"So, a Presbyterian walks into a bar..."

Cause and Effect

I heard well-known missionary and missiologist Darrow Miller speak twice this weekend.  It was a wonderful experience in that Darrow is not only a well-known but also experienced missionary, who has worked largely with hungry and poverty-stricken populations in the world.

Darrow made some points that all of us who know the Gospel and seek to share it need to keep in mind and let them inform our Christian world view.

1.    The Gospel is objectively true whether we believe it or not, whether anyone believes it or not.  Too often churches teach that the Gospel is true because we believe it is true.  That is backwards and upside down.  God doesn't NEED us at all, but He loved us anyway at the Cross, and loves us for all eternity.

2.    One of the root causes of poverty in the world is the lack of a Christian world view.  The Christian world view contains the elements of justice, mercy, redemption, equality, hard work, caring for one another, etc.  All of these things lead to a culture that will work to raise the whole culture around it out of poverty, hunger, etc.  Non-Christian world views are most often unjust and do not view all of humanity with equality.  This leads directly to culturally embedded injustice, prejudice and thievery of the product of others' labors, which leads to poverty and hunger.

3.    There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million less women in the world than there should be demographically speaking, and this is directly tied to the actions of cultures that believe in women as less than fully human.  In India alone, one million women are killed by fathers, brothers and husbands annually.

There was much more said, but these three ideas/facts struck me with great force.  If we as Christians truly seek to be "a blessing to the nations," as we are called to be as descendants of the promise to Abraham and in the Great Commission, we have got some serious culture change of our own to accomplish, and most of it needs to be accomplished in our own lives and in our churches.  We talk about missions and changing the world, yet we live in an era and culture that celebrates "cultural relevance" over all else. 

As Darrow said, "either the church changes the world or the world changes the church."  Which do you think is happening?

Right Thinking = Right Living?

I read this quote today, and it set off a chain of thoughts.  "I'm MUCH more interested in how he lives the love of Christ, than how doctrinally correct he is.  Much more.  But that's me."

This quote comes in the context of simultaneously skewering and defending a well-known pastor for his charges of "heresy" against a particular author  The charges made and the pastor are not significant at this time.  Also, I think the particular blog on which this quote originated is a good one, very original, thoughtful and fun, so this is not a slam in that direction.

What I wonder is this, "Is it really true that we should be strictly concerned with HOW someone lives the love of Christ and not wonder what is behind that love?"  I understand the sentiment, I really do.  We see in Scripture that Christians were distinguished by how they loved one another, as well as the poor and donwtrodden, so being vessels of Christ's love is certainly important and even descriptive and prescriptive of the Christian life.  My question is whether being a notable carrier of Christ's love is a sign of good doctrine.  Better yet, shouldn't good doctrine ALWAYS result in the faithful transmission of Christ's love to other believers as well as those in need throughout our neighborhoods and the world?

Major ADHD Side road...it is often MUCH easier to share Christ's love with people on another continent than with people next door.  Just ask my neighbor.  More another time...if it flits through my brain at an appropriate time.

Showing Christ's love is our calling, but is it all that matters?  What if someone is showing "love" when they are actually trying to gain the approval of men?  I've often heard that once you learn to fake sincerity, the world is your oyster.  What if someone is showing "love" because they believe the Gospel is a WWJD sort of approval system?  Do we applaud these mistakes that result in what we consider right behavior, or do we praise the behavior, but seek to make sure that the folks presenting this behavior aren't on some approval treadmill out of love for them?

Here is my thought; orthodoxy (believing right things) always leads to orthopraxy (doing right things.)   We all know people, some theologians, some preachers, or just plain folk, who lay great claim to proper doctrine and it has absolutely no governing value in their lives.  My thought on that one is that they have all their doctrine right EXCEPT the relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxy, so they don't have it all right, no matter how much they might protest.  Also, I believe that the idea of orthopraxy following orthodoxy is a reflection of the Gospel presentation in Scripture; that we believe first and then act on that belief.  The sequence we see in Scripture is, "Know, Be, Do."  Some people live by the Frank Sinatra understanding of the Gospel, "Do, Be, Do, Be, Do," and that is no Gospel at all.  That's a joke, get it?  Think "Strangers in the Night."  If you are too young to know what I am talking about, check out ITunes and listen.

I don't think we should walk around with a brief theological exam to give everyone we meet, just to make sure they are getting it "right," but I am suggesting that maybe, just maybe, there is a little bit more to this Christian living thing than orthopraxy.  That orthopraxy MUST come from somewhere, mustn't it? 

Know the truth and it will set you free.  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  And make sure that knowledge is not puffing you up, but resulting in you being a worthy carrier of the love of Christ.  Does my Presbyterianism show?

The Gospel?

As a Southerner, and a proud one at that, I have often noted a habit among my brethren that is a bit disheartening.  What I am referring to is "the gospel of nice."  You know what I mean, "Oh, they are such NICE people," or "That church has such a NICE pastor."  It goes further as in "Well, I know they don't attend any church, but they are such NICE people."  I have even heard, "I know they do not believe in Christ, but would God condemn such NICE people?" 

I need not say more.  I will say this, as you go to worship the sovereign God of the universe tomorrow, remember that you are worshiping the God who sent His Son to die a bloody and violent death, a death that paid the price for all those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and were written there before the foundations of the earth.  The Gospel, the REAL Gospel, is not about NICE, it is about redemption accomplished and applied to undeserving sinners.   The Gospel is not about what we DO, or even how NICE we are, it is about what has been DONE for us at great price.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!