"What is that to you? You follow Me."

I would rather you read your Bible and plead with the Holy Spirit to break your heart over the precipice over which humanity is pitching, than read this post. I would rather instead that you read this masterpiece portrait of Christ by CH Spurgeon, which will break any Christian's heart a million times over, and probably a good many unbelievers' hearts as well.

If you insist on reading my words, however. Consider this indictment of our current cultural norm:

It's more than insanity. This world, with its normalized greed and callous disregard for the poor, the sick, the other, is evil in the sight of God. I'm tired today, and I'm feeling salty if you know what I mean. So I don't think I'm going to do all the legwork for you to show you all through the Old Testament and New Testament where over and over, God sticks His finger in the face of greed and neglect of those in need.

Look in Amos. Look in Isaiah, Micah, Joel...look in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Look in Corinthians. Look anywhere you please. Just crack open your Bible and start reading, and ask the Holy Spirit to start pointing it out if you're having trouble focusing. You can't help but trip over the things that God hates, the things that He demands that His people repent for. (By the way, I challenge you to think of any sin that doesn't have PRIDE at its root. Rebellion is prideful; in rebellion, we posit that we know better, can do things better, ARE better than what we rebel against. And in the eyes of God, it is simply untrue. No person is better than any other.)

And you know what? It's completely normal. Evil is par for the course here on the ol' planet Earth. This shouldn't come as a shock, at least not to Christians. This is what it means to live on Earth before the Lord returns: "..the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." (1 John 5:19). The church has gotten caught up in the current of our culture, an existence that revolves around the making of more money at the expense of everything else. The message of Christ has become mixed up in ways I can't even begin to unpack.

Take all your patriotism, your delusions about America or democracy or capitalism, or whatever human enterprises you've bought into by nature of living on Earth, and take a bird's eye view of them. Better yet, take God's view. They're cardboard cutouts. They're irrelevant as far as God is concerned, as far as His purpose for us, His children, living anywhere on this planet. He can knock them down with His fingernail, and He will, when the time comes. They're DISTRACTIONS, and we've been distracted for far too long.

Friends, this is exactly what Satan wants. We have allowed him to hamstring the Body of Christ because most of us have been sitting around sipping lattes without any armor on, as though our Captain weren't sitting in the room with us waiting for us to remember His instructions! Waiting for us to get single-minded again.

We're not a "God-fearing nation"; the world is not a God-fearing world. We shouldn't be surprised by anything that governments do, or by anything people do in general. Republican or Democrat, capitalist or communist or any kind of -ist...these things are irrelevant. They're Satan's to use while he's allowed to run rampant; but we know his end, so WHY are we wasting our time?

Freedom or no freedom, gather or no gather, vaccine or no vaccine, paycheck or no paycheck: do we, Christians, know what we're supposed to do? We're to take every opportunity and every situation, no matter how painful or stressful that is in our lives, to follow Jesus, to seek His Kingdom, His glory.

Paul planted more churches than probably anyone in existence, and he cared about every single one of his congregants. But he was also probably the pastor most absent physically from his congregations than any other pastor, too. He was thrown into prison more times than anyone for teaching the gospel. He was flogged, stoned, chased out of towns, shipwrecked, starving, and homeless.

Was he railing about how the governments of those towns that were oppressing him were violating his "rights"? NO. Was he sad at times that he couldn't physically be with his congregations? YES. (And he didn't have Zoom, the internet, or a telephone.) What did he do? He wrote letters to them! He prayed for them! Did his inability to be present with them affect his ministry, or their spiritual health for that matter, negatively? Maybe in terms of emotions, sadness, concern, yes. But eternally? NO. In fact, if he had been able to gather with his congregations whenever he and they pleased, most likely those precious epistles upon which we establish all of our Christian doctrine WOULD NOT EXIST. Paul desperately wanted to see the church in Rome, in Corinth, in Philippi, in Ephesus...but God wanted him to reach more people than that. By keeping him apart from his earthly congregations, God made it possible for Paul to keep preaching through the millennia until Christ returns. In every time and place the Bible has existed, the Holy Spirit has continued to speak through Paul. 

