Overcoming Christian Co-Dependence

Dearest Readers:

Time for a shift in subject.  The modern church blows me away with its failure of not being led by the Word, but I feel I have blogged enough about that for now.

I want to focus on a problem I have lived with for years, and am now just overcoming at age 59:  Christian co-dependence.

It's a journey that many of us are walking.  We love the Lord, so we want to help everyone we meet. 

In fact, churches unintentionally encourage co-dependence.  Because we are taught that everyone who does not know Jesus is lost (true) then it is our job to rescue them (false). Notice I did not say, "Share the Gospel."     

\Wait a minute, Cramer (I can hear you saying) we are the share the Gospel by our actions as well as our words.  
   
Yes.  But here's an uncomfortable question:  Have you ever been serving or helping someone, in the name of Jesus (so eventually you can share the Gospel) and the Gospel never comes up?  What does come up is that niggling feeling that you are being taken advantage of; the person doesn't want to change; you are taking on more and more of managing of their lives, emotions and consequences.  The person has no real concern for you and is very focused on themselves.  They have lots of time to talk about their woe, but they must go if you turn the conversation to yourself.

In other words, am I enabling them to continue in their pattern of self-defeating behavior and narcissistic view of the world?

You help someone when the person reaches out and genuinely seeks a solution to their plight.  They are looking for answers and it is then you can talk about the emptiness in their lives and how they have filled it with everything but Jesus.
 
In contrast, you enable someone when the person reaches out and wants you to help them continue in a lifestyle that is either contrary to the Word or is self-destructive.  They want you to rubber-stamp all that they do.  When it comes a-tumbling down, they have you to blame.  They jump into their kettle of woe again.  And again.  And again.
   
Years ago, I would have viewed these words as heartless and very un-Christian. Yet, how many people did I help, only to find out later that I was deceived about their desire to change?

I found that they wanted someone to blame for their failures: me.  They wanted someone to feel sorry for them and never question how they went about their lives: me.  They wanted someone to listen to them for hours and hours about the same issues and allow only a few words here and there: me.
   
They didn't think they had a problem.  Woe to someone who suggested that they might be wrong: me.
   
They wanted someone to clean up the mess that their bad decisions caused: me. They wanted someone to serve the church but really serve them: me.  They wanted to guilt someone into helping them with time, money or resources: me.

All these years later, I look back, and I can honestly say I don't think my efforts ever proved fruitful.  Am I being bitter?  Am I being cynical?  No.  Deep fear and insecurity was the operating principle in the people I tried to rescue, whether they were friends, pastors or family members.  Their fear and insecurity was a poison coursing through their souls, brought on by a deep brokenness from long ago.

These people were in full on survival mode.  I was not helping them to break free; I was enabling them to use their long held ways and means to just survive.

Let me give you an analogy.  How often have you seen a terrified dog running around a busy street?  People are calling to it to come to them; we see the danger that the dog is in.  It senses the danger but is so scared that it keeps running and will not come to you and to safety.  You try to grab it, lure it with treats or herd it into some area where it cannot get hurt.  But still it runs and may even, despite your best efforts motivated by the best intentions, get hit or possibly killed.

My sister in the Lord sent me a sad picture a while back.  She lives in Oregon and was driving on a rural road.  A mama deer had just finished crossing and its fawn was following.  The mama disappeared and the fawn did what all fawns do when mama goes away:  it laid down in the middle of the road.  Right in front of my sister's car.  It was in its tight little posture, huddle and feeling safe.  But it wasn't.  Not at all.  Cars and predators could have had a field day with this little one. Good luck trying to convince that little fawn that its very survival mode was actually endangering it.

Do you see my point?  The people I helped over the years laid down in the road after a fearful encounter with life.  They had survived up until now; why change?  Some ran about the road, exerting their control over the situation, terrified that someone would see their inadequacy.  So, they kept running, convincing themselves they had this thing.  Woe to anyone who said that the car of reality could take them out.

Join me as we confront something that has plagued me and my time in church for years:  How do you reach out in Christ's name and speak truth in love to those who come to you?  Can you really fix someone?  Is everyone in church wanting to grow?  Are pastors honest with themselves in their motivation as they serve others?  Can I love someone and watch them get hit by a car, so to speak, despite my efforts to warn them?  Is their failure then my fault?  How do I love my brother as I love myself?

Do I even love myself?  Is it that failure to love myself that draws me in time and time again to relationships where my fear of rejection and my insecurity motivate me to help someone, despite my doubts as to their sincerity?

Deep stuff, but I am excited to share what the Lord is showing me.  Let me conclude with a scripture:

"No temptation [testing] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted [testing] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[tested] he will also provide a way out ["exit" in Greek] so that you can endure it."  (1 Cor. 10:13)

In our walk, we will be tested to help, rescue, talk truth, ignore truth, downplay sin, ignore certain verses, etc.  It happens to us all.  But, and here is the exciting and liberating part:  He will give us the what I call the "exit strategy"--how we cope and carry on so we may honor Him.  

