A Kurios Revelation
I didn’t go to church tonight as I have been feeling pretty dizzy all day. I don’t think blowing through a sax would have helped me in any way feel better. (I could have gone and not played but I would have felt bad.) What made it worse was that I was meant to be leading Elevation (our church youth group). Fortunately, Natz was able to take the reigns from me and I’m sure has done a first class job.
So, I basically spent the evening in front of the TV. That is fairly strange for me because what’s on TV these days rarely holds my attention. (I sound like I’m 70!) I was watching a preacher, Dr Myles Monroe, speak on the Inspiration Channel on Sky. He was preaching about Kingdom principles and what precisely it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and to be favoured by the King. God was speaking through this man to me because the message blew me away! I’d never thought about what it meant to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven before. I didn’t know that the King had chosen to make me a citizen and that He is responsible for my well-being. So much more of the Bible made sense now; it was all so easy!
Most of the later part of the message relied on the Greek word that is translated to “lord” in English texts: the transliteration is “kurios”. The meaning is much richer than a simple term of respect (e.g. “sir”) or even an acknowledgment of control (e.g. “master”); it implies complete ownership.
[H]e to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding.
The New Testament Greek Lexicon
Why is God the owner? Because He made it.
1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Psalm 24:1-2, NIV
God owns everything because He made it all; no one has any right to come along and take it away from Him. Everything I have is His; I am but a steward and He may ask me to divert His stuff elsewhere at any time. It is His.
And if I claim to be saved, He owns me, too!
9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9, NIV
When I call Jesus my lord I am calling Him my owner; He has complete ownership of me. He can tell me what to do and what not to do. He decides what happens to me. He owns me! He owns my body, my intellect, my soul, my problems, my computer, my books, the air I breathe, the talents I have… everything is His to do with as He chooses.
While that in itself might be cause for concern, it isn’t… because I am a Kingdom citizen. The King looks after his citizens. The King provides for his citizens. The King helps his citizens with their problems. There is nothing to worry about and the King has told us to quit worrying [Matthew 6:25-34].
Like a Father, God loves us, cares for us, teaches us and is patient with us. Like a King, God provides for us, protects us, bestows blessings on us and works things under His control for our favour.
Thank you, God!
Let Me Entertain You? Get Real!
For some time (obviously with the exception of my recent secondment to stress) I have been thinking about how the majority of Western Christendom tackles evangelism, in particular I have focused my thinking on how the Western church evangelises young people – when I say young people, I mean teenagers and twenty-somethings. It goes without saying that I am not against the evangelising of people; some of Jesus’ last words on earth were a command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, NIV). My issue lies in how we’re doing it.
On a website that I frequent to read about upcoming events in Northern Ireland aimed at Christians, I read the following description of one such event:
youth outreach event surprising young people with the message of Jesus in a multi-media environment. From two stages, big screens, live cameras and lights, expect dance, physical theatre and worship from Bluetree, the challenge of the cross and celebrate with tunes from our resident DJ’s…
(The poor grammar and lack of appropriate capitalisation have been left as the submitter entered them.) Is it just me or are the event’s priorities messed up? If this description of the event is anything to go by, it is forgivable to conclude that the organisers are more interesed in the atmosphere in which the “message of Jesus” is voiced than in the message itself. (Note the passing reference to “the challenge of the cross”.)
Now, I accept that using this as an example is unfair of me and adds undue weight to my argument because the text that I have quoted is, in fact, an advertisement for the event. Advertisements by their nature are meant to emphasise those aspects of that which is being advertised that will appeal without fail to the target audience. (In truth, putting Jesus’ name in an advertisement for an outreach event perhaps goes against the nature of what an advertisement should be… but that’s a fruitless discussion.) But it highlights what I have been thinking about quite well…
In our efforts to evangelise and implement Jesus’ Great Commission, are we doing it all wrong? Are we trying too hard to entertain non-believers into a euphoria of excitment so that their inhibitions disappear and their guard is let down, allowing us to move in for the capture? All too often so-called outreach events that I’ve been to put on great shows and make people laugh and smile and dance, and then at the climax of the evening employ underhanded means to try to force a commitment from people so that the organisers can claim the event a success. The “underhanded means” are usually of the form of emotional blackmail; that is, when people are in the middle of having fun and enjoying themselves, someone will take the stage to communicate the story of the Cross and, without fail, use language that attempts to coerce people into feeling that it was all their fault and that the only way to make it all better is to commit to Christ then and there.
