Charisa Stories

Tag: evangelical

  • Confessing my “Hidden Agenda”

    The title “Evangelical Christian” seems to have become a pejorative to many in the media and culture. I understand the frustration (I have written about it a lot) when very vocal or celebrity Christian leaders fail spectacularly. I share your anger when a religious person espouses hateful or judgmental comments. I grieve when an institution or leader fails to protect the innocent.

    Critics say that Christians have an agenda and dangerous desire to control other people’s lives. I confess that has been true for some religious types. But the followers of Jesus that I have gotten to know over many decades don’t resemble that stereotype at all. Perhaps that is why Jesus warned so plainly about the dangers of power. The selfless, giving, and caring believers get little notice in this world but I believe they are quietly and faithfully making a difference. Jesus upset the organizational chart by placing those who serve at the top.

    I thought about what my answer would be if I was asked to outline my agenda. I certainly don’t speak for all Christians but I think I just might represent a number of them as I share my “agenda”.

    Let me start by telling you what this particular Christian does not believe…

    I do not believe you have to be a particular party to be a Christian. Heaven will be bipartisan and I am totally fine that there will not be “sides” of the Golden Aisle.

    I do not believe that God is “judging” America for any particular sin. But if He is judging this country I would suspect it is for the massive squandering of wealth and resources that we have been blessed with while giving back an average of less than 2 percent.

    I do not believe in ranking sins for their offensiveness to a Holy God. I am not referring to heinous sins here but things that are individually more offensive to some of us. The reality is that all sin is intolerable to a Holy God. We are either perfect or in need of a Savior. I am the latter.

    I do not believe that censorship, boycotts, or politics will redeem this culture…only a spiritual renewal of caring love and grace can accomplish such redemption.

    I do not believe that it is my place to relish or desire eternal punishment for others. I am willing to leave that to a righteous and just God who sees the real heart and motives for each one of us and Who will judge justly.

    Here is my agenda. Busted!

    • To try and see everyone through the eyes of Jesus because my eyes are prejudiced and prideful.
    • To try and love them like Jesus because my love is selfish.
    • To try and see that no one misses out on the message of grace, identity, acceptance and one-way love that is offered as a free gift of grace by the finished work of Jesus on the Cross.
    • To let them others know that my relationship with Jesus and His grace has changed my life, given my life purpose, given me strength to endure tragedy, and real hope for the future.
    • To authentically relate how this personal relationship with the living God saved my marriage and made me a better father to my sons.
    • To be gentle in relating the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people in every situation. My goal is to introduce people to Jesus. If they are living in a way that is not biblical I will let them work it out in God’s timing while walking with them in grace and love.
    • To exhibit grace and forgiveness to those who attack me for not sharing their world views.
    • To freely dispense the grace of the living Christ to everyone I come in contact so that I can be salt and light to my little circle of influence.
    • To be an advocate for those wounded by the church and other Christians. Our lack of unity must grieve Jesus who prayed for unity of the body during His final agonizing hours before His betrayal, mock trial, and crucifixion.
    • To try to never be surprised or repulsed by the actions of those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. The Lord Himself was always gentle with sinners and always tough on religious hypocrites. We have reversed his example far too often. We are too tough on sinners and too gentle with the hypocrites in our midst.
    • To try and give generously of my time and treasure to those who have not been as materially blessed in my neighborhood, my country, and around the world.
    • To let people know that I love Jesus and I am not at all ashamed of that fact.

    It is easy to dismiss the hypocrite. No problem to ignore the angry and judgmental religious types. But before I came to faith I was troubled when I saw some Christians who displayed something different in their lives. I could not dismiss so readily the joy, peace, strength, courage, and love they modeled. They were “troublesome” Christians to me.  I could not ignore them because their lives were authentic and different (different good, not weird). I want to be that kind of Christian. I take these words of Jesus seriously.

    “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” John 15:12

    That was not a helpful suggestion. Jesus made that command the cornerstone of following Him. So that is my agenda. To love others as I have been loved and be a “troublesome” Christian to some.

