Tag: safety

Categories
Christian Living

The Beauty of God In The Midst of Danger, Tragedy, and Pain

Here in America, we are relatively safe.
We are fairly comfortable.
Life is often pretty easy.
We find ourselves free from many dangers.
And we thank God for this safe, comfortable, easy life.hammock on the beach signifying a life of comfort and no danger

And yet, Jesus didn’t come to this earth to make our lives comfortable and safe. It is extremely hard for us to remove from our minds this notion that God came to make life easy. Here in America – this land of plenty – we have so much. We know that God has blessed us. But why has He blessed us? Is it so we can gather up more and more of His blessings so that we feel more safe and more comfortable? Is it to keep us free from danger, tragedy, and pain?

Hmmmm…. That does not seem to be the way that the disciples lived. Instead, they lived radical lives for the gospel, not focused on their own safety and blessing, but rather on sharing the message of Jesus in the midst of danger and at the cost of their very lives. It was a dangerous calling that caused beatings, pain, suffering – and they rejoiced in the midst ofthis dangerous calling.

They had discovered that Jesus’ “beauty shines most brightly when He is treasured above wealth, above health, and above life itself.”

They realized that “if we can learn to enjoy Christ and magnify Him even in the midst of pain and suffering, we show the world where our true love lies.”

Some of us might say, “But I am ready to die for Christ if it came down to that.” That may be true, but though we might be willing to die for Christ, the question is whether we will choose to live dangerously for Him?

“Some of us would be willing to die for Christ, the question is: are we willing to live for Him, suffer for Him, and magnify Him with our lives…. What we are willing to die for shows our belief, but what we are willing to live for and suffer for shows our radical commitment to our beliefs.”

We must love Christ above His blessings. We must love Him above our comfort. We must love Him above our safety and life of ease. We must value Him above the American Dream that we often find ourselves chasing.

To help understand this even more fully, click on this link to watch an excellent 2.5 minute video on the difference between the prosperity gospel and loving Christ in the midst of suffering.
            youtube.com video – the prosperity gospel

“What you love determines what you feel shame about. If you love for others to applaud you, you will feel shame when they don’t, but if you love for men to make much of Christ you will feel shame when His name is belittled on your account.”

(quotes by Jon Piper in Don’t Waste Your Life)

Categories
Christian Living

We Like To Play Games… How About a Quick Game of “Church”

We love games.
We love to play. board of chinese checkers for a blog post on playing the game of church
Monopoly, Operation, Chutes & Ladders, Connect 4…
Football, Baseball, Golf, Soccer…

From early ages, we learn to play games. We can even use our imaginations to make up new ones.
I remember playing lots of games with my cousins at Mamaw’s house.
Our favorite required that she give us each a towel and safety pin it around our necks as our capes.
Then we’d go out and fight imaginary crime as Batman and Robin and Batgirl.
(I never got to be Batman, but fortunately I was never forced to be Batgirl, either!)
batman symbol

So, there is no question. We love games. But what happens when we turn something that is not a game into one?

“I know, let’s create a new game.”
“OK, but what will we call it.”
“How about… “church”?

God tells us that the Christian life is serious. That it costs you your life. That even if you are never required to be a martyr for the Christian faith, you are to have made the decision that your commitment to Christ is greater than your commitment to your own beating heart. That we should hold tighter to Jesus than to our own lives.

God tells us that we are to be about His business and that His business isn’t a game. In fact, He tells us that if we are serious about His business, it will lead us to encounter persecution. And if we encounter real persecution, we will know that real Christianity is not a game. And yet, here in America where we don’t experience much persecution for our faith, we have learned how to “play church.”

God never said that living for Him would be easy. In fact, He promises that it will be quite difficult.
He tells us that our own family members will turn against us; that others will hate us for our beliefs; that we will be slandered; that we might even physically have to die for our faith in Him. Jesus tells us that being a real Christian will bring a sword into your life.

But it doesn’t often seem to be the case for American Christians, where we seem to think that being a Christian will make life easier and more comfortable as God pours out blessings and safety and protection. That is quite a contrary message to what Jesus says in the Bible.

And then we look at people living in other areas of the world…. Some people are still living in countries where Christianity is persecuted. Persecution for Christian beliefs is still extremely strong in other places in the world.

