WHY WOULD OTHERS BELIEVE I’M A CHRISTIAN?

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 14:17

         I’m holding my breath while writing this.  I’m realizing that an unbeliever may call me a Christian for all the wrong reasons.  And if they do, legalism (the thing which has hurt me and the thing I despise) is still a part of me.  So how do others perceive me?

• Am I known for what I don’t do?
• Am I known for being out of touch with what’s happening in the world?
• Am I known for being disgusted by our times and intolerant of those captive to sin?
• Do I look so peculiar by the way I dress and wear my hair that I become a joke to anyone in the mainstream?
• Am I perceived as someone who is ‘against’ a litany of things?

      These should not be the things that define my Christianity.  Paul gives a different list.  It’s not a long one.  There are only three things on it.      Continue reading »

IS HE ARGUMENTATIVE OR SPIRITUALLY WEAK?

For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.  By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.  Romans 14:15

         Having been acquainted with numerous Christian environments that wanted to legislate nearly every part of life, I must say that I am still trying to understand this passage.  Admittedly, if I listened to everyone who had an opinion about every peripheral issue of my life, I’d be frozen in place.  So many have something to say about everything.  Having lived in a fishbowl of some notoriety, your life is often studied by others.  With study comes criticism.  Some is ludicrous, some is ignorant due to lack of information, and some is probably justified.  Sifting through it, and sorting out the hurt feelings that come from others’ comments, is difficult.

         So, am I to adjust my behavior to every person who say they are offended by me?  Or, does Paul mean something different here?  Legalism will always be with us.  So will honest seekers who stumble.

         I believe, for me, the answer lies in considering the one I am offending.  Continue reading »

WHO AM I IN THE EQUATION?

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.  Romans 14:13

         When my faith was young and fragile, I was easily disillusioned when I saw flaws in someone I looked up to.  My spirit felt the crash as they came tumbling off the pedestal I had put them on.  If the offense, in my eyes, was serious enough, I would wonder if they were even Christians.  This is what those who are weak in the faith do when they pass judgment.

         Those who are stronger in Christ and are seasoned followers of the Spirit have far more latitude.  They understand more about true liberty within the parameters of God’s moral law.  Because of that, it’s easy for them to look at the weaker Christian, become exasperated, and call them childish.

         James Boice describes this best.  “The weak are not to judge the strong by considering them unspiritual, and the strong are not to judge the weak by considering them immature.”

         If I am a young Christian, I am looking for the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of scripture.  I want God to make everything clear for me.  I am a toddler – looking to a Daddy to tell me what to touch or not touch, what to embrace and what to avoid.  I need clear and concise commands to show me how to walk. Continue reading »

TRUSTING THAT TIME WILL STAND STILL

Why do you pass judgment on your brother?  Or you, why do you despise your brother?  For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  Romans 14:10-11

         Every powerful encounter I have had with Christ, one where He was speaking to me, had one element that remained constant.  It seemed like time stood still.  It seemed suspended.  A powerful five-minute encounter seemed like hours.  And a several hour encounter seemed like it could have been a whole day.  When I recorded my last music project on CD, the one with piano, flutes, and recorder, I named it SUSPENDED IN THE SPIRIT.  I prayed that the music would ‘suspend’ each one who listened to the music to heaven’s time; one where God speaks and the moments are timeless and poignant.

         Why talk about that with these scriptures?  Judgments are passed on others because I am caught in the frustration of earth’s time.  I’ve heard nasty words spoken or seen unfair actions taken against me.  I either lash out in response or mutter unkind words under my breath.  Either way, I speak as if my words were needed to make final judgments.

         Here’s the thing ~ Whatever I say is a temporary judgment and it is not my place to make it. I will stand before Christ one day and be accountable for my nasty retort and the one who wronged me will also give an account for what he/she did.  Every knee will bow.

         Who is frustrating me today and wounding me on a personal level?  Who is hurting the body of Christ in a way that makes me simmer in anger? Continue reading »

THERE IS NO ‘WAS ALIVE’!

For to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.  Romans 14:9

         Both my parents are in heaven.  Both of my husband’s parents are in heaven, too.  In speaking of them and recalling favorite memories, it’s easy to say, “When my mother was alive, she did such and such.”  The truth is, my mother’s life never ended and there is no ‘was’.  She is alive.  She is God’s daughter and though her body died, her soul never skipped a beat.  It left her bodily shell and flew to Jesus.  How well I remember my mother’s face, moments after she died at age 64, and it was so obvious that the essence of her had left.  I was looking at an empty container. Continue reading »

I’M GETTING TO HIM!

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  Romans 14:7

         This scripture is true.  First, because the Spirit of God declared it through Paul.  Secondly, because it relates to the myriad of ways I interact, or fail to interact, with other people.  I can believe that if I’m a recluse, I won’t affect others.  I’ll argue that I am protecting them from myself.  While I may be sparing them of my negative influence, I am withholding something else that could be of value.  Even the vacuum has an impact.

         Words live.  “The power of life and death is in the tongue.”  Proverbs 18:21 If I call my child stupid, he will absorb the label and potentially struggle for life until someone tells him the truth.  If I call another’s giftedness out of the dark and define it for him, I free him to discover his uniqueness in the family of God.  My words have life-shaping ramifications.

