Category Archives: Becoming Missional

Following Jesus with a missional posture.

Prosperity Gospel: Missional Response

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(This is the third part in a mini-series on the health and wealth gospel and what a missional response might be.  Here is part one [CLICK HERE], here is part two [CLICK HERE], and here is part three [CLICK HERE].  Be sure to check back for more!  Or just subscribe to my blog using the sign-up form on the right or at the bottom of the page if you’re using your mobile device.)

The prosperity gospel, AKA the health and wealth gospel, is a force to be reckoned with within Christian circles.  There are millions of people who believe in its principles in the United States, and many millions more in the rest of the world (especially in Latin America, Asia, and Africa).

It’s central claim is that if you believe just so, which you demonstrate in part by funding ministries financially, then God will bless you with material things, money, and health.  And while there seems to be some biblical support for this (see Jeremiah 29.11, Genesis 12, and Mark 1.29-30), upon closer investigation the basic claim of the prosperity gospel is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.

Jesus and the Promise of Prosperity

This discontinuity can be seen plainly by the fact that Jesus consistently tells his closest followers to expect hardship, persecution, and the like.  Why?  Simply because they follow him!

Listen to a few of Jesus’ thoughts about this:

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9.23)

Taking up a cross and denying oneself certainly doesn’t sound like getting blessed financially or with health!

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 10.25)

Why would God bless his people primarily through money, stuff, and health if in so doing he was making it harder for them to live under his kingship?  That doesn’t make sense!

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6.20)

Notice here that Jesus explicitly says that the poor are blessed.  How would that work if God only blessed folks with stuff, money, and a clean bill of health?

I could go on.  There are many, many, many more examples.  But let these three stand as chief examples of the fact that the gospel that Jesus preached and lived was not about giving people money or ensuring that they were always going to be healthy.

Sure, Jesus fed some folks and he healed some too.  But Jesus didn’t always do either of these things.

But he did make a promise to us, a promise of blessing.  In Matthew 28.20 Jesus promises to always be with us, until the very, very end.  That’s his primary blessing.  That’s his ultimate promise.  Anything that would distract us from that promise should not be a a chief pursuit for a follower of Jesus.

In my estimation, proponents of the prosperity gospel engage in abhorrent and manipulative practices which often target the poor and they also seem to be theologically distant from what we see in the life and teachings of Jesus.

 

Being Missional and the Prosperity Gospel

But there’s an important twist to this story.

It’s really easy for me to wag my finger at the prosperity gospel people, but I should be careful.  Jesus has a thought or two about this: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7.3).

So what is the plank in my eye with regard to the issues that make me angry about the prosperity gospel?  I think there are two and I’m sure that I’m not alone in this struggle:

  1. I struggle with entitlement.  At it’s core the prosperity gospel sounds an awful lot like a kid screaming in the aisle of the supermarket about how he’s been a good boy and deserves to get the sugary cereal he sees on the commercials and that all of his friends have.  So when I hear someone saying things like “name your prosperity and claim it in faith,” all I hear is someone telling people that they are entitled to riches and health from God.  And this bothers me.  A lot.  But when I get really honest with myself, don’t I do the same thing?  When I pray I often say things like “But God, we’ve done X, Y, and Z for you; couldn’t you do this one thing for us?”  I struggle with entitlement too.
  2. I struggle with desiring health and wealth.  The prosperity gospel draws its power from simple human urges: the urge to have stuff and the urge to be healthy.  These urges are biological, that is, they’re about survival.  It’s hard to survive in the world (especially the modern world) without stuff and money.  And any health problems are direct challenges to our survival.  And I’m just like everyone else — I want comfort, and having stuff, money, and health can provide that for me.  I want to own a home with a big backyard.  I want to have clothes that I like.  I want to drive a fancy car.  I’d like a nice watch.  I want to be healthy from now until the day I die.  I struggle with desiring health and wealth too.

And when I think about it, most of the churches that I’ve been a part of have demonstrated that they struggle with these things too, both individual congregants and the churches and their leaders too (myself included, of course).

I think this shows up most clearly when people in church contexts talk about what the will of God is.  What we typically mean when we want to know God’s will goes something like this: Which college will I go to, what will I major in, what kind of job will I get, who will I marry, how many kids will we have, how big of a house can we get, should we move to a bigger house, when and how should I retire, etc.

Now it may just be the churches that I’ve been in, the people I’m friends with, or my own makeup and struggles, but in America is seems to me that we’ve made God’s will look a lot like the average pursuits of a middle-class family.  God’s will has to be more than that.  And it is!  In 2 Corinthians 5.18-19 we see with some clarity that God’s will is to reconcile all things to himself through Jesus.  Our health and wealth would only play a small part in that, surely.

 

So when we go to great lengths to criticize the prosperity gospel and its proponents, are we also going to great lengths to see if we struggle with the same desires ourselves?

And are we leading the disciples we are making to care more about pursuing God’s kingdom no matter the cost or have we fallen prey to the prosperity gospel ourselves through our desires to look and act like a typical middle-class person in America?

 

I believe in a prosperity gospel too.  I try to hide it.  I try to push it down.  But my flesh cries out for health and wealth just like everyone else’s.

But as an active follower of Jesus who is sent into this world incarnationally to share and embody the good news, I must begin to cry out more for God and his righteousness!

 

What do you think?  Are we all tempted to pursue the prosperity gospel in our own ways?  What should we do about it?  Let me know in the comments below!

 

Butchering the Bible: Prosperity Gospel

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(This is the third part in a mini-series on the health and wealth gospel and what a missional response might be.  Here is part one [CLICK HERE] and here is part two [CLICK HERE].  Be sure to check back for more!  Or just subscribe to my blog using the sign-up form on the right or at the bottom of the page if you’re using your mobile device.)

 

After spending more time than I’d like to admit listening to health and wealth preachers, like Robert Tilton, Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and the like, I’m simply dumbfounded at the way these men and women twist the words of the Bible to fit their needs.

They’re butchering the Bible.  There’s really no other way of saying it.

And their butchering is always in full effect when they preach or teach on a certain passage from Mark.  Here it is:

 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10.29-30)

 

Butchering Exposed

I’d rather not make you wonder if I was being fair by paraphrasing these health and wealth preachers.  So I figured I’d let them speak for themselves, thus revealing their butchering ways totally on their own.

So, without further ado and in no particular order, here are some examples of the butchering Mark 10.29-30 by prosperity gospel preachers:

Robert Tilton (AKA the Farting Preacher):  Tilton cites Mark 10.30 and builds a principle on it called “God’s Law of Compensation,” which he writes about in God’s Laws of Success.  He says that God set this principle in motion back in the book of Genesis with Abraham and this “Law of Compensation” is “here in the earth” (page 142).  In other words, God will give back to us here on earth what we give him, and then some.  He has to.  It’s a law after all!

Kenneth Copeland (AKA the Godfather of the Prosperity Gospel): Copeland wrote a book entitled Laws of Prosperity.  In it he constantly refers to Mark 10:30 and its supposed hundredfold promised return on investment.  And on page 58 he says this: “Do you want a hundredfold return on your money? Give and let God multiply it back to you. No bank in the world offers this kind of return! Praise the Lord!”  Do you see that?  He guarantees that if you give, then you’ll get back 100 times what you gave!  That’s crazy!

