Good News Sense

The date may be July 4, but the commemoration is Independence Day! We should use the day to recall and be grateful for freedom, especially in these days where freedom seems to be slowly slipping away. People who don’t understand freedom will not remain free for long. Those who fail to understand the roots of freedom will never truly appreciate what freedom is.

The roots of freedom are Christian because only Christ has made complete, genuine freedom possible. Real freedom begins in the mind and soul of a person. Long before men and women of every color, heritage, and culture began to demand political freedom, Christians had learned that freedom granted by God could not be destroyed by physical chains. Further, in that freedom, believers learned that true freedom is not a license to do as one pleases but an opportunity to serve others.

The boundary between service and slavery is still being challenged today. Only a free person may make the sacrifices of genuine service. When earthly powers attempt to demand service and sacrifice, they create bondage. The struggle to prevent such enslavement continues to this very day in nations around the planet, including this nation, and in culture, institutions, religions, and relationships.

The same boundary exists between a husband demanding obedience from a wife and a wife choosing to respect and submit to a husband’s wishes. It is sad to hear women from any culture, religion, or country say they are content to be under the domination of a husband and just as sad to hear a man say he finds pleasure in that which is not freely given (apart from custom).

The is a close relationship between freedom, respect, and love. God first created free creatures in order that they might learn to love him. Men used that freedom to true from the ways of God, and the results are less punishment than the inevitable result of unrestrained license. He grieved the sin and death man brought into the world but planned, long in advance, the deliverance of his lost creation. The price of that freedom was the death of Christ, just as the price of political freedom usually involves the blood sacrifice of countless patriots. The difference, of course, is Christ’s emancipation is eternal, while men and women must repeatedly fight for earthly freedom—as American patriots did over 200 years ago and as Iranian people are attempting to do today.

As we celebrate this holiday weekend, let’s be sure to make it “Independence Day,” and not just “The 4^th of July.” The reality of true freedom is too great a treasure to allow it to be lost in summertime fun and fireworks. Take a minute and look up some of the Scripture that discuss freedom such as John 8:31-21 and Galatians 5. Take another minute and read the Declaration of Independence; it is a marvelous document that set this country on its course toward the freedoms that, so far, we still enjoy. Then, take a final minute and thank God for liberty, freedom, independence, and all that means.

I have been writing lately about the amazing opportunity for creativity that God has given us, his children. From the creation of Adam through the redemption of the Second Adam, he has called and equipped us to do, to act, and to accomplish creatively. He has charged us with the ministry of reconciliation, the work of evangelism, the task of missionary outreach, and the business of his church to care for orphans, widows, the needy, imprisoned, lonely, and hopeless inside and outside our congregations. He has gifted us to compose, perform, write, act, paint, sculpt, and produce all manner of art to tell his story and glorify him and his creation. He has enabled us to discover, understand, invent, and engineer to make amazing things to “subdue” the earth and make life better for everyone. He has fashioned some who can communicate, others who can empathize, and still others who can mediate to help people have better relationships. In other words, every kind of skill, ability, talent, and gift exists not merely to fulfill his purposes but to bring purpose, satisfaction, and joy to the gifted individual.

I am more convinced than ever that he has a remarkably open-ended purpose for each of us; that is, in making us in his own image, he granted us freedom to use the unique nature each of us possesses. For this to work, we cannot all be the same. Traditions, movements, denominations, and church leaders should not try to make us look or act alike. We will do our best work in the liberty that comes through Christ and, preferably, in an earthly community where people are free. Here is where a community of believers may serve to encourage the diverse contributions of its members, preferably a true community where believers are together more than just Sundays.

Two contrary attitudes may interfere. One is controlling but lacks authority because it denies any objective truth or value system. The other is domineering in the name of authority or tradition. The former is often called liberal; the latter conservative. While I refuse to accept the one’s denial of truth and agree with the other’s commitment to it, I reject all forces that stifle the individual’s freedom to be and to do what God created each to be and do. For this very reason, God plainly commanded us to love rather than to impose truth on anyone. We need truth, but its purpose is to ground each of us so that our creative efforts stand on a solid foundation. Pride is prone to focus on being right instead of loving, a subtle error perhaps, but an error nonetheless.

I have written that each of us may say, “I can,” and that none should be afraid of freedom. I have engaged folks in conversations about community and people-focused worship. I have taught for years against the more restrictive traditions and organizational loyalties that interfere with love as well as truth. In doing so, I have observed one sad thing. People easily talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk.

I was interim pastor of a new church, as such, unencumbered by history or tradition, though came from a certain denomination. I was excited to help shape a new work without those constraints, but I discovered two problems. On the one hand, people seemed intent on bringing in traditions from other places; on the other, given its freedom from tradition, many saw themselves free…to do nothing!

