Hearts: a Sunday Vignette

Katie sat in church, wondering why she was the only one with doubts and struggles. Life was so hard. Did God really love her? If He did, why didn't she feel like it? And if God loves me, why do I have to work so hard to get what everyone else already has? Peace and joy. Is that too much to ask?

Ryan sat ahead of her, wishing those kids would stop jostling long enough for him to keep a train of thought. I'm trying to worship, for crying out loud! What was wrong with their parents? Didn't they know church was for sober thought, reflection, and awe? This was his one shot at worship and they were ruining it. Next time he'd sit somewhere else.

Jane was afraid. Afraid people would see who she really was. She never did anything right. Her husband said so and she had the bruises to prove it. What if everyone knows? They would say the same things he did. She would never hear the end of it. Never be safe.

Courtney sat alone; felt alone. The more she needed people the more they avoided her. She didn't know how to reach out, how to get past herself. No one cares anyway. Why would they?

Jim smoldered in the pew. Half a handshake. Wimpy fingers, insecurity. He expected to be treated like the man he was. He'd caught his coat in the car door in the parking lot and looked like a fool. Life was fight. Always had been. Always would be.

Karen admired her new shoes. What a miracle! They matched her purse perfectly. Sue would absolutely die of envy. Speak of the devil. "Sue! Sue! Did you hear about the sale at Dillards? You're never going to believe how much I paid for these adorable shoes."

Dan thought of nothing. He'd made it to church; a little hungry, no time for breakfast. Lunch would be worth waiting for. Nothing. Sing. Nothing. Yeah.

Erin's hair was arranged nicer than usual. She hadn't missed any buttons this morning and remembered to polish her shoes the night before. She was ready to worship. Distractions aside, heart free, thoughts focused. Others saw a gray woman, wrinkled and worn, chunky black loafers, sagging hose, aged cardigan. But her heart--her heart had been meeting regularly with the Master. Each morning, she looked into His face, saw her poor reflection and prayerfully made adjustments. Little by little, hour by hour, she shifted her thoughts, fed kindling to the flame of desire for her Lord, and rearranged her choices. In the darkness of the night, when fear crept out of the dark, she brandished the torch of truth and hummed quiet tunes of praise. She didn't see people the way they saw her. Free from judgment, fear, need, she saw the hurt, fear, loneliness, anger, despair and she prayed, loving them, loving her Lord.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:1-17)

Jesus Has Left the Building... Or Has He? (with Guest-Writer, Brittany Whitcher)

Our teenage daughter was unusually snappy a couple of weeks ago; distant, reserved, short. Instead of addressing it, I decided to pray, observe, and wait. And guess what? It wasn't her, it was me. I was distracted, giving her little time, little attention, little care. Words were not enough. I would have to prove I loved her by giving up something valuable--just for her--again and again. I did. And she responded. How did I know it would work? I followed a great example: God.

God showed His love for me by sacrificing His greatest treasure--Jesus, the most valuable asset in the universe--to meet my need. I have no way to come to Him; I cannot earn His favor or grace, but because of Jesus, I no longer face condemnation and judgment. Now that I belong to Him, He has given me the ability, by His Spirit, to love others.

Here's a  jump that could put some of you on the defensive. That's not my intent, so please hear me out.

Christians--fundamental, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring, conservatives (we know who we are)--when people around us are snappy, maybe it's because we aren't loving them the way God loves us. Yes, the gospel is offensive. But look. Stop, look, and ask, "What am I sacrificing to meet _______'s  needs?" Personally, I don't have this nailed down and I never will. Pride rears its ugly head over and over and I struggle to be like Jesus--but despite personal failures, our family strives to love our community, neighbors, and schools. They are our friends, classmates, fellow parents, and community. We know them, pray for/with them, and give of ourselves because of Jesus.

So here's what's been rolling around in my noggin. How many school shootings, bullying issues, drug overdoses, and suicides could be averted if more authentic, Jesus-filled students attended public school? If you hear yourself saying, "That's not my problem," I think there's something bigger going on.

But if you love your neighbor as yourself, if you want a different, God-honoring neighborhood, community, and society, think about how God could use you to love others. What does it look like when compassionate Christ-filled students sit with lonely, rejected, hurting ones? When praying students walk to and from class silently lifting up teachers, support staff, and students? When thoughtful students meet for Bible study or prayer once a week (yes, they can)? When caring students ask questions, see needs, and look for answers? I'm here to tell you if they don't, someone else will. Confused, hurting, and needy people prey on confused, hurting, and needy...creating a cycle of self-destruction.

