There is peace in the world tonight.
Bull.
I just returned from a very well organized, very talented staffed church Christmas … drama. And I am stunned. I have described my view of peace before but I’d like to return to it tonight. Do you really think God is in the business of making your life “peaceful”. Do you think God wants to make your life nice and cozy and comfortable? Are you the type of person that thinks God is in the business of turning traffic lights green for Christians and other stupid tasks? Are those your definitions of peace? Is peace when your favorite TV show is on every channel and never has reruns, the donuts flow like milk and honey, and money literally grows on trees? News flash Jesus did not come to make your life easy. He did not come so you never had to work, so that every thing would be fun, and you never get hurt again. Jesus did come to bring peace. To bring the kingdom of heaven hear to earth. But not make life easy. I can see where the church comes from, trying to take away the hurt of the world. Giving people that go through problems a place to turn and feel ’happy” again. But there is a problem, yes God wants to restore you, he wants to give you peace, he wants to heal your hurt but not in the way you might think.
Preachers resemble salesmen as they promise warm fuzzy feelings as an answer to your divorce, broken heart, or abused body. But are they being truthful? Is that what its really about or is this simply an offer they cant refuse? Do not misunderstand me God is in the business of restoring lives and bringing peace. That much we have gotten right, but that’s about it. I’m also not trying to say we have to work for our “comfort” “peace” but there is more to this story then 1. You cry 2. Jesus makes the boo-boo go away. There was a line in the movie Evan Almighty that I think is true “If you pray to god for patience do you think God gives you patience or the opportunity to show patience? If you ask God for courage do you think he makes you courageous or does he give you the power to show courage?”. I think that God has restored my heart, I think that the pains I have once felt no longer have their sting. I praise God for this, but I tell you truly with the utmost resolve to not sound saintly I do not have peace! I cannot find peace, I can not sit still through a bunch of “Christians” singing “there is peace in the world tonight”. How can they sing a song like that? Peace in the world? Have they heard of Iraq? Afghanistan? Child Abuse? Drug Abuse? Rape? Murder? Gangs? Theft? Fire? Hurricanes? Children being sold into sex slavery? Children turned into militant armies? Death? Suicide? Adultery? I wonder how many kids were beat by their drunken step father while we took the time to sing “there’s peace in the world tonight”?
How comfortable do we have to get to lure people into the depths of our “religion”? How many personal relationship can we hand out with a one way relationship understanding? Come find Jesus, he wants a relationship with you, you don’t have to do anything just ask him!!!!???? This is so hard to write because it is so true! God does not require or allow you to do a thing to receive grace, but like all lies we have twisted the truth if we think that time after time we can return with a sin boldly attitude. It makes me sick because a large number of us have been duped into a comatose religion where we love Jesus we really do and we know that God loves us but fail to act. There was a speaker I heard a couple weeks ago that said it something like this, work will not get you into heaven faith does, but someone without works cannot have faith.
I feel like I haven’t communicated my point very well. But I’m sick of this. Not sick like mad and frustrated, but sick inside. There is a hope for those that hurt, a strong powerful hope. I know restoration is available, but I think we settle for soo much less. We just shoot for what sounds good. Stability, comfort, security. But these are just pleasures of the flesh. Why don’t we group these feelings with things like drunkenness and sex? They might not be bad and immoral but they are just human feelings. But of course this sounds so great only GOD could give us these feelings, praise Jesus I got a raise…??? Can we not aspire to greater power? How about being imprisoned, shipwrecked, bitten by snakes, … Crucified? Only to come away with a powerful faith, where we do not hope, but we trust in an all powerful God, a God that doesn’t want you to find joy in good grades but in holding a child that thinks no one loves them, or giving a homeless man a sandwich!!!
Is it any surprise, like I just wrote, that kids/people are turning to alcohol instead of church? But this time I’m not talking about there largely better ability to offer community, I’m talking about comfort, “peace”, pleasure! If all church is, is a way to feel good, be saved and have a God give me a hug and feel warm and fuzzy inside then what good is that? I can get a fuzzy feeling from a bottle, I can feel good going a hundred and twenty with the music blaring!!! I don’t think this is what Christianity is all about by any means but I find it hard to deny that this is going on and that this is a common misconception of our faith. If it wasn’t why would people criticize our God as a crutch!! They want nothing to do with our fuzzy little feelings and being crippled, but, when we hobble around on “Jesus crutches” and smile and say “God loves you!”, can you blame them?
I cant say I have everything figured out, or by any means perfect, note I don’t say you or them in an accusing manner instead I say we and our, but if I’m wrong and this is really what this religion is all about then I would be the first to say forget it! I can find pleasure elsewhere! I want nothing to do with that, and I praise an almighty God that he has given me a true peace that there is more, and I will not rest or feel … peace… while there is such immense pain in this world. If we truly seek and pray for peace let us not expect a nice mocha latte in the morning but instead a chance to get dirty and serve someone else. And when we see the peace and restitution God can bring to others through our obedience than maybe we can feel a little slice of peace knowing there is a bit less hate and pain in this world.
If we pray for peace, Does God give us peace? Or does he give us the opportunity to give peace?
