"I Don't Care What Anyone Says!"

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Dear Christians,

Please stop using the expression “I don't care what anyone says.” I'm embarrassed to say I hear this expression from the mouths of Christians frequently. To clarify: Christians are recipients of undeserved forgiveness.  We've been charged by God to:

Obey those in authority (Hebrews 13:17)

Be all things to all people (1 Corinthians 9:22)

Only evangelize with dignity and respect (1 Peter 3:15)

Love their enemies no matter what (Matthew 5:43-44)

Live at peace with everyone as far as is possible (Romans 12:18)

There are things which Christians should not compromise on in any situation, but not compromising is not the same as not listening. It is one thing to disagree with a person. That can be done respectfully and lovingly. It is another thing to not care what they say. That kind of apathy is hurtful if not hateful, and does nothing to win them over. If someone disagrees with you they are going to go right on disagreeing if you won't be civil. Without listening to your “enemy” you don't earn the right to be listened to.

When I was younger I was passionate about evangelism. Sadly I was also an ass. I shared my understanding of God's goodness and love at the slightest provocation, but I'm afraid that I was a pathetic ambassador of the gospel. I was pathetic because I didn't care what anyone thought. I thought this attitude was brave; it is not. It is unloving. I would ask people about their religious beliefs and then proceed to wait for my turn to speak. I didn't listen to them because I didn't care what they said. This was an incredibly disrespectful practice.

Listening is one of the most basic and essential ways to show a person love. By failing to listen I failed to share out the gospel I was so excited to talk about. I didn't win any hearts because I didn't demonstrate God's love. When we aren't listening we aren't loving.

Sharing Music, Roman Style by Ed Yourdon

We talk often in Christian gatherings about a need to love our neighbors, to act generously, and to be ambassadors for Christ. We rarely discuss the vital and loving act of listening to people we disagree with. Let's change that. Listening is a loving and generous action; it shows God's love practically and powerfully. Let's give it a try.

Who do you find hardest to love? Likely they're the person who is hardest to listen to. Try this new tactic this week.

1. Don't try to love them.
2. Meditate on the great patience and love God has shown you.
3. Look at what you have in common with your challenging friend.
4. Let me know what happens.

Do Not Judge; Love With Love Unequalled

Love by: Cindy Andrie

I'd like to say a few words about judgment today. This is my problem and it is your problem; it is ours, each of ours. We must each own our responsibility for our drops of judgment that have culminated into a violent and destructive flood. We Christians are a body. We suffer as one; we triumph as one.  We fail as one. If you do not take vigilant responsibility for your own actions and inactions then the body is in trouble, because no one else can take responsibility for you.

There is a rampant and destructive perception in our world today that Christians are intolerant and judgmental, and I'm sorry to say it but that perception is not wholly unjustified. It would be easy and comfortable to say that the media and non-Christians ought to treat us with more understanding, but that would be passing the blame. It would be pleasant to comfort our guilty consciences with the promise that we are blessed when people hate us (Luke 6:22), but brothers and sisters we cannot give ourselves such false comfort. We are blessed when people hate us because of Christ, but we are often not hated because of Christ, but because of ourselves.  We are perceived as hateful and egocentric because we have behaved hatefully and egocentrically. We cannot hope to control the perceptions and judgments of others, but we do control our own actions. We cannot control what the world says about us, but we can control what is true about us.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is being slandered and ignored because it is not being represented. It is not commonly taught. It is not commonly lived out.  It is used and abused as a marketing tool and an excuse for attention seeking protests that neither serve God nor people.  We must change this, and that change starts with each of us.  Our love must become more pervasive and relevant than the Westboro Baptists' hate. The great commission does not call non-Christians to be indulgent or patient with loud inept followers of Christ; it calls Disciples of Christ to give compassionate witness to the radical love of Jesus Christ.

Hopefully we are will be unfairly judged, at least a little.  If we do as Christ commanded and do our good works in secret (Matthew 6:1-4), then it may be hard for us to build a good reputation in the world. This is fine. If we secretly give to the poor then our reward is in heaven; we do not need the world's approval, nor do we need to seek it.  Seek God's approval.  Our secrecy in regards to our good deeds, in a way, serves as an accountability measure. When we treat our neighbours shamefully or rudely there can be no chorus of excuses saying, “Though Christians have done some bad things, they've done more good things.” We are not afforded such excuses for sin.  As a matter of fact We are afforded no excuses for sin, we are only afforded liberal forgiveness.

Challenge:

Jesus knows your heart. He knows your motives, your loves, passions, resentments, sensibilities, and sensitivities.  You've done good; you've done evil.  He is still working on you. He loves you, delights in forgiving your failures and is generous in giving his Spirit (Luke 11:11-13). Therefore since you have been forgiven by Jesus, reconciled to the Father, and empowered by his Spirit, I exhort you to love with love unequaled.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” -Matthew 5:43-45

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.” -Romans 12:17

“Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” -1 Peter 3:9

RE: A Call To Conscience Chapter Nine

This chapter is substantially more challenging that those that preceded it. Dr. King's call to racial reconciliation and brotherhood is not only morally right, and in agreement with scripture, it is now also now a rather popular idea. However, the radically ideas which gave birth to King's demand for civil rights are unpopular as ever. There remains much work to be done.

