seem to have more than we do.  We begin to want for ourselves, what we perceive they have.  We want more love for ourselves, more admiration of others, more respect, more things.  And again we allow evil speaking of others who we envy and disdain to leave our tongues and enter the world.

The poison our mouths and minds are capable of creating and spewing into the world can have untold effects.  One third of the angels bear personal witness of this.  They were not compelled to join Satan, they were convinced to join him.  He had no pure truth in his logic, but mixed with distortion, and appealing to desires for power, for love, for fulfillment, he handily mastered the art of the lie.  Satan bids us to tell people what they want to hear, rather than what is plainly true.  Satan bids us to think of our own tastes and opinions as matters of fact, rather than matters of perception.  Satan bids us to speak unkindly about those who “deserve it” and those who plainly “have it coming”.  Satan is particularly effective in recruiting Christians to condemn those caught in public sins, particularly those who hold office in the church, or respect in the congregation.  After all, they should really “know better”.  Thus if caught in sin, they certainly “deserve” to be spoken evil of, and have their public sins discussed in a public forum.  Satan bids us to use our understanding of scriptures to condemn others who will not accept the “truths” we have to offer.  In all of his efforts, one result emerges – the cessation of love for others, and the embrace of love for self.

We too easily forget our own need of forgiveness, and general unworthiness of the love Christ has shown to us.  We too easily forget our own ignorance in the ways and truth of Christ when we began our spiritual journey and how far Christ has molded our own minds and ways of thinking from when we first began our walk with Him.  We think ourselves “mature” in our spirituality, but Peter reminds us, our goal was never maturity and independence, but rather the childlike trust of a baby who knows nearly nothing, but the love of its parent.  As newborn babies who crave milk, and cry when they are denied it.  So too, should we crave the WORD of God.  Peter was again not talking specifically about scripture.  Keep in the mind the New Testament about Christ had not even been fully written or assembled yet.  He was talking about craving Christ on a personal level.  He was talking about discovering the Christ foretold in the ancient texts of the Old Testament.  He was talking about realizing that in our infancy is our perfection.  It is not our depth of Biblical study and analysis, but our depth of reflecting the love of Christ that leads us away from words that would do another harm – whether they “deserve” it or not.

Peter was forgiven for the words and lies he spoke in his own denial of association with Christ.  Peter did not “deserve” his forgiveness.  He arguably spoke those lies at a time when Christ needed his love the most.  He abandoned his savior to save his own life.  He left alone the savior of the world, to keep from mere association with Him.  Peter knew the devastating power of a little white lie; for he had told three of them.  Peter told those who asked, what he thought they wanted to hear.  Peter’s lies would not “hurt” anyone, but would rather prevent a murder (likely his own).  For those who ask if it is better to lie or by speaking the truth risk death – ask Peter was it worth it.  Peter deserved the condemnation of Christ.  Peter’s sins were recorded in the New Testament and ALL the disciples knew of his failures.  They could have ridiculed him out of the ministry, except that Christ forgave Peter, and the others knew what tasting the graciousness of Christ’s forgiveness was all about.

Peter knew that the words that leave our tongues reflect the state of love that Christ puts within us.  If our words do harm, if they are callous, if they reflect a disregard for the heart of another – they DO NOT COME from Christ.  It is the territory of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin.  He needs no help from those who are still steeped in it.  It is NOT an act of love to call someone’s attention to the pain their own sin causes them and everyone else.   That is the opposite of love.  Pain is self-evident.  When it is not, the Holy Spirit is there to open our eyes to it.  Words of condemnation to those who are guilty put only nails in the coffin of sin; they do nothing to free the sinner from its power.  But words of unconditional love that would look to a Savior to be made free from our chains of self-bondage – those words have the power to heal.  The mission of Christ was to heal, and to redeem, not to punish.  The heart of our God is not bent on inflicting punishment, but instead to free us from the punishment we already inflict on ourselves.

There are no little white lies.  There are only lies and deception.  The corruption of truth is never a good thing, it leads always and only to destruction.  There is no evil speech, or speech laced with hate, malice, guile, hypocrisy, or envy that will ever do anyone good.  That kind of speech only has the power to destroy.  Those who engage in it become tools of the destroyer; and liars about the character of our God.  Peter would rather that the reading audience of believers spread across Asia Minor take a different path.  That instead of spending time speaking about the demise of others, and evil deeds they do, that we seek Christ, that we seek the WORD of God.  He would rather we abandon the malice that springs from pride, even in spiritual things, and instead embrace the childlike trust and love of a little baby who whether they know it or not, are completely helpless and fully dependent.

