Categories
Relationships

Is Anybody Doing the Right Thing?

We find that we all want to do the right thing. But who gets to define what is right? If my freedom infringes on yours, can I still say that I am “in the right”?

In the OT book of Judges we find this statement:
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Bible page
There was no king in Israel – the people didn’t have a human king to give them direction and purpose, but even worse than that… the people had rejected God as the King of their lives, their hearts, & their minds. Today we find we are in a similar situation in America. In these days, though we have a President in the Oval Office as the leader of the nation, we have (as a nation) rejected God as our spiritual King and therefore everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes.

However, our role as believers is not to determine whatever we think is right and follow it. Rather, we are to know God’s Word and accept what He says is right. And then we are to hold each other accountable to solid, faithful obedience. But as soon as we try to do so, we hear from those who call themselves believers and yet who are not following God’s Word that “you can’t judge me…. God says ‘Do not judge so that you will not be judged,’ and ‘don’t try to get the speck out of my eye when you have a log in your eye.’ So you don’t have a right to judge my behavior.”

But that is so very far from the truth. We’ve heard it so often that many of us have also started to believe it to be true. Don’t buy it! The Bible tells us that believers ARE to hold each other accountable. We are to keep each other growing and on the right path. We are to do so with love. Interestingly enough, the Bible also tells us that we aren’t to focus on attacking the ungodly behavior of non-Christians, but just to love them to the Lord.

What? We should judge each other as believers, but not judge the immorality of non-believers? That can’t be right! But that is straight from the Bible.

Here’s the deal – People shouldn’t have to clean up their lives to come to Christ, but too often that is what we want to require. We want a non-Christian to hold to Christian beliefs. But why should they? Why would they? Why are we holding to these unreasonable expectations? Instead of us judging them, we should love them and show them Christ, remembering that once upon a time, we were in the same place they were – without Christ. Once their eyes are opened to see the beauty of Christ and His love, and they begin a relationship with Him, He will begin to convict them and help them to clean up their lives.

Let’s let that soak in and tomorrow we’ll explore it just a bit more…

Why do you think that we are so unwilling to hold each other accountable as believers, yet so quick to condemn people who are not believers?

— brian rushing

Categories
Christian Living

Changing The Way We Run The Race

Starting in the early 1900’s athletic shoes began to undergo major design changes, and running shoes have continued to change to make a shoe that is as light as possible while providing the maximum amount of traction, support, and energy return. Shoes are important to running fast – just ask any little tyke who gets a new pair! “Look at my new shoes. They make me go fast. Watch me.” And away they go, across the front yard to show you the proof.

image of the feet of runners running in a race
But changing the way we run in a race also includes changing the way we think about running. As we get older, we realize that to run well, we must also think about running well. We make a conscious effort to stretch to increase our stride, we focus on leaning forward to gain momentum, we consider our breathing so that we can keep our leg muscles oxygenated, and we decide to run with purpose.

In a similar way, part of running the marathon of the Christian life well requires us to change our thought processes about the race. We must realize that the race is not about us, but about Him. It is His story and we are a part of it, and for a short time He places the baton in our hand as we run our part of the race.

I like what Gordon MacDonald tells us about this race in Building below the waterline: “Mastering [spiritual] growth does not depend primarily on measuring ourselves against the saints and heroes. While there is value in learning from their lives, they are among the cloud of witnesses…. They remain in the stands as we run our leg of the race. We cannot match ourselves against their performances. Rather, our eyes are to be upon the One who runs with us. Thanks be to God who is alongside of us when we run, who hoists us back up when we fall, who redefines direction when we are lost, who cheers us on when we grow fatigued, and who presents us to the Father when we finish our race.”

When we realize that we don’t have to “measure ourselves against the saints and heroes” but rather that we are just to put all our trust in Him and let Him run through us, we find a freedom. I want to run with purpose but I also desire to feel the freedom of contentment in Christ.