I observe a similar problem today. Both the church and the nation face serious problems, but I am optimistic, supremely, overwhelmingly confident, that God has given everything we need to overcome them. My hope is in God, but his tools are we, his people, not a few of us doing the work for the rest, not a selection of driven and even arrogant leaders driving the rest, but as many of us as possible, doing in freedom what he has gifted us to do.

Where does it start? It has already started with me and with a few others I know. Where does it go from here? That depends on you. It’s a geometric progression where one stimulates another who does them same, growing by 2, 4, 16, 64, and so on. This won’t happen if it is a leader driven or celebrity-dependent process; it must be people-driven, people-dependent. If a ground swell of believers begins to express their God-given abilities and speak truth in love to their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and families, things will change; they will change incredibly. It will take people like you. You can do it, but will you?

I’m not much for collectivism, and too much rhetoric recently has focused on what we can do, often meaning, I fear, we can do it for you. I believe in only one “we,” and that is we, the people of God, together the Body of Christ. I guess marriage is also a “we,” but since the “two become one flesh,” a married couple become one. We, “the people of the United States,” established the nature of our union in the Constitution, but it established an environment where the norm was to be individual freedom. It was the enablement, indeed the ennoblement, of “I” not “we.”

The Apostle Paul’s statement is remarkable: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It provides a stunning contrast to the alternative we have heard so much about recently. It truly is the spirit of Christ versus the spirit of anti-Christ. The one enables the individual through divine power while the other scorns the divine in favor of human power harnessed by the state. Animals yoked together have a certain brute strength, but they have no liberty; they must work under the whip of the one driving them. What is accomplished serves the interests of the master and the interests of those yoked creatures as the master chooses; he may be benevolent or harsh, but the choices are his.

That’s why Jesus says that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” We do not serve at his will but by our choice. He in turn frees us to choose our own way, express our own creative gifts, and fulfill the unique purpose each of us has as an individual. He is our master, yet he says we are no longer servants but friends; he is our elder brother, and we have been adopted into his family. This is the finest form of dignity and liberty, and our country functions best when our dignity and liberty mirror that, as much as possible (In my opinion, humans as the very children of God made in his image have a far greater worth and dignity than highly evolved lumps of protoplasm, akin to monkeys and dolphins and slime molds).

Collectivists and industrialists and oppressive governments prefer sameness and limits to freedom. They don’t always recognize their own proclivities, saying one thing while doing another, without necessarily seeing the inconsistency. People even think they want to be harnessed and yoked because then they don’t have to think about what to do or where to go; someone else does their thinking for them. I find the peculiar dichotomy between allowing children to grow into undisciplined young people who rebel against all control, even parental, and the stifling cultural environment into which they ultimately must function where the government is assuming more and more control over every aspect of our lives.

By contrast, a believer has access to the very power of God in the freedom of Christ.  People will say we need government to provide for us because life is tough, but life wasn’t always easy for Paul: “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”  I would rather be free and live in the ups and downs of life than lose my freedom for a guarantee of meager provision, which is the best that a centralized system can offer.  The lesson of contentment is better than the bitter pill of fear and resentment.

Contentment alone is a great blessing, a wonderful promise from God.  Life in this fallen world is uncertain and will remain so until the Lord returns and establishes his eternal kingdom.  Yet, I am convinced we have the opportunity to do more than wait; I believe we have a commission, given before the fall and never withdrawn, to “be fruitful.”  As the Parable of the Talents makes clear, the Lord expects to invest our gifts productively until he returns…No Excuses!  We have a job to do, and he has gifted us to do it.  I believe that great accomplishments still remain to astound the world and please our Lord, but only if we accept the simple truth, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and you can, too!

How big is God’s love? How big is your love for His people and in His name? How big is your love for your neighbor? The overriding consideration as we deal with people is to be love, just as God’s overarching attitude is love. “God demonstrates his own love for us in that Christ died on our behalf while we were yet sinners!” His love couldn’t be any clearer or deeper. “As I have loved you, so you should love one another” (John 13:34). “If a person cannot love his brother, whom he can see, how can he say he loves God whom he cannot see: (I John 4:20).

Recently I have heard two young people share frustrations that came from how people treated them. In one case, Christian friends reacted negatively to questions and opinions that my young friend was sharing. In the second, sincere Christian people were suggesting that my young friend’s personality needed to change. In both cases, Christian people reacted negatively to fellow Christians who were doing nothing wrong. Neither person was sinning or expressing unbelief. Both are fairly strong, committed believers who are striving to live for Jesus.

