Someone said I should blog…
A new, yet very dear friend of mine said I should start a blog. I started one a couple years ago and never really used it but am not motivated to try again.
Let me first say that I’m not that great of a writer. You won’t find fancy words and more than likely there will be a few grammatical errors. I will do my best to be clear and concise but when my emotions take over I’ll write whatever I feel and probably won’t proofread.
Okay, now that the disclaimers have been laid out here are my first thoughts.
Lately my spirit has been grieving a bit. It seems as though in an effort to be “relevant” and “post, post-modern” the church has begun to lose sight of “the line.” We take our God given desire to see the lost come to Christ and begin to try new ways of reaching people no matter the cost.
Alright, I’ve been trying to write this thing for an hour now… I’ll type something and then erase and retype… I’ve been dancing around what’s on my heart for the sake of not sounding “judgmental.” You’ll just have to take my word for it and know that this is not written with a judgmental heart but from one that LOVES the church and people in general and only wants the best.
Here’s what I’m seeing in the church that grieves my spirit. Drunkenness, bad language, smoking and sex before marriage. There, it’s on the table.
The first thing that I see the most of is drunkenness so I will write about this one in detail but the principles are the same for the others I mentioned above. I love a good beer, I mean LOVE it. There are not many things that I enjoy more than sitting with a friend or two over a really good beer and discussing God, the church and life in general. Now I’m a light weight and know that two beers with an alcohol content of 7% or more is plenty. I go into the bar, or pub with that line in mind knowing that anymore than that and I’ll be on my way to drunk. If I do cross that line then, I believe, I am acting outside of the liberty that God has given us to drink alcohol. As Christians (and I mean people who are truly seeking God and looking to grow in their relationships with Him) we are warned against causing other believers to stumble. Jesus says, “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large milestone tied around his neck” (Mark 9:42).
You might ask how me getting drunk may cause another believer to sin. It’s simple. We are teachers by our actions more than our words. As other believers, who may not be as versed in the scriptures, see someone they look up to as a believer sinning, they see it as acceptable and many times mimic what they see which causes them to sin. Does that mean that the person that sins is off the hook since he didn’t know better? Absolutely not, he is still responsible for his own sin. That is why Jesus is so serious in his warning. The result of our sin is not only that it will lead us down a path that is separate from Christ but we’ll be taking others along with us. That’s the power behind sin. It’s like a deadly virus that infects an entire group of people. Not only will the host carrier of the virus eventually die, but so will all of the others around him if they catch it.
God gave us “wine” as a gift for us to enjoy. But the minute we go overboard with it and drink too much we have again destroyed something God has meant for good… not unlike sex.
The other side of this is that we, as Christians, are also being watched by those who are not believers. Jesus gave us our mission on earth in Matthew 28:18-20. We are to lead others to Christ and then show them the right way to live (make disciples). How, then, can we do this if we ourselves are given over to sin. Peter says this,
“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:11-12).
Here’s where I see the danger in all of this. I’ve noticed that the church is doing everything it can to reach the lost, as it should, but in doing so we have begun to participate in the activities of the lost in order to win them. We don’t want to seem too “square” and culturally unaware so things like lighting up a cigarette isn’t seen as sin but as a way to relate. Same with drinking, or using bad language, etc… I think under it all we know that these things are wrong but that we’ve been listening to the enemy (who knows how to best manipulate sin in order to lead believers away from God) who lies to us and tells us that we must do as they do for them to become one of us. Jesus never once participated in any activity that was not pure or holy. He was able to hang out with sinners on their turf, teach them about the Kingdom, lead them to life change and make new friends all without once compromising what the Father called him to do. That is our example. We MUST follow it!
I’m not sure how clearly I’ve communicated my thoughts but I suppose it’s a descent first effort of writing a blog. If anything, maybe this will open a discussion between you and me (maybe even over a beer). 
Aha. That someone was right…(ahem).
This is good stuff, friend. You aren’t a writer, eh?
Huh. I would heartily disagree. Just because your interpretation of these 26 symbols, and the arrangement of therein, isn’t riddled with flowery prose and wildly wandering metaphors, doesn’t mean you aren’t a good writer.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your thoughts.
robbie..
phenomenal.
amen.
Robbie–it’s cool to find out you’re keeping a blog. Stick with it, man. Good thoughts. This post reminds me of something I read from the Christian Vision Project the other day. I posted about it on my blog, but I wanted to share one quote in particular with you here. Frederica Matthewes-Green said in an interview:
“We have the mandate to go out and bring the gospel to the world. And yet it often seems like nobody’s listening. So we are tempted to try things we shouldn’t get into, because we think nobody will find out. That’s the path to disintegration—when we are so isolated, lonely, and ineffective that we start to think our lives don’t matter.”
You should check out the whole interview. Definitely good food for thought. Well, I hope all things are well with you. Perhaps I’ll run into you one of these days.
You write very well.