Anger vs Hatred

Matthew 5:21-24

Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Ancient Israel is in chaos! King David has fled the palace, and his son has taken the throne. In this chaos, a traitor emerges, his name is Ahithophel, and he was David's advisor, but switches sides and begins advising Absalom. His advice is astonishing. 

Let's recap.

1. Ahithophel tells Absalom that he should go and erhm David's concubines. This way Israel can see that David has been insulted beyond reconciliation. This would then cause them to back Absalom. Absalom did that, and he did it with a tent on the roof so that all might see that tent and know what was going down. (2 Samuel 16:15-23)

2. Ahithophel tells Absalom that he should let him take 12'000 men and run David down that night while he's tired and discouraged. He says he would only kill the king, and return the people like a bride returns to her husband. Like a bride returning to her husband eh? Hold that thought.  (2 Samuel 17:1-4)

3. Ahithophel's advice was not followed the second time... Hmm, well, so it goes, a king has a mind of his own, nothing persona.....wait a sec...Ahithophel when realizing that he didn't get to kill David hung himself. What the...? Why? (2 Samuel 17:23) 

Well, remember David's very bad no good situation with Bathsheba? That was a big sin, and the ramifications went further than just David, Bathsheba, and her poor husband. Imagine this. You raise a son, you pour into him, and raise him the ways of God as you understand them. For over 15 years you raised him, and you strive for a great prosperous family line. A  line of blessing. Your son grows up, and he finds himself the love of his life. They start a life together, and they have a beautiful girl. Now you're a grandpa. Your granddaughter is the most beautiful girl in the Kingdom. You watch her grow into a beautiful woman. You watch your granddaughter meet the love of her life, and start a life together, yes, the generations of family blessing are going well, but then, the king notices your granddaughter Bathsheba... Yes, you read that right. Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandpa! (2 Samuel 11:3 and 2 Samuel 23:34) What would you do to such a king?  

There are 2 types of things at play in the text above as spoken by Jesus, there are physical things and inward things. let's break them down.

The physical. 

1. Human life is sacred. Don't murder people. 

2. Insults. Don't call someone an "air-headed idiot." I admit that is tempting sometimes...

We understand those physical acts as being wrong. It's ingrained in any of us who have the slightest interest in God's ways. Now, what about that inward thing in between those 2 things? That inward thing has to do with anger, being provoked by a fellow person in your life which I believe is what "brother" means here. Yet, it's not just any anger, it's an anger that has no good reason for existing. It's anger "without cause". So, this is how I see it. In the case of Ahithophel, the cause was David's sin. There was righteous anger to be had/felt over David's sin, and at David for agreeing with this sin. Then, that cause was dealt with. Yet, Ahithophel's anger at David remained. Now, it was personal. He hated David the person. It was this personal anger at another person that was at the root of the matter. Given time to fester, it boiled over with the loss of life. This anger got Absalom killed. Can you imagine the power of Ahithophel's counsel had he given a cautionary word to Absalom and advised against revolting against David? Perhaps Absalom would have listened. Perhaps not, but, history doesn't show us that, because, Ahithophel's personal cause-less anger remained, long after the anger with cause's time had passed. This anger eventually and ultimately destroyed the carrier of it. 

No matter how grievously I have been wronged by any one person, there is never a good/healthy reason to carry a kind of anger towards that person that involves that person directly. This kind of anger is self-destructive. It doesn't work. A just/righteous anger handled in obedience to the will of God is a whole different matter. That would be anger with cause. Other words might be, "moral outrage" "righteous indignation" etc. When the anger crosses from a focus on appropriately dealing with the cause and focus on hatred for a person made by God, that's where a line has been crossed. Or, to put it simply, there is such a thing as anger at an act, and there is such a thing as hatred. Really, anger without cause is hatred. Anger at an act can co-exist with love for the "actor." Hatred cannot co-exist with love for the person who is hated. 

Let's say you have a gift, and you want to give it to the Lord as a sacrifice. As a Jew, it was some fine animal. As a New-Covenant disciple, it's probably some spiritual gift, maybe a song, a sermon, writing, or any act of service. If in doing this good work, God shows you that not all is right between you and another, then it is the Lord's desire for there to be peace. That peace may mean that you die inside. It might mean that you eat a thing known as "humble pie." It might mean that you choose to love a person whose deeds you desperately hate. It might mean that while your flesh calls out for some dire consequence to fall on him, you choose to do nothing instead. I don't know what it means for you. I don't even know what it means for me yet. All I know is, surrender it, and with that, this has been...

Chapter 17 of Surrender!? To Who?

Differential Technologies

This will attempt to demystify differentials and traction systems for those who are not mechanically inclined. 

