Evangelism

I gotta be honest, I don't like the word "evangelism". Whenever I hear it I just see that timid youth group kid awkwardly asking me the scripted line off of a clipboard that is supposed to deceive people into thinking they're taking a survey, "If you were to die today, would you know for certain that you would get into heaven?" I then respond with, "Of course! I'm a Christian too. God bless. I will be praying for your ministry." But that answer is not good enough for the chaperone firmly overshadowing this terrified preteen. Convert, CONVERT, CONVERT! So as I turn to walk away I hear, "No, but are you sure you would get into heaven?" I assure you this has happened to me on more than one occasion and the only thing I feel I can do in this situation is turn and walk away.

Now I don't really think "evangelism" should be a word. Just hear me out here. Think of the best restaurant you've ever eaten at. After you ate there, what did you do? Did you go to a class to figure out analogies to explain to people how good that restaurant was? Did you awkwardly stand in the middle of the mall stopping random shoppers asking them if they had ever eaten at that restaurant? No, you told every person you came into conversation with about this restaurant and what you ordered and how good it was and how attentive the server was and so on. Why? Because you experienced something good and you want those who you care about to experience it too. The latter is love, the former sounds a bit more like advertising doesn't it?

Matthew 22:37-39 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

If you feel the urge to evangelize for any other reason than love, just don't evangelize. What you need to work on first is loving, then "evangelism" will come naturally. 

DISCLAIMER:

I am not opposed to evangelism. I am opposed to the flawed practices that some call evangelism that do not advance the Kingdom of God and in times actually hinder it.

I'm back

After talking my wife's ear off for the past few days I've decided I need to start blogging again. I've got a bunch of stuff sitting in my head that's waiting to get out. Unfortunately I must be at work in less than 8hrs so I'll be off to bed now.

Anger

Anger is another emotion that has become widely abused in not only secular society but also in Christian culture. What it is, where it comes from and when, if ever, it is appropriate seems to have become greatly misunderstood.

In my observation I've seen 3 major types of anger abuse (I'm no counselor so these are just my personal observations). The short fuse, the closet rager and the passive aggressive. The short fuse is that guy that just snaps at anything and lets everyone know how mad he is. The closet rager is the gentleman that you couldn't find a single fault in unless you were one of the unlucky few that was closest to him. They usually take they're anger out on immediate family members and live a "perfect" life to the world. The passive aggressive don't seem like they have ever experienced anger in their entire life. They go through life wearing such rose colored glasses it can sometimes be annoying. They tend to mask their anger with passive aggressiveness to keep that fine and dandy character.

So what is anger? It is an emotional reaction to, what we believe to be, an injustice. When someone tells you not to be so angry, they should be telling you to stop acting out in anger. A couple of weeks ago I got in a car accident. The other driver ran the red light and hit us and somehow I received the ticket. Was I angry? You bet I was! There was a clear injustice against me. Did that injustice make me angry? Absolutely not!

I understand if that makes no sense right now. Let me explain. When I become angry, it is my reaction to a situation. I essentially choose to feel anger. No one/thing can take responsibility for what I feel. That's kind of relieving if you think about it. If I do something, without sinning, and someone gets angry about it, I don't have take responsibility for it. That's not to say that you should be insensitive towards others and not try to reconcile. Unfortunately the world doesn't quite have a grasp on that reality yet.

In this example, I will be honest to my readers and tell you that I did in fact sin, but it wasn't purely my anger that was a sin. In Ephesians, Paul tells us not to sin in our anger. When I received the ticket and felt anger for the injustice, I hadn't sinned quite yet. When I got into the back seat of my mother's soccer mom van and started yapping about how stupid that blanking blankety blank driver was, I was sinning. Actually even before I began speaking I was sinning just by thinking those things.

It seems so easy to let anger drive our actions many times. That being said, we need to learn how to take control of that emotion that God has blessed us with and use in a way that it can glorify Him. I love the story of Jesus in Matthew 21 where he walks into the temple to find it turned into a market place and starts flipping tables telling the people that His house is a house of prayer but they turned it into a den of thieves. I'm not saying that you should start flipping tables every time you get upset. What I am saying is that you can use your anger to identify an injustice, rebuke it and correct it. Without feeling anger, I know sometimes I wouldn't even have the drive to correct a wrong doing. Rebuking people is pretty much never easy.

You'll also notice that once Jesus rebukes these people, he goes back to healing people. This is the perfect example of justified anger. Jesus doesn't hold a grudge against these people or let it ruin his day, he goes right back to doing his thing. You know what, I wouldn't be surprised if Jesus' blood paid for the sins of some of those buyers and sellers.

So next time something happens that makes you angry, don't harbor that anger and let it turn to bitterness or let everyone know how angry you are by having an outrage or try hiding your anger and letting it come out in passive aggressive defiance; face it head on, let it surface in a way that glorifies God and then let it go. I know that God glorifying anger seems like an oxymoron and it may be difficult to get over the idea that anger is across the board a sin, but with prayer and dedication, I can see some really cool things coming from some angry Christians.