If you are in the Co-Dependent house and it is on fire, Jesus comes in like a Firefighter, reaches for your hand and leads you to the exit that He can see, but you can't through all that smoke and flames.  

You have a choice:  either grab His hand or stay in the house, looking for you own exit.  

I am now choosing to take His hand and go with Him to the exit I would not have chosen in my unhealthy state, but now realize there is no other way.

Bless you as we walk together!
 














   

When Leadership Blows It. Big Time.

The other night, while preparing for worship practice, my wonderful worship leader, Nicole, made an interesting observation:  that it only took 40 days for the leaders of Israel to have fully blown it.

Blown what?

They dined with God and then helped the people build a golden calf to worship.

What?

Let's look at the Word and set the scene:

Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu along with seventy elders, are being invited to come to the mountain of the Lord. Only Moses is allowed to approach God, while the others must remain at a distance.  The people are not invited.  Moses then goes and tells the people all the instructions given by God for them to follow and they say they will obey.  Moses writes everything down.

The next day, Moses builds an altar and sacrifices are made.  He splashes the blood against the altar and reads the Book of the Covenant.  They people say they will obey.  Moses splashes the people with the remaining blood and tells them that this seals the covenant the Lord has made with them.

So far, so good.  Covenant conditions are stated and both sides commit to keeping it.  The ceremony is then followed by a meal, and Moses, Nadab, Abihu and the elders dine with God.

What?  They dine with God?  Yes.  They are not struck down and He shares the meal with them.  Wow.  God then instructs that Moses must come and receive all of the instructions that God has written out for the people.  I find it fascinating that God literally has the final word:  these instructions are not written out by Moses, but written on stone by God Himself. 

Then:  "When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.  To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights." (Ex. 24:15-18)

Moses' task?  To receive all of the instructions pertaining to the Tabernacle: its furniture, the Ark, how the priests are called and how they are to dress and all the accoutrements that the Tabernacle will require to operate.

When God was finished, Moses descended the mountain with the two stone tablets in hand, inscribed by the very finger of God. (Ex. 31)

Moses had earlier told the elders/leaders to wait for him: "Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.” (Ex. 24:13-14)  So, the elders are to wait and Aaron and Hur are to settle disputes.  In other words, they are privileged to be part of this utterly awesome experience, but they also need to attend to the needs of the people.

People and life goes on outside our prayer closets, meetings and time spent before God when we are leaders.  But God is a Father of detail, and knows the people should not be leaderless, so He has Moses make provision for them while Moses is to be away for awhile. 

Now to the ugly part: 

"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. (Ex. 32:1-6)

What?  Aaron was appointed to settle disputes among the people.  Period.  But instead of telling them of the wonder that was to come, and how they had already covenantially promised to obey God, he assists them in making an idol.

Was he afraid of the people rioting?  Did he lose faith in Moses and think something bad had happened to him?  Did he...  Who cares, Aaron!  You dined with God.  Pure and simple. 

How could a man who had been in God's very presence, dine with Him, talk with Him and share a covenant meal that symbolized God's protection over His people just simply forget all of that, and bow to pressure to build an idol?  AN IDOL? 

So, instead of reminding the people of their pledge to obey (twice!), and all the power and mercy God displayed in their deliverance from Egypt, Aaron gets to work, indulging their basest longings.  The idol is made from the wealth they had plundered from the Egyptians, and then they bow to it, exclaiming that it and other gods had delivered them  (Ex. 32:3-4).

Aaron?  Elders?  Nadab?  Abihu?  WHERE ARE YOU?  Why the silence?  Why the duplicity?  One minute you are dining with God and soon, so very soon, you are aiding and abetting what God will call "corruption." 

It gets better: Not only does Aaron suggest the method (collect all the gold) of making the idol, he fashions it himself. He hears the people proclaim that the idol is their deliverer, and then: "When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry." (Ex. 32: 5-6) 

So a leader goes ahead and indulges the people's basest desires:  idol worship, food, drink and orgies.  He then does the coup de grace:  He decrees that tomorrow they will celebrate the Lord. 

How often do church leaders, who have the Word, indulge their congregations' basest desires:  They do not take a stand on sin; they wow the people with signs and wonders and encourage their people to engage in such disorderly conduct; they dilute the Gospel to make it more culturally acceptable; they personally are not living lives "above reproach"; they have an ego that either made them seek fame or it grows because they receive so much fame; they keep people entertained with stories, videos and everything but an uncompromised emphasis on the Word.  

What is God's reaction to all of this unfolding beneath His mountain?  