I believe that is wrong.
I believe that the tactics are underhanded.
And, I do not believe that that is the way Jesus wanted us to evangelise.
Did Jesus ever throw a mad party with lots of spectacle and then make people feel bad about why He was there in the first place? The answer is obviously no.
Non-believers are not looking to be entertained by the church, and the church should not seek to evangelise by entertaining. (Note: I don’t say the church shouldn’t entertain.) In Northern Ireland, at least, the church will almost always fall short of a secular event… in terms of budget, acts, equipment, levels of excitment, etc. The church doesn’t exist to make people happy. The church doesn’t exist to give people a temporary high.
The church is meant to be Jesus’ body on earth, so to speak. The church should be concerned with always seeking to act as Jesus would act and do as Jesus would do. I believe one word sums up how Jesus lived His life and how I think the church should “live” until Jesus comes again – that word is love.
Not the half-hearted “love because I have to”.
Not the temporary, confused and consumerist love that is sung about in pop songs.
Not even the incomplete and always tainted love of one human to another.
But agape – love as described by the Holy Spirit through Paul.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, NIV
Love, this type of love, speaks on a deeper and more profound level than music (no matter how loud) and excites in ways that fancy lighting cannot even hope to achieve. The early Christians knew how evangelism should be implemented: not by throwing wild orgies and drunken parties like the pagans around them, but instead by showing love to all people and in all circumstances.
This is how I believe the modern day church should continue to implement evangelism: by showing love to all people and in all circumstances. Using this eternal language will leave a lasting impact on each and every soul, and the effects won’t stop when the music does.
No Time for Time
This morning in bed I realised that I have been an edgit these passed few weeks. I have been letting a lot of things take up my time, some of which were certainly worthwhile. But the point is I’ve run out of time for myself. Everyone and everything I have come into contact with recently has asked for something more than a simple hello; a demand for my time has been placed. My problem is that I find it difficult to say no when someone is looking me in the eye. Is it because I have a selfless desire to please everyone or is it that I have selfish desire for everyone to be pleased with me?
If I’m honest, I think my answer should lean towards the latter. I like it when people think good things of me and say good things about me – who doesn’t?! When I do things, I usually do my best at them and I know people see that, and I know that people will praise me because of that.
Two things…
Firstly, I should not be seeking praise for myself. Instead, in everything I do I should seek to point to God who gives me the strength, ability and opportunity to do all these different things. My attitude should be precisely the same as that of Christ Jesus’:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:6-8, NIV
Secondly, I should be more selfish with my time. (I couldn’t think of a better word than selfish, even though it brings a negative sense to the sentiment.) I mean, I shouldn’t allow people and things to take so much of my time that I have none left for myself. For example, look at the present state of my schedule: I have had no time to myself recently because I have been letting sax gigs, surfing the Net and (in particular) work have priority. This has not only left me frustrated that I have no time to relax but it has also had a negative impact on my health, which I won’t go into, and distanced me from friends who I should hold closer than I currently do. (I hope they can forgive me for my bad attitude.)
When reading Maggi Dawn’s blog just this morning, I was pointed to a rather cool website where I was able to quietly make a personal recommitment to Christ, His message and His way. Pray for me: that I will knuckle down and live as I was created to, that I will be more judicious (now that’s a good word!) with my time and that God will have mercy on me so that my health will improve.