Paula White: White is in same boat with Tilton and Copeland.  However, she at least admits that there’s something funny in Mark 10.30, namely the word “persecution.”  Here are her words describing what this persecution means:

Nobody said it would come easy. In fact, in Mark 10:28, Peter said, “We have left all.” And Jesus answered, “There is nothing you have left, not houses, not brothers, not sister, that you will not have a hundredfold return and eternal life in this life, with persecution.” That’ s the problem. God said, “You’re going to get it, but it’s going to come with persecution.” The enemy doesn’t want you to walk in it. That’s okay. Who cares about the giants in the land? Just go forth in grace. Go for your stuff. Go for your anointing. Go for your family. Go for your increase. Go for your supernatural abundance. [SOURCE]

So the persecution that Jesus promised would come is simply the enemy, AKA the devil, wanting us not to walk in God’s blessings.  What does that mean?  God will bless us with “stuff” and “increase” but the devil’s job is to prevent us from enjoying it?  Instead of letting the devil do that, White wants us to go for what’s ours.  That sounds pretty selfish to me.

Joyce Meyer: Meyer says that she wants us to know that “God wants us to manage our resources, not the other way around.”  I can get behind that.  Let’s see what managing our resources look like according to Meyer?  Well, she gives some pretty good advice, like work hard and save your money.  But then she also draws on the same idea that there’s some sort of a law forcing God’s hand when you give:

Whatever you give up now will come back to you one-hundred-fold in this lifetime (see Mark 10:29-30). If you want to have an abundant life, then I encourage you to ask God to help you live generously. [SOURCE]

So two things: 1) It looks like she ignores the persecution part of Mark 10.30 altogether.  Instead she focuses on the hundredfold blessing that is activated by giving and is repaid financially.  2) She seems to be encouraging people’s natural propensity for wanting more and more and more — “If you want to have the abundant life…”  Who doesn’t?  Meyer is simply picking the low-hanging fruit of human sinfulness here.

Creflo Dollar (AKA The $60 Million Dollar Jet Man): According to the hundredfold math, I wonder what Dollar gave in order to think he was going to get that jet.  Let’s see, $60 million divided by 100 equals…$600 thousand.  Now if there were investments this successful, then we’d all be living it up like Scrooge McDuck!  (Did he actually live it up?  I don’t remember…)  In a study note entitled “The Law that Governs Abundance,” Dollar claims that in order to live the abundant life we must obey God.  Obeying connects us to God’s blessings and disobedience does the opposite.  He ends this particular study note with these two lines:

It is okay to have riches, but we should never trust in them (Psalm 52:7).

Anything we give up for Jesus will be returned to us a hundredfold in this lifetime (Mark 10:29, 30).   [SOURCE]

So being rich if fine but don’t trust in it.  But just in case you need to be tempted to trust in riches, give up lots of stuff for Jesus so that it will be returned to you times 100.  Then you’ll find out first hand if it’s hard to never trust in riches!  Again, notice that there’s no mention of the persecution in Mark 10.30.

 

After looking at each example of butchering of Mark 10:30, what do we see?  What do each of these readings have in common?

Well, giving apparently forces God to multiply what we gave up for him by 100.  It appears that he must do it!  And apparently we all should be seeking after the abundant life, meaning a life full of stuff and increase.  And the way to get there, to that abundant life, is to manipulate God by taking advantage of his law of compensation.

Ugh.  All this butchering makes me want to explore the text from Mark 10 myself.

 

Hopefully Not Butchering the Bible

So the five preachers that I pointed out above put their thoughts about things out there.  So I guess I should do the same.  Whether or not I’m guilty of butchering the Bible too is up to you to decide!

Here we go.

What is the context of Mark 10.29-30.  Well, it appears in a larger section in which Jesus was teaching.  At the beginning of chapter 10 he’s teaching about divorce (such an easy topic these days!).  And, as he’s teaching, people are bringing him their children.  Even though the disciples are annoyed by this, Jesus welcomes it, even saying that folks must receive the kingdom of God like a child in order to enter it.

After chillin’ with the kiddos for a bit, Jesus starts on his way, presumably to leave, when a man runs up, falls on his knees before Jesus, and begins a conversation.  He asks “What do I have to do to really live, to have eternal life?”  Jesus tells him that he needs to keep the commands from the Old Testament.  The man says he’s done so since he was a child.

Then Jesus looked at him and loved him.  I love that line.  What would it have meant for this man to be loved in this way?  And then think about what Jesus is about to ask of this man!  Jesus asks something hard, but does so in love.

And what is that hard thing that Jesus asks of this man?  It’s simply this: Sell all your stuff, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow me.

The man got really sad and left.  It should be noted that we don’t know what he actually did next.  Did this man go back to his previous way of life?  Or did he actually sell it all in obedience to Jesus?  We don’t know!

Whatever the case, Jesus uses this interaction as a teaching moment for his disciples.  He says to them “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

Now we should pause here for a moment.  This idea flies in the face of a lot of what we read earlier by the health and wealth preachers.  If it’s hard to enter the kingdom for the rich, why would we follow the advice of the prosperity preachers by giving in faith so that we can get 100 times back?  Would all that money make it harder for us to follow God well?

In any case, Jesus continues.  He says again how entering the kingdom of God is hard and follows that up with this doozy: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Wow!  Again, why would I want to pursue being rich if it might prevent me from living under the rule of God?  I’ll take not-rich instead!

The disciples are shocked and wonder among themselves who could be saved then if the rich can’t.  Jesus answers by saying that what seems impossible to us humans, is no big deal to God.  All things are possible for God.

So the disciples are hearing all of this and they must be thinking that Jesus is calling them to sacrifice more, which seems a bit unfair.  So Peter says, paraphrasing, “Jesus, no thanks. We’ve left everything to follow you.  What’s in it for us?”

Jesus’ answer is perfect:

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10.29-30)

So within the larger story, these two verses begin to make more sense.  The disciples have literally left their families behind for the sake of following Jesus and they’ve left the land where they grew food for their families.  Now what?  Jesus must surely be aware that they’re feeling this way, because this is exactly where he goes.

So those who have lost relationships and property will receive one hundred times what they have lost.  How?  How does this work?  We know for a fact that the disciples didn’t receive 100 times what they gave up. They all died horrifically, while being more or less impoverished.    This can’t be a literal a literal tit-for-(100)-tats, or we would have known about it.  There’d be stories of Thomas living it up in India and Peter building a palace to rival Caesar’s in Rome.  But we don’t have stories like that.  Instead we have stories of faithful men dying for their faith.

So something else must be in play here — namely, community.  Jesus seems to be saying, at least the way I read it, that the relationships and security, which are sometimes given up as the cost of following Jesus, are expertly replaced by members of the community that God is creating.

But just in case anyone thought all of this shared community and security would bring peace of mind and assurance with it, Jesus tells his disciples that persecution is on the way.  This is no get-rich-quick scheme.  No!  Instead this is Jesus giving his closest followers a glimpse into the reality that they’ll be facing.

 

The picture Jesus paints here is nothing like that which is drawn by the health and wealth gospel people.  Jesus seems to be saying this: Being rich can be a major hindrance to following Jesus.  So instead of pursuing that, let’s follow Jesus despite the cost, trusting that he’ll take care of our needs for relationship and relative security.

There is no explicit formula in play here.  This isn’t a “give a seed offering of 100 dollars and watch God give you 10,000 bucks back!”  Quite the opposite.  What Jesus has in mind in this passage is a deep trust that whatever God wants to give us through the community he is creating is enough.  Nothing else is needed.

 

 Butchering the Bible: Why?

I’m going to presume some things in this section.  If you don’t like that, move right along.

