2 Days left to live and counting!(Would it not be horrible if you read this after May 21, 2011? : )
Just as the impending apocalypse, today I contemplate things both simple yet difficult to grasp:
One of the problems with being a lukewarm christian is that you hardly know a thing.
The church's 2007 college mission trip seemed like a pretty good way to get out of my monotonous work week as a home healthcare provider. So after paying the deposit (and having them pick up the rest of the tab), making it through customs and meeting with our host "missionaries". I found myself handing out spiritual interest surveys in front of our makeshift kiosk in the mall of the University of Alberta (Canada, that is)
It was there that would come a moment although brief, bothers me to this day. I still do not remember his face or voice, only his question as he completed the survey:
"So...is being a Christian fun?" he slyly inquired.
And with aikido-type leverage, my lightweight spiritual understanding was thrown into the air.
"Uh...yeah" I retorted nonplussed yet he seemed satisfied that he had stunned me.
Reading between the lines
Any actor worth his grain of salt is familiar with the term 'subtext'. It refers to what is really being expressed underneath the words being spoken.
So just as a crazed lover in a horror film, holds a knife above her head while telling the object of her obsession: "We'll be together forever!"So was this college student saying more than I could audibly hear.
What I did seem to make out was something like: "Poor Christians, missing out on everything" .
You have heard and felt it before, I am sure; when you explain to co-workers that from which you abstain and why, all the while being the recipient of these sorry looks that seem to say: "Oh well, more for us!"
As long as I can (and I know others of us can) remember, it would seem as though faith and fun were somehow enemies or at best distant cousins in need of reconciliation.
So have you reconciled them?
"Is Being A Christian Fun" or better yet "Is it pleasurable?"
May I be honest with you, for the last few weeks, I am not sure it has been.
As of late, it would seem that I have experienced more self-judgment than joy. Here are just a taste of my most recent "convictions" in the last month:
1) I live in the West and therefore have no reason to complain for anything
2)I do not deserve to buy anything other than dire necessities
3)I hang out after church too much
4)I complain at work too much
5)I do not hang out with my friends enough
6)I eat out too much
7)I should stop eating out too much and support mission work
8) I do not smile enough, I should always 'look' joyful, especially living in the West
9) I do not witness enough
10) I do not witness well enough
11) I care too much about what others think
12)I do not consider others enough
13) I should be praying more
14) I should be praying less and doing more
15)I should give more to the church
16)I should give less to the church and more to national missionaries
With thoughts like these on constant rotation, the Christian life feels like a merry-go-round of the mind; it is enough to make you not want to think of it or worse – get off.
And that is the danger of a "Christian" life devoid of pleasure: being only human and requiring some form of enjoyment, we will look for pleasure elsewhere, if only out of necessity.
Joy=Pleasure
In the New International Version of the Bible, translators had chosen to translate the same Hebrew word as both 'joy' and 'pleasure'. When the connotation was positive, 'joy' was used and when it was negative, 'pleasure'. That being said, Nehemiah 8:10 could be read as: "Do not grieve, for the [pleasure] of the LORD is your strength."
So I ask, where is our sense of strength today?
Many argue and I would agree, that instead of only warning our youth of all the dangers of "the World" (which when I last checked, we lived in), we should exhibit the benefits of holy living: a clear conscience, honest friendship and fellowship, clear vision and growing wisdom among other rewards.
Does anyone ever successfully accomplish riding a bike by learning 'how not to fall'? Or do they look forward to the prospect of future independence and the journeys ahead?
Would you think more or less of a married man, pacing about his office repeating to himself: "I will not have an affair! I will not have an affair!"? Would not his time and energy be better spent on strengthening his marriage through prayer and deed to be invulnerable to such sinful notions?
Question: Then why is it that so many of us walk out our renewed lives in this fashion?
Answer: Because we do not fully get it.
The Feast of Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of First Fruits, The Feast of Weeks, The Feast of Trumpets; these and more were annually celebrated by God's people in the Old Testament. 1 Kings 8:65 even describes how King Solomon and the people of Israel celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles for fourteen days! Some today can hardly hang for an hour without feeling convicted.
What had Old Testament believers learned that we New Testament saints have largely yet to grasp?
- That the goodness of God is only worthy of a life filled with celebration!
"Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above"
-James 1:16-17
The reason many of us feel bad for feeling good is that we have dragged our old thoughts and preconceived notions of 'holy' and 'worldly' into our renewed relationship with God.
What an amazing lie it is that Satan has some sort of monopoly on pleasure. He is incapable of creating anything, therefore he is only left with the option of having humans pervert God's good gifts.
So what are godly pleasures?
-Any gift recognized as coming from "the Father of heavenly lights": a baby's laugh, peanut butter, sex, stimulating conversation, a satisfying meal, a hearty laugh, a restful night's sleep, uplifting worship, truthful spiritual communion, a magnificent run, an empowering workout, an inspirational word, good music – and the list is endless.
(The other day I had a cup of Colombian Medium Roast lightly sweetened with honey to the glory of God, I would highly recommended it.)
In his message delivered on May 17, 2009, the message that brought me back to faith, Ravi Zacharias spoke on the "Problem of Pleasure". He reasoned that true pleasure, was that whose benefit was experienced after it had been paid for however false pleasure was that which could be immediately enjoyed but would have to be paid for after the fact.
It is fascinating to think of how God shields us with his goodness: how he knew Adam and Eve would be tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and so provided them with several other good trees as an alternative and how God knew many of us would be tempted by sexual immorality and therefore provided the gift of marriage for the expression of physical intimacy. Godly pleasures help protect us from sin.
With the alarming amount of prominent Christian figures being publicly humiliated for acting on some illicit desire, we should truly ask ourselves what godly pleasures were lacking in the lives of the defamed and proactively fortify our lives with enjoyment worthy of our Savior, so as to recognize a tin-pot substitute when it appears.
Christian man and Christian woman, believe this: Unless you have found pure pleasure in friendship with the opposite sex(or avoid them entirely), you will fall prey to the seduction of an ungodly relationship – guaranteed.
And until contentment is found in honest and open relationships with our friends and family, we will continue to suffer in the subtext of the verbiage: "I'm good, everything's going well".
And may I ask whom it benefits when we are joyless?
Lately I have become acutely aware of this: that Satan our enemy has seen much of our turning from sin and has devised a "new" strategy (at least for me it is): to condemn us through "convictions", puff up our pride through "piety" and kill off good pleasures through an imbalanced sense of "duty".
And after all of it, we are left feeling insecure with our only consolation being religious pride that separates us from the heart of God and yet deceives us into boasting of how we are somehow closer to Him than everyone else.
The greatest deception the devil can create is that it is God that condemns and he that liberates.
O, how many souls have we spoken with that have left the church because "God" was too hard and "God" was too strict?" Yet they have yet to truly meet Him.
Does it make sense that we should experience less joy after encountering Christ?
Pleasing Son, Loving Father
Consider the following:
"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
-Matthew 3:16-17
Question: What had Jesus done up to the point of being baptized that had His Father, Father God, pleased with him?
Answer:Be His Son
No healing, no preaching, no walking on water yet – just being.
I am so sure of the many fabulous things the Lord has planned for us, that I do not even try to imagine how the earth could contain all this greatness – but whatever good you do or do not do, it will not make God anymore pleased with you than He is right now by simply being His Son or Daughter.
If you are even vaguely familiar with scripture and are anything like me, your mind is fighting tooth and nail to correct the last statement (it is by His grace I have not deleted it) but the Word corrects us both.
Consider for one moment the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, as a single written statement from God. How would it read? If the Bible is truly God's love letter to us, would it not express a father's concern and say:
"Turn to me children and live as though you are mine?"
In reading through the Word, the only reason I can confidently find for God giving it, is His desire for our best.
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full"
-John 10:10
This verse has come up a few times in my readings as of late. Scholars agree that the "life" Jesus was referring to was to begin right away, it would be our taste of Heaven 'now' that would last 'forever'.
Friends, in knowing each of you and the world in which we live, I am convinced that what we are in need of today to strengthen our souls, is a taste of His heavenly pleasure. If we could fill up on His good, I can not imagine a sufficient excuse for tolerating anything less.
In Him,
Jean-Marc
P.S.-For deeper dive into this topic, I recommend Gary Thomas's book "Pure Pleasure: Why Christians Feel So Bad About Feeling So Good" (Available as a FREE e-book online)
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