Peter then gives an example of how Christ might be found in the words of the Old Testament, and how the believers might see that Jesus is the continuation of scripture, not its end as he writes in verse 4 … “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, [verse 5] Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”  The temple of old, was built of stone by Solomon, and the sacrifices offered there were of pure white lambs.  Peter now tells his audience, “they” are the stones of the new church.  No longer must believers emigrate to Jerusalem to find the presence of God in a temple of stone.  Jesus can be found right where they are.  It is no longer the exclusive province of the tribe of Levy, but instead ANYONE who would choose to believe in Christ that becomes a part of a holy priesthood.  It is no longer the blood of innocent lambs, but the love of the Lamb within them, that gives rise to spiritual sacrifices.  We sacrifice the love of self, for the of love others.  We sacrifice our own needs, for those in need.  In so doing, we are members and witnesses of the holy priesthood of those who love like Christ loves.

Peter continues in verse 6 … “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. [verse 7] Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, [verse 8] And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.”  Christ is the cornerstone of our temple, of our church.  The cornerstone was the basis for the entire remainder of the building to rely upon.  So it is with our Christ.  Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith.  The scriptures without Christ become useless.  The promise without the fulfillment loses all meaning.  Those who submit themselves to Christ are transformed into the obedience of truly loving others like He loves.  But those who refuse to submit to anything less than their own wisdom and knowledge, even when it was based in scriptures, refused to be made obedient.  Instead the cornerstone of our faith and transformation became a stumbling block to them.  It became even offensive to those who will not submit, that the very idea of submission should be the method by which perfection might come.  The disobedient would prefer to rely upon self.  Whether Pharisee, or Islamic Cleric, neither will accept that salvation is outside of the grasp of the will of man.  Both would rather rely upon their words, and their wisdom to find a path to paradise.

Peter continues in verse 9 … “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: [verse 10] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”  Peter, proud Jewish man that he was, now points out a fact that runs counter to 1600 years of Jewish bloodlines and traditions – the people of God are now found everywhere, from every blood line.  Those readers and believers in Asia Minor are now the “people” of God.  No longer is believing a matter of tracing our roots back to Abraham, it is simply found in a declaration for Christ, and a submission to His authority.  Those “foreigners” who had no ties to Jewish bloodlines, were now in the very family of Christ right beside the Jews who had accepted Jesus.  The believers of Christ were certainly peculiar.  They included all races.  They included women and men equally.  They included young and old, and bloodlines mattered for nothing. 

Peter reminds his readers that a holy nation, and a chosen generation of royal priests have a duty to speak truth.  But the truth they are to speak about is the love of Jesus Christ that transforms the heart, and frees us from the chains of self-love, to the freedom of loving only others.  Carrying the responsibility of “priests” in the new faith, the responsibility every single member, every single believer, will now carry – is designed to call to attention the IMPACT of the words they will speak.  People tend to listen to priests.  They seek the council of priests.  They wish to know what God may think or teach on a particular topic.  Peter reminds us that as priests we are to reflect the love that our cornerstone reflected.  When a listening ear bends in our direction, it is not meant to hear little white lies, and speech that could cause another harm.  Instead allow our transformation to so reform our hearts, that the words never even form in our minds, let alone in our mouth.  When we seek only to love others, we care about how our words will be heard.  We care about whether they carry the love in our hearts for those in so desperate a need.

There are none who “deserve” our hateful speech.  There are only those whose need of love from us might be greater than those who have already embraced His love, and are already on His path.  Those guilty souls who war against the love of God, should find no ally in us.  They should never receive hate from us in word or deed, but rather we return love to them, no matter how we are treated.  In offering only love to them, we deny them the fuel our hatred might have provided.  Those who stumble in sin, and are publicly discovered, should find public forgiveness and acceptance.  Our words should ever be to their healing, never to add to their pain, and the pain they might have caused.  When we love others more than we love ourselves, we come to realize that our “truths” are not more important than insuring another knows we love them.  We can afford to allow God to bring the less educated into His knowledge and truth and doctrinal understanding, on the timeline He decides.  It does not have to be now, and on the timeline we would seek to impose.  For those who submit to Christ, we must recognize it may well be us who needs the education, rather than those we deem less than ourselves.

The power of words cannot be understated.  What evil we accept as innocuous is the evil that would destroy us utterly.  What degree of sin we find “minor” has already led to the death of Christ Himself, and to a willingness to kill God by the perpetrators of evil.  The cancer of evil and self-love is absolute, and leads only to death.  But the redemption and power of the love of Christ is absolute as well.  To embrace His love, and allow it to transform us, is to find a new way of thinking, that results in a new way of speaking.