Here’s my method: I’m going to try to think like a prosperity gospel proponent for a moment and decipher why they may be so into this “Law of Compensation” as Robert Tilton calls it.  Here we go:

 

So I just read in Mark 10.29-30 that if you give stuff up to follow Jesus then he’ll return it to you one hundred fold.  Now I know this isn’t true in my life because I’ve never really seen it.  But I bet if I used just the right preaching tactics and invested enough time building my brand and image that I could convince other people that this was true.  

Bingo!  That’s it!  I’ll start trying to convince folks that if they give then they’ll get back what they’ve given times 100!  But I don’t want to encourage them to give anywhere or to anyone.  No.  I want them to give to my ministry, especially since I am its sole proprietor and my board is made up of my spouse, my first lieutenant, and me.

But hold on, this get-back-100-times thing doesn’t really work.  How will I convince people to keep at it, even when it isn’t happening for them?  I know, I’ll tell them that they have to believe, REALLY believe, that God will do what he promises in Mark 10.30.  I’ll say, “You have to believe for the return or God won’t give it!”  That’s right; I’ll make belief a type of magic that people will try to use to get what they want from God.  But since this 100-times thing doesn’t really work, people will just keep giving, hoping that this time they are believing just right so that God has to bless them.

Perfect!  Now off to the studio to record my next sermon!

 

Now I’m not going to pretend for a second that I actually know what is going on in the minds of the people who preach this non-sense, but I can definitely see the logic in my little pretend scenario above.  Can’t you?  Can’t you see the ease with which this line of thinking, namely that God will give you a hundredfold what you give up for him if you really believe it, can be used to manipulate people into giving more money?  Can’t you see the temptation here?

 

Butchering a Conclusion

Here’s my point: In a quick and dirty reading of some health and wealth preachers like Robert Tilton, Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Joyce Meyer, and Creflo Dollar, it is obvious that they are misusing Mark 10.29-30.  They ignore the context, or misappropriate it, and they tend to ignore the presence of the word “persecution,” or they interpret it really strangely.

So the loosey-goosey way they handle this text makes me wonder what they do with passages like Jeremiah 29.11 or the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12 or other passages that can, on the surface at least, be bent into a prosperity matrix?  My guess, which is a really-well-informed guess by the way, is that they do the same things there that they do here in Mark 10.

Who cares though?  What’s the problem with this?  I already talked about this in a previous post so I’ll just repeat the basic idea here: We should care about the prosperity Gospel because it is used to exploit the poor here in North America and all across the world, including some of the poorest places in South America, Africa, and Asia.  That’s why this matters.  That’s why we should care.

 

What do you think?  Are these preachers onto something with their you’ll-get-back-100-times-what-you-give-up teaching?  Or are they way off base?  Let me know in the comments below!

 

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Exploiting the Poor: Health and Wealth Gospel

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(This is the second part in a mini-series on the health and wealth gospel and what a missional response might be.  Here is part one [CLICK HERE] and here is part three [CLICK HERE].  Be sure to check back for more!  Or just subscribe to my blog using the sign-up form on the right or at the bottom of the page if you’re using your mobile device.)

 

Why does the health and wealth gospel matter?  Who cares if some folks distort the message of Jesus?  The adherents to the prosperity gospel are consenting, thinking people, so why should anyone say anything about what they are doing?

These are all good questions.  And the answer to them is simple: the health and wealth gospel is famous for exploiting the poor.  And exploiting the poor is terrible.  Therefore, those who engage in the exploiting, whether purposefully or not, should be called out.

 

Exploiting the Poor with the Prosperity Gospel

Admitting that more demographic and ethnographic research needs to be undertaken, the roots of the health and wealth gospel are found in the soil of poor evangelicals in America.

Sociologist Peter L. Berger from Boston University says this:

The prosperity gospel probably originated among the poorer elements of the evangelical community in America. It is now a global phenomenon, especially among the rapidly spreading Pentecostal churches in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

He also claims that…

Far more attractive to poor people, who are a majority of its adherents, is the “prosperity gospel,” a version of Christianity asserting that material benefits will come to those who have faith, live a morally upright life and, not so incidentally, give money to the church.

[SOURCE for both quotes]

 

Putting those quotes into my own language would look like this: The health and wealth gospel started among under-resourced Americans in the past.  Its theology, hopes, and values are attractive to poor people.  And this distortion of the Christian message, namely that blessing = material possession and/or money, has very successfully been exported to Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

In other words, the health and wealth gospel has been built upon the backs of the poor.  Prosperity gospel preachers, who very often brag about their wealth openly, seem to be guilty of exploiting the poor.  And even if the demographics of a particular prosperity gospel church or people who seem to adhere to prosperity principles include a mix of folks, rich and poor, the fact that money is taken from any who are poor with the unenforceable promise of a fabulous return on investment is insidious.

You can see this in action in the video below.  Paula White is the speaker.  She is a famous health and wealth preacher.

She calls for every single person to “sew a seed” of $126 dollars, which she admits is a sacrifice for many.  Sacrifice?  Who is $126 a sacrifice for?  It’s a sacrifice for the poor!  And did you notice how many times she continues to ask people to pass their offering (AKA, their seed) down down the aisle?  Did you hear her say several times “Has everybody given?”  Then when she mentions that someone may not have yet she says “Oh no.”  Her little speech is patently manipulative.

And Paula White’s brand of begging is typical of many of the prosperity gospel preachers.  Speeches like these are one of the tools used to exploit the poor.

And don’t get me started on the blatant misinterpretation of passages in the Bible about sewing and reaping harvests, especially the Parable of the Sower!  That will have to be for another time…

 

Exploiting the Poor: What’s Wrong with That?

This question shouldn’t need answering.  Every person, whether a follower of Jesus or not, knows that taking advantage of the poor is wrong.  Exploiting those without access to resources is horrible.

We all know that taking the little bit someone has and adding it to our huge pile is selfish, immoral, and just plain despicable.

Not only does exploiting those with little feel wrong to almost everyone, it is called out as wrong all over the place in the Bible.  From beginning to end, the Bible is full of calls to care for the poor and denouncements of the abuse of the poor.

Here are some examples:

  • Leviticus 19.10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am theLord your God.
  • Deuteronomy 15.11: There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
  • Psalm 12.5: “Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.”
  • Psalm 35.10 My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you,Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.”
  • Psalm 82.3: Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
  • Proverbs 14.31: Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
  • Proverbs 29.7: The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
  • Isaiah 3.14 The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: “It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses.”
  • Isaiah 32.7 Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
  • Ezekiel 16.49: Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
  • Luke 4.18: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free
  • James 2.5-6: Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

Normally I wouldn’t engage in Bible bludgeoning like this.  But there is a time and a place for it.

Now is the time and this is the place!

It is obvious that a central message found in the Bible is that God cares for the poor and calls his people to do the same.

 

Exporting the Exploiting of the Poor

Now if the exploiting of the poor that goes on in some health and wealth circles was only happening in the US or in North America, that would be bad but perhaps it would be somewhat manageable.  Folks in North America can be connected to decent social services that can help, etc., etc.

But when the exploiting of the poor by the prosperity gospel has been exported into very impoverished parts of the world, then a new low has been found.

I remember the last time my wife and I were on a short-term mission assignment in Cambodia.  We met some local Christian workers and shared prayer times with them often.  In one of these prayer sessions they asked that we would pray about the Joyce Meyer event that was coming up.

exploiting the poor

Joyce Meyer “preaching”

Joyce Meyer is another famous prosperity gospel preacher.  I was a bit nervous.  Did my new friends want me to pray for the success of her event?  Or did they have something else in mind?