MacDonald again: “I asked God for a rebirth of spirit and mind. And I found a wonderful liberation. Liberation from feeling that I always had to be right and had to please [everyone]; liberation from always having to be more successful this year than last year; liberation from fearing that some people wouldn’t like me; a slow and certain liberation that said, Be content to be a pleasure to Christ, a lover to your spouse, a grandfather to your children’s children, a friend to those who want to share life with you, and a servant to your generation.”

The race isn’t a competition. Neither is it a quick 40-yard dash. It is a long marathon where we learn how to run with purpose in one direction for a long time. Let us not worry about competing with each other, but with serving Him well. Let us think in new ways about the race – realizing that serving our family, our friends, and our community with the love of Christ is the goal.

How do you keep your eyes on the goal and running the marathon race of the Christian life with purpose?

— brian rushing

Categories
Worship

I Have Missed You! (And Our Interaction)

What happens when I take a short hiatus from writing? Mainly I miss the interaction I have with you!

A few people have wondered something along the lines of “where did Brian’s devotionals disappear to? Did I get dropped off the email list? Has he stopped writing?” And in the absence of the devotionals, several of you told me that you missed them. Thank you for encouraging me to get back to writing. The truth is that I simply got too busy and my writing had to be “dropped” for a time (it has been almost a month. ouch! that’s way too long).

The situation is that each morning I start my day off with my own Bible reading and prayer. When I get into a situation when I am in a time crunch, it would be quite easy to let my devotional time go, so that I could write something for my blog. Most of the time crunch has come during these last three weeks in the form of our cross-country drive to California and the activities I have been part of in-between the driving (2200 miles there and another 2200 miles back!). It is true that I could have kept up the blog, by letting some of my devotional time go, but I have made a commitment to God that my time with Him will remain a top priority. Not for His sake, but for mine. The more time I spend with Him, the healthier I find that I am – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I hope you have made that same commitment to Him. That you will spend time with Him each day in Bible reading and prayer. That your commitment to time with Him will take precedent over the morning newspaper, Good Morning America, and Sportscenter. Or if you use the evening as time to connect with Him, that you won’t allow Duck Dynasty, Fox News, or catching up on all the Facebook status updates to become a higher priority than your daily fellowship with Him. If we are not careful… if we are not intentional in our time with him… then without even realizing it, our time is consumed with all the busyness of each day. To grow in Christ, we have to make a solid commitment to carve out time with Him. And Satan isn’t going to make it easy. The question is whether we will develop the discipline to be the disciples we told Him we would be when we started our journeys with Him. Let’s keep encouraging each other onto deeper discipleship and spiritual maturity!

Let’s go “further up and further in!”

(bonus points if you know where the last quote is from without looking it up!)

Categories
Relationships

The Tragedy and Hell of Racism

red sign reading "No Admittance" symbolizing the prejudice and racism we often hold
Today I want to give you an extended quote from Ravi Zacharias. In case you are wondering where I stand on the issue, I am in full agreement with Ravi. I believe that not only is the issue of racism tragic in general, but the fact that Christians are still wrestling with the issue of loving others across cultural or ethnic or financial or skin-color lines is absolutely atrocious.

Ravi says it well:
“As we look across this globe today; there are few things that are as deeply troubling and volatile as this issue—the tragedy and the hell of racism. The pain of personal rejection by reason of birth alone is one of the deepest pains a human being can ever experience.

“I do not know how many of you heard the tennis great Arthur Ashe interviewed [after] he had contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion…. This greatly admired and mild-mannered gentleman looked into the eyes of the small army of reporters interviewing him & said, ‘As painful as it is to know that I have this dread disease, nothing could be as painful as the rejection I have endured all my life by virtue of my color.”

“Think of the agony encased in those words…. That a man so respected, so talented, so gentlemanly could express that the pain of the disintegration of his body was secondary to the deep, emotional suffering he had endured over a lifetime of personal rejection because of his color—is very sobering (Ravi Z.)”

