All posts by Craig

Love Wins

1 Cor. 12:27-13:13: Love wins-10/12/14

To be a Christian motivated by the love that is spoken in this passage, it takes practice.

God’s love. We speak about it. We sing about it. Yet I think the deepest way of truly grasping it, is putting it into practice. Yet to really truly comprehend this, we have to understand the church in Corinth, and it was really all about.

The old saying is, “well no church is perfect”, and it is true, no church is, but if you wanted an example of a church that was really messed up, Corinth was your bet.

The problems? Church disunity, factionalism, civil lawsuits between believers, deep sexual problems, moral failure, greed, meat sacrificed to idols, robbery, showing up drunk at the Lord’s Supper. You name it, the Corinthians probably did it.

One commentator even said (and I am paraphrasing) “It had to be a miracle of God that church could even exist and survive in Corinth, the outside city was that corrupt”.

THRUST-Paul brings it to the one virtue of a believer that can bring healing to wounds, strength to the downtrodden, and unity/purpose to body of Christ.

Paul wants churches to succeed, to survive, to thrive in their communities, yet the Corinthians were letting their spiritual gifts make them prideful. They were saying to themselves, “look at me” instead of saying, “look at Christ.”

The most helpful gifts are those beneficial to the body of Christ, His church, to be used for His glory and service. Each one of our gifting were given to us for serving God and enhancing the spiritual growth of the body of believers.

As believers here, we are called to be honored together and rejoice together and do life together.

And every one of you gathered here (or in this case reading this blog) today has value.

The cross of Christ humbles us all, and it levels the playing field, keeping us from having too big of a head on our shoulders.

The Christians at Corinth made this mistake, they starting seeing their gifts as a way to puff themselves up rather than build one another up.

***Love is more important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and miracle-working power have little effect without love.

Love makes our actions and gifts useful. Although people have different gifts, love is available to everyone. It is utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations, who we all once were before we came to Christ.

It is impossible to have this love unless God helps us set aside our own natural desires so that we can love and not expect anything in return. Thus, the more we become like Christ, the more love we will show to others, for love is absolutely essential to the Christian life.

If you let that kind of godly love be your motivation to do everything in your life, you cannot fail.

You may have setbacks, you will have struggles, but you cannot fail because God’s love is power, true power. Yet, you may say, “if I try to strive for that, I may have to give up everything” Yes, I may have to give up everything too, but it is worth it.

And yet here we stand, having access to that love through the One who has loved us, who has called us out of darkness and into His wonderful light. We have access to that love, even now, even here.

People today are looking for something deeper. Deeper than just entertainment. They want realness, authenticity; Love, a real God-given love that truly cares for people in their brokenness, a love that shows itself to others.

And ultimately the way to know and truly experience that love, is to put it into practice. Not only believe it, but to show it.

We may not all be teachers, administrators, servants, but if we have experienced God’s precious love, we are Christians.

Love involves unselfish service to others; to show it give evidence that you care.

Faith is the foundation and content of God’s message; hope is the attitude and focus; love is the action. All gifts will be gone, and faith, hope, and love will remain. Let us mirror heaven by practicing it here on earth as obedient disciples.

Love wins. Because God is love.

Full Message Here.1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13-“Love Wins”

Evolution and Sin

This is from my college friend Eric Butler. Admittedly, he and I may disagree on some points of theology and life as we all do, but I wanted to reblog this post because Eric takes a position that not many have considered, and it is worth pondering

Phil 1:12-18a-God’s Jewelry, Christ’s Chains

Phil 1:12-18a-God’s Jewelry: Christ’s Chains-9/21/14

SECTION I

An idea worth going to prison is a dangerous idea but a commendable one.

Our brothers and sisters in Jesus who are being persecuted all over the world are seeing this. 

 Yes, they may suffer terribly, but God does a wonderfully beautiful and confusing thing: The gospel doesn’t retreat, it doesn’t even stay stagnant, rather it grows, advances, presses on, marches.

The church is exploding in places like South America, Africa, Asia, and others in the third world.

Both Jesus and Paul suffered so that the good news (gospel) would be carried globally, saving the world.

God’s kingdom does not retreat, for why would you retreat if your enemy is weaker than you?God’s kingdom presses on despite the hardships.