What do you suppose He means to say through our lives? Are we asking Him about that today? Can He even get a word in edgewise through all the garbage in our lives? Are we even listening for His voice? He doesn't yell. We need to stop whimpering about our minor inconveniences to hear Him. God's ways and thoughts and plans are beyond us, even those of us who have surrendered to His will. We need to look to His Word, not the Constitution, to show us how to be in this world. At all times, not only in a crisis.

We need to take a deep breath and ask God to show us what He has in mind for us to do. This is no obstacle to Him. It may make you sad, but perhaps this is one of those "light, momentary afflictions" that Paul talked about, the ones that make God's glory shine so much brighter. Do we want to be an obstacle that keeps unbelievers from seeing God's glory? Can we sit down and think about how we might be doing that today?

Christians, we are failing. We were always going to fail. What is important is that we wake up and recognize that we are failing, so that we can fall down at the cross again and allow Jesus to root out that tenacious pride, that disgusting self-righteousness that has INFESTED the Body of Christ, from the tiniest backwater church to the biggest, loudest megachurch. We need to be broken-hearted and crying out in repentance. And if you think we are not in need of repentance, Christians...that should shine a big old spotlight on just how badly we do need it.

Forget for a moment all the egregious things that are legalized by government that we're so strung out about, and remember that a government cannot be saved. A government cannot fall on its knees before Christ and be born again of Spirit. Only individuals can do that. Government is made of people, and by and large those people do not know God.

Man-made laws change to adapt to and reflect how culture has changed, how technology has changed. A law regulating a horse and buggy has no purpose in a modern city full of trains and cars. Sometimes as cultures change, their idea of what is unlawful changes, and so laws change. Unregenerate man has no understanding of God's law and how it does not change regardless of cultural norms.

This is why it is not government's job to judge sin. Whether or not a government legislates against sin does not matter. God has that covered. He is the only One who doesn't change, and we already know what He is doing with sin.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This is an individual responsibility, for each person on Earth: to be reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus, or to choose to defy Him. It's not our job to try to force God on people who don't want Him. We're getting mad at a bunch of blind, dead people for making ungodly decisions! That makes about as much sense as yelling at a cloud.

So what are we doing here, Christians?

What is the point of Christianity? The point of Christianity is actually the point of all humanity on earth: to glorify God. And God ordained that He is most glorified (and His nature is most clearly revealed) in Christ - His life, His death, and His resurrection and ascension to the throne of heaven. He created humanity to showcase the self-sacrificing, ardent love of Christ. Christians are merely that part of humanity already in the process of being transformed by Christ, a body of people who put their faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God.

We are to present theLiving Water by speaking the gospel. We are powerless to make anyone drink. Only the Holy Spirit can open their eyes, and He isn't going to do that through abortion legislation, and He isn't going to do it through armed protests at the capital, and He isn't going to do it through Christians who by our speech and actions are making our faith look pointless to a world that is just as worried and angry as we are, only they have. NO. HOPE.

They have no hope! Our hearts should be breaking into tender, agonized pieces for them, not hardening in rebellion. And if they're not, we need to pray for Him to break our hearts and open our eyes again to the true state of things. And then we need to pray for them, for the ones we have been ranting against.

Because we do have hope. Our hope literally resides in the beating heart of our living Savior, whose priorities for us are to live in His love, to embody it for each other and for unbelievers.

We should not be living for this life, Christians! Life was never going to be easy! We should be on our knees thanking God for this opportunity to lean on Him, to discover how real our faith is in Christ, how precious, how mighty to save, how capable and willing to provide He is. Or, if we do not experience this, we ought to be grateful for the wake-up call: "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Our King is coming soon. If we truly believe He is God, He is in control, and He is in charge of all justice, then we must approach with our daily bundle of cares: our worries about our health, our jobs, our families, our futures, and surrender again to His will. We must realign our vision until the cross is once again in focus, along with all that it means, not the least of which that Jesus has chosen you from eternity, before the foundation of the world, to love and be with Him forever, and that He chose to suffer and die to make that possible. Through that lens, our man-given freedoms will cease to be distorted into something more important than they are. Christ bought a freedom far more precious - freedom from the enslavement to sin and death. The freedom to look this world in the eye and face all its threats and pain with a face like flint, the way our Captain intends.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

What did Jesus say to Peter when he asked Him about the future of the beloved disciple? Jesus had just told Peter that he could expect to die for Him, and how it would happen. And immediately Peter wants to know about someone else!