He tells Moses of the people's behavior and how it is corrupting them.  He is furious.  He wants to destroy them.  But Moses, like our Jesus, intervenes and reminds God of His covenant with their ancestors, and how the world will wonder about their destruction.

God relents in His mercy.

God relents even now in His mercy, while His bride capers to the melody of the world and its melody of what is acceptable. 

Let me close with His word:  "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb.4:14-16)

Amen, Bride.  

Thank you, Nicole for your inspiration for this blog!

Welcome to the Modern Seeker-Friendly Church: Laodicea (Rev. 3)

I became a Christian in the 1970's at the age of 14.  The "Me Decade":  huge rise in the divorce rate (my parents were in that vanguard); Roe v. Wade; Stonewall; disco; STD's; the break-up of the Beatles; end of  the Viet Nam war; ERA and Women's Lib.

Wow. What a line-up.  But what strikes me, looking back, was that the world and its confusion, chaos and selfishness was that it was out there--in the, well, the world.  I could walk up the street to the small Nazarene church in Santa Monica, California, and the world was outside the door.  Inside, we were learning the Word, praying and gathering to prepare ourselves to take the Gospel to the "out there" and lead others to the Lord.  We were, in Peter's words, "Quietly trust yourself to Christ your Lord, and if anybody asks why you believe as you do, be ready to tell him, and do it in a gentle and respectful way." (1 Pet. 3:15)

Now, lo these many years later (I will be 60 at the end of January) I see something that deeply worries me.  The doors of the church have swung open and the world is alive and well and influencing how church is done.

The narcissism of the last few decades (the Me Decade never really left us) has influenced how church is done:  mega churches (bigger is better); mega pastors (where everyone knows who you are); mega worship teams (recording deals and big money) and mega culture (it's all about you: your needs, your desires and your prosperity are top priority).

When asked to give a response to what celebrity Christians and churches believe, especially about homosexuality (the test for whether or not you will be acceptable to the world) the answers are vague, diluted and personal.  No quoting of Scripture and no acknowledging that you are committing infidelity against the Lord you claim you follow by being unwilling to stand up for Him: "Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy." (James 4:4)

No vague answer there.  Can't have both.  The world and its values (mega everything including "live your truth") is incompatible with the values of His church, where love and grace, sin and forgiveness and obedience to His truth is paramount.

So, let's come to a Sunday morning service at The Laodicea (we don't use the word "church" because that is off-putting to the world).  Let's walk in with Jesus, and survey the goings-on through His eyes. He is our "Amen,—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation."  He is the only one we must please.

He says to us, as we walk into a huge sanctuary: “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference."

Wait, Lord!  Look at all the people!  Every week we have thousands! (Are they the same committed people every week, or do people come and go--we don't know--as long as the worship center or better yet, auditorium, is full!) 

Hot or cold?  Well, heat soothes and heals and cold refreshes...only your Word and the love you offer through your people can accomplish that.  But You say we are lukewarm--but we want the world's approval so we can influence it!  We want to be influencers.  Oh, wait, You call us to be disciples--committed and standing on Your Word.  I guess lukewarm is just another way of saying we are self-centered:  just enough of You to be spiritual, but not all-in.  All-in would mean hostility from the world, less seekers, and more persecution.  Hmmm.  Lukewarm is safe.

But Lord, we are rich!  We have enormous budgets, programs, and outreach.  Are we making a difference or just growing the brand?  Oh.  I guess we are clothed in our own pride, not in Your righteousness, which can mean if they hated You (and they did) they will hate us.  But that seems so old-school.  We are striving for tolerance.  Oh.  I guess we don't see how naked and blind we are, because we use the world's standards to judge our success. We are seeking the approval of men, aren't we? Paul's words are convicting: "You can see that I am not trying to please you by sweet talk and flattery; no, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please men I could not be Christ’s servant." (Gal. 1:10)

Over time, and with self-centered churches, we will become indifferent. For the self is a beast that can never be satisfied. We need not a better self, but a new heart: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezek. 36:26)

We need to live with Christ moving in and through us. Our self has to be crucified, not life-coached:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)

Lord, if You are inviting us to open the door, that means You are standing outside of what we are doing.  Our modern churches are open to the world but closed to You.  How ironic.  

We need Your discipline today:  “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne." 

Help us to hear You, Lord:  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”

Amen.

