Regarding Giving and Receiving

A friend asked me if the economy had impacted my giving, or if I felt there was a message from God in the current economy. This is a copy of my response.

I actually think our attitude towards giving and receiving needs a major overhaul. I'm not suggesting that we be ungrateful to God or that we don't get a blessing when we hear about the things God does for others, but I am suggesting that sometimes our surprise at God's generosity is bordering on offensive.

As Micheal Pink puts it:
When I tell my wife that I’m depositing funds into the household
account, she doesn’t hold her breath hoping against hope that I will
follow through, nor does she call all our friends with giddy excitement
when I follow through on my promise. She knows and trusts me. But with
God, we act surprised like we just won the lottery when He provides
abundantly for a pressing need, precisely because we don’t know Him
very well, nor do we fully trust Him. After all, His ways are higher
than our ways or some such excuse. Consider this…

I do agree that we must give more when things are bad. It's the old story about stone soup which I won't repeat because we've all heard it thousands of times. But the point is true enough and echoed in Christ's own words when he said, he would save his life shall loose it and he who would loose his life for my sake shall have eternal life. Christ also said that he came to give us abundant life, or life to the full. So I don't think that Christ is saying, martyr yourself and you'll gain heaven. I think He's saying the tighter you cling to the things you think you have the more it slips through your fingers, but the more you look to me and set aside worrying about the physical world around you the more abundance I'll heap on you.

We can always spare a dime no matter who we are, but some people have lots of money to give away. Others of us may have something else which God has blessed us to give away: love, understanding, companionship, trust, respect, encouragement, kindness, patience, or even humor. Whatever it is that God shines on you is yours to reflect into the world. If God has healed you of something, run out and lay hands on others. Not because you are surprised by the miracle, but because you will never run out of healing as long as you give it away. That's not how the world works, but its virtually a law with God. When he gives you money, give some away. When He is patient with you give that away too.

It's our unwillingness to give away what God blesses us with, especially concerning love and grace, which keeps the pews empty week after week. The world is dieing to get what we have and we have despised them for it.


A. R. Bunch

this is great

read Colossians 1-27 if you don't believe it.

Today's Thoughts

Today’s Thoughts:
It occurred to me, while I was getting ready this morning that I needed to reread what Paul said in his address at Mars Hill.

Acts 17
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

This is very nearly the mission statement of my life. I ask the reader, “What is the difference between a graven image and an intellectual idea?”

A Moment on Idolatry:
Idolatry is to hope, worship, trust or fear of anything other than God. An easy example would be money. Not just the love of money but the feeling of dependence on it. I hear Christians all the time say that they can’t start this or that ministry, even though they feel called to it, because they don’t have the money. As though the fact that God called them to do it doesn’t also intone his anointing and provision.

Even our earthly parents wouldn’t ask us to mow the lawn and then not provide a lawn mower. Why would we expect that behavior of God? Then again God often asks us to do things we dream of doing so a better example might be—even earthly parents wouldn’t offer to take their kids Disneyland and make them pay their own airfare.

So if we think that God expects us to make our ministries happen then we are thinking of something that we can do in our own strength, just as we might carve a graven image. The goal of the 2nd commandment is to stop worshipping man-made things.

Now the Revolutionary Stuff:
I believe, beyond any doubt, that all religions are man-made; even Christianity. Religions are intellectual structures created by men. They are a way of going about spiritual things without engaging the spirit. They encourage living from the head not the heart.

What was once accomplished through relationship is now accomplished through program. Instead of mentorship we have public education. Instead of apprenticeship we have colleges and trade schools. Instead of coming together for supper we have crackers and grape juice four times a year. Instead of worship we have three songs before a sermon. We publish a freaking program for church. Instead of giving a home to a homeless person, we have a program for the homeless. Instead of talking with a friend about God we have an evangelistic series. I could go on forever.

Those who love the Lord worship him in spirit and in truth—not on special days, on sacred ground, in approved ceremonies, lead by elite people.

My Mission Statement:
"Men of America! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I grew up among your objects of worship; I even found a ‘house of God.’ Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all men; and he determined where and when they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and find him, though he is closer to us than our clothes are to our skin. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his children.'

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think the divine being is like non-profit institutions, programs, rituals, or tips and techniques—the ideas of man's mind or imagination. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For a day comes when he will judge all humans by their friendship with Christ Jesus through whom he made and redeemed all things."

Grace and Same Sex Attraction

I wrote this in response to a emailed question about Same Sex Attraction in Christians.

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I separate believers and non-believers when it comes to SSA, but of course its a journey. I believe homosexuality is a sin like any other sin. Christianity as a religion has done itself a disservice and totally misrepresented God's heart by setting homosexuality in a category of "super sins" which are extra abhorrent. I know you are asking specifically about lust but I'm setting up the background for my answer.