God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. Remember that, do not be closed-minded to ways that God is still working in the world.

Human circumstances are in God’s hands and He uses them to advance the gospel.

When difficult, even life-threatening, circumstances face us, we should take Paul as our example and look for how God might be working still.

How do we do this? We remember God is in control, and we remind ourselves of evidence from the past that God has been at work in the church.

From the beginning of the church in the New Testament to the present day, God has been acting mightily.

SECTION II

This new section talks about Paul’s rivals. There are basically two groups preaching. One is doing it by envy, the other by goodwill.

One group is motivated by love, the other is motivated by selfish ambition. One group is false, and the other is true.

Both preach Christ, and the wrong one probably wants to do it to get more power and to undercut Paul.

Yet even so, Paul can still rejoice. He does not have to fear, because the truth of the gospel is getting out there, and that gives Paul joy.

How? Well the answer is God has the power to make people with impure or even downright sinister motives still serve his ends.

Paul’s suffering was real, the same as your suffering may be today, but that did not destroy his hope that even if he hurt, lives were being changed for Christ. God can still take hurt and shattered pieces and create something beautiful.

Three Implications

First-the passage demonstrates indirectly the value of finding believers who can serve as examples of how to grapple with suffering the way a Christian should.

Secondthe passage demonstrates and important principle of truth, one often missed by modern Christians, particularly here in the U.S. God works not merely in spite of but through adverse circumstances. He chose the foolishness of the cross to accomplish his redemptive purposes (1 Cor. 1:18),

We think struggle is a bad thing: it isn’t always. God chose to work through the means of struggle, so in order to demonstrate that the advancement of the gospel was God’s doing rather than a matter of human ingenuity (1 Cor. 1:29; 2 Cor. 4:7)

Third-this passage shows that when our joy is connected to the advancement of the gospel rather than to our physical condition or to the responses of other people to us, it remains firm, even when these circumstances stand against us.

MAIN IDEA: Remember Paul’s example. Nothing can stop the gospel from going forward. Paul stakes his life on that. He is in prison, false preachers abound yet gospel prevails.

You may have chains. it may come in the form of persecution from people for your faith, from personal struggles, but if you are living for the gospel, then God considers those to be the chains of Christ, the shackles of the Savior, God’s jewelry.

For full sermon from Pastor Craig click faithinactionrichlandcob.wordpress.com/phil-112-18a-gods-jewelry-christs-chains/

Philippians 1:1-11-Attention All Saints

Philipians 1:1-11-Attention All Saints

Like Joseph, Paul had known his fair share of struggles too, and it is with that in mind that we turn to our text here.

When Paul wrote Philippians, he was in prison awaiting trial whose outcome could mean his death.

Yet even among all that, Paul was thankful, and he was joyful, not because he was glad to be in prison, but because even as he lingered in his jail cell, even as the church in Philippi was persecuted, even from a worldly perspective that all seemed lost,

 …even then…the gospel of Jesus Christ was advancing! This good news could not be stopped for it was like a hurricane, blasting its way in changing everything it touched.

We may face struggles to live lives for Jesus, but you don’t need to sound the trumpet of surrender or retreat for we know and can testify that God is here, and HE has shown us ever since the cross and the empty tomb that He is on a rescue mission.

He is working to reclaim and renew everything. Do you remember when we looked in the beginning when God created everything and called it “good”?

Then humanity was created and said to God, our creator, “We’ll take it from here” and then fell into brokenness and sin.

That brokenness affected everything around us. Our bodies age and decay, our sense of reason, of justice, of love, mercy, even the creation itself is going through the effects of sin.

Yet, the Bible gives the good news: God demonstrates His own love in this, “that while we were still broken, still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God is on the move, putting into motion the plan to redeem all of creation; everything you see, and that is why Paul, and we, can be joyful, because God’s plan cannot be thwarted.

Three parts, and he stresses three items that we will examine: unity, faithfulness, and love.

In the Philippian church, they were all different, yes, but God had brought them together and they had no choice but to work in unity, because that is how they survived.

What makes us alike is deeper than what makes us different. We have been brought together by Christ in this place to worship him and do his work in the world.

In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials, liberty, in all things, community.

Unity=putting others’ interests ahead of your own and the gospel mission as top priority.