Monday, December 10, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Alcohol
I can make anybody pretty
I can make you believe any lie
I can make you pick a fight
With somebody twice your size
I been known to cause a few break ups
I been known to cause a few births
I can make you new friends
Or get you fired from Work
Chorus
And since the day I left Milwaukee
Lynch burg and Bordeaux France
Been making the bars lots of big money
And helping white people dance
I got you in trouble in high school
But college, now that was a ball
You had some of the best times
You'll never remember with me
Alcohol, Alcohol
I got blamed at your wedding reception
For your best man's embarrassing speech
And also for those
Naked pictures of you at the beach
I've influenced kings and world leaders
I helped Hemingway write like he did
And I'll bet you a drink or two that I can make you
Put that lampshade on your head
A "funny" song by brad paisley but true, alcohol has a strong affect on people, and is all around us. Its the source of debate "Jesus drank wine!" some say when others consider it abomination and sin. Many of you know that i myself have dabbled with alcohol. Many of you know i have bar tended many times at the Eis house. Some of you know just how deep i sunk into the "bar scene" for a period of my life. I am not proud of my past but find it hard to regret and am very lucky (or more likely looked after) that i didn't have any direct consequences and or tragedy during this time. But why did i do it? why do so many fall into the trap?
There a quite a few answers that flood to mind: peer pressure, curiosity, just plain rebellion? Certainly there are many people that do it for those reasons but that's not what I'm writing about tonight. These are the reasons we hear about but this isn't the reason i did it. I did it mainly for community. acceptance. relationship. Some of the very reasons one might look to the church.
The fuel for this blog came from a quote i read in a book it quoted Bruce Larson when he said, “The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterpart there is for the fellowship Christ wants to give His church. Its an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape instead of reality, but it is a permissive accepting and inclusive fellowship. Its unshockable. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers."
Peer pressure, curiosity, or rebellion, didn’t drive me to drink. What got me to drink was that fact that there is community in these places, just like the friends I hung out with in high school: instead of working for friendship with the popular kids that needed a reason to be your friend, or even being friends with the Christian kids at my church who needed you to live up to some sort of standard that they obviously lived and looked down at you for not being able to, I hung out with the drugies and losers because if you didn’t judge them they didn’t judge you. They accepted you because they knew they were not perfect and didn’t care If you were not either. There wasn’t a bar to jump over or a list of requirements, it was just plain unconditional acceptance and community. Why is it that the bar scene and the druggy culture can be so much more inviting than the church? Can we change that, and allow others, “outsiders”, to feel accepted and welcome them into community with us?
When i visited home last i was disappointed, and depressed it seemed that the great relationships and community that developed over the summer had fallen away and shattered. Some have become unaccepting of others, this has always been a problem with our group. probably with other groups but i would say especially with our group! I would like to think I'm a pretty accepting person, I'd like to think i don't hold myself higher than anyone else, i hope this is true. But even if its not i would ask if you really think that someone would rather come to or feel more excepted by your church, then a bar or somewhere similar? is it any surprise that kids are out drinking instead of coming to youth? what can you change to make people feel more accepted and welcome and even make those that are already around you more comfortable with you? what can you change to foster better community in your group?
I can make you believe any lie
I can make you pick a fight
With somebody twice your size
I been known to cause a few break ups
I been known to cause a few births
I can make you new friends
Or get you fired from Work
Chorus
And since the day I left Milwaukee
Lynch burg and Bordeaux France
Been making the bars lots of big money
And helping white people dance
I got you in trouble in high school
But college, now that was a ball
You had some of the best times
You'll never remember with me
Alcohol, Alcohol
I got blamed at your wedding reception
For your best man's embarrassing speech
And also for those
Naked pictures of you at the beach
I've influenced kings and world leaders
I helped Hemingway write like he did
And I'll bet you a drink or two that I can make you
Put that lampshade on your head
A "funny" song by brad paisley but true, alcohol has a strong affect on people, and is all around us. Its the source of debate "Jesus drank wine!" some say when others consider it abomination and sin. Many of you know that i myself have dabbled with alcohol. Many of you know i have bar tended many times at the Eis house. Some of you know just how deep i sunk into the "bar scene" for a period of my life. I am not proud of my past but find it hard to regret and am very lucky (or more likely looked after) that i didn't have any direct consequences and or tragedy during this time. But why did i do it? why do so many fall into the trap?
There a quite a few answers that flood to mind: peer pressure, curiosity, just plain rebellion? Certainly there are many people that do it for those reasons but that's not what I'm writing about tonight. These are the reasons we hear about but this isn't the reason i did it. I did it mainly for community. acceptance. relationship. Some of the very reasons one might look to the church.
The fuel for this blog came from a quote i read in a book it quoted Bruce Larson when he said, “The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterpart there is for the fellowship Christ wants to give His church. Its an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape instead of reality, but it is a permissive accepting and inclusive fellowship. Its unshockable. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers."
Peer pressure, curiosity, or rebellion, didn’t drive me to drink. What got me to drink was that fact that there is community in these places, just like the friends I hung out with in high school: instead of working for friendship with the popular kids that needed a reason to be your friend, or even being friends with the Christian kids at my church who needed you to live up to some sort of standard that they obviously lived and looked down at you for not being able to, I hung out with the drugies and losers because if you didn’t judge them they didn’t judge you. They accepted you because they knew they were not perfect and didn’t care If you were not either. There wasn’t a bar to jump over or a list of requirements, it was just plain unconditional acceptance and community. Why is it that the bar scene and the druggy culture can be so much more inviting than the church? Can we change that, and allow others, “outsiders”, to feel accepted and welcome them into community with us?
When i visited home last i was disappointed, and depressed it seemed that the great relationships and community that developed over the summer had fallen away and shattered. Some have become unaccepting of others, this has always been a problem with our group. probably with other groups but i would say especially with our group! I would like to think I'm a pretty accepting person, I'd like to think i don't hold myself higher than anyone else, i hope this is true. But even if its not i would ask if you really think that someone would rather come to or feel more excepted by your church, then a bar or somewhere similar? is it any surprise that kids are out drinking instead of coming to youth? what can you change to make people feel more accepted and welcome and even make those that are already around you more comfortable with you? what can you change to foster better community in your group?
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