We spend too much time as churches, disapproving of the world in order to set ourselves apart, and very little spot-light is shown on growing as Christians ourselves. Christians are directed to look at the fruits in each other before accepting that someone is actually from Christ. We are to live closely together and grow as iron sharpens iron. I believe Christians are to be helping each other past things. I don't see anything that tells me I'm to pick on non-believers and show them my disgust at how they live. There is nothing edifying in that.

So when someone walks in the door of a church at an early stage of returning to Christ and they struggle with same sex attraction, it shouldn't be any different than if they were an alcoholic, or wife-beater, or pedophile. For that matter it shouldn't be any different than if they have one of the "acceptable sins" for Christians like neglecting your children, verbally berating your spouse, dishonoring your parents, pride, etc. It's no different than the sins Christians tolerate because they aren't very obvious like masturbation, envy, greed, or gluttony.

Same sex attraction is just a sin. It will fall away naturally as someone draws close to Christ. The things we must be weary of are the "Gateway Sins," the ones that we tolerate because we still kinda like them, or we don't know life without them, or we fear life without them. I think the big one these days is phariseeism. But pride, unbelief, and idolatry are core three. If we put our trust, fear, or hope in anything other than Christ we will fall prey to all the other sins. If we doubt that God can or will come through for us we will fall prey to the other sins.

So again the answer is "no," there is no difference between lusting after a man or lusting after a woman. The core desire of our hearts includes the desire to live in intimacy with men and women, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and if things wound our ability to experience that we are drawn to counterfeit ways of getting our needs met. True intimacy requires something of us, like trust, where lust requires nothing from us.

The best environment to deal with Same Sex Attraction in is a group of Godly men who will hold you accountable. If you are able to express your struggles and be accepted anyway you will begin to heal. The religion I grew up in constantly set themselves apart from the world by any manufactured means they could come up with. Instead of communicating God's love they came off as elitist.

One quick word about accountability though. Clearly I'm not talking about the kind of accountability that focuses on what you are doing or thinking, but the kind that focuses on where you're at. What you are suffering from is not as important as whether you are transparent about it. As long as our concern is intimacy with God we will do anything that will help including inviting our brothers into it. Conversely, if we make it about the problem then we are best served by hiding the problem and causing our brothers to feel like they need to go searching for the problem. While some friends will be able to give more targeted advice the truth is that anyone will do as a confessor as long as they can extend you grace.

For this reason Christianity has given those struggling with certain sins, especially homosexuality, nowhere to go to get better.

A. R. Bunch

A site that really echoes my beliefs

Here's a site I stumbled on that really resonates with my heart on the topic of religion. See what you think.

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/churchianity.html


Here's an excerpt...

We must always be sure to distinguish between the Lord's invisible, universal, spiritual Church (the Ecclesia) and the non-profit religious organization that meets in a building with a steeple on top. The difference is incalculable, and we dare not make the mistake of confusing the two. Please understand that we do not question the right of any religious group to peaceably assemble together, elect their leaders, receive monies, have membership requirements, and govern themselves in the manner they see fit - as long as we realize that such a right is a civil right and is neither inalienable, Scriptural, or mandated by God Himself. That doesn't make it wrong, but neither does it make it spiritual. The Ecclesia is not an organization or invention of man, but an organism filled with the Life, and whether we worship "in Jerusalem or in this mountain" is not as important to God as whether or not we worship Him "in Spirit and in Truth."

So where is the distinction? What makes it an issue? It becomes an issue when spiritual or Scriptural significance is erroneously attached to a mere social contrivance, cultural norm, religious tradition, organizational structure, or place of meeting. When the waters are muddied and the lines are blurred between the social expectation, tradition, or custom of the religious organization and the true spiritual life and essence of the Ecclesia or the individual believer then such a system has the potential to evolve into a dangerous form of spiritual abuse or religious elitism.

What is Babylon? It is the marriage of church and state, religion and government; or to be more direct, it is allowing the leaven of the world to spread via Organized Religion and Institutional Christianity. As an example, consider how pastoring a church has become more of a profession than a calling, and how church government has digressed from a theocratic, Spirit-led consensus to a "Spirit-led" democracy, or worse, a "Spirit-led" benevolent dictatorship of a single pastor or a church board. This is the result of the spirit of Babylon. Whereas the True Church is to be "in the world, but not of the world", Babylon is that which is both in the world and of the world - it is by, for, and of the worldly system, yet it retains the outward appearances of godliness and spirituality. It is a synthesis of God and man, taking the best that each has to offer and fashioning a golden calf with it.

Babylon is always antithetical to Christ. It is anti-Christ. Babylon is represented as a religious whore riding on top of a beast which kills the prophets and saints of God. Perhaps we have missed the point by personifying the Antichrist as a Hitler-type world leader bent on global domination. Antichrist is the religious antithesis of Jesus Christ which flows from Babylon AS Jesus Christ. It is not coming, it is already here, and has been here from the beginning. Perhaps denominationalism is the real mark of the beast. If so, it is no wonder that so many are willing to accept it.