Part 1 is unity, Part 2 is faithfulness-What Paul means as “saints” is that we as Christians are a unified people that God has called out from among others and set apart, for a purpose.

Paul calls the Philippians this and calls all Christians this term saints, and it is to remind us of who we are and how we are to act in response.

We are God’s treasured possession. God is working in our lives, each one of us, AND He will bring it to completion.

What is my role? Your role, your loyalty, your faithfulness comes by picking up your cross daily and following

Paul tells the church of his prayer, and it is basically that their knowledge of God and their love for each other will steadily increase.

His desire is that they might express their love in ways that show both a knowledge of God’s will and how to make moral decisions in everyday life.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Unity in the church, loyalty to God, charity to one another

Use what you are good at & show one another & world your faith, for it is attracts outsiders and strengthens church

Paul took a simple letter, and he made it to preach the gospel to this church. Paul took every opportunity, used every means available to show Jesus.

We can do that too…Church let us get creative. We do not need to carry a pulpit everywhere we go, our culture today likes the visual arts, both for entertainment and a search for meaning. So let us perhaps explore the new possibilities of sharing the news, using methods in this time to promote the One who is timeless.

For Full Sermon, click this link Phil. 1:1-11-Calling All Saints!

An Attitude of Gratitude

Gen 41:50-57; Luke 17:11-19-An Attitude of Gratitude: 9/7/14

Happy Grandparents Day!

INTRO
With all of the deep truths seen in Joseph’s life, what we are going to look at today can be easily missed or glossed over.
It is something about Joseph’s life that shows an appropriate response to God’s blessings in it.

It is an attitude of gratitude.

THRUST
Even after all that Joseph has been through, he responds with an attitude that says, “I always want to remember the good things God has done for me.”

I know that life is difficult. I know it is hard to smile all the time when you are just having one of those days. I am not talking about a fake smile that you have to force. I am talking about inner gratitude and thankfulness that can sustain us in the deepest trials.

Joseph could have been bitter, or ungrateful. After all, he was abandoned, enslaved, betrayed, and estranged. He had a rough life, we know this, but do we find any hidden anger?

No, instead we find an attitude of gratitude. Again I urge you, look at the Genesis passage, and then ask yourself this? Why do parents give the names they do to their children? There is something powerful, something symbolic.

It is like “I want you to embody this in your life”. And every time you call out the name, you are reminded of just how and why you chose it.

Joseph chose two names that honored God’s work in his life. Those names were Manasseh and Ephraim. They were meant to remind Joseph of God.

God took away the pain and the suffering that Joseph experienced, and instead blessed him richly with mercy and grace.

In a way, does not this also reflect the life of us as Christians? When we place our trust in Jesus Christ, God takes away and also blesses.

He takes away our sins, and blesses us with freedom and new life. He takes away our wrongs, and blesses us with love.

He takes away our loneliness and blesses us with community. That is what we experience when we, like Joseph, refuse to walk away from God when times get tough.

God not only took the bad away but blessed Joseph with the good: wealth, love, and a family.

God takes our bad away, and blesses us with spiritual wealth, holy love, and a church family.

The only way I am convinced that someone can truly rise above trauma and struggle is with a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

I know that is how Joe did it, and that is how any of us can do it, and the right response to it is to be thankful, to have an attitude of gratitude.

God notices when we give Him praise and thank Him. People avoided lepers but Jesus pursued them.

This story teaches us that on average nine out of ten people suffer from ingratitude.

If you look at the good things in life as what you have earned, then may never be satisfied because there will always be that thirst in your soul, like trying to drink ocean water to quench thirst yet never being satisfied.

Rather if you look at the good things in your life as gifts from God, then you receive them with more joy, more humility, and more thankfulness.

Grateful people focus on what they have, instead of what they have-not.
Gratitude gets us through the hard stuff, the tough stuff, and to reflect on your blessings is to rehearse God’s accomplishments and to do that is to discover his heart

Like the sun burns up mist in the morning, our dread and bitterness is burned away.

Gratitude looks to God and away from dread, this is the bedrock for why we do things as Christians.

It should all spring out of an attitude of thanksgiving that even if God has not chosen to bless us with anything else…he gave us salvation in His Son because he simply loves us.