What is a differential? A differential in this context is essentially a small gearbox that receives power from the transmission in the vehicle and then sends that power in 2 directions out to each of the wheels on either side of it, but it also allows the 2 wheels to turn at different speeds when needed. The key upside to a differential is when you make a turn, the tire that is on the outside of the turn, say, if you turn left, the right tire, must travel further than the left tire, on the inside of the turn in this scenario. A differential allows both tires to roll at the speed needed without one tire scooting or spinning. The downside is this when you encounter a situation where one tire, for example, the left is on ice, and the right is on dry pavement, it is hard for the vehicle to move because the differential sends equal torque to both wheels, but the amount of torque sent is the amount required to spin the tire with the least amount of traction. Torque is twisting force, and it's important to get enough torque to the rear tires. Enough torque means the rear tires can spin/twist and the vehicle can move forward. Now, back to the ice patch scenario. If the torque required for the left tire to spin on ice is not enough torque to make the vehicle move forward, you are stuck. Because, the right-side tire is only getting the same amount of torque as the left-side tire, no more. This is the scenario that all the traction aids have been created to deal with. Let's look at them now.

Locking differential: To understand a locker, it helps to understand a spool. A spool does the same thing as a differential in that it takes power from the transmission and sends it out to both rear tires. However, it mechanically locks the rear tires together. The downside is, when you turn, 1 tire will either spin or scoot. The upside is, that it sends equal torque to both wheels as well, but it sends the amount required to spin the tire with the most traction. Back to the ice patch scenario. The right side tire on the pavement gets enough torque to turn on the pavement. The left side tire on the ice is mechanically locked to the right side and turns at the same speed, with no excess wheel spin. Now, a locking differential is essentially a differential that can switch from being a differential to being a spool. Manual lockers are ones where the operator of the vehicle decides when the switch happens. Automatic lockers are ones where it goes into spool mode whenever it thinks it needs to, based on circumstances, or vice versa. Auto lockers can be pretty rough and unpredictable, so I prefer manual lockers. 

Limited-Slip differential: A limited-slip differential will have a clutch pack or 2 inside the case that pulls together on the 2 sides of the differential to gradually connect the 2 rear wheels. It will vary this connection somewhere in between a differential and a spool. If the clutching is strong enough, it can function like a spool but is prone to overheat if this is done too long. This style differential is nicer than an automatic locker in many cases because it has the same convenience benefits, but is usually smoother, and some can manually lock on request as well. 

Torsen differential: These are often called Torsen, named after the company who invented them, but they are a type of limited-slip that uses gears to multiply torque. In the ice patch scenario again, if it required 10 lbs of torque to spin the left tire on ice, a Torsen would within the blink of an eye send about 25 lbs (varies based on design) to the other tire on pavement. If 25lbs is enough, away you go. If not, you are still stuck unless you know a trick. That trick is to push on the brake pedal and the gas pedal at the same time. Now with the brakes applied, it might take 1'000 lbs of torque to turn the tire on ice, and so the Torsen sends 2'500 lbs to the tire on pavement, and since that's probably going to be enough, away you go. Having to drive with 2 feet on occasion is the only real downside to a Torsen that I can see. 

Traction Control: Traction control is an electronic aid that is not in the differential like the other types are. Traction control does 2 things. 1. Brake the wheel on the ice patch. In a standard differential, equal torque is sent to both wheels, and it's the amount equal to the wheel with the least traction like we see in the ice patch scenario. This braking action by traction control forces more torque onto the wheel on the pavement. 2. Cut engine power to drastically reduce wheelspin. 

Brake Limited Slip: This is a feature inside the logic of traction control. Most car makers can do it but only a few have truly mastered it in my opinion. When brake limited-slip is activated, it measures the speeds on the tires on both sides of the differential. If one is faster, it brakes that one. It does not reduce engine power. So, the tires can spin as fast as they want as long as both tires are spinning at the same speed. In the ice patch scenario. Brake limited slip would brake the tire on the ice and force torque to go to the tire on pavement. The vehicle would carry on with only a quick interruption or pause. The reason this is called brake limited-slip is that it does almost the same thing as a conventional limited-slip differential but does so with the wheel brakes. Downsides to this? Well, it could be hard on your brake pads, also, since it isn't actually mechanically in the differential, you'd hope your specific brand with this feature is one of the few that knows how to program it properly. 

Concluding thoughts: 

For performance vehicles, it is hard to argue with Torsen or limited-slip differentials for overall track cornering ability. You have the easy turning of a differential when entering a corner, and then equalized power across the car when trying to power out of the corner again. 

For normal road driving when nothing is going wrong in your word, traction control is a nice safety net against sliding on wet or snowy roads, but if you actually are stuck, its abilities are very limited. 

