Jesus is not an American

Some how many Christians find it in their minds very pleasing to God to "Pray For Our Troops". To some who are very 'American' in their thinking, this post will be quite offensive. If you find it offensive, then I think you should consider the content of this more closely.

When I say "Pray For Our Troops" I mean, "Pray for our American Troops". The nostalgia and nationalism that many Christians today unite to their Christianity is preposterous. I find in scripture no attachments to any country, no attachments to any citizenship, no attachment to any nation that Christians are commended to have, except to the Kingdom of Heaven. If anything we are encouraged in the opposite direction. Find me in scripture where we are directed to pray "Only for our own race, our own people, for our troops." What is interesting about this prayer is not who you are praying for, but who you aren't praying for. When many Christians pray for our troops only it is as if we are on some divine mission in the war that our country has commissioned. I intend not to raise questions whether or not the missions our country (or any other country for that matter) decides to engage in is valid in its exertion of justice, only to awaken the skewed, ungospel-like praying that many Christians, especially pastors, publicly engage themselves in.

What would our Christian brothers and sisters who, for example, are in Iraq or Afghanistan and are in desperate trouble from treacherous American Soldiers who rape their Iraqi & Afghani women, think about our prayers only directed towards the troops alone? Or what about those other brothers and sisters who are killed in the war as bystanders, and we pray for the safety of our troops, the majority of which are not Christian, and neglect praying for our family in Christ who are endangered by the very troops we support? What about all the millions of sinners in the Middle-East who have not heard the Gospel? We think we are doing a great service to God and our country by lifting up prayers for our troops. If these are the only people we pray for, then it is appalling.

Christians dare not suppose that they can pray only for the troops and neglect the rest of the people involved in the war. The Americans involved in the war (the majority) are just as much sinners deserving of God's wrath as all the civilians and terrorists. I don't think God is pleased or honored with such narrow minded self-appraisal as to pray only for our troops. They are not on a divine mission. Though I stand for justice, for freedom and people being liberated from oppressive regimes, our concern is not simply the 'liberators'. If we are to be truly Christian, we must pray for peoples on both sides of the battle.

What must we pray then for the terrorists? Surely we are not going to pray the same kind of prayer for people who are bent on injustice as those who are exercising justice. Our prayer must primarily be for the salvation and peace for all people. Our prayers must First extend to our brothers and sisters in Christ whether they be Americans, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc. They are Christ's primary concern and therefore should be ours. Second, our prayers should be that the Gospel would spread to all peoples, on both sides, to the American troops, to the civilians, and to the terrorists. God does not discriminate between who should and shouldn't be the recipient of prayer and salvation. Third, our prayer should be for Justice. Although America has not committed the atrocities or acts of terrorism on the scale that many of the terrorist regimes in the Middle-East have, none the lest, America has not remained faultless in it's battles. We must pray for justice, and those who execute it and those who recieve it, whether it be negative (as for people causing terror) or positive (for those executing judgment on terror or evil deeds). Fourth, we must pray for peace. I am going to make an assumption, but I do not believe it to be too far off. Many Christians in our country want peace, not because they are primarily concern with the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being of peoples in other countries, but instead many Christians want peace because they don't want those battles reaching our shores to disturb our quaint, trivial lives. We must desire peace for those in other countries whether they be believers or not.

Christ calls us to love our friends, but more importantly our enemies.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)

This verse should make it blatantly clear how we should be in prayer for those in conflict. Christians do not 'pick sides'. We work for justice and peace and desire it, and we desire it for all men with no distinction. As noted though, this justice will take different forms for different people. If there are some who have killed innocent persons, justice will come upon them in the form of punishment. If there are innocent people who have been oppressed, justice will come in the form of freedom. This is what I mean by praying for justice for all people. But as Jesus so clearly points out, if all we are doing is praying for our troops, we have done nothing better than secular pagans.

Perhaps the clearest form of what our prayers should be in these situations is clearly stated in 1 Timothy 2:1-3, which I will close with

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The Beautiful Bride: Part II

(Continued from previous post)

From this covering with Christ flows all things that adorn believers. Our representation and attractiveness to society is not grounded on some marketability, some cultural targeting, or some creative fanciful color scheme, as black, greys and reds to the current 'alternative, emo, dark' culture. The presentation of ourselves to God is through likeness with Christ, and that likeness begins and ends with a faith grounded in the person and work of Christ. The second factor of presenting and attracting the unbelieving world to God is through outwardly manifesting the inward change of heart and disposition towards God. Though a society and sub-culture groups can be affected by marketing schemes and catered advertising, the problem is that when once what attracted them wears off or fades, then so will their interest in the object of what we present to them. It is similar to a situation with a person who is physically attractive but whose personality is shallow and trite. Though you may have some initial response to what is presented, upon further inspection, if the all that the person contains is a nice pretty shell that covers a rather languid, shallow soul, your attention, desire and attraction will not be maintain for much longer than even a few moments.