They then shared that she has been to Cambodia many times and that people will give all the money that they have to her ministry in response to her preaching and financial promises, leaving their families with no money for the necessities of life.

So we prayed and prayed and prayed!

But truth be told, Cambodia is not alone in this story.  The health and wealth gospel, and the exploiting of the poor that comes with it, has traveled all over the world.  It has found many places where it is popular, especially in Africa, Latin America, and Asia (Matthew Clarke’s overview in Handbook of Research on Development and Religion is helpful [pages 170-174]).

Similar stories to the one I told about Cambodia have proliferated all over the world now.

While there are plenty of detractors out there, it seems to me that most people either don’t really know the reality of the problems caused by the health and wealth gospel or they simply choose to look the other way.

 

Brothers and sisters, it’s time that we stopped looking the other way and started confronting this distortion of God’s message of unconditional love!

It’s time that we remember that Jesus himself was a homeless preacher.  His first followers lived lives of deep sacrifice and poverty, and everyone of them died in some non-prosperous way (e.g., crucified upside down, boiled alive, etc.).  And every true follower of Jesus has a deep and abiding concern for the poor because they see it in the life that Jesus lived and they want to do the things he did in his human life in their human lives.

 

Exploiting the poor is wrong.  And exploiting the poor in the name of Jesus takes wrongness to the next level!

 

What do you think?  Is the apparent exploiting of the poor that goes on in prosperity gospel circles as bad as I (and others) make it seem?  What should we do if it is?  Let me know in the comments below!

Health and Wealth: Selling Garbage

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(This is the first part in a mini-series on the health and wealth gospel and what a missional response might be.  Be sure to check back for more!  Or just subscribe to my blog using the sign-up form on the right or at the bottom of the page if you’re using your mobile device.  Here are part two and part three if you’re interested!)

 

In America (and in other parts of the world too!) there’s a cancerous growth on the body of Christ.  It’s called the health and wealth gospel (or the prosperity gospel).  Most proponents of this movement don’t consider themselves part of it and certainly wouldn’t call what they teach and preach the health and wealth gospel.

But the truth is that this health and wealth gospel needs to go away and fast!

Why?  Because it distorts the truth of the true gospel, it tarnishes the witness of the rest of us who are trying to follow Jesus, and it often is used to pump money and resources out of the least of these in our midst.

But where is all of this coming from?  You may wonder if there’s some back story here.  Well, there is.  And the goal of this post is to tell that story.

 

Health and Wealth: A Personal Journey

For some of my childhood, especially from ages 13-18, I was given great freedom when it came to the entertainment that I consumed.  And, strangely enough, I spent an inordinate amount of time doing two things: playing video games and watching the freaky Jesus channel on TV.

I won’t get into video games here (though it should be noted that the Sega Genesis was and is WAY better than the SNES!) but I will share just a bit about my experience with televangelists.

My family and I attended a great church during these years of my life.  I sat under the teaching of a great senior pastor and had loads of fantastic Sunday School teachers.  I knew what I was supposed to believe.

And it was this knowledge of Christian orthodoxy (a fancy word which simply means the standard, generally agreed-upon set of beliefs that most people who consider themselves Christian adhere to) that led to me being enthralled with TV preachers.

I would watch Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, and the like and be utterly shocked that people believed the things they were saying!  Benny Hinn had a strange view of the the Trinity, instead teaching that each member of the Trinity was an internal trinity!  And watching Rod Parsely tell his congregation to go crazy and speak in tongues flew right in the face of what I knew Paul said about the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians!

But the part that I always found most amusing was the “name it, claim it” stuff that Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, and the others like them did.  They all consistently taught that if you named something you wanted (anything at all) and then believed with all your heart (and in just the right way), then God would give it to you.  In fact, they way that they made me feel was that if you did those things then God had to give it to you; he had no choice.

And the things that people were naming and claiming weren’t cures for various diseases, worldwide evangelization, justice for the oppressed, or food for the hungry.  No.  Normally it seemed to me that people named and claimed big houses, magical debt reduction, fancy cars, and other flashy things.

 

Health and Wealth: Things Get a Bit More Real

This tendency of certain kinds of preachers to teach their listeners to name and claim things in their own lives, no matter how selfish or ungodly, really irks me when health and healing are added to the equation.

I had always seen this on programs like those by Benny Hinn and Rod Parsley.  They would “heal” people who came to their meetings and they would send people holy trinkets (like prayer cloths or blessed water) which they promised would bring healing.

But seeing these shenanigans firsthand is a different story altogether.

When I was in college, I was dating a woman who had a close friend whose mother had advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), which caused her to need to use a wheelchair.  In an effort to seek healing, the mom with MS decided that she wanted to go to a faith healer that was growing in popularity in certain Christian circles in Texas.  The rumors that were circulating were that this preacher was healing people and that people’s teeth were turning gold!

I literally couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!

So we drove five hours from our hometown to a suburb of Dallas.  We entered a tiny church building that could probably seat 100 or so people but there was easily three times that many people squeezed in.  The service was very typical of a more Charismatic/Pentecostal church — high-energy music, hand raising, dancing, clapping, speaking in tongues, at least two offerings, and the like.

No big issues yet.

Then the preacher got up to “preach.”  I used apostrophes in the previous sentence because what this man did can most certainly not be considered preaching!

He read a passage from 2 Chronicles from the King James Version.  He latched onto a single English phrase from that verse and then went on and on for the next 35 minutes repeating the phrase, followed by asking for amens and hallelujahs, followed by shouting the phrase into the mic, followed by some sweat wiping, and repeat.

It was a joke.

But the joke had only just begun.  When he finished his maniacal rant, I mean  sermon, one of his lieutenants took the mic and announced that the healing part of the service was about to begin.  He directed all the sick and ailing to make their way to the right side of the room, and many people did just that.

In short order this line was processed by a team of people who were sending some toward the front to be “healed” and they were sending others further off to the right to a waiting area.

The woman I was with, the woman with MS, she was sent off to the far right.  She was told that her illness required more praying and that they’d get to her if they had time.

They didn’t have time, at least not during the main service.

After things had died down and most of the people had left, those who had been relegated to the corner for more prayer were finally seen by the preacher.   He talked quietly with some of the folks, prayed with a few, and finally approached my acquaintance with MS.

He prayed for her very forcefully and then asked her if she believed she could be healed.  She very convincingly said, “YES!”  The pastor laid his hand on the top of her head, prayed even more loudly, and then commanded her to stand.

As you probably guessed, she could not stand.

The preacher then said five words I’ll never forget: “You don’t have enough faith.”

And not only did he say those five words, but he said them in a non-nonchalant, matter-of-fact way.  He was dismissive.

Who was he to serve as her faith barometer?  Was he aware of the years and years she had been faithfully praying to be healed?  Was he aware of the many hundreds of miles she had traveled on various occasions to visit charlatans like him? Was he aware that not only had she been praying, but that at least four separate congregations in my hometown had been praying for her?

Not enough faith!  What a bunch of malarkey!

He should have just admitted the truth: I’m a fake who is in it for a sense of power and some money.

This was the day in which the last nail in the health and wealth coffin was hammered in for me.

I saw it’s ugly underbelly and was disgusted.

But seeing the health and wealth gospel in this particular light helped me better see the TV preachers who said and did the exact same things.

The gig was up for me.

 

Health and Wealth: This Week

Two things happened this week that led me to write this post.