         Emotions live.  A sullen face repels my children and makes strangers in public shrink from me.  Continue reading »

WAY TO WRECK A SUNDAY!

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.  Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.  The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.  Romans 14:5-6

         The same legalistic churches and groups that had rules about dancing, card playing, and movies during my childhood also had rules about the Sabbath.  Sunday was a day for nothing other than total quiet.  For a kid, it meant ~‘no fun!’  Other families played games, went swimming in the summer, ice-skating in the winter, and went outside to play ball with their fathers.  On Sundays, we brought home company for dinner after church, then sat in our living room and visited for several hours.  The guests left middle of the afternoon and then everyone went to bed for long naps.  Gee, couldn’t wait for Sundays!  And what did my sister and I do while our parents visited with company in the living room?  Sat on the floor of the hall and rolled a ball back and forth.  Are we having fun yet? Continue reading »

I’M NOT REALLY OVER IT SOMETIMES!

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?  It is before his own master that he stands or falls.  And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.  Romans 12:4

         What God leads my conscience to do, or not do, is entirely specific to me.  The problem comes when I feel that every other child of God should make the same choices.  My father in law, the evangelist Jack Wyrtzen, came to Christ out of a culture of dance bands and nightclubs.  He was a musician and played in a band.  Every time he heard jazz, the sound took him back to the clubs he had left behind for Jesus.  To him, jazz was a stumbling block.  Jazz however, in and of itself, is a neutral thing.  It is just music; an assembly of notes, rhythms, and instrumentation.  How many churches have split over the issue of music styles when the real emphasis should be on the Spirit behind the music and whether the people who lead it have been anointed to do it.  Talent and style of music are secondary issues.

         In Paul’s day, there were similar hot topics.  Jesus’ ministry was conducted almost exclusively within the Jewish community.  Keeping kosher was an important part of Judaism.  But Jesus stretched his fellow Jews out of their comfort zone when he and His disciples ate without washing their hands ceremonially.  Jesus even sent His disciples into the town of Sychar (in Samaria) to buy food for lunch.  A Jew would never touch food that a Samaritan had prepared.  When the Pharisees erupted over Jesus and His group breaking the law, He answered them by attacking their legalism.  “You nullify the word of God by your tradition.”  Mark 7:13  Then He talked to them about their hearts, that it’s what in the heart that makes a man clean or unclean.  But we’ve always tried to make our Christianity about external things; what we do and don’t do.

         Having grown up in legalistic circles, there were many rules. Don’t go to the theatre because someone seeing you exit won’t know if you saw a PG or an R movie.  Don’t order a glass of wine at dinner because someone watching won’t know if you drink excessively in the privacy of your own home.  Don’t even play the game of Rook in your own home because someone driving by might see you playing cards and assume they’re real playing cards.  Of course, as a teenager and young adult, the only things I wanted to do were the things that were denied.  Human nature.

         Am I over legalism?  Nope.  I still fight it.  The rules have just changed.  I can avoid those circles who are legalistic and want little to do with them.  My bias has done a 180 degree turn.  That’s just as sinful.  God is constantly dealing with me about this.  He often sends me to legalistic churches to bring the healing message of grace to them.  By going, He also brings the healing message of forgiveness to myself.  To teach them, I must forgive them.  To be effective, I must love them.  Oh, I’m a work in progress and it’s humbling how far I have to go sometimes.  You can pray for me.

Legalism kills.  Others killed my faith but I often still do it to others in new and creative ways.  Show me.  Forgive me.  Change me.  Amen

WHAT IS A WEAK CHRISTIAN?

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.  One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.  Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.  Romans 14:1-3

         A weak believer is one who has strong opinions about a secondary issue.  He sets out to argue about it with anyone who disagrees.  It becomes the center of his focus.  His quarrelsome approach destroys fellowship.  Knowing a fight is coming, others nearby will brace themselves when they see the weaker brother approaching.  The nature of his relationships within the church is argumentative.

         How Christians treat each other is the subject of the next 35 verses.  Paul thought it was extremely important and dedicated to dedicate a chapter and a half to the topic.  Human nature hasn’t changed much since the time he wrote this.  We are still arguing about things that don’t matter all that much in the kingdom.

         Who is the weak believer?  At times, all of us are.  Continue reading »

REMEMBERING WHO I AM

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.  Romans 13:14

         I live in the ‘now but not yet’ as a Christian.  I am seated with Christ in the heavenlies but I also live here.  I was made holy at my conversion but I am told to be holy.  Satan was defeated on the cross but He won’t act like he’s defeated until He is judged at the last day and thrown into the lake of fire.  I was clothed with Christ when I made Him my Savior but Paul reminds me to put on Christ daily.

         This is the battle.  What is a spiritual reality must be chosen, embraced, and intentionally lived out every day.  This morning, I remember who I am.

• I am adopted, not an orphan.
• I am free, not a slave.
• I am forgiven, not condemned.
• I am dead to sin, not trapped by former habits and sinful thought patterns.
• I wear His robes of righteousness, not tattered robes of shame. Continue reading »