That is why we can be thankful and it is that reason, out of thankfulness to him, that we serve one another.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!
***An attitude of gratitude. Joseph had it. The Samaritan whom Jesus healed had it, and it is the response we should have. When we reflect on God’s goodness, we are thankful, when we are thankful, we are joyful, and when we are joyful, we serve one another, in love.

For full sermon, click http://faithinactionrichlandcob.wordpress.com/genesis-4150-57-luke-1711-19-an-attitude-of-gratitude/

A Series of Reflections Pt. 1

I have finished reading Philip Yancey’s book “The Jesus I Never Knew”, which is a culmination of Philip’s research into trying to look at Jesus and his own personal faith in a brand new light. This has inspired me to use the chapters he put forth in his book as a “jumping off points” for my own personal reflections that I hope as you read, you too may be inspired to go deeper with your walk with God.

“The Jesus I Thought I Knew”

The childhood image of Jesus, the gentle Shepherd, the one with no sharp edges at all, the Mr. Rogers figure, it is only part of who this Messiah, this Rabbi from Nazareth really was. These ideas are only part of a complete and robust picture of the Son of God. As much as we may be afraid to admit it, Jesus was controversial.

He had to be or else why was he put to death by powers and rejected by-and-large (though not completely) by people.

It is easy for our Western society to simply dismiss Jesus as being “a nice guy”, “Having many good ideas”, or as C.S. Lewis noted of the generous skeptics of his time, “a great moral teacher.” It is simple for us to say such notions for two reasons. First, most of us have grown up with a very safe Jesus. Second, Western society (by which I mean Europe and North America) was highly influenced by the teachings of Christianity, and some would argue it was outright built on them.

As the Roman Empire fell and Medieval Europe emerged, the presence of the church was one of the only constants. It provided a unifying thread throughout European and later North American society. So, it is easy to take values of a culture and project them back on to the Keystone of those values and say “ahh look how he upheld the values that we promote!”

Yet, we often fail to recognize the dilemma of circular reasoning here.

We are essentially saying that Jesus lived by our standards of uprightness without realizing they were not our standards to begin with but His!

Rather, we must transport our imaginations back to the days of first century Palestine and into the shoes of Jesus’ original hearers. Only then can we understand the emotions His words evoked from the audience who heard His teachings and saw His miracles. Once we do that, quite a different, or should I say, a more complete picture of Jesus emerges.

This Jesus still has many of the characteristics we have grown to adore. He is still compassionate, even if He shows compassion to “the outcast and the stranger”. He is still forgiving, even if it is to the worst of sinners in the land. He is still loving, even if it is a radical love that condemns both overt wickedness and religious hypocrisy and preaches a kingdom of God where both redeemed and sanctified priests as well as redeemed and sanctified prostitutes will sit at the same banquet table.

Why is the Church So Unlike Who Jesus Welcomed? Pt. 2

In my last blog post, I mentioned some thoughts and reflections I had gleaned upon reading Philip Yancey’s book, “The Jesus I Never Knew” which prompted a thoughtful response. One danger that I have found as a writer (and it is one I should have known) is that those who are close to you can read your work and think it is directed at a specific individual or group. So with that being said, let me offer a few disclaimers.

1) Throughout these postings, it is never my intention to press hot buttons (Jesus does enough of that already to all of us and frankly does not need my help). I always advise believers, don’t be controversial just for its own sake. If you are living the life of a disciple in the world, controversy will provably find you, but relax and take courage; it found Jesus too.

2) I am a pastor, Bible scholar, and theologian, and although the three of those intermingle when I am acting as the pastor in service to the church, they do not when I write this blog or anything else dealing with technology. In other words, I strive to never log on to here, Facebook, or any other social media outlets and “vent” about church, life, my fellow Christians in my church or anything else; it is cowardly and does nothing to help at conflict mediation or resolution. Take it from this former youth pastor, if you want to stoke fires, call someone out over the internet.

I only write these posts to get people thinking about how we as Christians live as faithful disciples (in other words “do church”) in a way both faithful to Scripture and engaging in culture. So with that as an intro, let me share with you some insights that were given to me in relation to my former post that can keep this conversation going.