 Number 1

iTunes told me that my newly-minted podcast was most related to one of Joel Osteen’s podcasts.  No lie.  See for yourself:

Health and Wealth

Tim Keller — that’s cool!  But Joel Osteen!  Yuck!

You may be thinking: Why are you hating on Joel Osteen Matt?  Can’t you see his wonderful smile?

And I’ll answer with four words that best describe his teaching in my estimation: health and wealth gospel.

Joel Osteen says all the time that God wants us to be happy and healthy and that if we believe something we can achieve it.  To be honest, he sounds an awful lot like the author of The Secret but he just uses the word “Jesus” more.

But Joel Osteen is an influential figure in American Christianity (and beyond).  He has books that are New York Times bestsellers.  He has a TV show that millions watch each week.  And he pastors the largest or second largest Protestant church in America, with over 43,000 weekly attenders.

And it’s because of this influence that his brand of the health and wealth gospel is particularly dangerous.  People are clearly buying into it!

But Joel Osteen’s not the only one.

Number 2

Aptly- or ironically-named Creflo Dollar wants the people who support him to donate funds so that he can by a 60 million dollar luxury private airplane!  Even CNN has gotten in on this one!

Here’s the plan: Creflo Dollar will inspire 20,000 people to donate 300 dollars or more, and then he’ll have enough money to buy the Gulfstream G650.  When you do the math you see that he’s asking for at least 60 million dollars!

That’s crazy.

And why does he need this plane?  Well, according to the CNN article linked above, he needs it so he and his wife can use it to spread the gospel around the world.  In an effort to continue to justify such a ridiculous purchase, Creflo Dollar went on to explain that his previous private jet was having some issues and that it needed to be replaced.  So he said that he “knew that it was time to begin to believe God for a new airplane.”

There you have it: name it, claim it.  The hallmark of the health and wealth gospel!

But this turn of events shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.  I mean Creflo Dollar is the same guy who is responsible for the School of Prosperity.  Here are some of the things you’ll find on the official website of this “school”:

  • The “millionaire login” for students
  • Why God wants you rich
  • How to use the Bible to manipulate “natural principles” for your benefit
  • How to get more out of your life, presumably financially.

Again, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!

 

Health and Wealth: An Initial Conclusion

You may be thinking: So what?  Who cares if some preachers go around preaching things that you don’t like Matt.  Who are they hurting?  What does it matter?

Well, they are hurting people and it absolutely matters (or at least it does if you take the Bible seriously).

The goal of this post was to give an anecdotal account of the state of the health and wealth gospel.  And I think I’ve done that!

So, for now, that’s all.

But in the next few days expect a few more posts about this: at least one on the impact of the health and wealth gospel and at least one on what the Bible may have to say about the health and wealth gospel and at least one on what a missional response to all of this might look like.

 

What do you think of the health and wealth gospel?  When and where have you experienced it?  Let me know in the comments below!

 

Sent

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For an assignment at work I’ve been re-reading all the Gospels, which has been great!  And just the other day I read the Gospel of John all in one setting and I noticed something striking: there is a ton of “sent” language in John!

Everywhere you look in John someone is being sent.  Usually it’s Jesus who is saying that he was sent by the Father.  But there are times when Jesus says that he will send the Holy Spirit and there are a few important instances of Jesus saying that he will send his disciples in the same manner in which he was sent.

As you [Father] sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (John 17.18).

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20.21).

From a missional perspective, these are two of the most important verses in the entire Gospel of John.  Why?  What makes them so special?

5 Ways of Looking at Being Sent in the Gospel of John

    1. We are all sent.  Another way of saying this is that we’re all missional.  Jesus sent the disciples, whom he prayed for in John 17.  Then Jesus prayed for those who would follow in the footsteps of the disciples, those who would believe in their message.  Those people are us, followers of Jesus who came after the disciples.  Thus, we are sent like they were sent.  Honestly though, not all of us live into our sentness.  We all have some work to do!
    2. We are sent by Jesus.  This one is huge.  Jesus sends us out and we go with his blessing and authority.  In fact, in one of the craziest passages in all of the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples that they will do greater things than he did while he was on earth (John 14.12).  But Jesus did some amazing things!  He stood up to religious authorities, turned water into wine, and raised a dead guy from the grave!  But his following didn’t expand very far.  It was the first followers of Jesus that expanded Jesus’ influence and we continue to do that today!  And, if I do say so myself, that’s pretty great!
    3. We are sent into the world.  John 17.18 is clear, followers of Jesus are sent into the world.  Why is this important to point out?  Isn’t this a no-brainer?  Well, you’d think so.  But if you examine the behavior of Christians these days, then you’d probably deduce that they think they’re sent to church campuses, christian schools, christian stores, etc., etc.  But we aren’t!  We’re sent into the world!  Do church campuses and explicitly christian things have a place in the life of a follower of Jesus?  Of course — as places to be trained up and be equipped in order to live out our sentness in the world!  Derwin Gray says it best, “Sunday is the huddle to equip us to play the game of life!”  So the world isn’t something to be avoided; it’s something to be sent into!
    4. We are sent with a purpose.  All throughout John Jesus makes his basic message clear: he has a new command for his followers: love people (John 13.34, 13.35, 15.12, etc.).  And what is love?  Love is putting the interests of others first no matter the cost (Phil 2.3-4).  Love is doing for others what you’d have them do for you (Matthew 7.12).  Love is laying down your life for others (John 15.13).  So that’s our purpose!  If you’ve ever wondered about what you should be doing as a follower of Jesus…well, here are our standing orders: Love the heck out of people!
    5. We are sent as Jesus was sent.  John 17.18 and 20.21 say this very thing explicitly.  But what does this idea mean?  How was Jesus sent?  He was sent in humility — born in a stable, placed in a feeding trough, part of a poor family, became a homeless preacher, and constantly put the interests of others before his own.  He was sent incarnationally — Jesus put on flesh and became one of us.  He poured himself into our stinky, difficult, and sometimes sad world.  Jesus didn’t do love at a distance (get in, get out, and no one notices you were there). In community — Jesus was born into a family, lived in a community, and formed a band of disciples. He generally never went at it alone, so neither should we! In power — Jesus had power and authority in his earthly ministry and he has made the same power and authority available to those who follow him through the Spirit. Followers of Jesus have nothing to fear!

What do you think about the idea of being sent? Are we all sent?

Let me know in the comments below!

Acceptance: A Missional Must-Have

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We hear a lot about acceptance and tolerance today.  In fact, in certain Christian circles acceptance and tolerance are at the top of bad word list!

At some other time I want to tackle the idea of toleration — so let’s turn our attention instead toward acceptance.

What We Want Acceptance to Mean

All of us want to be loved for who we are.  We want people to validate us and our feelings and we want them to make us feel good about the choices we’ve made.  We want to be accepted.

And we want this acceptance to be conditional: the one accepting us can’t ask us to change, expect us to change, or hope that we’ll change.  Nope.  Instead we want them to simply take us as we are, warts and all.

And to be honest, if there’s something about us that we know needs to change, we still don’t really want people to call us out on it.

It’s almost as if we want people to accept us and then to ignore everything about us that is preventing us from living up to our God-given potentials.

We want love without risk, grace without truth, and acceptance without change.

The Kind of Acceptance We Need

If we stopped to think about it, we would gather that this kind of cheap, no-strings-attached acceptance is shallow at best.  We would figure out that it’s more or less meaningless because no one is asking us to be better, to be stronger, or to be more clued in.

But when we find someone who can accept us for who we are and then love us enough not to let us stay there, we will latch onto them for dear life!