But Peter was not through with his counsel to the churches …

Worship Re-Imagined ...

In our last study, John revealed to us that the city of heaven, the bride of Christ in which we will live in a level of intimacy with our God that is today akin to marriage – is 1500 miles wide, long, and tall.  That is a city bigger than any that has ever occupied our planet.  It is larger than most countries.  No matter if from a distance it resembles a cube with buildings of equal height, or a pyramid with the throne of God at its center, and every other structure descending in height until you reach the walls around the city, the population this city is capable of holding is well beyond our comprehension.  At a minimum, we will reside there forever.  But heaven may be bigger than just a “human” home, as two thirds of the angels may well reside there with us.  Where else would they live?  In addition to our angelic neighbors, heaven may well be filled with animals, birds, even bugs perhaps, as all living creations long to be near their creator.  Heaven may well be filled with plant life.  The city may look less like a “concrete jungle” than we might at first imagine.  Just because it has streets of nearly translucent gold, does not also mean that beside them is grass of softest texture and hue. 

But in addition to what is reasonably possible for us to imagine heaven will be like, there may also be other residents there that were sentient creations of our God before we came to life.  The 4 “beasts” John saw before the throne of God may well represent other sentient life forms that pre-date our creation and may also occupy residence in the city which has been prepared by Christ for our new home.  But no matter what kind of “life” does live there, no matter whether we occupy homes that are 1500 miles above ground, or perhaps in a basement who knows how many floors below it, the entirety of the city is filled with the light of God, with His presence.  The goal of having a city like this is literally for us to live with our God, to be with Him.  God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit reside here.  This was their home before it will be ours.  This was where they were located, before there was an Eden created in our world.  Perhaps Eden will now reside there like heaven’s version of Central Park in NYC (minus the crime and decay).

Companionship is the central theme.  We are not alone.  Nor will we ever be alone.  Even in a crowd of people numbering in the billions, each and every one of us will directly and uniquely experience the nearness with our God.  Loneliness of any kind will become extinct.  All of mankind is related to each other as in some way as we all trace our roots back to Adam and Eve.  I wonder if this is the scale God thinks about when He proclaimed be fruitful and multiply.  It is in the context of this level of scale, we are forced to re-examine how we think about “worship”.  John offers us a simple text in his book of Revelations about Jesus Christ in chapter 21 and verse 22 saying … “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”

What is missing from the city of heaven is any sort of temple or church.  There are ZERO buildings dedicated to the assembly of people intent on “worshipping” our God.  Think about that statement as this is not by accident, and is a condition that will be permanently the case in our future home – there are ZERO buildings set aside for the purpose of “worshipping” our God.  In our world today, Catholic Cathedrals are some of the most beautiful structures that have survived the decay of the ages.  They are artistic and ornate and inspire mankind to elevate his thinking towards the divine.  But none exist in heaven.  Neither are there Mormon Temples, or simple white-steeple Protestant churches, or Asian shrines of any kind.  There are no place where candles are burned, incense is offered, or alters or pulpits constructed.  This does NOT mean worship is no longer a part of heaven.  How could we avoid worshipping the God who has done so much for us?  NOR does it mean, we no longer assemble ourselves together, as the whole point of having a city home, is to be in close proximity with each other and with God.

And this is more than a practical acknowledgement that to build a single building designed for worship might take a construction equal to the size of heaven itself in order to fit us all in it.  This is not about practical architectural constructs.  This is not about limitations.  This is not about accommodating the laws of physics.  This declaration is by intent.  John offers the reason for the noticeably absent structures in the same verse … “for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple of it.”  Worship has NEVER been about buildings, it has been about WHO we worship.  How we love matters.  Who we love matters.  It is our love for God that underpins our desire to worship Him at all.  Our gratitude must find expression.  But real worship is more than simply saying “thank you”.  I venture a guess, that if Bill Gates gave you 10 billion dollars, you might not limit your expression of gratitude to a single one time verbal offering of just “thank you”.  Likely you would feel the need, the desire, to “do something” nice to show him your gratitude.  How much more it is for our God, who has given us everything.  To say “thank you” will never be enough.  We will be compelled of our own desire to “do something”.  We will want MORE than words, more than music, more than sitting around listening to someone else teach scripture.  We will want to LIVE our praise, LIVE our worship, LIVE our gratitude.

