Charisa Stories

Tag: stanley toussaint

  • Do You Not Love God if You Don’t Love Your Neighbor?

    I recently finished a free online course from Dallas Theological Seminary taught by Dr. Stanley Toussaint. His application from the Parable of the Good Samaritan was simple and positively convicting.

    ”You can tell how a person loves God by how they love people.”

    Ouch. My defensive response included an excuse about how difficult it is to love some people. Come on Lord. You know them better than I do!

    Later that day I cued a Spotify country song list and up popped a tune by bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent. God has a sense of humor. The song is called “You Don’t Love God If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor” and the lyrics begin like this.

    There are many people
    who will say they’re Christians
    and they live like Christians on the Sabbath day

    But come Monday morning, til the coming Sunday
    They will fight their neighbor all along the way.

    {chorus}

    Oh you don’t love God, if you don’t love your neighbor
    if you gossip about him, if you never have mercy
    if he gets into trouble, and you don’t try to help him
    then you don’t love your neighbor, and you don’t love God

    I am going to keep my judge’s robe in the closet and not evaluate your heart and whether you love God or not. But I can say from uncomfortable personal experience that if you are living the lyrics above you may want to take a look at your actions in lieu of this command of Jesus.

    A religious expert on the law tried to trap Jesus by asking this question.

    “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
    Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:36-39 NLT)

     The hypocrisy of so many who claim the name of Jesus Christ is the most consistent complaint that I hear from my tens of readers. I hear it from those who are churched, unchurched, and those who wish they had an option other than church. My book When Bad Christians Happen To Good People addressed this topic honestly.

    Why do we often fail in this command to love others? I think some insight that I picked up from my buddies at Truefaced.com helped me to understand the issue.

    Knowing truth does not transform lives. Only trusting truth transforms lives.

    We have lots of people who have logged a lot of pew time and heard tons of teaching. They have memorized verses and they can speak fluent Churchianity. Yet they demonstrate little or no difference from their neighbors who go to church only on Easter and Christmas or maybe never darken the church doors. How can that be?

    I think that for too many Christians they have not fully trusted the truth they have heard. I am learning to put my full weight on the truths that are foundational. That God supernaturally changed me at the moment I put my trust in Jesus for my salvation. I became a new person. So my standing in God’s eyes is not about what I do but about who I am. Do I trust that truth? Do you?

    Do you believe that God’s faithfulness and loving kindness and grace will sustain you in whatever circumstance you find yourself in? Are you willing to give up control and trust that God has your back and your best interests in His eternal plan? Or do you fear that He might require you to go or do something that you really don’t want to do? Does that kind of thinking make sense in light of what Paul writes about Christ?

    Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. (Romans 5, NLT)

    Do I really think that a God that loved me like that would punish me with a bad assignment to love unlovable people because He is displeased with me? Jesus did not say that He came so that I could have life sporadically. He promised abundantly and that means to follow His commands. So I am choosing to trust the truths that I have known for many years. He is trustworthy. His Word is true. I am wasting my time if I don’t put my full weight on those truths. Slowly and often awkwardly I am learning to do that. And it is changing me.

    When I lean fully on who I am in Christ and how remarkable His gift of grace was to an undeserving sinner it makes loving my sometimes annoying neighbor a whole lot more possible. And my response to my neighbor is a good measuring stick of how much God’s love is filling my heart.

  • What Sin is God Judging America for?

    What Sin is God Judging America for?

    I think the majority of Jesus followers think that our culture is heading down the wrong road at breakneck speed. Here is a question I often get.

    “Do you think God is judging America because of (insert a cultural sin here)?”

    My response is always the same.

    “I don’t know if that particular sin would invoke his judgement but I do wonder if God might judge the American church for squandering the incredible wealth and resources we have been given.”

    The words of Jesus in Luke 12 are an indictment of many in the church.

    29 “And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don’t worry about such things. 30 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. 31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

    32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.

    Dr. Stanley Toussaint observed that “the sins of the culture always become the sins of the church”. And while we focus on moral issues we ignore the convicting fact that many Christians have gotten caught up in the material desires of our culture. God promises to meet our needs but does not promise to give you everything you want. Jesus then gets to the heart of the issue which just happens to be our heart.

    34 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

    Where is our treasure? That is the question all of us must address. For it is surely true that our heart will be there also. Empty Tomb is an organization that studies giving in the church. They reported that church giving in 2018 had declined to an average of 2.05% of income. This giving percentage was lower than it was in 1933 during the depths of the Depression. That, my Christian friends, is pathetic!

    Here is the sobering reality of our giving or lack thereof. If giving among Christians became the traditional tithe of 10% churches and Christian charities would have over $400 billion more to spend on their mission outreach. While we sit and gripe about government inefficiencies with money the myriad of church agencies could literally change the world with that amount of money.

    You don’t have to look far to see how much that could help in a world where people are dying for lack of life’s necessities. The Empty Tomb organization estimates that 1.2 million children die of treatable diseases every year. Millions more lack food and clean drinking water.

    And millions die without experiencing the message of God’s love, which Christians could likely provide with even modest sacrifice. But we must be willing to relinquish at least a little bit of our American dream, which has somehow morphed into an American right to possessions.

    In Matthew, Jesus talks about reaching out to the least of our brothers as a sign of service to Him.

    “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

    Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”

    The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:35-40)

    Notice that the passage does not say, “For I was hungry and you gave a check to the local food bank, I was thirsty and you gave money to a relief fund, I was a stranger and you supported a homeless shelter, I needed clothes and you made a quick drop-off at Goodwill, I was sick and you donated to a Christian medical outreach, I was in prison and you supported Prison Fellowship.” There is nothing wrong with doing any or all of the above, but I would suggest we all need to mix in a little personal contact.

    There is a time to give money to charity and a time to give of yourself. You won’t get the same kind of blessings or personal growth out of sending a check from the safety of the office that you would rolling up your sleeves and actually touching someone. Yeah, I’m too busy too. Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable. Yeah, I would rather be safely at home. I often write about getting out of my comfort bunker. The truth is that every time I get off my rumpus and go serve others, I feel great. Yet time after time I forget that and retreat back to the bunker.

    Teddy Roosevelt bluntly shared this truth. “Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.” Can our complaining make a difference in our culture? Not one bit. Can our giving of our financial blessings and sacrificing a bit of our time make a difference?

    It sure would be a blessing to find out.

    Here is just a sampling of the organizations in addition to your local church that can make a difference.

    Samaritan’s Purse

    World Vision

    Salvation Army

    Operation Blessing

    Feed My Starving Children

    An excerpt in this article came from my book “When Bad Christians Happen to Good People”. Click here for more info.