For off-roading, it's really hard to argue against a spool when it comes to traction. Manual lockers give you the ability to have a spool off-road and a differential on-road or when making turns, so, ultimately, that's pretty sweet for something like a Bronco or a Wrangler to have. 

For vehicles that are all-rounders, like pickup trucks and utility SUVs, the 3 different kinds of limited-slip differentials have their place. 

Brake Limited Slip is amazing when it's programmed correctly. It can outperform mechanical limited-slip on rock crawling situations if it's programmed correctly. 

So, You Want Unity?

In Ephesians 4, Paul states that we should walk worthy, keep the unity of the Spirit, and then later adds that eventually we are to all come into a unity of the faith, and knowledge, of the son of God. If you wish, please look up and read all of Ephesians 4 for yourself to get the complete context so that I don't give you the wrong impression. Unity in our church is good, a division in our church is bad, we seem to all agree, but, who is being divisive here? To parse that out, let's examine the history of the church a little, shall we? 

Church Period 1: 

Jesus has ascended. The disciples receive the Holy Spirit and morph into hardcore radical apostles, spreading the gospel of the Kingdom in its totality throughout the empire. This teaching involves the concept of 2-Kingdoms. God's Kingdom is a spiritual reality with the church being a physical representation of it. The world's Kingdom is ordained by God to keep the peace in a world where most people don't act like they belong to God's Kingdom. The church has huge problems these days, but, there is 1 church, a church that believes they are separated unto God. A church that believes all of the apostles' teachings, and Jesus' teachings are to be taken seriously. 

Church Period 2:

This one church loses something, perhaps from being persecution weary, or something else, and probably a combination of things, but it becomes susceptible. Constantine offers the church religious freedom and professes to be a Christian himself. The church loses its 2 Kingdom message, and morphs into partnership with the world, the crusades happen, abuses, and corruptions begin to abound. Doctrinally speaking, the church gradually morphs into what we recognize today as the catholic church. Towards the end of this time, a young German priest is struggling with the assurance of salvation. He had an abusive father growing up, a man who whipped him till he bled. He thought God was like this, a harsh being, who would whip him till he bled if he didn't repent. Yet, he couldn't control his sin, and couldn't even remember all the sins he needed to repent of. In his prayers and studies, he found that he was justified by the grace of God. (Romans 3:24) He felt tremendous relief at this and began to teach this to those around him, but he didn't have a quarrel with the church...yet. Martin Luther was his name and he was ok with just teaching this thing of grace to those around him and doing his duties as a priest... For now. 

Church Period 3: 

Now we enter the period of denominations, in which we still live in my opinion. Martin Luther has had it up to his snout with the church's ****, ****, ****, and so on. He was rather uncouth at times you see. He wasn't the only one. There was also Zwingli, the Anabaptists, like George Blaurock, and his friends. Later on, names like Calvin, Simons, Fox, and others emerged. For simplicity's sake, we can separate the church into 3 different categories now with several denominations each. 

1. The "original" church, which we call Catholic, left many of the teachings of the early church and has adopted practices like having a pope, praying to Mary, penance, etc. I don't know much about it, for I'm not catholic. 

2. The saved by faith through grace group, led by men like Luther, Zwingli, and so on. Taught us the notion that we are only saved by faith, works don't matter for we cannot stop sinning or do enough good to be saved. 

3. The radicals, led by men like Blaurock, Fox, and Simons, agreed with being saved by faith but also believe in a lifestyle that is separate from the world. An indwelling presence, the Spirit of God, that changes you and makes you a different person. 

Faults can be found in all 3 streams of thought. I believe the 1st group is wrong. The 2nd group is not teaching a complete gospel, and the 3rd group has created a religion they practice instead of simply following the gospel. I have drastically oversimplified this, but, how long do you want this blog to actually be? The hairs keep getting split finer, finer, and still finer, for now, we have Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, and 7th-day Adventists yet. I confess I don't know where to place them, but I think you get the idea. There are lots and lots of heresy to choose from today. From word faith to religious cults and any flavor in between. 

Ok, now for the point. When there is a schism in the church. A call for unity comes forth. 

Dale says, "Let's focus on Jesus, on His love for all of us. Let's focus on our agreements and not our differences. We shouldn't discuss the separation of the sheep from the goats, for since we all love Jesus, we are all sheep, and no concern needs to be given to fruit. Come as you are"  

Mark says, "There is more out there, there is a Kingdom, we should look at ALL of scripture, not just what we like. So no Dale, I can't merely go along with your favorite new theology you picked up from fill-in-the-blank heretic. I'm not looking to be religious, I merely want to believe all of scripture."  