I’m sure that as you read the last sentence you thought of a person or two in your life that simply makes you a better person.  Sure, they offer you unadulterated acceptance.  But they also have high expectations of you.  When you fail them, they don’t dismiss you; instead they help you grow.  When you hurt them, they don’t run; instead they teach you how not to be selfish.

It’s people like this that are worth holding onto!  In fact, if we’re lucky enough to have one or two people in our lives like this, we’re super blessed!

Jesus’ Acceptance

I can’t think of a better example of someone who demonstrates healthy acceptance than Jesus.  We can catch a glimpse or two of his acceptance style in John 3.1-15.

In those verses Jesus has an interaction with a religious leader named Nicodemus.  Since Nicodemus was an important person and since Jesus was a bit controversial, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night (John 3.2).

He desperately wanted to engage in conversation and dialogue with Jesus, but he was a bit scared to be seen with him.

I don’t know about you, but if someone treated me this way, I might be tempted to say something like this: “Come back during the light of day.  I can’t work with you if you’re ashamed to be seen with me!”

But this is not how Jesus responds.  Instead Jesus enters in to a discussion with Nicodemus.  He’s patient with him.  But he teaches him.

Jesus doesn’t just accept Nicodemus and let him stay there.  Jesus allows Nicodemus to come to him as is and he makes sure that he leaves a different man.

Now the transition from spiritual lostness to foundness was slow for Nicodemus.  Nicodemus and his pal Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but in secret, helped ensure that Jesus’ body was taken care of after he died (John 19.39-42).  This was a big deal because doing so would be at least semi-public and because the spices and tomb for Jesus were not cheap.  Nicodemus and his friend had to make sacrifices because of Jesus.

Jesus accepted him, and then a long time later Nicodemus demonstrated his love for Jesus.

Tradition has it that Nicodemus continued to follow Jesus and was killed for his faith sometime during the first century.  This isn’t verifiable but it has a nice ring to it.

Maybe Nicodemus’ faith started slow and grew incrementally.  And maybe it continued to grow and to grow and to grow.

And it all started for Nicodemus because Jesus offered him the gift of acceptance.

 

Why do we find it so hard to offer acceptance to folks who are far from God?  If we want to follow Jesus and lead others toward his love too, then we must offer them acceptance.  What can we do to be more accepting?  Let me know in the comments below!

 

And if you want to follow my blog regularly, please join my email list near the upper, right-hand corner of this page (or near the bottom of this page if you’re on a mobile device).  Or you could simply like my Facebook page.  Thanks!

Stretching: Learning and Growing

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That’s my son Myron doing one of his favorite things in the world — stretching!

Watching him do this several times each day has got me thinking, what is stretching me?

What’s Stretching Me at the Moment…

Here are a few of the things that are stretching me, causing me to grow and to learn (in no particular order):

  1. School.  I’ve been in school for what seems like forever.  Finishing my PhD has required so much perseverance and patience, the second of which I don’t come by naturally.  If all continues to go well, I should be finished this summer.  *Fingers crossed*
  2. Marriage.  I’ve said it many times that I didn’t know how selfish I was until I got married.  And that statement is as true today as it was in 2002 when I first got married!  The stretching caused by marriage is varied but it is definitely effective!  To me, the hardest part of marriage is choosing each day to put the interests of my wife before my own.  Man, why is it so hard not to be selfish!?
  3. Parenthood.  Since being a dad is so new to me (only one month in!), it feels like the thing that is stretching me the most right now!  I’m learning to live on less sleep, to prioritize differently, and to do things that I hadn’t done often before.  But most of all, fatherhood is teaching me that my capacity for love is much greater than I ever imagined!  When I heard Myron’s first cry, I felt like the Grinch at the end of the book: my heart grew three sizes!
  4. Leadership.  Whether in official capacities or informal ones, being a leader is always a stretching experience!  Not unlike marriage and parenthood, being a good leader means putting the interests and needs of others at the forefront.  This is always unnatural, or at least it is for me!
  5. Spiritual Disciplines.  I’m not a planner.  I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-er.  And with regard to spirituality, spontaneity is not always best!  In my experience, it is best to have some spiritual practices (such as prayer, Bible reading, fasting, etc.) which are a regular part of my life.  For me, the one that creates the most stretching in me is daily, devotional Bible reading.  For me this is a challenge because when I read the Bible I constantly think about it either as an academic, thinking about all the grammatical, historical, and theological issues, or as a teacher, thinking about how to communicate the truths found within to others.  It is a daily struggle for me to find personal, spiritual meaning from the Bible.  This discipline helps me grow!
  6. Work.  I’m about to embark on a new assignment at work and it will be a stretching process!  I’m excited to see how God grows me and my community through this opportunity.  But I’m also quite aware that things will be difficult at times and that I’ll have to find creative ways to move forward or to step aside and let others take the limelight.  I’m looking forward to the challenge.

 

So, what kinds of things are stretching you in your life right now?

Let me know in the comments below!

 

Ash Wednesday

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What is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and Lent is an ancient Christian tradition of having a season of fasting and meditation prior to Easter.

Ash Wednesday

By: Tim

Since the Church is made up of such a diverse set of people, some of us will be very familiar with Ash Wednesday and others won’t be familiar with it much at all.

Some of us grew up in faith contexts where Ash Wednesday was highly emphasized, even ritualized. And because of this we may have very strong associations with it from our past, whether positive or negative.

And others of us, like me, grew up in contexts where Ash Wednesday was hardly mentioned and never observed. And because of this we may very drawn toward or repelled away from it.

Either way, we observe Ash Wednesday as Christians, not out of obligation or tradition. Nor do we observe it to show others how holy and amazing we are as we go about our days after having received ashes.

No, there’s is a deeper reason why we commemorate Ash Wednesday – it is a reminder to us that the brilliant joy of Easter doesn’t come without a great cost.

That cost is that the sinless one, Jesus Christ, had to become sin for us. There could be no greater cost than that.

So Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the time where we examine why Jesus had to pay that cost. And the “Ash” in Ash Wednesday gives us a good clue as to why Jesus had to pay that cost.

In the Bible ashes have two primary associations: 1) one who is repentant would apply ashes to him or herself as a sign of repentance; and 2) the other is that we are mortal: From dust we came and to dust we will return.

So during Lent, and especially on Ash Wednesday, we remember that Jesus paid a great cost to deal with our twin problems of sin and death.

Let’s take an honest look at ourselves, our mortality and sinfulness, and let’s remember the hope found in Jesus that he is making all things new!

Honesty

Friends, Ash Wednesday is all about honesty…and let’s get real for a minute: being honest can be hard. Let me give you two examples from my life:

When I was probably in second grade I wanted to get a toy that was on the top shelf of my book shelf. So I would climb up the book shelf in order to reach it. When my parents would see me doing this they would tell me to stop because they didn’t want me to fall and get hurt. Well, as you probably have guessed already, I continued to go for that toy on the top shelf anyway. On one particular occasion I climbed up and reached for the toy…grabbed it…and the whole shelf and all of its contents fell on top of me! I cried for help, “Daddy help me! Help me!” And when my Dad came in the room he asked me what happened. I thought for a second and said, “I don’t know…the shelf just fell on me, Dad!”

Another time that being honest was hard was when I had just begun learning to cook after my wife and I were married. The first thing I ever made was a pasta dish that was really yummy! The next day I decided to go big and tried to make stuffed pork loin. I plated the meal and sat it out on the table and it looked great! But when we bit into it was dry as a bleached bone in the sun! After a minute or two my wife looked up at me and lied, saying, “Honey, this is really good!” even though it was more like ten-year old piece of beef jerky than a stuffed pork loin!