Pastors keep telling us to go log hours on the streets of inner cities, but I don’t believe God is calling me there, and besides I don’t even live near a city!The concern is certainly valid. Inner city poverty is given more coverage than most instances of rural poverty (or many other rural needs for that matter). So the trap several pastors including myself fall into is thinking those who are hurting physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually are only in the inner cities. What we forget is that local church impact starts on the local level. It often starts with building relationships with our neighbors and being intentional disciples with our friends. I have seen many churches put into practice Jesus’ words which say that, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem (local), Judea and Samaria (a bit less local) and all the ends of the earth” (global). These churches first start off with missions in their local communities and families and then begin to move outward from there. We may not all be called to inner-city work, but my thrust-point is that we are all ministers, and we may be called by God to look at our own local communities as our mission field.

I invited a family to church and yet the pastor preaches about going outside a social circle when doing evangelism and finding people you aren’t comfortable with. I mean I am bringing people in my social circle. I know they may not look like your typical “undesirable”, but I know they need Jesus! I agree with this sentiment also, there is much more I could say here, giving both the pastor’s and congregation members’ respective viewpoints, but let me be succinct. The statement has merit. We all need the savior daily in our lives whether you have been saved for nine seconds or ninety years. It is easy to pigeonhole people we view as “undesirables” (a.k.a. “the down and outers”) and specifically go after them while ignoring the secret hurts, brokenness, and wrongdoings of our neighbors, friends, or colleagues. Whether we speak of ourselves, our neighbors in need, or our jet-setting affluent best married friend with a hidden gambling addiction or a secret mistress, we all need to humbly come to the cross of Christ to find life.

From the pastor’s side, I don’t think it is a requirement to always go outside your comfort bubble while ignoring those closer to you who still need Jesus. Rather, my encouragement is that of caution to all of us including myself) never to “rest on our hands” or think “well witnessing, sharing Jesus, and inviting others to church is someone else’s responsibility”. No, rather it is a joy all of us have the privilege to do because we are all Christians.

My pastor comes off as saying I should be always welcoming strangers and visitors in my church into my home, to eat with me, but there are scary people in this world, and I have a family with small children to protect. Now, in all fairness, this individual also added, “the world has hardened me and I need prayer for that”. I appreciate the honesty, and I think we all do. So because they were humble yet bold, allow me to return the favor by meeting them halfway.

I am a single man with no family living with me and very little in my home even worth stealing, so it is very easy for me to make the mistake of “pointing out the speck before pulling out the plank” (Matt. 7:1-5). My purpose in encouraging others in this regard is not to put loved ones or families in a position to be victimized. Far from it! Rather it is meant to call for creative ways to look at “the stranger in our midst” and to say “you matter to us”.

I did not go to church for a month to see if anyone noticed, they didn’t. All I can say in response to this is on behalf of all pastors everywhere, “I’m sorry and you do matter.”

My focus in ministry as a pastor, writer, theologian, etc. has always been within two categories: evangelism and discipleship. Evangelism that is led by the Holy Spirit tells us to “go forth and make” by looking outside the local church body to seek and find and bring them into salvation through Christ. Once they are in, discipleship builds them up and equipage them to then turn around to do evangelism, bring in, disciple, send out, and the cycle repeats.

As a pastor with a heart of evangelism, I confess that it is easy for me to get “tunnel vision” when I focus more on the former (evangelism) at the expense of the later (discipleship). I as a pastor along with fellow Christians have a responsibility to do both. The best model I have seen to do church growth has been that of an upside-down pyramid. It starts at the bottom with the point of the pyramid (one person) discipling two who then turn around and disciple two more each who in turn do two more and it grows exponentially.

There are many advantages to this method:
1) It is built on heat and not just light meaning there are deep roots cultivated by relationships that last.

2) It obliges us to be genuine with each other and the world to whom we witness by reminding us that we too depend on the Holy Spirit.

3) The pyramid-relationship model takes the burden off the shoulders of a few and rather than force it as an obligation, it becomes a joy in which we ALL participate

4) It keeps relationships strong so we are seeking the lost without forgetting each other in the local church. Evangelism meets discipleship.

Finally, the insights that we shared came from a perspective of frustration that the pastors of those churches came across as too harsh, judgmental, or with a haughty attitude from the pulpit of “you’re not doing enough for this church”. All I can do here is offer a few tips I have tried to remember and incorporate into my own life.