Dale wants unity and peace in his church. He wants Mark to get along, plug in, and be happy within the bounds of whatever of the many million denominations and types of the gospel he finds himself in. Dale says he is against all the splits and denominations and wants all believers to get along like one big happy family, but interestingly Dale does not follow his own teaching to its logical conclusion, he does not return to the original denomination. Dale is not catholic. Dale believes in a unity that involves his specific situation, comfort, and place in history. If you are not agreed with him, you are probably a controlling legalist. Dale does not really believe in convictions that have to do with lifestyle. Dale believes in salvation. 

Mark wants unity and peace in his church. He wants to return to the gospel of the first period. That original gospel was taught by Jesus and His disciples. That's what Mark wants. Mark weeps for, longs for such a church, that will simply be disciples, and live the Kingdom lifestyle. It feels lonely to push for it alone. He loves Dale and wants Dale to take the journey with him, but Dale gets mad and calls him a legalist. Mark isn't sure what to do anymore...stay in the church as she is or go alone?  Mark believes in a unity that involves actually embracing, believing, and claiming the totality of Christ, His salvation, His Kingdom, and His Spirit. Mark has convictions, based on Jesus' teachings that he is not prepared to lay down. Lines exist, that Mark simply cannot cross. Mark struggles with his attitude, he finds himself getting bitter, stressed, and unhappy, and he is not really living the very life he believes in anymore. He has to repent again. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mark resets and lives the lifestyle of the Kingdom again. 

So now, here is the question. Who is on the correct path to unity? Dale? or Mark? I could easily have portrayed Dale as a legalist instead of a hyper-grace type person, but the legalists aren't the ones pushing for unity as much. They seem quite happy to have their own little religious cliques. Dale and Mark are fictional characters, they are exaggerated to show texture, and make a point, please don't take them personally. Is unity found in the art of getting along on the things we can and ignoring the rest? Or is unity found in the simple return to the original gospel taught in the first period? I am willing to stick my neck out and admit that I agree with Mark. I believe that anyone who simply agrees and condones one of the many modern incomplete gospels, whether it be a works-based religion, or grace-based lawlessness is merely adding to the division. I believe that those who embrace the totality of the Gospel, are striving to return to unity. I repent for all the times I have caused division by just getting along and condoning. The good news is, that the original gospel is all within the New Testament, we all have it. We just don't seem to want to live it or even believe it. 

God help us...

Why Church?

Why church? Well, I think as people we have to admit we are social creatures. We love other people, even when we can't stand other people. In God's Kingdom, we have the church. It is such a beautiful, and precious gift for His disciples. Oh, how I love the church! Yet, she is pretty wobbly and dysfunctional at times. I don't know what to do about it, but I want to keep swinging at the problem where I can. So, if you'll humor me a bit, here is another opinion piece regarding the church. 

I want to examine the reasons motivating our church activities. I think if we are truly honest, we will have to conclude that most of our churching has been for the first 2 reasons. Yet I believe there is a better way; a 3rd way. 

1. My Kingdom. 

There is an attraction to the idea of having a church that is something. It's your club, your way. You get the feeling of being part of something special, something bigger than yourself. I feel it. I get it. There is also an attraction to being important, needed, and powerful within this system. I believe that this motivates us more than we realize with all the different styles, types, denominations, etc of churches we have started and participated in. It also leads to this only right church doctrine that you see in some circles. It forms a club, it's your kingdom inside God's Kingdom. 

2. What about me? 

What if you have been rubbed wrong or sorely mistreated by someone else's kingdom that they call a church? There is a big desire to just fellowship in a way that you like. You eschew the accountability, authority, etc, and just live life on your own, fellowshipping with others on a "what do we feel like doing now?" basis.  So, this kind of churching has its advantages over the 1st kind in my view. Depending on how cruel or abusive the first kind is, this is an upgrade. Yet, you would have to be pretty dishonest or uninformed to claim that this is the complete enchilada of church experience as lived in the New Testament or by the early church. 

3. Making God's Kingdom visible. 

Here's a novel concept: What about we try to make God's church, Christ's bride about Him? Let's take the notion of God's Kingdom. If one is to take the teachings of Jesus seriously, one would have to conclude that Jesus spent most of His teaching energy on preaching a gospel of the Kingdom with a capital K. It's an invisible Kingdom that asks for our loyalties over the demands of this world. With that in mind, the whole paradigm of church changes now doesn't it? The first 2 were ultimately, at the end of the day, selfish. This take is about God. So, we start with God's Kingdom. This is our foundation. This is what Jesus taught as recorded by the 4 gospels. Then we turn the page to Acts, and his disciples, now apostles filled with the Holy Spirit made disciples and churches started. So, the Kingdom of God became visible in the form of the church. How does this look if we do it again now? I don't know. I think it depends on the area. With the first 2 types of churches, the question is easily answered with a follow-up question, "What do you want?" However, if it is in fact about God, which this 3rd option is now we must ask, "God, what do YOU want?" I am asking that for west TN because that's the part of the world I live in. 