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What if godly, caring parents were in classrooms, interacting with teachers, diligently praying, serving students, going on field trips, getting involved in school boards, holding after-school Bible clubs? What if someone cared? Someone with real answers? Someone who offered the lifeline of Jesus--only Jesus--because they lived, looked, and acted like Him? What would our society look like if people of hope intersected hopelessness? If joy took on despondency? If freedom encountered slavery? If love, people of love, simply cared?

Society has not taken God out of schools. We have. Christians. Parents. And we still are. But Jesus has not left the building.

Anywhere God's children reside, He is there. Our children do not go to school alone. He is with them. Their family and church are praying with and for them; they know what's going on and offer support. Christian children in public schools grow in their dependence for God, their love of others, and their knowledge of personal sin.

If you are a parent you may ask, "What about our kids?" Listen to the voice of Brittany Whitcher, daughter of David and Melissa, who wrote this paper as a school assignment for her high school English class:

Our Purpose is the People: What I’ve Learned In a Public School by Brittany Whitcher

I spent the first several years of my life as the typical Christian homeschooled kid. My parents were missionaries, and we traveled around the country almost constantly. My mom would teach us in a little room in the corner of our house, and the only kids I ever saw were the children at churches or the ones I passed in the grocery store. 
The real, unsaved world was foreign to me, and an environment I never believed I would really be submerged in. When we moved to Texas and I was enrolled in a public school, I was in for a huge perspective change. 

The Wrong View
As a child, I took to heart the admonishments of my Sunday School teachers: “Be careful who you are friends with!” and “Don’t let the world influence you while you spread the Gospel!” I interpreted this mostly as, “Stay away from the unsaved, unless you are immediately witnessing to them!” 
Without knowing it, I had developed an erroneous but understandable fear of, and even a sort of disgust for those who were not saved. 
I never saw myself as mean. I was kind to everyone, and those who were kind to me in return became my friends. But when I saw someone acting up, doing what I had always been taught was wrong, I watched from the sidelines in horror and steered clear of them. 
There is nothing wrong with avoiding sin and trying to dodge destructive relationships. However, it does become wrong when we begin to despise and fear the people. Even up until recently, I found myself almost hating those who were rude, disrespectful, and obviously unsaved. 

The Godly View
I didn’t realize how much I despised my fellow classmates and how wrong I was until I was reminded of a verse from Matthew. Jesus, in the midst of His ministry and being assaulted with hatred from the Pharisees and religious Jews, looks out upon the people, and has compassion on them. 

‘But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”’   Matthew 9:36-38

Wow. Though Jesus had every reason in the world to despise the Jews for consistently disobeying God, and though he knew that they would all deny Him and cry out for His death, He looked at them and felt compassion for them. He saw the crowds, lost with no purpose in life, no true happiness, and no loving God to guide and care for them, and He pitied them.
Now, Jesus by no means loved their sin. He hates sin. The Bible says that those who sin are at enmity with God. The question is, does He want any man to be His enemy? Certainly not! Do not forget the widespread, moving verse:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him, should not perish, but have eternal life.”    John 3:16

With these verses in mind, I now see my classmates in a very different light. That one boy, with a problem with authority and a foul mouth? How sad and pointless his life must be! That one person, so obviously addicted to drugs? What hopelessness and hunger for more must have led them to seek solace in such a substance! They may not see their own lives in so harsh a light, but it is true. Without God, we are every one deprived and helpless. 
By what leaps and bounds would our ministry grow if we saw every sinner as God sees them! 

The Reason Behind the Sin

Upon coming to the realization that my entire viewpoint on my fellow man was wrong, I began to wonder: why do we let ourselves be so blinded to the truth?

The only answer I could come up with was this:

Pride.

We are proud of being Christian. We take pride in the fact that we know what is sin and that we avoid the atrocities of the world. We look at our Christian upbringing with pride, and admiringly examine our daily Bible and prayer time. The fact that they would choose to do what is so obviously wrong automatically makes us see them as beneath us. 

To sum it up, we show off the gift that was given to us freely, which we really did not deserve. We take pride in the fact that we simply accepted salvation. We brag about God’s endless work in us, which we could never accomplish ourselves. We look back upon our upbringing which we had no way of controlling and shake our heads at those who were not so fortunate or blessed. 

If God were to take away what He had freely bestowed upon us, and is abundantly willing to bestow upon anyone else, we would be just as bad as them, if not worse. 

So, it is nothing other than pride that causes us to hate the unsaved and look down upon the lost.

Our Purpose

So what do we do now? 

We understand that our previous bitter views stem from irrational pride.

We see that the unsaved are no worse than us, and that if we are truly being Christlike, we will love them and have compassion on them.

What comes next?