1) Pastors do discern truth through God’s Word, but rather than present only a checklist of wrongs and shortcomings, instead they are teachers and witnesses of God’s power to give new life in dead places, even within the human heart and mind. The joyful responsibility of a pastor is to cast God’s vision for their local church and then encourage, challenge, and invite others to join in making the vision a reality.

2) A way to ease frustrations from congregations geared toward pastors is for the pastor to be humble, recognizing I too am a beloved mess, a broken son redeemed by the one true King. It reminds the church that the pastor is human as much as they are, and it reminds the pastor to have the heart of a servant instead of a tyrant. (Even Peter, as prominent as he was, still addressed the church he wrote to as “your fellow elder”).

3) Finally, I as the pastor must be willing to match words with action, setting the example to the best of my ability, for the church to follow. In other words (no pun intended) to “practice what I preach”. The Holy Spirit has convicted me in the last year to do a few tactics when I preach a sermon. First, rather than saying “you, you, you”, address the congregation as “we” because it stresses that we are a body, a family, and that we are all in this together. Second, do not ever preach for them to do something without being willing to do it yourself, and if you are going to preach to them about that something, confess your struggles to them to live it out. Third, be Jesus to them.

A story I continually come back to again and again is when Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus willingly submits to His Father’s plan, yet Peter (thinking he was doing God’s will) pulls out his sword and strikes the ear of the high priest’s servant. Jesus heals the man, and turns around and rebukes Peter (His “church”) and says strongly “put it away, we are not doing things that way!”. Often I have had to examine myself and ask, “When have I been Peter?”

Rest assured something if you read this (and if you have made it this far after such a long post, my hat’s off to you)…Jesus can heal people that even his church (and yes even His pastors) have wounded. Remember, we all bow the knee.

Why is Church So Unlike Who Jesus Welcomed? Pt. 1

I have recently read a chapter out of Philip Yancey’s book, The Jesus I Never Knew that challenged me (actually stirred in me a deep realization): The people Jesus sought to save are the undesirables that we still so often avoid in our lives and remain at the fringes of our churches. To the average person, unfamiliar with church, the confusion is understandable. 1) Jesus spent time with publicans, “sinners”, the downtrodden, etc. 2) Jesus tell us to “go and do likewise” and “as the Father has sent Me so now I send you”. 3) We claim to follow Jesus. 4) We don’t, for whatever reason, spend time out in the world trying to impact the undesirables, and we struggle welcoming them into our churches.

 

I think the onlooker sees a short in the circuit between parts 3 and 4…rightfully so.

 

I have heard many reasons for this, some good and well-meaning. “Well, we do not want their evil influence to rub off on us!” (Never mind the good influence that God can rub off on them). “Well, Jesus teaches we should be in the world but not of it.” (For this, the answer lies in re-arranging the word order, for it is just as easily argued He taught us to not be of the world but in it). Other reasons are much simpler in nature but reveal much about our character if we are truly honest with ourselves, “Oh I just plainly don’t like those people”, or “That type of person makes me uncomfortable.” 

 

Christ had very simple instructions in that regard…Put Love Into Action.

 

My denomination has often boldly proclaimed that the only creed we have and follow is the New Testament itself, yet we often are no better than anyone else at living out the example Jesus left us. My question here is “Why?” and the question is rhetorical. 

 

We already have all we need to make a secure and steadfast witness for the gospel. Jesus has given us Himself in the Holy Spirit and His truth in the Scriptures. He has also blessed us with encouragement and love from the local church. What more do we need? We cannot be afraid to go to the places Jesus went, especially if they make us uncomfortable. Every once in a while you might have someone stumble into church some random Sunday, but if that is our only method of evangelism, than we are not utilizing all of our God-given resources. 

 

We keep trying to say “come in”, but the Holy Spirit says to us “go out”. After all, Christ promised us, “The Harvest is plentiful” (Matt. 9:37). Let us act boldly and take the initiative to be Jesus by boldly going where He went. A life authentically lived for the kingdom of God is one of the most effective ways of witnessing. People will see Jesus when they look at you.

 

Do not take this lightly, for you may be the only example of Jesus someone ever sees. 

 

Stay tuned.

Reflections of a Ginger Theologian: Nigeria and Human Trafficking

What is happening in Nigeria and why should we as disciples of Christ care? 