The beauty of heaven is that no matter where we are, God is right there with us, visibly.  His light illuminates our city such that there is no dark corner in it.  Our planetary sun will reflect light from God, originating here on our earth, instead of the other way around.  So to worship God, there will be no need of a temple, as He will be ever present.  This does not mean that all the residents of heaven will never get together all at once, at one location.  However it does mean, we need no building dedicated as a temple to do it in.  Every building offers us that same level of ability.  We can worship God in every structure from the library, to the central park, to the farthest outpost in the most seemingly unlikely place.  Buildings do NOT define, or constrain our worship.  They never have.  They never should.  Buildings are only a practical construct that allows us to assemble for a specific purpose.  WORSHIP is something that can and should happen everywhere regardless of the building around us at the time; just like it will be in heaven.

One of the chief “false measurements” of our faith here on earth is whether or not we … “go to church”.  This implies that faith is found and enriched by a building dedicated to that purpose.  But it is not.  “We” who choose to follow Christ, are His church, no matter where we are.  When we gather together, when we bring other parts of the body, with different perspectives of our Lord, into the same location, we are effectively creating a temple.  When we get beyond the need to say a simple “thank you” and find ourselves driven to “do something” – sitting in a building dressed in fineries will just not get it done.  Listening to a sermon, while awesome, is simply not enough.  We will want more.  We will need more.  We will desire to “do” more.  Our faith cannot be content in only a listening posture, it needs exercise.  Let’s take church (which is us) outside of our temples and cathedrals, and to others who need our love … you know … like how it is done in heaven.

Our biggest problem with how we worship, is that we continue to keep it self-centric.  “Worship” music has become a phenomenon in Christian churches.  It makes us “feel’ closer to God when we sing it.  It gives us the warm fuzzy of “being” with God.  But touching hearts CANNOT be constrained to only the lyrics and melodies we recite ad nauseam in our sanctuaries.  It MUST be experienced in the street to be real.  Our families need our love in a practical sense.  Our co-workers need our love in a very real sense.  Our communities need our compassion in a real sense.  There are real needs everywhere around us, and we would only offer God our songs, but not our hearts.  We would offer God our time once a week for 3 hours, in a particular building where we have a particular role (most often sedate, and in listening posture).  But upon “going home from church”, our “worship” ends.  That is not worship, it is ritual.  For most of us, the lyrics in the song’s we sing to honor God, bare a testimony we have never had in our hearts, for ourselves, but this need not be the case.

Worship happens at home.  Worship happens at work.  Worship happens at entertainment venues.  Worship happens when we choose to love others and in so doing offer back to God a “do something” expression of our gratitude instead of a “talk about it” offering.  In heaven worship is something that can occur 24x7 in every building there.  So it should be here on earth.  Seventh Day Adventists like to make a huge distinction by only choosing to “worship God” on the day He created for it.  But ONLY on that day.  And most often, ONLY for 3 hours in the local church.  THEN we go home, we go back to our lives, and we do not think much about worship until the next Sabbath arrives.  Instead of the Sabbath being the pinnacle of our worship, instead of it being the height of our worship, it is the only 3 hours we spend in worship.  The rest of the week is “ours”.  Heaven forbid we find ourselves in a cathedral on Sundays, or in any other structure dedicated to “worshipping” God on Sunday, or a Mosque on Fridays.  For an Adventist, this is a sin.  The symbolism of false worship is a problem.  But is that symbolism really constrained to being in the “wrong” place on the “wrong” day … or is it because we are holding the “wrong” ideas in our hearts even when done in the “right” place on the “right” day?

“Worshipping” God only on Sunday, is as limited and short sighted as only doing it on Friday, or only on Saturday.  Our God is not a weekend-warrior nor should we His servants be.  Worship should be happening constantly.  Not the proscribed formats that have become our weekend rituals, but the free flow expression of love for others that can actually change the world around us for the better.  A real “do something” form of worship that makes a tangible difference in the life of someone other than you.  Do that, and then sing about it.  Do that, and then share about it.  Do, and find, that in doing, there is real worship.  So long have we decried our youth for not “attending” church anymore.  Perhaps we should go to our youth and have them join us in church, right where they are.  Let us show them the beauty of “doing something”.  Our churches, and our Sabbaths, should be the pinnacle of our assembly and desire to share our experiences of worship that have occurred every other day of the week (yes including Sunday).  God is not dishonored by our worship and expression of love to others on any day … He is most often dishonored because of our refusal to do so, unless and until it is convenient for us.