  • A House Divided Cannot Stand…The Choice is Ours

    A House Divided Cannot Stand…The Choice is Ours

    I used to joke that it is hard to find a good Evangelical math teacher because the only thing they completely understand is division. I am not sure I think that is humorous anymore as I watch the heartbreaking division in the body of believers that I love and call family.

    My head explodes when I allow myself to wade into the discourse between followers of Jesus Christ on Twitter and other social media. I will stipulate that often the topic being discussed is valuable and important. I get frustrated that the threads that gain traction are rarely the most important message we should be proclaiming as ambassadors of Christ.

    For example, a dust-up between author/speaker Beth Moore and pastor John MacArthur exploded on social media last fall and continues to be contentious. Beth Moore and many other women that I deeply respect have advocated for the increased role of women in church leadership and as expositors in the pulpit. This article by author/professor Sandra Glahn is a thoughtful perspective. These sisters in the faith argue that women bring perspective and insight to the teaching of God’s Word that is valuable and can be overlooked. I happen to agree with most of their arguments. Other scholars that I also respect have objections to this position.

    Fine.

    Let us reason with one another with loving and graceful dialogue. Because of the nature of social media a topic that should be thoughtfully and biblically debated instead becomes an us versus them war. The discourse easily drifts toward broad brushing of large segments of the body of Christ with unfair assignation of motives.

    These judgements of motives and personal attacks are so damaging to the message of grace that I hold so dear. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as a skeptical seeker looking to read something about this Christianity thing. I am pretty sure if I stumbled on some of these mean-spirited threads I would run straight for the secular hills.

    The irony of this need to “win” the argument at the expense of Christian charity and love may be one more profoundly effective tactic of the enemy. Paul noted that God’s sovereignty can take any proclamation of the Gospel and use it for His glory.

    It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. Phillipians 1:15-18

    I hope that most of us wish to communicate the incredibly liberating forgiveness of the Gospel. I hope that most of us wish to be accurate in that communication. But I also hope that most of us wish to be gracious, kind, loving, and thoughtful toward all in the body who desire to celebrate Jesus.

    I am committed to not attacking fellow communicators of the Good News. God can use their efforts and their motives are between them and God.

    When asked what the most important commandment was Jesus replied without hesitation.

    “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”

    And he added a second part…”Be accurate and make sure others are accurate at all costs.”

    Hardly. His convicting command is well known.

    The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”

    Don’t hijack my point. Accuracy is important but you cannot love your neighbor as yourself with condescension, assigning of bad motives, attacks on appearance, and smug righteousness.

    Researchers believe that more than 2 billion people identify as Christians around the globe. Imagine the impact of the body of Christ deciding to throw aside all that divides us and unite on the one thing that should unite every single one of that 2 billion plus number.

    Jesus.

    What if we decided to spend all of our energy proclaiming that the Son of God came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life, was crucified as a sacrifice for my sin and yours and then was resurrected to show the ultimate victory over sin and death.

    What if we decided to be a little kinder, give a little more, serve a little more often, and commit to unity in our ranks. Joni Erickson Tada has been a quadriplegic for over fifty years yet her joy exceeds most of us when we have a hangnail. She had this to say about unity.

    “Believers are never told to become one; we already are one and are expected to act like it.”

    Famous preacher Charles Spurgeon understood how key division is to Satan’s strategy to thwart the message of the Gospel.

    “Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation.”

    I have reached the conclusion that lack of unity is the single biggest problem in the universal church and, of course, in our individual fellowships. When a major league baseball team starts to lose games regularly, it is said to have “bad clubhouse chemistry.” That’s a fancy way of saying, “This team doesn’t get along, and the players don’t work well together.” How sad that “congregational chemistry” has the same effect on winning…only our losses are eternal.

    I love these oft quoted principles of Christian living.

    In essentials, Unity. In non-essentials, Liberty. In everything, Love.

    What would the impact of the Gospel be if we lived by that simple little credo? Satan knows all too well how a world shown God’s love and grace would respond. So the enemy reminds us of grudges both real and enhanced.

    There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like genuinely following Jesus.

    Famous preacher D.L. Moody had this warning. “I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.”

    The One that unites us is so much more important than the things that divide us. Can we commit to pray for unity in the body of Christ? The choice is ours.