A note about copying the apostles' church planting efforts: Marc Carrier went to Africa and planted wonderful churches that very much resembled what we can understand the early church to be, I commend him for that, and will be interested in seeing what he does here. Others have done this as well I'm sure. Yet, one key thing that seems to be common here, they found unsaved people and led them from an unsaved state straight into discipleship with Christ.  I believe that there is much to learn from the apostles when one seeks to be a missionary to the lost. I believe that is the New Testament way, but, here I sit in the Bible belt, we have more churches than I can count all full of Christians who profess Christ. How in the world do we do this here without just starting another denomination of Christians and ending up back where we started again? 

Here is a diagnosis on west TN based on what I know so far as of 06/2022, but this is subject to change based on further understanding/wisdom which I always need more of. We don't need more churches. We need the people in the churches we have already, myself included making these trades. 

1. Trade in our complex theologies that explain away hard-hitting verses from Jesus' teachings for the bare unvarnished power of the Kingdom message. Did you know that just war is not something the early apostles knew anything about? When there was a war that needed fighting, they thought that was a dispute between world Kingdoms and had nothing to do with them. Are we absolutely sure that the government-sanctioned killing of bad people is ok for members of God's Kingdom? If so, can it be supported with a simple reading of the New Testament or does it call for a cobbling together of Old and New Testament concepts, personal theories, and cherry-picked verses into a complex theology for it to work? In short, we at times tend to embrace the art of theology so that we don't have to look at a principle we don't like. This should be repented of. 

2. Trade in the things we deem most important like good music, and entertaining lectures for the things that Jesus deemed important like authentic worship in the presence of God, communion, and bold, honest teaching of truth. Nothing is wrong with good music and entertaining speakers. However, the emphasis should be on authentic worship, fellowship with God, and teaching of the truth. If the music is good, and the speaker is entertaining after the authentic worship and truth have been discovered, that is awesome! 

3. Trade in our religious traditions and do's and don't lists for the Kingdom Lifestyle. Some of our churches have do's and don't that we don't understand. Those should be scrutinized against the New Testament, and we should pursue a Kingdom Lifestyle. The kind that comes from abiding in Christ and producing His fruits for Him with the power of the Spirit He put there. There very well could be do's and don't that a body should agree to on some level, but they should be intentional, Spirit-led, Kingdom motivated. In short, we at times tend to take certain of Jesus' teachings extremely literally and ignore others to fashion a religion of our own making, which should be repented of. Embracing the gospel of the Kingdom and all its principles is good enough, and far better than any religion. 

4. Trade in our religious rituals for spiritual disciplines. While it is a little hard to explain, there is a difference between regularly going to church, praying, and reading your Bible because you "have to" as opposed to doing it because it's something you desire to do, to improve your relationship with God. To learn more from Him. To receive more of His Spirit etc. This is what spiritual discipline is about, it is exercising ourselves spiritually to become the kind of person who naturally acts like God would act if He were living our life in our body. Religious rituals are all about superficially doing boring things to check off the "good Christian" box. I hope the difference is being conveyed here...it is a  little hard to explain for me. 

5. Trade in our shame-based culture of looking right and making sure others do too for genuine loving co-submission to one another as brothers and sisters. Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart. (See Samuel 16:7) Shame-based culture teaches us to hide the problems and look good on the outside. We wear a smile to church when we are dying inside. Shame culture accepts those who look right and rebukes those who don't. Co-submission culture isn't as interested in the "look" of a person, or even the fruit as much as the direction of the journey. It accepts those who repent and rebukes those who don't. Study carefully the steps laid out by Christ in Matthew 18:15-18. Do you see how the person who is rebuked by the church has been given 4 opportunities to repent? 1. At the Holy Spirit's convicting. 2. At the time of confrontation by the person who was wronged. 3. At the time of confrontation by several. 4. At the time of public rebuke in the church. If a person still does not wish to repent, then, they are marked as a heathen, or this is my opinion but to put a finer point on it, someone who cannot be trusted due to a lack of repentance. Heathens, (non-believers) don't repent either you see. Now, in written text, it's easy to make such a thing sound brutal and procedural, but that's not my intent, it must be done out of a heart of love for Christ and our siblings in His family. 