Your diet and the Gospel

I have a passionate distaste for vegetarianism. No, I do not hate vegetarians (love the sinner, hate the sin). And it's not because I've worked in foodservice since I was 15 and dread having to make special meals for people with "alternative lifestyles." The reason I have such strong feelings for this issue is because of the Gospel.

I bet you're a little confused right now. What does (not) eating meat have to do with the Gospel?! I'll tell you.

Remember that whole story about Adam and Eve? Eve eats the forbidden fruit, Adam chooses to join her, they unsuccessfully try and hide from God, God kicks them out, they're cursed with pain in childbirth and hardship in labor and then God makes clothes of [animal] skin for them. It is safe to say that this animal was killed not only for the well being of Adam and Eve but as a sacrifice for their sin.

So from day one Adam and Eve have embedded in their subconscious that because of their sin, a life must be taken in order for theirs to continue. They have a clear understanding of the Gospel just by watching what God had just done for them. And what they witnessed was prophesy of what was to come, Christ's life being taken in order to save us from eternal death. Now that we are free from having to sacrifice animals, we still have the constant reminder, reality check and reflection of the Gospel in our diet.

I do understand that it is possible to live a bland healthy life without eating animal products, but if you have the opportunity to reflect the Gospel in something you do 3 times a day, why would you choose not to? I admire those who hunt because they get even closer to understanding this parallel. I think that every person should one day kill an animal and eat it for dinner for this very reason.

When I ask people why they are vegetarian, the most common responses are, "animal cruelty," or "I don't like meat." My response to the first quote would be Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

To the second I would ask what things we do regularly for our own good that we don't like doing. I personally hate brushing my teeth, but I do it daily because its good for me. If we do stuff all the time that isn't enjoyable but is good for us then why can't we do something we don't enjoy that is good for the Kingdom.

What if you're not a Christian? Who cares about animal cruelty if you believe in Darwin's survival of the fittest. If you're going to believe in evolution at least live it. And if you don't like the way meat tastes, man up and take one for your species and chow down on some lesser species so that maybe one day we can grow wings and fly, saving our country billions of dollars in air travel and eliminating our dependence on oil (excuse my blatant sarcasm).

Tomorrow morning, throw some unborn chickens and some pig belly on the griddle and rejoice knowing that you don't have to go and kill an animal for your sins since Jesus already died for all of them.

Pastor appreciation month

I want to tell you about my pastor.
My pastor is my friend.
My pastor is a mentor.
My pastor doesn't preach what you want to hear but what you need to hear.
My pastor isn't on a giant projector screen.
My pastor doesn't have stadium seating.
My pastor isn't a comedian (that's not to say he doesn't have a great sense of humor).
My pastor doesn't sway with trends.
My pastor is educated.
My pastor is honest and open.
My pastor isn't a motivational speaker.
My pastor doesn't care about money.
My pastor dedicates 110% to the Kingdom.
My pastor doesn't play politics.
My pastor cares equally for every single person who walks through the door.
My pastor has a radiating passion in all the work he does.
My pastor does not play favorites.
My pastor has dedicated his life to bless others.
My pastor has changed my life.
My pastor is Dr. Norm Wise.

Telling yourself the truth

We are all big fat freaking liars! Whoa, what a way to start out a post, right?! Just bear with me for a minute.

We all tell ourselves our life story as it happens. As you go through life we tell ourselves what we are perceiving. It sounds kind of ridiculous only because it happens so naturally that we don't notice it. Think about it. When something noteworthy happens in your life and you go and tell a friend, you're telling your friend a story of a part of your life. And before telling this story you had to process your experience.

Tell me if you've ever had this experience: you tell a story to a friend and your friend interprets what happened differently than you did and all of the sudden you see the situation in a whole new light. You generally experience an emotional reaction which then affects how you deal with the given situation.

What I'm trying to get at is that we all have the ability to affect ourselves the way the friend affected you in my previous example. It all lies in the story we tell ourselves. We can wake up every morning thinking, "Wow life sucks," and you'll never want to get out of bed or we can think, "Wow, isn't it amazing that God has blessed me with another day on this earth," and I'm sure the results will be different.

The trouble with this is that we've been raised in an ungrateful and cynical society that scoffs at positive thinking. We also feel a little crazy when we actively tell ourselves something that we know we don't quite believe. There's also nothing the people of the US love more than instant gratification. Unfortunately, telling yourself the truth falls into all these things that we don't like. We need to first catch ourselves when we have the urge to be negative and then we need to take that thought and replace it with something realistic and positive.

Now the worst part about this is it takes a lot of time and effort to really have it affect your life. It's a proven fact that the subconscious needs repetition to believe something. There's certain aspects of my life that I'm still trying to get control of, but I know my life would be miserable had I not chosen to take control of what I tell myself.

YAY!

There's finally a Blogger iPhone app. I think I'll be able to update much more frequently now!