We must then present to others things that are true and rich, that contain glory in them. Our deeds must be reflections of the reality that we are a part of and long to be fully enveloped in. Jesus says "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16). Our light is Christ, and he is what we must shine, and "in the same way" we do good works. We do these good works not as ends in themselves, but for a purpose: "that the world may see them and give glory to your Father" If all we present to people are capricious and fancy light-shows, concerts, flyers and cute videos, then that is the end of our works and they will glorify those things. If we come to people humbly in their circumstances and labor to meet needs, show love and grace, then the effect of the gospel in the lives of unbelievers will be radical.

There are two ways that this beauty of Christ is expressed. 1 - collectively; 2 - individually

In expressing Christ collectively, we are as a whole Church reflecting back to God his glory. We are all unified in one purpose moving to display this to God and mankind.

But what is important to note is that God is concerned with the individual expression of beauty. It is easy to think that in corporate collaboration the individual will be lost. But this is contrary to the way that God has fashioned his people. Christ looks down upon his bride, the Church, and sees a unity of diverse people. This is another area that the modern rising of Christianity has strayed. They have taken cues from our post-modern culture that is so bent on the individual and their own personal expression. This has led to such things as some of the most putrid forms of art, which lack all kinds of talents, creativity and ingenuity. In striving for uniqueness and diversity, much of the post-modern culture has become holistically useless, banal and quite out of touch with anyone else. Their expressions are useless and meaningless because they have tried to ground their movement on the expression of uniqueness. I believe that this flies directly contrary to what the Lord has laid out for us in how we are to live as individuals. Our primary concern is not to exalt our uniqueness; if we do, we are severely liable to become rather infatuated with ourselves. Our primary concern is to exalt the Lord, and in doing so it will evidence itself in unique individual expression.

God has given each differing gifts, and personalities. But it is not simply to push these. There are many of us who are far better at painting a fantastic painting but not at honoring Christ in our daily conversations. I believe that as we are more transformed into the image of Christ that our individual expressions that Christ has given to us will find their place, meaning and significance. This is the way that Christ adores his bride, as those who seek first to honor him in all things, and when we are doing so the Spirit unites us in our works and allows the intricacies of how God has created us to express itself.

Christ looks down from heaven upon his bride and we are clothing ourselves with righteous deeds (Revelation 19:8) and He loves to behold her. Let us then clothe ourselves all the more with these fine linen garments of righteous deeds.

The Beautiful Bride: Part I

"Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel..."

Revelation 21:9-11

It is often difficult to imagine ourselves as beautiful. We are so keenly aware of every single blemish, every unsightly mole, hair, red spot, discoloration, deformity. We are aware of our physical shortcomings, our smallness, our bigness, our shapeliness. We can be in front of a mirror obsessing over a hair that does not sit right while not realizing that most the world will not notice nor give two cents worth whether it sits right or not.

That is simply the difficulty in seeing physical body as beautiful to humans. When many of us inspect our own hearts, we see the ghastly sins that are so repugnant to God and are ashamed. It is often difficult to understand that God, who sees all our thoughts, intentions, motives, and secret dealings (1 Chronicles 28:9) is looking on His apparently wicked people as something beautiful and that he is pleased in. But beyond all this, as we are represented in scripture frequently, we are the Bride of Christ. This is not simply a quaint idea that we are simply loved by God, it is so much fuller than simply being loved. When Christ looks upon his bride he is ravished. Christ is so delighted in his bride that rejoices in her, that is, he praises her for her beauty, for her gloriousness. This is what our hearts must constantly call attention to. It is so easy to become overwhelmed with our waywardness. We must constantly come back to our savior Jesus, who washes us clean and makes us beautiful in his eyes.

What is it particularly that makes the bride of Christ beautiful? The church in America has a skewed perspective on what 'being beautiful' really is. So often we think what makes the church beautiful is its attractiveness, expressed in their relevance to society, its current ideals, its modern-progression. We are often consumed in presenting ourselves to God and the world as those who, in a way, are adorned with all sorts of worldly respects. It is as if our thoughts are, "the way that I am looked upon by God is by my ministry to the church and the world, and the way to be effective to the world in ministry is to keep up on what is current, trendy, exciting and provocative." Much of the modern Christian mindset of accomplishing ministry is through new, edgy, creative, sub-culture targeting. There is an avant-garde attitude that flows through much of what is issuing forth from the coming church generation. Much of the focus is taken off the persons who are being ministered to and the display of Christ and is being placed upon the ways, means, relevancy and attractiveness of reaching the lost for Christ and growing the saved through Christ. The church in some ways is consumed with the means, not the ends. Content is subjugated for presentation. Its like having a professionally engineered web-page with nothing worth while being said at all on the web-page.

