Dear Christians: Drink Up, On Me

I didn't ever really believe I was a legalist. I just thought I wrote about them.

I sat there, surrounded by ministry leaders, being stared at, for what I decided to share:

I didn't drink around unbelievers.

“Why?” The first pastor asked with a bewilderment akin to if I'd told him I impersonated dalmatians on Tuesdays.

“Well, I just...(crap, I need an answer)...I wouldn't want it to effect my witness.” Pleased for a millisecond, I inched backward, hoping to recline once more in the comfort of my black leather seat.

“But, why would that ruin your witness?”

Damnit.

Oops. Fiddlesticks.

“Well...I...”

My eyes searched frantically for something, anything to ground my mind, so it'd run to the answer. I mean, there had to be an answer, like, I'm one of the most calculated and logical people I know, there had to be an answer.

Crap.

“....wow, I guess...I don't know”

I hated the vulnerability of being unsure, this is not the Jean-Marc I had hoped to present. I wanted to speak in tweet-able phrases, I wanted to be remembered as a theological rock of wisdom. I didn't want to be the kid that needed to get his act together.

So...I was...and I wasn't.

The room lit up with story telling and thought provocation. Our understanding of Scripture was tested both extrinsically and introspectively: us and ourselves. Discussion was good, but in all frankness, I am still licking my imaginary wounds.

Oh how I need to be right in the eyes of man, how I thirst for their validation. That is why I kept my Sabbaths, to be seen as good before men.

I am a brother to Pharisees, my religion killed Jesus, and it still does.

I still don't understand grace, I admit this with shame. I do not understand how actions do not make me better in God's eyes. Surely, He was keeping score all this time. Right?

Were they right, is it hypocrisy to say that wine with dinner at home is OK but drinking in public was different?

I won't even touch that bomb.

Let's just continue to do what we do to the glory of God.

Oh God, quell this judgmental spirit within me.

Show me how much you love me.

Save me from choking myself.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.”

-Psalm 51:10

In Him,

Jean-Marc 

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Why You Only Smile In Photographs

 

I saw your picture the other day, you posted it online.

The whole thing is pretty dumb, if you ask me. Just because we're “friends” the computer thinks I want to know your every activity, but I'd rather not.

It was good to see you smiling, I was unaware you were still capable, or perhaps that's just with me. Maybe I just upset your stomach, I seem to have that power lately.

What I will say is that I hope you're doing fine. What I won't say is that I will make it my concern. You are in God's hands now.

I can not stop you from putting yourself in danger's way, I am not your Savior. I am a beggar, telling another beggar where the food it is. I'm not hosting the feast, its God.

Do you get that He loves you? DON'T NODD YOUR HEAD LIKE YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY! He actually invested His life into yours, and He's asking you to stop making yourself a plaything when you are His child. You don't have to eat left overs, there's a feast waiting for you, with delicacies you've yet to try.

I was praying for you once, I'm going to start up again. I have faith our relationship can be rebuilt, that you can be rebuilt. You are not junk, you are jewelry.

Turn back to Jesus.

I long to welcome you Home.

"Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together."
-2 Corinthians 7:2-3

In Him,

Jean-Marc

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Comfort For Those Mourning Loss: Beatitudes Part 2: Matthew 5 Cont'd

Matthew 5 Cont'd

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”

Mourning is a part of life, as all things must eventually end. The kind of mourning being referred to here is godly sorrow that brings repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is regularly occurs in the life of a believer. What usually happens is that a person thinks they have everything together God-wise but discover a habit that separates them from Him. This process of being perfected by the Holy Spirit is called sanctification, and its not all happy, as we've grown up to understand happy. We're letting go of things we've allowed to define us: relationships, attitudes, even things we thought were godly like “sanctified gossip.” This sorrow is not hurtful but relieving, a necessary surgery for the soul. With the loss comes a release of pressure, we only just became aware of. Tears may come, but they are the tears of life, for mourners shall be comforted.

The word for comfort here means to come close to or to summon. Our Comforter and his associate comforters are summoned to our side when things get difficult, and even before.

We are comforted by the very presence of God and His grace. The fact that God corrects and pulls us out of our mistakes, demonstrates His knowledge: that we will soon be perfect. We are also comforted by those empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so, as was Paul, by Titus in 2 Corinthians 7. In community we find the presence and comfort of God.

Christians are people that laugh and love deeply because they cry deeply. Christian community is to be a place in which this is an acceptable practice. So empty, will be our good moments on this earth, if that is all we seek. In order to be a stern-faced Stoic, one must obsess over the details of reality, to be a hedonist, one must divorce them completely, the follower of Christ does neither.

There should be no need to fake emotions in the company of believers.

Questions:

1. Do you see emotional authenticity among the community of believers?
2. How can we be better brothers and sisters to those in a season of mourning?
3. Have you experienced godly sorrow? How did God comfort you (through His presence or other believers)?
    
   
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Poverty is the Goal: Beatitudes Part 1 (Matthew 5)

Matthew 5

The Beatitudes

A crowd eagerly fills the hillside hoping to hear this new teacher--but there's something different about him—he has the power to heal, starting with their hearts. The mass mood turns ecstatic as the word gets around: he might address the crowd. His figure rises to a high place carved into the hill. He takes his seat like a rabbi about to teach, with all the authority of a king declaring a change of law. He is the king of an invisible kingdom soon coming, and if these people are to bear his royal crest upon their hearts they must follow His statutes.

The Beatitudes are not lovely sayings to read when the inclination strikes, they are the statutes of Christ's Kingdom, what every Christian is (impossibly) to supposed to be. When read in this context, the believer understands why they must rely heavily upon the Holy Spirit, in this life especially.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

First off, the word “blessed,” as it is used here, refers to an internal satisfaction, not necessarily a physical gift or provision: free cars, boats, planes, jewels, coffee but the sense of a “free” Heaven. This is our major frustration with faith and religion at large isn't it: how the physical and spiritual intersect? How our relationship with God effects life as we live it?

Jesus shows us how we except the truth of the Gospel, His work done on the cross for us—recognize we're spiritually bankrupt.

A well-loved pastor is fond of saying that most folks like to consider themselves “spiritually middle-class,” admitting they can't be considered rich because of some 'awful' past sin, but won't acknowledge their utter depravity...they only have 'character flaws'. Though the truth is, we are all corrupt.

Our spiritual life is a home in which Christ is invited or excluded. When He sits at your table and asks: “What do you have to offer me,” so often, we respond foolishly, showing off. “Oh Lord, check out my vast Christian music collection, look at my lengthy prayers and Bible readings, oh, oh, and let's not forget that I don't drink, smoke or engage in premarital sex.” These may be good things, but incapable of making us right before God. They're just filthy rags we've sprayed with perfume (Isaiah 64:6), an unfit gift for a king.

The idea of somehow evening the score with God, creates a multitude of evils for the believer. Take for example, the pastor or ministry leader, according to the heresy of self-justification, they have somehow ascended the slippery ladder of morality that others are 'too weak' to grab a hold of. In their mind, sinning is a near impossibility (for a 'CEO-level Christian,' like themselves), thus building their taste for it, underneath the gloss of superiority. It becomes desirous and forbidden fruit. Being at the top becomes so lonely,to choices seem to either alienate one's self or...take the dive.

Matthew 5:3 begs us to be honest with Jesus, that we have nothing to offer the One who created Heaven and Earth, that we are in need of His complete support.

Questions:

1. What do you need Jesus for daily?
2. What does being spiritually middle class look like in your life?
3. How can you rely on the power of the Holy Spirit more?

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