Being honest can be tough. And being honest about ourselves and our failings can be especially difficult. So as we observe Ash Wednesday, we might have a hard time being honest about our sinfulness and our mortality. We might not really want to take a long, hard look in the proverbial mirror because we know who will be looking back at us.

But that’s what Ash Wednesday is all about, an honest appraisal of our human condition. And it was this human condition that necessitated that Jesus pay the staggering price he paid for us at Calvary.

In Mark 1.15 we find the basic message of Jesus’ teaching, his mission statement if you will. The following words are found there: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

For the rest of this blog I simply want to look at three parts of this verse in light of Ash Wednesday: the kingdom of God, repentance, and believing the good news.

Kingdom of God

Let’s start with the kingdom of God. This phrase does not refer solely to heaven or the afterlife. Nor does it refer to a physical location with borders and a castle. No. Instead it refers to the reality of the rule of God that Jesus inaugurated when he was alive and that he will bring to fruition when he returns.

The kingdom of God is something that those of us who follow Jesus as king demonstrate with our lives. Those of us who live as subjects of King Jesus are called to live our lives like he really is our king – lives of worship, lives of community, and lives of service; lives of love for God and others.

When viewed in light of Ash Wednesday, we are reminded of the way in which we were allowed to be subjects of King Jesus – he died for us, paving the way for us to become citizens of his kingdom.

So in light of this great grace that has been offered to us, what should we do? We should repent and believe the good news. That’s what Jesus said in Mark 1.15.

And, if you’re like me, then you may be thinking something like this: I repented and believed a long time ago when I first accepted Jesus as my lord and savior. And while that first confession is very important, our repentance and believing doesn’t stop there!

Repent

So in light of Ash Wednesday, let’s repent, which means to turn from our ways and toward God’s ways. Let’s repent of the bad things we’ve done, the good we’ve left undone, and the systemic injustices we’ve let slide. Let’s repent of our broken, sinful natures and begin to become more like Jesus through the work and power of the Spirit!

And let’s repent of all the ways we’ve not been honest about our sinfulness and mortality. Let’s repent of pretending to be perfect. Let’s repent of letting our fear of death consume us.

As I was writing this I found this beautiful prayer, which is adapted from Isaiah 58:

We have chosen to fast, not with ashes but with actions, not with sackcloth but in sharing, not in thoughts but in deeds. We will give up our abundance to share our food, home, and friendship. We will share where others hoard. We will free where others oppress. We will heal where others harm. Then God’s light will break out. God’s healing will come. We will find our joy in the Lord. We will be like a well-watered garden. We will be called repairers of broken walls. Together we will feast at God’s banquet table. (From Godspace; slightly altered)

That’s the kind of repentance that Ash Wednesday brings to my mind – turning from our selfish ways and turning toward God’s giving ways.

Believe the Good News

But we’re still left with “believing the good news” in Mark 1.15. In light of Ash Wednesday, what does it mean to believe the good news?

For starters, “believe” isn’t the best translation of the word that Jesus used. In Greek one word stands behind the three English verbs: believe, have faith, and trust. And in most cases, the best translation of this one Greek verb is “trust.”

So what does it mean to trust the good news, especially in light of Ash Wednesday? Well, trust is an active word; it’s not something that I can just do only in my head. Trust requires action.

Living a life that demonstrates that we trust the good news will look like more and more like the life that Jesus lived when he was here on earth. One of my favorite authors, Hugh Halter, says it best: A disciple of Jesus is someone who lives the human life of Jesus in his or her human life.

How do we do that? It’s much simpler than we’ve made it over the years.

Lenten Challenge

In fact, to prove my point I want give you a challenge…

During Lent this year make this your fast: Fall in love with Jesus anew. Each and every day read through half a chapter of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Jot down things that you see Jesus doing. How is he treating others? What does he talk about? What actions does he take? What does he seem care about? Then pray for the Holy Spirit to help you become more like Jesus today than you were yesterday. Ask God to create opportunities for you to demonstrate your trust in the good news where you live, where you work, and where you play.

Treat people like you see Jesus treating people in the Scriptures.

Talk about the things you see Jesus talking about.

Do the things you see Jesus doing.

Care about the stuff you see Jesus caring about.

So on this Ash Wednesday it’s time we were honest with ourselves. We need to live like Jesus is our king by repenting and trusting in the good news! As we look back into our lives and see pain, sin, death, and brokenness, let’s not forget that Jesus died for us so that we could live for him!

Let’s do that brothers and sisters – Let’s live for him!

 

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ISIS: A Response

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I don’t even know where to begin other than with sorrow.

My heart is full to the brim with sorrow over the deaths of 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach at the hands of ISIS militants.

And where there is sorrow, many other emotions can quickly follow.  I know for me there’s an indignation that wells up in response to this extreme persecution.  I want these ISIS militants to pay for what they’ve done.

But almost at the same time a real feeling of helplessness arises too, since I know that violence almost always only results in more violence.

So how should I, a follower of Jesus, respond?  What’s a gospel-centered reaction?

 

ISIS

ISIS Militant leading their Egyptian captives to the place where they would be beheaded.

Initial Reaction to ISIS

It’s hard, if not impossible, to control one’s first response to something.  It just happens.

And my first response to the news out of Libya was sadness.  My heart fell for the families of the slain.  I was deeply saddened by inevitable damage done to Christian-Muslim relations.  And I was heartbroken at the way that so many would surely talk about God, violence, and retribution, whether Christians or otherwise.

In fact, as I first heard this news one line of Scripture continued to run through my head: “Darkness is my closest friend” (Psalm 88.18b).  This must be the sentiment of so many right now: the family, friends, and neighbors of the deceased; most people living in Egypt and Libya; many of my friends here in the US who originate from Egypt; most Muslims; most Christians; all Coptic Christians; and, frankly, most people in the world.

 

Now What?

The sorrow caused by the actions taken by ISIS is real and can’t be minimized.  No words or actions will mitigate it.  Time will not erode it.  It will just be there — to be sure, more acute at some times than others.

But sorrow can’t be the last word of this story.  Sorrow can’t win the day.  There has to be a broader response — a reaction that will embrace the darkness but prepare us for God’s glorious light.

And that response is trust.

Don’t get me wrong, trust is probably the hardest thing to do right now.  Who can we trust if people are capable of this sort of evil?  What government can we trust to keep us safe if buildings in the USA, offices in France, and beaches in Libya are all compromised?  And how can we trust God if he allowed this atrocity (and ones like it) to happen?

This is my contention: We must trust or the only choice we have is to give in to the darkness.  And I, for one, will not give in to the darkness!  I refuse to let the shadows of this life cause me to forget that the light that’s on the other side of the thing casting the shadow.

And this is no pie-in-the-sky kind of hope I’m talking about.  No.  What I have in mind is a level-headed, open-eyed trust.

This is what it might look like…

Trust in the Wake of ISIS

How can I trust anything or anyone, much less God, in the wake of the horrific crimes committed by ISIS? Here are a few initial ideas that might help.  However, I fully realize my limited perspective and expertise and I am fully willing to listen to any other ideas that you might have.  Please share them in the comments below.