This mode of understanding our beauty is in direct contrast to the way in which the scriptures represent the source of our beauty. As the verse at the beginning of this post stated "Come, I will show you the Bride... having the glory of God". What makes every believer beautiful in the eyes of Jesus is their display of the glory of God. When Christ looks upon his beloved people, he sees his most treasured possession, the glory of God. Nothing delights Jesus more than to see us reflecting that. All of Christ's works and efforts wrought, in heaven and upon earth, were for this purpose - that we might be to the praise of his glory. "filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:11. This is the picture that is presented to us in the closing chapters of the book of Revelation, a people adorned in the blood of Christ, that washes us clean, makes us pure, and provides us with a righteousness that belongs to God. We are the Bride of Christ, with a radiance like "a most rare jewel." This is who we are and this is what you must know yourself as. Your beauty and worth is not tantamount to how this world sees you or what you think may please God. You beauty is directly connected to the righteousness of Christ. If you are not covered in the blood of the Lamb, then you are the most unsightly creature in all of creation, worthy to be cast out of God's presence for all eternity. But if you hold dearly to the righteousness that is provided to you in the blood of Christ and to the promised glory that you will inherit on account of the death and life of Christ, then you are to be chreished above all other creatures in this world. To no other creature has God given this privilege, it is something that belongs alone to the people of God.

Insufficiency of Signs, Wonders and Miracles

"For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
but we preach Christ Crucified, a stumbling block
to Jews and folly to Gentiles"
1 Corinthians 1:22,23

"An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign,
but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah"
Matthew 12:39

If you are asking for a sign or some speaking from God so that you will be assuaged of your doubts, you neither understand faith nor do you understand the sufficiency of faith's object. Many people, including myself, at points in their lives have sought the Lord and asked him to speak in some sort of audible voice, to move in some emotional fashion in the heart, to give a dream, or give some sort of appearance even of an angel, to abate our doubts or fears. This whole mode of seeking the Lord, at its core, is apostasy and will ultimately lead one away from God.

The reason that this thinking is wrong is because it rejects the object of our trust, belief and faith. It says, at its core, "Christ is not a sufficient revelation." It is as if you say in your same prayers to God, "God, the appearance of your Son on the face of this planet is not enough convincing for me to believe." Unlike the Old Testament, who had not yet had such a revelation of God in human form, God at times spoke to elicit faith in his chosen ones. Hebrews 1:1-3 says "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." In similar fashion, John 1:1, 14 says "...the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

The truth is that God has completely, fully, comprehensively and gloriously represented himself to mankind, in such a way that he need not ever to do so again in order to have sufficient evidence for faith. Because this is so, we now have the fullness of the object of God to rest in. There is no other revelation that could be provided to you that would be sufficient for you to have some sort of confidence to trust God other than Christ. The error that arises if God were to give you some sort of dream of your asking to show you a sufficient reason to trust him or evidence of his existence is that that dream, that voice, that sign would then become the object of your faith and would lead you away from the "radiance of his glory" who is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has been seen, witnessed and recorded. Scripture is sufficient in itself to demonstrate that there is no need for some kind of sign from God outside of the Bible to be revealed to you for the sufficient reason to trust or evidence of his existence.

What is more, is that if you cannot receive Christ, who is God in flesh, as the all-sufficient evidence of salvation, then there is no dream, no voice, no sign, that would be sufficient for you for your salvation. Think for yourself about the Pharisees who interacted with Christ, more importantly, with God, on a daily basis yet continued in their utter rejection and rebellion against Christ. They saw everything that you demand: signs and wonders. Christ healed people, performed astounding miracles like changing water to wine, feeding 5,000 on multiple occasions with a meal that was only large enough for 3 people, walked on water, and even raised people from the dead on multiple occasions. You are convinced in your mind that if you saw those things then surely, with out a doubt, you would believe. But this is total and utter foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, "for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." The Pharisees and others witness daily the works, deeds, teachings, and miracles of God yet not only did they reject him, they crucified him. No wonder Jesus said to the Pharisees, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock." (John 10:25,26). Those who are not part of Christ's flock (John 10:27ff; John 17:6-10) will not believe no matter what evidence is presented to them, no matter what amazing signs, wonders and miracles are performed in front of them.

The object of your faith is Jesus Christ. He is all sufficient. He is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his nature. If this is not sufficient evidence for you, then nothing will be.