It has been over a month since a group of 300 girls and young women were kidnapped in Nigeria. To date, many are still unaccounted for and few have escaped captivity. As tragic as this all has been in and of itself, my personal interest was piqued when one of the captors announced to the world his intent to traffick the victims and that “Allah” commanded him to do this. No doubt this statement will create more discussions and commentary about the religion of Islam (for me that will be saved for another blog post for another time). 

For now, this blog input focuses on justice…Holy Justice. 

Many do not think the Bible speaks to situations like the one unfolding in Nigeria, but a quick look at the whole of Scripture shows otherwise. Justice for the oppressed and freedom from slavery are two themes throughout God’s story of redemption that He takes very, very seriously. What follows is God’s response to heinous acts of tyranny and exploitation.

Starting from Genesis, the beginning of the story, God did not create man to rule over other men. Instead He has created all human beings equally, and both male and female bear His image. Along these same lines, all of us are broken by the chief tyrant of all humanity: sin. It has marred and tore at all of us, and because we “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, none of us have the right or prerogative to rule over others because we are to all recognize that God is the ultimate ruler of man. 

Continuing on with the story, one of the most pronounced statements of God’s view of slavery occurs in the liberation of Israel from Egypt. Not only does God ransom His people from bitter bondage, but even the laws that He gives them afterwards (even in the treatment of their own future servants) are always grounded in the awareness of “you were once slaves in Egypt”. Israel and all who follow the true God of the universe are called to stand against the exploitation of others because freedom from slavery of all kinds is at the heart of the Lord.

There are a few prime examples of this in the specific commandments of God’s laws, in ideas within Israel’s Psalms, and in the indictments of the Hebrew prophets, all of these are found in the Old Testament. 

God’s Laws-After Israel was freed from slavery, God gave them commandments and statutes to keep them from exploiting each other for wealth and greed (or any other way). In Deut. 14 and 15, it discusses a concept know as “Jubilee” where debts were to be forgiven and slaves of economic debt were given the chance to be released. There are countless other laws within this code that commands masters, if they are to own slaves, to treat their slaves fairly, as brother Jews. God may have tolerated certain forms of slavery within the Old Testament past, His ideal and goal for which His people were to strive was the freedom and betterment of their neighbor in all situations. 

Israel’s Psalms-These verses in the “spiritual songs” of Israel’s worship talked about how God is the provider. As followers of God, we are called to bear His image of “Provider” to those we see in our world who are victims, and also to pray for their persecutors. We cannot claim to worship the true God who bears the aforementioned title without also following in His example.

Finally, we have the last part of the Old Testament: the Prophets. Although I could cite many other examples, but I call your attention to the entire book of Amos! It is worth considering this fact: God inspired one prophet to have an entire text dedicated to how His people were to treat those who were needy and oppressed!

Moving from the Old Testament to the New, Jesus had a great deal to say about “the least of these”. Although there has been some debate about who “the least of these” are, it is not a stretch to imagine they would include any who suffer from injustice, slavery, oppression. The point is sharp in Matt. 25:31-46. He is represented in the least of these, and anything done or not done to help alleviate their suffering is as if we were treating our Lord in a similar manner.

This is “Holy Justice”. It is not to ask that punishment be dealt to the guilty, but that restoration and freedom would come to the captives. God calls all people to live in relationship with Him, which means complete forgiveness of sin, freed of its tyranny in all forms. It is our duty to proclaim and live that message out in our lives, showing people in our communities and our world what it means to live New Life in Jesus our Lord, our King. 

The implication is clear: It is the will of God for those who claim to love Him to show this love by their actions not simply their words. 

What does this have to do with the kidnapped girls in Nigeria. Sexual slavery and trafficking is one of the worst forms of human degradation because it robs a person of their God-given dignity, and uses sinful acts of evil to scar them. We as Christians are called to fight injustice wherever we see it, not to turn aside, but to stand alongside these victims to speak up on their behalf, to remind an uncaring world that the same God who created and redeemed us is identical to the One who created and redeemed them as well.

Get involved somehow. Whether it is raising awareness, talking about it in your churches, calling your local government representatives, filing petitions, ANYTHING you can think about, do it!

Anything less than this is cowardice, and Jesus Christ did not purchase our salvation for us to be cowardly.