6. Personally and corporately, trade-in our constant need for noise and activity for times of nothingness, silence, solitude, waiting on the presence of God, for revelation. Left to our own devices, we seem to want to solve our own problems, talk, or be talked to. We keep looking for soul food, things to do with our will, things to study with our mind, and experiences to feel with our emotions. Yet, we so often give up on the simple things, turning off the noises, being quiet, and seeing what God might want to say for different problems we face. What if, instead of having meetings and debates, followed by meetings about our meetings; we would come together corporately in quiet meditation and prayer before God? What if the reason many of us think God is silent is simply that He is a gentleman who lets us do all the talking when we pray?  So, when we pray and decide not to do all the talking, we might find that God does still communicate, through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Back to the top, we really should be interested in church on God's terms, the 3rd reason for church. If we aren't willing to church for the right reason, I am prepared to admit that I personally don't think we should really bother with churching anymore. If we are interested in doing things God's way, then, the next 6 points probably do matter to some extent. I know and believe that there is much more to Kingdom living than those 6 points, but, if those of us who both go to church and care about it would seek after God with these 6 things corporately, I can't help but think it would help. At least, it would be a start.  

The Power of the Lifestyle

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. -Jesus in Matthew 5:17-20 

In the last chapter of this study, Christ said to let your light shine. Shine, so that others can see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven... So, anyway, you know it's wonderful to live in a time of grace, a time when you can claim the blood of Jesus for your sins, saved by grace, and then you tell others about the power of the blo...wait? Works? WORKS!? What do you mean works? Well, Jesus said, "...that they may see your good works..." If Jesus is wanting to talk about works, I guess we'd better talk about works. So, what if there is a power in lifestyle that we have missed in recent times? I think there might be. Let's unpack these scriptures once and see what might come out of this whole "lifestyle concept". 

Verse 17: Jesus did not come to eliminate the law. All those commands we read of in the old testament, they are not to be destroyed, cast aside, no, they are to be fulfilled. To fulfill, means to finish, to complete. So, when the Old Testament law is no longer used after the time of Christ, it is not because  He didn't like it, and destroyed it. No, it's because He did care about it, He completed it. Once something is complete, then naturally it gets to be retired. It has served its purpose well. All that was said about the law just now also applies to the Old Testament prophets. 

Verse 18: To emphasize the point made in verse 17. Jesus goes on to say something to the effect of, For as long as the world stands. For as long as the sky hangs above us. Not one little piece, no matter how minute will go away from the law until it's actually all completed. 

Verse 19: We had just got done hearing the beatitudes. We heard about being salt and light. We covered all those things in the previous chapters. It's my opinion that those things are the least commands Jesus referred to in verse 19. The commentary on the law and prophets was like a side note by Christ to reassure the people that He was not about to render the law and prophets useless.  Instead, He had come to complete, and to show the Kingdom. So, it's pretty simple. Jesus said, these are little commands, those who teach and do them are great in God's Kingdom, those who don't do so and teach not to do so are small fry in God's Kingdom. 

Verse 20: Now it's time for the humdinger. If your righteousness is not better than the righteousness of the religious leaders, then you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Oof. Righteousness is the Lord's truth. It's is the real truth, not the world's smarts. The bad news is you can't get it. The good news is you can ask God for it and then just blindly follow Him as He reveals it to you. More good news, the Lord looks at the heart, so, you can have the brainpower and IQ of a drunk monkey, but still have righteousness simply by having your heart positioned towards it. Chapters 8 and 9 explore this more in-depth. 

Now the rest of this will be a desperate attempt to untangle the deep-seated thoughts and feelings I have about this and present them in a way that makes some semblance of sense. Keep this in mind: My definition of a disciple is someone who cares most about God and His Kingdom. My definition of a Christian is someone who cares most about Jesus and His ability to save people. So, ready? Strapped in? Here goes!

We have for ourselves a gospel in many corners that involves salvation and little else. It goes something like this: "You have sinned, so, you're going to hell, but, God sent His son to die for you so that you don't have to go to hell. Say this prayer..." Well, there is a lot of truth in the notion that God saved you, but, really, if that was all there was to it, why does Matthew 5 even exist? In fact, why is Matthew's gospel 28 chapters long? Wouldn't Matthew have only needed about 3 chapters to get to the point? 1. How Jesus got here. 2. How Jesus died for us. 3. How Jesus resurrected and ascended. This gospel of nothing but salvation is actually extremely vapid in terms of offering anything to give life purpose. The complete gospel gives you purpose RIGHT NOW. if you embrace it. Now, in order to get this purpose, there is a need to trade in, that is surrender your ideas of how you might make your life "fun." 

