Charisa Stories

Month: February 2012

  • Jesus Is Just Alright

    (The latest iPod Devotional from theFish.com)

    A song from a career long, long ago and far, far away cued up on the iPod today. Right out of high school I worked as a disc jockey at a small radio station in Southern Ohio. I remember being so excited to play a song from The Doobie Brothers called “Jesus Is Just Alright”. The song was also recorded by The Byrds.

    Hearing The Doobie Brothers sing about Jesus was pretty amazing in my still young faith journey. I was sure they had to be believers to release a song like this. I know. I was incredibly naive. Apparently none of the group was particularly religious but the song became an anthem for the incredible Jesus Movement that swept the land. My buddy Ed Underwood has written a great book about the power of that movement called Reborn To Be Wild.

    I remember one critical Christian (hard to imagine that) hearing the song and smugly declaring that Jesus was “much more than just alright”. In one fell swoop he revealed both his judgmentalism and stupidity. He was apparently unaware that the slang term “just all right” was a phrase that meant “cool” or “very good”.

    Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright, oh yeah
    Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright

    I don’t care what they may say, I don’t care what they may do
    I don’t care what they may say, Jesus is just alright, oh yeah

    The theology may not challenge the great hymns but the reality is that the powerful name of Jesus was proclaimed to millions of people via radio and records who would not have heard it otherwise. Thousands and thousands more heard the name of Jesus in concerts around the world.

    Paul wrote about the power given by God to the name of Jesus.

    Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
    that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.  (Philippians 2, NLT)

    Jesus is all right. He is Lord. He is merciful. He is, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, “not safe but He is good”. Jesus is humble. Jesus is grace. Jesus is everything. That is why I was excited to be able to cue up the name of Jesus on ancient turntables and vinyl discs many years ago. The name of Jesus proclaimed to the world annoys many, angers many and changes the very lives of many.

    Jesus had contact with people 132 times in the New Testament according to author J K Johnson (adapted from Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992). He notes that 10 of those where in church (temple and synagogue) and 122 were out in the mainstream of life. That is where we need to be proclaiming the name of Jesus.

    We forget or choose to ignore how incredibly revolutionary Jesus was during His brief time of ministry. In his book Defiant Grace author Dane Ortlund says this.

    The Jesus of the Gospels defies our domesticated, play-by-the-rules morality. It was the most extravagant sinners of Jesus’ day who received his most compassionate welcome; it was the most scrupulous law-abiders who received his most searing denunciation.

    Another great quote from that book.

    Jesus is real, grace is defiant, life is short, risk is good. For many of us the time has come to abandon once and for all our play-it-safe, toe-dabbling Christianity and dive in. It is time, as Robert Farrar Capon put it, to get drunk on grace. Two hundred-proof, defiant grace.

    So a trip down memory lane reminded me anew of the power of Jesus name and how important that we proclaim that name to all the world in grace and truth. Today’s song has one more really important thing to communicate about Jesus to a hurting world. When you come into a saving relationship with Christ you can sing these amazing lyrics.

    Jesus, He’s my friend, Jesus, He’s my friend. He took me by the hand, led me far from this land.

    Jesus, He’s my friend.

     

     

  • From the Inside Out

    Watching the news on television is depressing. Election years seem to pour fuel on the culture war fires. I much prefer to spend my leisure moments reading, listening to music and walking with canine friend Hannah. Today a song on my iPod from Seventh Day Slumber caused me to ask some questions about the way the church engages our culture. The song is From the Inside Out.

    My heart and my soul
    I give You control
    Consume me from the inside out Lord
    Let justice and praise
    Become my embrace
    To love You from the inside out

    Change happens from the inside out. I wrote about the culture war in my book “When Bad Christians Happen to Good People”. Here is an excerpt from that discussion.

    If I were to ask the average Christian what victory in the culture war would look like today, I would probably get answers along these lines: Abortion would be outlawed. Homosexuality would be less visible. The Ten Commandments would hang in every courthouse, and kids would pray in school.

    But would accomplishing these objectives constitute true victory? Most of us think it is our mission as Christians is to rid the world of sin. That is not going to happen until Jesus returns to reign. We have tried through politics and failed miserably. We have tried boycotts. We tried advertising and media with very mixed results. We have targeted immorality but have not helped those hurt by or entrapped in it. We fight abortion. We fear homosexuality. We denounce drugs. We battle Hollywood and television and the evil media. We criticize the music industry.  We rail against pornography.

    As a young man who grew up in the ’50s and ’60s, I can confirm that all of the aforementioned cultural indicators now sought by many Christians were once in place: There was no legalized abortion or aggressive gay political agenda. We prayed at school functions and watched Ozzie and Harriet on television instead of Jersey Shore or The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Yet the sexual revolution, recreational drugs, violent political protest, and explosive racial tension emerged from this very era. Hmmm.

    We Christians have missed our calling. The church needs to understand that even if we devoured every single moral issue on our evangelical plates, the people of this world would still be seeking meaning and purpose in their lives. All of the cultural issues I’ve mentioned so far are merely symptoms of a bigger problem: the internal condition of millions of people. Political and legal processes can only restrain sin. Advertising campaigns or education can, at best, only restrain behavior, and that is not a viable long-term solution. Only the changing of individuals can really affect a society as a whole. And that is where we have missed the boat. We can attempt legislation of morals until the end of time. But change comes from the inside (heart) out…rarely from the outside (rules) in. We cannot herd sin neatly into our theological corral. Sin cannot be managed by moralism.