  1. Don’t be surprised.  When something awful happens we’re always surprised.  What’s up with that?  It’s as if we’ve forgotten the reality of what it means to be human.  We’re horrible to one another.  Horrible.  People have always done disgusting, inhuman things to one another. And yet we’re always surprised.  And it seems that Christians might be the most surprised group of all.  Why?  Have we not read our Bibles?  Have we not read the words of Jesus himself?  Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15.20).  He also said that with blessings come persecutions (Mark 10.30).  Jesus knew that his message of the good news of the kingdom of God will butt heads with the kingdoms of this world.  He knew that danger and drama could be real possibilities for his followers.  And this has come true in each generation of followers of Jesus.  Persecution is a reality that we must deal with until Jesus brings his kingdom to fruition when he comes again.  So, friends, let’s not be surprised when it comes!  Instead, let’s prepare for it, trusting in the goodness of God in the face of the greatest evil humanity can muster!
  2. Pray.  There’s no way to move forward through this mess without prayer.  What ISIS has done (and will likely continue to do) is horrible.  And our chief response shouldn’t be warmongering, hatred, and wide-sweeping generalizations about all Muslims.  No.  Our chief response to the horror brought on by ISIS should be prayer.  Let’s turn to God with our complaints, pains, and confusion.  Let’s seek his wisdom during this volatile time.  Let’s pray like Nehemiah, the Psalmist, and others, begging God to deliver vengeance on behalf of his people.  Through prayer we are reminded of our place in this world — and that place is certainly not on the seat of judgment and revenge.  That is God’s seat alone.  But our prayers should also be for peace, the comfort of those who are mourning, and a swift resolution to this crisis.  Moreover, our prayers should also be for our enemies.  Jesus couldn’t be clearer about this: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5.44).  Could there be a harder command to fulfill right now?  How are we, am I, supposed to love and pray for ISIS?  I’m not sure exactly, but here’s a starting place.  I need to remember that I am a sinner, through and through.  I’m worse than I know that I am.  I’ve done more wrong that I can recall, I’ve left more good undone than could ever be recounted, and I’ve consciously and subconsciously participated in systemic sin from the moment I was born.  I’m a wretch.  And if it wasn’t for the grace of God in Jesus Christ, I would be far, far from God right now.  I’m in no place to judge anyone.  Is what the ISIS militants did wrong?  Of course.   Unequivocally.  But I’ve done so much wrong in my life too.  Only God can judge us.  So what can I do if not judge ISIS?  I can love them by praying for them.  I can pray for God to intervene in their lives.  I can pray for God to give them dreams of his love and beauty and healing.  I can pray that they will experience the same life-giving grace that I have in my life.  I must pray for them.  Why?  Because otherwise I will hate them and not love them, which is in direct violation of Jesus command to love my enemies.  In order to trust God through this ordeal, I must turn to him in prayer.
  3. Embrace the mystery, the unknown, the scary, and the awkwardness. In order to move forward and to trust again, I must simply embrace the fact that this world is messed up.  There are many things that are beyond my comprehension and control.  I can’t understand how ISIS could do this heinous act.  I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that God did not intervene.  I can’t deny the fact that I have experience some truly illogical fear over the last few days.  And I can’t get over the frustrations I feel regarding each of these things.  But, if I’m honest, there is so much of life that is mysterious, unknowable, scary, and awkward.  I shouldn’t be surprised that these events have reminded me of this reality.  Friends, we must admit that we can’t figure everything out.  There is a God, and not one of us is him.

 

Well, that’s all I have.  We must learn to trust God again.  We can’t let time-bound circumstances influence our eternal relationship with God.  We have no choice by to turn to him, to place our full faith in him, and to continue to follow him.

 

If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please do so in the comments below.

 

(Just FYI, I will be moderating the comments carefully, so please abstain from hate speech, racist remarks, bad language, and the like.  Thanks!)

Praying on the Spot

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Maybe you’re like me and you have a hard time remembering things.  I’m horrible with dates, names, places, directions, and on and on.

In fact, I was so nervous that I would forget my wife’s birthday that I set it as my password for everything when we were dating.  Then I did the same thing with our anniversary date when we first got married.  (I have since changed it, so don’t try to log-in to my stuff!)

So it should come as no surprise that I almost never remember to pray for someone when I tell them I’m going to.

 

Praying on the Spot

So, in response to my poor memory, I started praying for people on the spot.  I began with my close friends and family.

Sure, it was a bit awkward at first, but once we all got used to it, things were great!

I then extended the “praying on the spot” circle to include other people in our church community.  That went well too.

But lately I’ve started praying for people I barely know, like cashiers and other people I run into in my daily life.

Well, as many of you already know, my wife and I are in the process of finalizing the adoption of our little boy Jude Myron.  Here’s an obligatory picture:

praying

Jude Myron, posing for his newborn pics.

For part of Myron’s time in the hospital after he was born, he had to stay in the NICU’s nursery due to some particular adoption regulations.  Well, as you might imagine, we saw some tired and stressed out parents and family members in the NICU (which is short for neo-natal intensive care unit).

Praying in the Hospital

On one particular day a woman walked out of the NICU and it was clear that she was really shaken up.  She was sobbing as she walked by in her hospital-issued gown to go back to her labor recovery room.  My instincts were telling me to reach out to her, to console her, and to pray for her.

But I thought it would be awkward, her being in a gown and all.  So I let the moment slip by.

I saw her early the next day and she was with a friend.  They were chatting and things seemed better.  I naively thought, Well, I guess the worst times are behind her.  I felt okay about passing on the opportunity to pray for her the day before.

Then, later on that same day, I saw her exiting the NICU again.  She was in tears once more, but this time she was wearing street clothes.

All the excuses were gone.  Now was the time.  And since Myron was about to be discharged, I wasn’t going to get another opportunity.

As she approached the area where I was seated we made eye contact.  When she was right in front of me I finally gathered the courage to talk to her:

“Are you okay?”

“Not really.”

“I’m sorry.  How long does your baby have to be here?” I asked.

“Eight and a half more weeks,” she replied.

I knew at that point only one tiny drop of the pain she was feeling.  Myron had been in the NICU for three days and that felt horrible…and he was healthy.  My heart broke for her.

“I saw you the other day and I wanted to talk to you but I didn’t,” I said.

“Was I crying then too?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry about that.”

“No.  Don’t be sorry,” I responded.  Then I paused for a second or two.  We were still making eye contact.  I knew that I was about to ask her if I could pray for her but I was scared.

“I know this might sound weird…but can I pray for you?”

“Sure,” she said as she brightened up ever-so-slightly.

I motioned her to move closer to me since there were half a dozen people in the waiting room.

“What’s your name?” I asked.  She told me.  “What’s your baby’s name?”  She shared that information with me too.

Then I offered my hand to her and she took it.  I paused, trying to gather my strength, and I prayed.

I simply offered a prayer for her recovery and the health of her child.  I had a really hard time holding it together though.

I finished praying and I looked up and we shared a nice little moment together.  She then told me some more of her story and how hard it was to have such a tiny baby.  I wished her the best and told her I would continue to pray for her.

 

Conclusion

For every one story like this that I have, I have twenty where I did nothing.  Praying for someone you don’t know can be difficult and weird.

But praying for a stranger can sometimes be the best missional ice breaker ever.

What’s the worst that could happen?  Someone could ask you not to pray for them?

The missional benefits outweigh the “risks.”

Praying for someone who is far from God can be the catalyst to put them on the path toward Jesus!

 

What do you think about praying for people on the spot?  Is praying in this manner difficult or weird for you?  Or do you find it easy and natural?

 

If you’d like to help us with our adoption finalization costs or if you want to read more of our adoption story, then please CLICK HERE.  Thanks!