So, the gospel of the Kingdom teaches a fundamentally different life. The person is fundamentally an alien. When Christ takes over a Kingdom disciple, his actions don't make any worldly sense. If you were to attack the average man of the world, what might he do? Well, attack back. If you were to attack the average Christian? Same response.  Both are human, so that makes sense. If the average man of the world or the average Christian wakes up the day after the election and finds out that America will now be governed by the person who he has been led to believe fully intends to destroy America, how does he feel about that? Depressed, that's what. Now, what about a disciple that actually embraced all the realities of God's Kingdom? When attacked? Well, there is the art of doing nothing, or better yet, returning good deeds. Now, that's weird. When America is about to be destroyed? Nary a ripple, it's almost like he's from someplace else. Hmm, maybe he actually is an alien. Exactly! This is the lifestyle component that features so strongly in the complete gospel of the Kingdom. Evangelism? The lifestyle is an "accidental" display of a better way by the Kingdom Disciple, remember salt & light? This kind of accidental display is the best form of evangelism in my opinion. For it automatically attracts the hungry who want this kind of salt and light in themselves. 

A note about religion. Religion is the act of attempting to copy the acts of a disciple without having the disciple stuff on the inside. What do I mean? Well, let's try this example out: I have taken some interest in track and field events. They are amazing athletes! Yet, these athletes don't actually compete against each other that often. They are away, privately training, exercising, and dieting with their very good coaches. Then they show up to the Diamond League or the Olympics and when asked to run they display a simple fact. When the gun goes off, they rather automatically and naturally run in a way that the rest of us can't begin to compete with because that's who they have become, elite runners, or jumpers, throwers, etc depending on the event in question. Religion is like showing up at the start line of a long race and by sheer effort of the will forcing yourself to run at the pace. Very soon you fall behind, if you keep pushing yourself, you just keel over from exhaustion. This does not do at all, no medal for you. No, to be in the race, you have to become the kind of person who does this sort of thing naturally. Use the willpower for training, not for the actual race. 

A note about spiritual discipline. Spiritual discipline is the act of taking Jesus' teachings seriously and seeking to become a disciple by going after what He teaches. This includes a dependence on Him to make you the kind of person that He wants you to be. You willfully, and intentionally have communion, prayer, Bible reading, and fasting. Not to look like a disciple, but because you want to become one. This is training. Now, you're not walking alone, you are hungering after God. He meets you. He graces you, carries you, etc. In the example above, when likening the track event to a disciple's life, you are disciplining yourself, by doing what the Lord asks, (He is your coach.) As a kind, loving coach, He doesn't ask too much of you, and in fact, enables and equips you to do His will. 

As a full-fledged disciple, your life is actually much better on the inside even if it's much worse on the outside. For example, here are 2 things humans fear and disciples don't: 

1. Death. 

For humans, this is a scary thing that must be avoided. We have self-defense classes, scary warnings from our doctors, desperate efforts to save the economy by political activism, etc, and many more activities in a desperate attempt to stave off this thing, yet, in all of humankind, with all the experiments we have done on ourselves, government concepts, vaccines, diets, exercises, and so on, our death rate remains 100%...

For disciples, death is simply the deportation papers that enable the foreigner to go home. They will take care of the physical bodies God entrusted to them, but aren't really afraid of the inevitable day that physical body dies. 

2. Humans. 

Humans are afraid of other humans, what they might do, they might cheat you, they might hurt you, think ill of you, etc. So again, a whole host of fear-based activities to prevent this. Activities like taking out a huge loan for a car to impress people you never met. 

Disciples are working for an audience of one. That's the Lord. They take precautions in regards to not getting cheated etc as good stewards, They strive to care about others which means they won't generally deliberately cause a human to think ill of them. Yet they don't lose sleep over it or stress about what happens if it goes wrong. They don't spend on big purchases to impress others. They might still spend a lot of money, but for other, deeper reasons. 

Many other examples could be explored, but hopefully, you see that the disciple life is better. Just less to worry about, be afraid, of, be angry about, etc. Yet, this is not why you choose it, you choose it because it's God's way, God is right, and you love God. I see myself somewhere in between the 2 extremes I drew up...I write about an ideal life I haven't completely learned to live yet. Pray for me in this. If you are living this ideal life, write me and explain how you got there. 

In the end, it's once again, about surrender. We won't do it our way, we won't do anything without His express desire and equipping. So with all that, this has been chapter 16 of Surrender!? To Who?

Salt & Light

In the last chapter, we briefly left the sermon on the mount study we have been doing. We had reached the end of the beatitudes, and I felt the time was right to introduce the big picture. God's Kingdom is all we need to see of the big picture. It is a simple reality of having ourselves, and everything entrusted to us put under His Kingdom, and in so doing, we expand His Kingdom for Him. By our surrender, His Kingdom grows. This book though is about surrender, and that's why I find myself in the sermon on the mount. Originally when I set out to write this, I wasn't planning to study the sermon, but, it's such a beautiful sermon, and it gives so much opportunity to explore the ramifications of surrender in all facets of life that, I've decided to revisit it again now. 