Notice the last few sentences of the passage from Matthew. Jesus says that there are not enough laborers to take in the blooming harvest. 

In other words, there are plenty of people out there who need to be saved, and who would be saved, but there are not enough Christians out there labouring in the field of souls, working to lead the hearts of men to the threshing floor of the cross. 

So, what is our purpose when we are thrown out into the world? What should we be doing while we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses? 

The answer is simple. 

The people are our purpose. We should be always receptive to the Holy Spirit, constantly looking for opportunities to share the amazing love of God with the people we come in contact with. We were put on this earth to glorify God, and what better way to do so than by bringing more men and women to an awareness of His glory and wondrous gift? 

Lord, open our eyes so that we see the people as You see them: lost, as sheep without a shepherd. Help us to recognize our purpose and pursue it. Give us a burden for the people, we pray, and enable us to spread the Gospel lovingly and unashamedly, labouring diligently to bring in the harvest of souls.

If you believe God can use you, your children, and your family to love your community through the public school system, pray, do your homework, and get ready for a great adventure!

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders?  (1 Corinthians 5:9-12)

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17)

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:15-19)

Overcoming Sin: A Practical Guide

I was starting to notice a lack of self-discipline in a number of areas of my life. Maybe you're familiar with the I-don't-like-myself-when-I-do-that feelings. Pair that with sideways glances from others and, if you're like me, you know it's time to take action. God's Spirit and Word have brought conviction, others have affirmed it, and it's up to me to cooperate with God's process of change.

Sin can be addressed with many different passages of Scripture but the process is the same: stop practicing sinful behavior, renew the mind, and start practicing God-pleasing behavior (Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:8-10, Romans 12:1-2).

With that in mind, I pulled out a step-by-step guide from 2 Peter and reminded myself of these truths:

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV)

I can enjoy and live a vibrant spiritual life, the life of God Himself, by knowing, clinging to and applying my knowledge of God. How?

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8 NIV)

Faith, (Greek pistis: conviction of truth, belief). It all begins with faith. The book of Hebrews says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). That same verse says faith believes 1) God is who He says He is and 2) He will do what He says He will do. What does God say about my current thoughts, attitudes and behavior? Do they reflect faith or unbelief? Do I honestly believe God will allow me to suffer the consequences? I'd better believe it.

Goodness (NIV), virtue (NKJV), moral excellence (NASB), (Greek arête: a virtuous course of thought, feeling and action”). Once I examine my faith and understand what God says about my sin, am I willing to obey? Do I agree that God’s idea is a more excellent idea than mine? That my disobedience is wrong? Do I want to do good? When I don’t want to change, I am learning to ask God for help. He wants what is best, which is why He's convicting me. I need to ask Him to help me repent—to turn away from what I want and toward what He wants.

Knowledge (Greek gnosis: understanding, moral wisdom). Once I'm convicted of my sinful behavior and committed to God’s good purpose, I must figure out how to apply it. What needs to change? How? What practical steps can I take to reach my goal of change? Keep a more orderly house? How? Lose weight? How? Say no to addictive substances or relationship? How? What kind of tools are available?Whatever the struggle, no matter what the sin, this is where I need to come up with a nuts-and-bolts plan.

Self-control (Greek egkrateia: to master desires and passions). Now that I have a plan, I must do it, exercise it, work it out. Prayerfully, dependently, I am called to learn and apply what I know to my desire for change, believing God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.

Perseverance (Greek hupomone: steadfastness, constancy, endurance).  I can’t do it once and be done. I have to apply self-control over and over and over. This is yet another opportunity to cry out to God, trust, and obey.  When I fail (and I will), I must go back to the beginning and work my way through each step, looking for weakness. Did I get tripped up because of unbelief? A wrong motive? Weakness in the plan? Or failure to execute the plan?

Godliness (Greek eusebeia: reverence, piety toward God). As I gain ground and taste success, I must stop and check my motives. Who am I doing this for? Myself or God? And who is getting the credit for change? Myself or God? Am I growing in godliness or selfishness?

Mutual affection (NIV), brotherly kindness (NKJV, NASB) (Greek philadelphia: love of brothers or sisters). As I grown in godliness, I need to check my relationship with others. Am I preferring others ahead of myself? Or is my focus on personal growth and change? As God works to put off my sinful nature and put on Christlikeness, I should become more aware others, not less aware.

Love (Greek agape: affection, good will, benevolence). The goal of change is greater love for God and others evidenced in personal sacrifice and service. The sin struggle which once brought death, slavery, and an inability to glorify God will, in Christ, produce life, freedom, liberty, and glory always, only to our great and awesome God.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:4-11 NIV)