    How did the early church have such a profound impact with no money, power or influence? By giving their heart and soul to God. They gave Him control and out of that surrender they gave and served selflessly. They loved the unlovable. Cared for those that no one else would care for. Risked their lives to comfort those dying of infectious disease and sacrificed their own possessions for orphans and widows. Their lives were so powerful that the culture could not help but notice. Even the pagan writers of the day marveled at the sacrifice of these “Christians”. The followers of Christ who changed the world did not drive fancy cars and have perfect hair. They sold out in complete trust and allowed God to change them from the inside out. They served sacrificially.

    Jesus talked about the danger of a religion that tries to work from the outside in.

    “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.” (Matthew 23, NLT)

    That is my prayer for today. I want to be live from the inside out. I have been changed but I want to live out of that truth. Don’t think that I am against having heartfelt convictions about cultural issues. I am not. But I am against communicating those concerns to a hurting world apart from grace and the love of Christ. God’s plan will be accomplished.

    Everlasting, Your light will shine
    When all else fails
    Never-ending, Your glory goes
    Beyond all fame
    And the cry of my heart
    Is to bring You praise
    From the inside out

    That is the cry of my heart today.

  • Groundhog Day Faith

    Every year they rudely awaken Punxsutawney Phil long enough for the prognosticating rodent to let us know whether six more weeks of winter awaits. Phil always looks about as happy as I do when when I am disturbed in the morning. Twenty-six years ago a funny and underappreciated movie came on the scene. Groundhog Day told the story of a self-absorbed news reporter (redundancy alert?) that finds himself stuck in an endless repeat of the same day. Bill Murray is perfect in the role of reporter Phil Connors. Reporter Phil is less than thrilled that he has been assigned to cover Punxsutawney Phil’s annual peek outside to predict winter’s duration. He feels he is “above” such an inane assignment. Connor’s looks into the camera and cynically reports:

    “This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”

    The premise of the movie is that Phil Connors realizes he is doomed to live the same day over and over and over. For Connors, Groundhog Day begins each morning at 6:00 A.M when Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” blares out from his alarm clock radio. The twist is that his (and only his) memories of the “previous” day remain intact, trapped in a seemingly endless “time loop” to repeat the same day in the same small town.

    Connor has this exchange in the film.

    Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?
    Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

    And that brought to mind another famous Bill Murray quote…this time from Stripes.

    And then depression set in.

    So what is the point of these ramblings? Is it to impress you with my cerebral movie tastes? The point is that too many followers of Jesus are stuck in a Groundhog Day life of their own. They wake up every day and feel trapped in a repeating pattern of frustrating behavior. And then, depression sets in. Why is that? I lived a Groundhog Day kind of faith for years. The Apostle Paul wrote about this very thing (not the giant rodent part…the repeating behavior part) in his letter to the Romans.

    I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. (Romans 7, The Message)

    Wow…can I relate to that. A bit later Paul writes…I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

    That is the real question. And there is a real answer offered by Paul.

    The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

    So what can you do to get out of this sin spiral?

    Nothing.

    Wait!  Don’t let depression set in. This is good news! You and I can’t do it. I am incapable in my own efficacy (5 Reader’s Digest points) to escape my spiritual Groundhog Day. Only Jesus can enable me to escape this endless loop of frustration. Further advice from Paul follows in Chapter 8 of his amazing letter to the Romans.

    But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him.

    Allow the truth of that verse to soak in.

    Want to get out of your Groundhog Day existence? Most readers of these humble ramblings realize they couldn’t deal with their sin separation from God on their own. We needed Jesus. So why do we think we can deal with our ongoing sin issues on our own? When the Father looks at me on my very worst day this is what He sees.

    Jesus.

    That is step one. I don’t have to clean up the sin to please God. He loves me already because of Jesus. Step Two. I am learning daily to recognize that the Spirit of God has taken up residence in my life. I am learning that I am the one who limits His power by restricting access and not trusting Him with my thoughts and actions. I am learning that I don’t need to wake up to the frustrating effects of repeated self-effort. I can wake up trusting God, trusting that Jesus has my sin covered and trusting that the Spirit of God will allow me to resolve that sin. Trusting God and what His Word says to be true allows me to escape the Groundhog Day syndrome.

    The moral of the movie Groundhog Day was that Phil Connor needed to learn that he was self-absorbed and dependent on his selfish efforts to get ahead. The moral of the spiritual groundhog day is to learn that we cannot depend on our self efforts to live a joyful and free Christian life. I come to Jesus by grace and total dependence. I live for Jesus by grace and total dependence. While the other groundhog is busy predicting weather I would suggest you try this for the next six weeks. When the alarm jars you awake remember this truth. Instead of the Sonny and Cher song you can sing “I Got You Lord”. The two of you can end this “Groundhog Day” of frustration. I can’t help you with the weather.

    My latest book, Waking Up Slowly, can be used as a 21 Day Journey to become more connected with God, one another and yourself.

    Waking Up Slowly_Cover

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    No resolutions…just grace suggestions based on God’s Word. Would you join me on that journey in 2019? Click here to check it out.