That sounds like us today, doesn't it? We have a one-on-one relationship with the Creator of the universe, who willingly died for us, rose from the dead, and is now ruling over everything, and He has bound His Spirit to us so that we can live for Him!...and we're concerned about what this government will or won't let us do, is lying about XYZ...

Or have you forgotten that the government in Jesus' day took part in murdering Him...along with every single one of us.

What did Jesus say?

"What is that to you? You follow me."

You. Follow. Me.

FOR CHRISTIANS: We are Christ's body & Christ's ambassadors

I've been feeling an urgent need to speak lately. My primary burden, after a lot of searching and praying, seems to me to be a pained awareness of the state of the Body of Christ, particularly within the United States. As a member of Christ's Body, I feel its sickness the way the human body registers infection and fever with aches, chills, and other unpleasant symptoms.

We in Hanoi have been isolating since February, and the situation has brought into focus the Body of Christ, the church, for me. I met Jesus in September and found my church right away, Hanoi International Fellowship. It has been a source of comfort and strength for me through many trials already. Obviously, I wasn't thrilled to be cut off from worshiping with my fellow church members and mentors, but I was happy that we would be able to still see our pastors and elders and worship team online. It's not the same, but it has still been a blessing in a time of confusion and grief.

And I received a special blessing as a result of church going online: my husband, who had fallen away from faith and the church, and who did not attend with me, started listening to the sermons when they came online. As a result of this and other things, he has returned to faith and is now sharing this life in Christ with me. I have been praying for this since September, and the Lord wholeheartedly answered my prayer with a richness and warmth I have never experienced before. He chose to call my husband back over Resurrection weekend, which made it even more memorable and a holiday to celebrate. God truly wants what is best for His children, and when our desires align with His, He lavishes them on us!

Thus far, God has blessed Vietnam in this challenging season. In a country of 95 million people, fewer than 300 people have contracted COVID since its onset, and to date, not a single person has died. There are many factors, including the fact that face masks are a normal way of life here, the government's swift reaction thanks to many years of dealing with earlier epidemics, vigorous and immediate testing and quarantine, closed borders, as well as long months of social isolation. It has been almost a month since we have had a new case in the country.

I can't say what God's purposes are here, but I believe it would be foolish not to take note and prayerfully put our thinking caps on.

Christ's ambassadors

Ambassadors live in countries not their own, and while they do, they represent their own countries. They follow the laws of the country in which they live, to be a good example. They are a bridge of knowledge and respect between those two countries. In 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, Paul calls us who are disciples ambassadors of Christ: "...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

I look at churches in the US openly rebelling against stay at home orders, drawing ire and dismay, and I feel compelled to speak. They are not being good ambassadors for Christ.

They are putting forth two arguments:

1) that to be prevented from gathering is an attack on their religious liberty, and

2) that they will continue to meet, even in the face of rampant infection, because the Bible says "forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25) 

First of all...stay at home orders have been issued against any large gatherings, in order to protect everyone from spreading this invisible, highly infectious, slow-to-show-symptoms virus. By being asked not to meet, churches are not being singled out for persecution in this time. To maintain otherwise is willful ignorance and harmful to our witness. It is disingenuous and contrary to the spirit of God's revelation to us in Christ.

Second...God has not promised us religious freedom. Even if there was some back-room conspiracy in governments across the country to curtail religious liberty, the Christian response should not be to lean on (and misinterpret) the Constitution, but on God. Jesus Himself refused to use His power and deity to crush the Roman empire, as many of His followers hoped He would as the Messiah, but rather to die in perfect submission to the will of God. Likewise, Jesus told us that we would be persecuted for His name's sake, and that in spite of the suffering it caused us, it would be a blessing. But drawing ire and punishment for disobeying civil orders is virulently unbiblical.

Look at Romans 13, regarding submission to governing authorities:

"1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities,
not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience." (Romans 13:1-5)
And 1 Peter 1:11-17:

"11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor."

There have been times, and there will be again, when orders are issued specifically against Christians meeting and spreading the gospel. When that happens, by all means, we must continue to speak the truth in love, whatever the risk to our health, wealth, and life. BUT. This is not one of those times, and crying wolf is detrimental to the cause of Christ. Let's get real about what persecution for the name of Christ meant to Jesus.