The Facebook Lie in Christianity

Social media can be a great way to communicate but be weary of the subtle lie that Facebook tells you.  When someone updates their status, you have to options in response.  You can either like it or you can comment on it.  My heart is grieved that this represents times in my life that I have treated the gospel the same way in that I either had to like what was written in God’s Holy Word or that I had to add my own spin or comment to it.

I recently watched Francis Chan describe the childhood game of follow the leader.  How foolish would it be in the game to see the leader jumping up and down and all the other players just standing there with their response being, “well, I am doing it in my heart.” It is no different than the response that many of us have had or currently have about sharing the grace news of the gospel, tithing, the way we treat our spouse, humility, serving others, and showing favoritism.

Today, Matt Chandler spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference.  He drew comparisons of the church teaching how Christians should act instead of dealing with the deeper issue of the depraved heart.  The teaching that our behavior determines our standing with God results in moralism.  Sins like pornography, sex addiction, theft, human trafficking, gossip, slander, pride, adultery, control and manipulation are all just symptoms of the real issue, the heart.  Like the prayers of Nehemiah 9, Daniel 9, Psalm 18, Deuteronomy 36, 1 Samuel 2 we ALL are sinful.  Each prayer has confession of sin, admission that they rejected of the Word of God, and rebellion are the themes of how people responded to God.  Each prayer references God as abounding in love, hearing our cry of repentance, showing mercy, and making provision for us.

In another sermon, Matt Chandler was speaking on the true signs of being renewed and having a regenerated heart.  When we become more aware of and deal with our own sin instead of focusing on others sin, we are displaying signs of renewal.  It is much easier to harshly criticize or chastise others sin but the pain of the plow as AW Tozer describes it in his sermon on Hosea 10:12 (Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.) is breaking up the fallow hardened ground in our own heart realizing that we live and stand beneath Holy God.

I don’t need to follow the story of Joran Van der Sloot to know about human depravity.  I don’t need to see photos of the crime scene from Charles Manson’s victims.  I don’t need to watch the news as they parade person after person and story after story of those who have violated the law or deceived others.  I can look at my life today to see the woeful sin of a depraved heart.

I have had pride, lust, and envy all exposed in my heart today.  This is evidence that I still have idols that are being torn down.  Proverbs 19:22 What a man desires is unfailing love. Most would be uncomfortable confronting or admitting these places in their heart but I choose to jump head first into the truth that God loves me because he made me and there is nothing I can do to earn it – Tal Prince.

I don’t have to have an opinion about everything.  In the past, I confused Christianity as “what I wanted” with the cross in the background as the endorsement for my selfish ego.  The truth is I am hidden in Christ according to Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. God’s word speaks and I just have to do what it says as a Christ follower whether it is to show grace to those who don’t give grace, tithe, share the gospel, or live in humility.  What I think and feel doesn’t matter.  We exist for His namesake, for His glory, that the world would know him through our lives!  Over lunch, Kelly Stephenson said to me “if we cling to the cross, it will be evident where we place our hope because our lives will be grace stained.”

Remember

Deuteronomy 8:2 “Remember how the LORD your God.” Moses goes on to recount how God freed His people from their captivity, met their needs, and sustained them. Why do I want to rush through the pain, the wounds and wounding, scars, and refining that God is doing in my life? Why am I daily tempted to daydream of the day when all this pain is gone?

God, however, wants me to live close by never forgetting the pain and consequences of sin, the joy that comes from sin being exposed while stepping into the truth, and the sweetness of fellowship. (even if everyone else walks away as they deal with their own stuff God never leaves and he never forsakes.)

Grace has always existed with God (if God is gracious, which He is, then one of His characteristics is graciousness. Therefore, grace was created but always was) and designed for all. If I try and move further away from the reality of what sin cost, I begin to attach stipulations or conditions on what grace means to others. Solomon is proclaimed as the wisest one who ever lived but rarely do people reference that later in his life when he was building altars to other gods. How could the wisest man who ever lived stray so far from the One True God? It starts the day we wake up and our “troubles” are far behind us, the wife is happy, money is in the bank, bills are paid, and we are doing “alright.” It starts the moment a person forgets that he/she is morally, ethically, and spiritually bankrupt before Holy God. We not only live before Him and approach his throne with nothing to offer Him but we each come bearing a debt that is beyond our repayment.

There is not one act of kindness, no good deed, no right choices, or life of purity that we can live that will add one ounce to the Glory of God.

When is the last time you stepped out of a lie, an addiction, poor boundaries, or just yourself to confess that you are bankrupt? I would dare say that there are very few moments that this occurs without a catalyst of some sort; confrontation, breakdown in the relationship, a wayward email, phone records, or even someone who loves you enough to speak truth into your life without regard to your response. No one wants to admit he/she is destitute. We continue to perpetuate this lie that if we are somehow good, keep things “in order,” play our role in the façade, or that others somehow need us, then we feel better about ourselves as compared to others’ sin. Grace screams from the rooftop that no one is worthy, but all can freely receive because of God’s covenant to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Micah 7:7-9 states, “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.”

Every scar has a story

My nephew recently fell and busted open his lower lip requiring two stitches.  He was scared as much as he was in pain.  I showed him my own scars to show him that there was healing even though he was in pain now.  I showed him the scars on my shoulder from surgery to repair a torn labrum when a man irresponsibly ran a red light going fifty-five miles an hour.  I showed him my right forefinger where I closed a knife on my hand trying to remove a spike from a pair of golf shoes that required six stitches.  I was not denying his pain but consoling him in the healing that would come from his experience.  There is always a story behind the scar.

We shift the attention this week to the torturing and killing of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of God’s promises, and the glory that is a Risen Savior who conquered the sting of death, sin, and the grave.  Every scar tells a story.  Isaiah 53:5 by his wounds we are healed.  I love the Word of God.  I find healing for my sin and sin nature in the cross of Jesus Christ as the redemptive act of God alone to ransom my soul to Himself.

I have to be truthful in the story about the scars. Jesus gave Himself as the sacrifice to pay the sin debt for all creation once and for all.  Humans were unable and still are unable to make atonement for our transgressions against Holy God.  We only find redemption in the cross of Jesus Christ and the shedding of His blood.  Have you ever made up a story to make the wounding seem more heroic or adventurous?  I have.  Who wants to say they slipped and fell on a wet floor to dislocate their elbow?  That comes across as aloof or clumsy.  It sounds more interesting and live saying that this old lady was walking along, tripped, and in trying to catch her you landed awkwardly dislocating the elbow.  Owning my own wounding and the scars I have inflicted on others is a good step in making amends and God providing healing.  There is no way to paint my lying, deception, theft, manipulation and attempt at control any other way than ugly and wounding of many people.  Only God can provide healing for the pain my sin has caused.  Only God could redeem humanity to Himself by accepting the perfect sinless sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ.  There is healing to be found from your wounding and the wounding of others.  You have to believe the story of God’s only Son.  You have to tell the story of the scars.  By his wounds we are healed, that is God’s promise based on His covenant to us.