Photo by Dick DeMarsico

The fact that many Americans can now recognize and disprove of racism is good, but not good enough. Too often we move beyond our duty to care for the marginalized (James 1:27), and we chose to pass judgment and even pronounce condemnation over persons who perpetrate injustice. In all of A Call To Conscience I've not once read Dr. King call for the punishment of his enemies; this is his most Christlike attribute (Luke 23:34).

In obedience to the words of Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:43-47), King called for people of all races and nationalities to love not only their kin, but their enemies as well. He encouraged dialogue; he preached forgiveness. When his enemies would not submit themselves to an ideology of peace and equality, he did not throw up his hands and say that diplomacy had failed. He employed no secondary strategy after love. He did not preach the unconditional love of God as a means to an end, or a tactic to use before resorting to violence. Instead, King rightly taught that the work of God's unconditional love was the very purpose of human existence (2 Corinthians 16:21).

I know that opinions on the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are intensely divided, and tempers can flare up quickly when they are discussed. I don't intend to discuss them here. There are some who may find such fault with King's speech in this chapter, that they cannot listen to the good word it does contain. For this reason I've excerpted what I believe to be essential, true, and worthy of Christian consideration. If you find yourself enraged by the idea of objecting to any of these wars, please know that King spoke respectfully of our soldiers; however, please spare yourself undo excitement, and do not read this speech in it's entirety. I will leave you to apply the following excerpt as wisely as you may.

“But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men—for communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one?Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?

Finally, as I try to explain for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place, I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood. Because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

….

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. [sustained applause] America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. [applause] ” - Beyond Vietnam, King 1967

Coveting My Neighbour's Light

I'm not especially prone to coveting my neighbour's possessions, but I am still fatally prone to coveting. When I look around me I am flabbergasted by the glorious beauty that God has put in people and in the world. When I speak with poets, when I see dancers, when I hear music, or when taste the cooking of a talented friend, in theses circumstances I feel overwhelmed by the the image of God as it is emblazoned on my friends and my world. This is almost a wonderful way to view the world, but let me explain how I ruin it.

Instead of enjoying the talents, success, beauty, or wit of others with gratitude, I am too often envious. I see people laughing and I wish I was laughing; I see people dance and I wish I was not afraid to dance. In short I see the face of God in others and I wish that it was in me too. It is in me, but at times, instead of being encouraged by the light that is in them, I covet. I wish my light was like their light, and I hide my own gifts.

I think this is actually pretty common. In some sad places the attitude that says, “Others are beautiful but I am awful.” is encouraged, and treated as though it were real attitude of humility. Self effacement is not humble; it is entirely self centered. True humility doesn't focus in on one's own talents or inadequacies; humility makes one looks outside oneself.  True humility fixes your eyes on Jesus.

The fact is that the image of God is on you. You reflect the light of God in a way no one else can. When you see the image of God displayed on another's face, or God's artistry exhibited in another's work, know that the same God who's glory you admire in others lives in you also. God designed you and dwells in you. God doesn't make spare people to just fill up space, he created you specifically and intentionally. Please, for the love of God, let your light shine (Matthew 5:16).

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Marianne Williamson

We Three by Matt Reinbold

Note:

I have been advised that some of Williamson's other writings range from insipid to heretical. I'm not an expert on the subject, and can make no comment. I like this excerpt and find it to be tremendously uplifting. You're free to investigate or ignore Williamson at your own discretion.

RE: Psalm 38

This is a difficult psalm to read. David is pained, ashamed and acutely aware of his insufficiencies. As disturbing and sad as it is, David's not wrong. He's not wrong about himself, and he's not wrong about us. We are messed up people.

I read on the internet that everyone deserves to be loved. This idea comes close to the truth, but comes up short. We should be loved; we were designed to love and to be loved, but we do not deserve to be loved. We embarrass ourselves daily by judging and hating our neighbours; we deserve as bad as we give. The fact is that if our hearts and secrets were laid bare to the world, we'd see that no one deserves love. If you know love, you'll know that this suits love just fine. Although we each make inexcusable mistakes, we are loved anyway.

It would be a fine thing if we deserved to be loved and God loved us. It is an abundantly greater thing that we don't deserve love, and God still loves us. The psalmist, David, the murderer and adulterer, deserves death; according to Matthew 5 so do I. We all do; however, the Bible tells us that so that it can tell us this:

Photo by Dirk Hartung

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! -Romans 5:6-10

Dear Sinner-Saints, may you grasp the passionate and compassionate love God has for you, which can never be earned, but is available freely to all who don't deserve it.