So for this chapter, let's read Matthew 5:13-16: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Ok, so, salt and light. As Kingdom disciples, that's what we are. Remember, at the start, before preaching this message, Jesus left the multitude and deliberately made his audience smaller. He went up the mount, and then once the people who were his disciples also made it there, He began to teach. So, when He spoke these words, he was speaking to the disciples. So, what does it mean to be salt and light? Let's find out.

Salt: In his article about meat rubs here Meathead explains that he doesn't put salt in his rubs, why? Because salt is special. It enhances the flavor of the meat itself and actually penetrates the meat, it goes down below the surface a little bit if given enough time. The other spices such as pepper, paprika, garlic, etc tend to just flavor the surface and introduce a different flavor to the meat, they don't penetrate much. His contention is that salt is a stand-alone specialty that should be added to just about any meat to improve the meat quality, not so much a surface flavoring that adds a complementary flavor. So, do you want to be salt? Well, ok then, but you don't get to be paprika or garlic. It's no longer about you and what you bring. It's about infiltrating the world around you and improving the lives of those around you now. In other words, it's about surrendering and being a positive contributor, not the star of the show. 

Light: Whenever it enters a room it brings visibility, and clarity to those in the room. The default state of things is darkness. Darkness is the absence of visibility and clarity. In a room, people rarely look at the light, yet they benefit from the light by being able to clearly examine whatever thing they might be working on. As a spiritual light, you bring moral visibility and clarity to the world around you. Now, the world might never pay attention to you. Is that ok with you? If so, immerse yourself in Christ, in the words of God in scripture, and receive all of the Holy Spirit the Lord wills you to have. In so doing, your lenses are clean, pure, and clear. The world around you benefits even if they don't notice you. 

To fully function as salt and light, you must be surrendered into discipleship with Christ. If that's not ok with you, as salt you can blend into the world by just carving out your own space as a person given to their own kingdom and mission, and so you become part of the landscape, to be stepped on, or otherwise used by the world in the same way the world uses it's own, essentially you become just another spice on the world's shelf. As light, you can get cloudy, dim, and eventually go after some carnal pursuits that are removed from Christ so completely that you cover your light, and now, just like the world, you do stuff with the light shared with you. In this way, you become a taker of light and not a giver of light. It is up to you. Christ has a way of teaching us all truth and then leaving the ultimate choice of how much or how well we apply it up to us. 

This has been chapter 15 of Surrender!? To Who?

The Christian's Bermuda Triangle

So, the Bermuda triangle is said to be the triangular-shaped zone in the Atlantic where ships and such mysteriously get lost, or disappear or something. That is tragic, but, what if losing your faith was even more tragic? I think so. What if western Christians have a Bermuda triangle of their own to contend with? A place to ping pong about in and get disillusioned with God, Christianity, and who knows what else. So many Christian individuals, groups, churches, or otherwise seem bound and determined to lurch into a corner and just sit there or worse, violently ricochet around. How do I mean? Well, a triangle has 3 corners, here they are:

1. Patriotism. America is a Christian nation. We must defend it from the evil-doer, by whatever means necessary. (Insert random violent old testament story to justify this here.) Or, We must love our neighbor as ourselves, therefore let's become more socialist, and have better welfare, it's immoral to be rich. (insert random verse out of context about loving your neighbors here.) 

2. Legalism. So Jesus has rules? Our church has more! Not only do we believe in modesty, but we will also tell you exactly what to wear. Not only do we believe in 2 Kingdoms, but we will also spell out what you are not allowed to do so you don't have to think. Also, we will install closed borders at our church; you're not part of our church without going through a thorough vetting process. We also won't baptize you or partake in communion with you unless you're willing to be part of our church.

3. Libertinism. So, Jesus loves me? Yaay! Freeeeedddddddoooooommmmmmm! In our church, not only do you come as you are, you may stay as you are, wait, you mean the gospel of Matthew has 28 hard-hitting chapters?? Ahh, he's probably just talking to ye-old Jews or something, carry on, John 3:16 is really all you need. Anyway, don't you just love the freedom in Christ? Wait, you have a great depression in your pocketbook? There's a legalist telling you to get a budget and a job? A budget!? Personal responsibility, work?!! REEEEEE Naawwww God wants you to prosper, just have more faith and pray, and it'll be alright. 

I am not all that interested in getting you to leave your church even if it might have lurched into one of these corners. How about this, you opt out. Fortunately, if you really really want to get out, the walls of the triangle are really really low. All you have to do is read your New Testament, and apply it practically and literally to your life, principle by principle.