True worship is not about making us feel better, or warm and fuzzy.  It is about a desire to give back to God the offering of gratitude that simply cannot be constrained.  When we “do something” about how we love our God, we get dirty.  Sometimes loving others means taking action that makes us sweat, in heated environments that are not air conditioned.  Sometimes working tirelessly for someone else is not too glamorous.  In fact, it is often quite humiliating.  It requires patience.  It requires long suffering.  It requires dedication.  It is rarely appreciated.  But it is NOT work … it is reward … it is gratitude expressed … it is worship, the real kind.  Whether we help change a tire for a stranded motorist we have never met, or cut the lawn for a neighbor who we know lacks the strength to do so; when we perform random acts of kindness for others, we most often find it is hard to do so wearing our best clothing.  Simple clothing designed to serve is more appropriate for random acts of kindness.  A suit is too constraining for a worshipper bent on “doing something” about how they feel towards God.

I am not advocating the abandonment of “church”.  Instead I want to redefine it.  Instead I want to expand what it means to worship.  I want to break the self-imposed limitations of our rituals we call church, and replace them with something more, something real.  You do not need a pastor and a support system of like-minded believers to reimagine worship between you and God.  You can begin worshipping God right where we you are, and right where you work.  In so doing, you will be worshipping in the model heaven intends for all time.  Take up your random acts of kindness and love and recall the results in the place you call church.  Do not limit your worship to 3 hours on a particular day, but instead let that 3 hours become the pinnacle of worship you have accumulated on every other hour of the week ahead.  Most of all, break the cycle of associating a building for a specific purpose as being “church”.  “You” are His church.  “You” represent Him to the world around you.  “You” are a part of His body, not the whole of it.  You will need the perspective of other body parts so that you do not come to believe you know everything there is to know.  Gather as many parts of the body as you can find, and join together in your efforts to make a real difference in the world around you.  In so doing, you provide better service to others.  You can lean on each other’s strengths, cover each other’s weaknesses, and learn about Him in humble service with each other - meant for others.

The Revelation of heaven given to John causes us to rethink what worship is, and how we do it, where we do it, and when we do it.  Having a special day of God’s creation upon which to enjoy special time with Him, was not meant to replace all other times as being for “ourselves”.  A special time, is exactly that, a special time – not the ONLY time.  In heaven God will be with us all the time.  The one day in seven when that is something special is like the icing on the cake, not a replacement for the cake.  One day in seven things will be even more extreme, more beautiful, closer still if that is possible.  It does not mean that a 3 hour window in sedate posture accomplishes the goal keeping a day holy.  It means we will long for the next full 24 hour window when that level of “special” arrives.  It is the difference between “talk about it” religion and “do something about it” religion.  Most of us eat two or three times a day, but we ALL still appreciate a “special meal”.  Our worship should emulate the same thinking.  We can express our love to God by serving others all the time, and find a special blessing on the day He intended to free us from all our other concerns.

If there is no need for a temple in heaven for all of eternity … why have we created a need for them here upon our earth?  If our buildings serve as headquarters for an action oriented approach to worship, if they serve as places to coordinate and organize our service for others, then they are well suited for the purpose of worship.  If however, our buildings serve only our “need” for ease and opulence, and as a place in which we can demonstrate our wealth in cars, clothes, jewelry, and accessories to the neighbors who sit next to us in the pews, and for whom we care barely muster a care … our buildings have lulled us into a false worship that no holy day can ever correct.  Buildings should be tools in His service.  They should serve a function that makes a difference in the lives of others.  They should not be thought of as the ONLY places where worship, or church can occur.  Heaven finds no such limitations in it.  Why should we impose such limitations on ourselves in this world?

A heart that has been transformed by the love of God, who reflects that love and passion for others, is simply not content to sit for 3 hours a week, and be done.  A transformed heart craves more.  It is insatiable.  It has a hunger to do more, to experience more.  It cannot be bound or constrained by a building.  For those who have a transformed heart, there is too much opportunity to sit still.  There is too much love that is needed, to hold any back.  There is too much pain around us to focus only on our own needs, failures, pains, and desires.  The transformed heart yearns to provide relief to others, not to itself.  The transformed heart will never be content to remain still while a single need goes unfulfilled in the life of someone within their reach.  The love of God is such.  The life of Christ on the earth was as such.  It remains so even today.  As we are transformed by the power of the love of Christ, we begin to reflect that love, and that passion, and it causes us to reimagine what worship is, and how, and when we do it.

And the insight into heaven was not over yet …