Paul said, in Romans 12:2, “Don’t be conformed to this world.” This world and our natural, fallen instincts try to get people to be alike and to think alike. Now, of course, we are all to be holy as Christ is holy, but holiness does not require identical personalities or mind control. Holiness is living separate from this world’s values, from our own inclination to sin, and from the devil’s twisted purposes. Otherwise, we are free to be ourselves and use our gifts freely. We serve a big God who has a far greater scope of purpose than our systems of belief and custom can accommodate, but we still manage to think we figured it all out.

The longer I live and study the more I realize I don’t know and cannot understand. I do know this; it’s not my job to tell other people how to think or act. I may share Biblical guidelines and make suggestions that help people follow Jesus and become better disciples. Even then, it’s not my responsibility to disapprove if they don’t agree with me or act like I act. God has not given me the right to look down on a brother or sister, regardless of their age or situation, because they prefer to dress other than I do, talk differently than I do, or have ideas unlike mine.

A pastor friend of mine taught me, many years ago, to be “shock proof.” At the most extreme, he was suggesting that I be ready to hear surprising secrets from people, things that could be serious problems, and that, when someone confided in me, I be able to hear and respond without horror or dismay or disapproval, but only with love and forbearance. A person who believes they have the worst problem or the deepest, most terrible secret needs, more than anything, love and understanding, when they dare to reveal their fear to a caring friend. I have given much effort to becoming shock proof; I probably haven’t “heard it all,” but I have heard a lot.

Quite often, however, the revelations weren’t terrible. They were nothing more than the fears of ordinary folks who thought they had an extraordinary problem. My two young friends could be like that, although I don’t believe their situations go even that far. My point, though, is that we should be “shock proof” even in matters such as these. Being shock proof is being loving and kind regardless of what people do, what people say, what people ask, how people look, where people come from, what friends people have, and what mistakes people have made. No matter what we may think, we should be accepting and encouraging, not judgmental, dismissive, or condescending.

The good news is that is exactly how God sees us. If you doubt it, read a few of David’s Psalms. In them, he expresses his doubts, anger, frustration, and disappointment…with GOD! Yet David remained a “man after God’s own heart.” If God can be so tolerant and accepting, dare we do any less? If God’s holy heart is big enough to accept us when we were so very unworthy, then surely our hearts can be big enough to accept differences among us His children.

We live in a time and place where people hate rules. Some hate them so much that they have tried to imagine there are no rules. This “relativism” says that each person may do as he or she thinks is best , what the author the Old Testament book of Judges describes as each man doing what is “right in his own eyes.” Those were tough times for the nation of Israel since God permitted their enemies to defeat them, time and time again. Each time, after ignoring God and suffering the consequences, they cried out and said, in effect, “We’re sorry. Please help us out of this mess.” Each time, after God delivered them, they went back to their old self-serving disobedience.

One of the reasons folks hate rules, even Christian folks, is that they feel like someone else is controlling their lives. That isn’t surprising since we live in a fallen world where many people do indeed want to run other people’s lives, but God doesn’t work that way.

“Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, ‘If you continue in My word, you are truly disciples of Mine. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

One translation I read rendered Jesus’ condition as “if you obey my teaching,” but I don’t think that’s quite right. A better translation would be “if you stick with what I’ve taught you.” It may seem a minor difference, but it isn’t. Far too many Christians fall into the trap of “following the rules,” what we call legalism. This is trying to satisfy God by following rules, despite the painful truth that no one can ever follow them well enough. Such people often become stern and humorless, either very self-righteous or defeated and grim, depending on their perception of success or failure in their piety. Where is the freedom in that?

Jesus said, in John 10, that he came to give us “life, real life!” He has “set us free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8), but you may wonder where laws, such as the 10 Commandments belong in a believer’s life. Aren’t they rules we should follow? They are indeed because they are an expression of the very character of God and a guide from the Creator on how to operate successfully among other humans. As such, we should avoid the activities they prohibit.

What is amazing is that there are so few, only 10, pretty simple warnings: don’t tell lies, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t violate your marriage or the marriage of others, don’t want what belongs to someone else, don’t work all the time, don’t worship idols or fake gods, and don’t dishonor your parents, and don’t treat God’s name with disrespect.

The reality is that those rules are sensible; only a foolish person would ignore them. Otherwise, in Christ, we’re pretty much free to make our own way, to “be transformed and not conformed to this world,” to exercise the gifts he has given us, and to discover him “at work” in us both to “will and to do according to His pleasure.” Religions, governments, and control freaks want to run our lives and make us all the same, but God wants to release us to enjoy the unique individual life he has given each of us, to discover and use the gifts he has given, and to find the joy in really living. Those things don’t come through rules but through the guidance of the Holy Spirit who dwells among us. Of course to discover all this, we must “pay attention” to what he has taught us. That isn’t blind, dogged obedience to a control freak; that is the wisdom of following the one who understands what will make life work and work well. That’s the good news of life in Christ.