Some missionaries are still going into countries where their lives are in danger, but because they are more concerned with people going to hell than with their own lives, they go in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
Do you think we would be more serious about God if we had to weigh whether we might die for our beliefs? Do you think we would value the Bible more if it was illegal to own one or teach from one?

Perhaps God has blessed us so much in, and given us such freedoms, in order that we might use these things to share more freely with others. Maybe we should be praying: “God thank you for loving me so much and placing me in America where I have so many freedoms, including freedom of religion. In response to your love for me and the blessings you have provided me I am going to make knowing you and your Word the #1 priority in my life and share my love for you with others. No matter the cost.”

Instead of taking that type of attitude, we hoard our resources and use them to please ourselves. And then we hear about “the danger” of missions and the persecution in the rest of the world and we just hope God doesn’t call us to missions – let someone else do that dirty and dangerous work. Not me.

And God, definitely don’t call my children to go!

So, even though many of us “dedicate” our children to the Lord in some worship service, we are actually unwilling for God to them as He sees fit!

While we are fearful of someone thinking we are eccentric or extreme because of our faith, some people around the globe are actually having to consider prison and death as a real possibility of what it means to accept Christ – and yet they still choose Jesus and aren’t afraid of death.

We love games. Games are fun. But church should never be a game.

Categories
Christian Living

Wanting The Good Life

We all want a life of abundance. Jesus says He wants to provide it. But could we possibly have a wrong understanding of the promise? Have we looked at the promise through “American dream”–tinted glasses? Have we fallen prey to some trap of our own design?a mousetrap set with a piece of cheese, symbolizing the trap of equating the good life to the American dream

We often pray for safety and comfort. We pray for safe travels. We pray that everyone in our family would be healthy and whole. Our safety and comfort are issues that we feel we want & need. And when we read passages such as Romans 8:28 which states that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes, we interpret them to be saying: “God will be faithful in making my life good.”

But then sometimes our lives are not so “good” in our eyes. Tragedy comes, accidents happen, life takes a turn for the worse. And if we have banked on the “good life” as we have defined it, we get extremely rattled. We get angry with God. We might even seem to lose our faith for a season. But maybe we should remember that the end of that verse says “and are called according to His purposes.” If we understand that God will be faithful in making things good in relation to bringing glory to His name, then even our death (which seems to NOT be OUR GOOD) can be good when it is done in a way that glorifies His name (as martyrs have done).

Interestingly enough, Jesus didn’t pray for the safety & comfort of His disciples, but rather that His disciples would be kept from the evil one and would stand strong in the face of temptations. He knew that they would not have safety & comfort – in fact it is said that most of Jesus’ disciples died a martyr’s death. And so it wasn’t that he needed to pray for their safety and comfort, but rather to pray for them to be faithful to bring glory to God and advance His kingdom – not only through their lives but through their deaths. What if we began to change our prayers to ask for the things Jesus did for his disciples?

In the movie The End of the Spear, the missionaries were asked if they would use their guns if the tribe attacked them. The statement was – “Son, We can’t shoot them because they do not have Jesus, and we do. So it is OK if we die now, but not OK for them to die without Jesus.” That in no way is comfort or safety, but the deaths of these missionaries was definitely glorifying to God. The sacrifice that the men were willing to give (their lives) for the gospel paired with the love that was shown to the people by the spouses that were left behind – led the Waodani people to believe in Jesus.

If we fall into the trap of American thinking – life should always be pleasant with good things – we hinder ourselves from understanding how life that may be difficult can bring glory to God – and maybe that is the good that we need to understand that Romans 8:28 is discussing.

Paul spoke of his “thorn in the flesh” and asked that it would be removed, but when it wasn’t, Paul indicated that his comfort was less important than God gaining glory through Paul’s weaknesses which would make Paul rely more on God.

So the first thing we need to do is to start getting our minds around the glory of God and then to imitate Jesus’ prayer. We need to pray for God’s glory – even if that might mean the loss of our comfort & safety.

The second imitation we need to have is that we need to pray for one another to be kept from temptation. That is not a prayer we often pray, is it? We pray for each others’ comfort & safety, but very seldom do we pray for each other to be kept from the temptations of the evil one. What kind of difference would that make in our lives if we all began praying that for one another? We see the same statement in the model prayer – Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

In our lives, let’s look for the good that brings God glory more than brings us comfort!