As a Christian, I am to love my neighbor as myself. The story of the Good Samaritan was a story that attacked prejudice. And yet, too many of us Christians have refused to be obedient to Christ who loved not only those like Him, but also the Samaritan and the Gentile. He reconciled them by the cross. (you can read more about His reconciliation in Ephesians 2:11-22)

I continue to hear people say that prejudice will always exist and that we can’t really do anything about it.
I continue to hear that the issue is too big.
And if that is my belief, then my God is too small.
And if that is your belief, then your God is too small.

And if we are still holding prejudicial attitudes toward others based on skin color and yet call ourselves Christians, we are in sin. Read 1 John for a good discussion of how we who are called Christians are to love all other people (and especially our Christian brothers and sisters).

I know that prejudice does exist and will continue to exist in society, but tragically it still exists in the church – the one group that Jesus prayed would be perfected in unity. It is time for me to be obedient in stamping out any prejudice within me and helping others (especially within my church family) to do the same. To refuse to do so is to refuse to allow Jesus to have complete Lordship in my life.

God, Help Us To Change Our Conversations, Our Hearts, & Our Minds!

— brian rushing

Categories
Christian Living

Get Rich… or Embrace a Wartime Simplicity?

As I have mentioned in the “about” section of my website, I feel most of us have waded in the shallows for far too long. Too many of us are still drinking milk when we should be chewing on a sizzlin’ and delicious rib-eye steak. Therefore, some of my posts might be perceived to “step on toes.”

Realize that nothing I post hasn’t already stepped on MY own toes. In fact that’s why I share some of them – God stepped on my toes and I want to share the pain with you! And also realize that if you are wanting to grow with God, you’d better lace up your steel-toed boots and put on your big boy or big girl underoos, cause God isn’t in the habit of tiptoeing around our feelings! He is in the habit of stepping on toes to get us on the track to being more like Jesus. Sometimes I wish that weren’t the case, but fortunately His yoke is easy and His burden is light (but He never said there won’t be a yoke or burden!).

Now… Warning – Sensitivity Advisory Label!
If you don’t like posts that step on toes – skip this one.
But for those of you who have adventurous toes that don’t mind a little danger, by all means continue!

What does it mean to be rich?
a large number of 100 dollar bills representing the idea of being rich What does it mean to be rich toward God?

I believe the answer is wisely explained by John Piper in his book to pastors (Brothers, We Are Not Professionals). But as these words were so convicting to me, I wanted to share them with you. (As I said – I like to share the pain!)

“Being ‘rich toward God’ means looking Godward for heavenly wealth. …God gives us money on earth in order that we may invest it for dividends in heaven. …God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized and uneducated and unhoused and unfed millions.

“The evidence that many of our people are not rich toward God is how little they give and how much they own.

“Very few of our people have said to themselves: we will live at a level of joyful, wartime simplicity and use the rest of what we earn to alleviate misery. But surely that is what Jesus wants. I do not see how we can read the New Testament, then look at two billion unevangelized people, and still build another barn for ourselves. We can only justify the exorbitance of our lifestyle by ignoring the lostness of the unreached and the misery of the poor.

“…there are three levels of how to live with things: (1) you can steal to get, (2) or you can work to get, (3) or you can work to get in order to give. …Almost all of the forces of our culture urge us to live on level two. But the Bible is unrelenting in pushing us to level three.

“You will have to make clear to the business people in your congregation that you are not against multimillion-dollar industries. Nor are you necessarily against [Christians with] six-digit salaries. The problem arises when they endorse the professional status quo that says a six-digit salary should have a six-digit lifestyle. It shouldn’t. Perhaps it should have a $40,000 lifestyle and support two families on a new mission field.

“The problem is not with earning a lot. The problem is the constant accumulation of luxuries that are soon felt to be needs.”

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! but Yes! Yes! Yes!
This commentary by Piper hurts my toes, but I find my heart in agreement with the answer. It’s like that “good soreness” after a workout. A pain, to be sure, but one that you know has stretched you and made you stronger.

I find that in regard to being rich toward God with my finances – my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. I want to live with simplicity. I want to embrace a Theology of Enough. But society pressures me to use my resources for myself. God help me to change and be rich toward You and Your Kingdom!

What do you think? Are Piper’s words Too harsh or are they On-Target?

— brian rushing