Letter to leaders: Philadelphia (Rev. 3)

This letter is very encouraging to all who serve the Lord and yet run into opposition.  Here we go: 

"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:  These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.  I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Rev. 3:7-13) 

After reading that, I could just end here.  Wow!  Let's mine out the nuggets that we will hold in our hands as leaders.  Jesus is "holy and true" and thus are His words.  He is the forever King, Who is mindful always of the saints who serve Him.  He knows the life of a sparrow.  He knows our lives equally intimately:  our struggles, our tears, our sorrows and our joy.  Leading the Body is all of these, and we need to stand on Jesus and His words:  

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matt. 7:24-27) 

You cannot stand on a foundation if you don't know what it is or what it is made of--so knowing the Word is essential to standing on it.  Sadly, many leaders today pick out a verse or two, and then spend the rest of the message telling stories, showing clips and doing just about everything but help their followers to really know the Word.  Better yet, do we apply it to our lives?  Do we know it and model it well enough for others to know the Word is an integral part of our lives? 

Jesus emphasizes hearing as well as doing.  

So, when all hell breaks loose in the marketplace, and competing gospels scream for attention, the culture demands preeminence over Scripture and leaders are trying to be hip and relevant, will they or anyone in their congregation still be standing when the cultural Hurricane Dorian is done? Jesus even expressed deep concern for those living in the End Times:

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,  and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matt. 24:9-13)

Why has the faith of the faithful grown cold? False teachers, pure and simple--people who are liars. Those who pretend to be of Christ but are really of Satan's congregation. But our Philadelphia church has "kept my word and have not denied my name." 

How we deny Him?  

Look at Peter: He denied Jesus out of fear of the authorities and their power to inflict pain and suffering. He hung back in the shadows, hoping that following Jesus could be a more private matter.  

Look at Judas:  He denied Jesus' words about His mission to be crucified and resurrected and instead re-imagined Jesus as a conquering king.  He tried to force Jesus' hand, by putting Him in a predicament that would demand a show of royal power to the ruling and oppressive authorities.  Jesus did the opposite.  

Look at Paul:  He denied the Messiahship of Jesus, for he thought he had this whole religious thing figured out, with all of his training and his devotion to Judaism.  He wanted these blasphemers harried and killed, all in the name of what he thought was right.  That spill off that donkey and the Voice quickly dispelled his "wisdom."

Look at you.  

Look at me.  

How do we deny Him?  Do we avoid His uncomfortable words?  Do we just want a gentle hippie Jesus, whose anger in the Temple makes us uncomfortable?  Do we want a culturally relevant Jesus, Who desires only to be our Cosmic Life Coach, therapeutically saving us and not doing the deep healing that our sin nature demands?  

We who stay true to Him, His Word and His love, will be pillars in the New Jerusalem.  We held up His name here and we will hold up His praise there.

As leaders, we must measure everything we do and say by His Word.  No compromise.  No new spins or having the Word more as an add-on than a central and foundational core to what we are and do.

Our brotherly love is desperately needed in this world, and only His Word can do the job:  

"For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For 'whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?" (Rom. 10:10-14)

Let the church leaders listen to what His Spirit is saying to the church.  

Jarrid Wilson's Suicide

I would like to comment on Pastor Jarrid Wilson's suicide.  In our effort to quickly answer the question of his eternal destiny, we are missing a lot of what will happen here from now on, from his wife, his children, his church and those contemplating suicide.

His heaven will lead many to a hell on earth.

Let me explain.  My family is a testimony to the long-term effects of suicide.  My grandmother shot herself in front of my grandfather after he accused her of having an affair.  That was in 1941.  My mother was just 12 years old.   She walked in after it occurred and so did her younger sister.

Strike one. 

My grandfather, who was an eminent cardiologist, ended up losing his license to practice medicine due to his increasing use of alcohol.  He married a nurse to care for his children.  My mother hated her and wished her dead.  When this woman died of ovarian cancer, my mother never forgave herself.  My grandfather died of cirrhosis of the liver when I was three, again devastating my mom. 

Strike two.

My mother's alcoholism destroyed her marriage of 23 years. My dad divorced her when I was 16.  By the time she died in 1984, the frontal lobe of her brain was merely interstitial fluid. Her alcoholism had destroyed her brain.  I cared for her in the last year of her life, watching her became an infant. 

Strike three.

Her sister also drank herself to death, leaving two daughters behind.  Her older brother shot and killed himself as an adult, leaving three daughters behind. 

My brother started using drugs and alcohol at a very young age, to numb the pain of our very unhappy home.  He married twice and alcohol and drug use destroyed his marriages.  He fathered three children and was estranged from them.  He died this year at the age of 62, severely mentally ill, and although he did not commit suicide, he spent the last six mouths texting his children and me that we should join him in doing so.

My family has felt the reverberations of that one day in 1941 for over 80 years. 

So, in trying to make nice with suicide, these well-intentioned pastors and commentators seemed to have forgotten the long road that now faces Jarrid's wife and sons, his church members and all of those who knew and loved him.

Grief is a balm.  It numbs the pain of loss and we do everything we can to comfort those who grieve.

But grief wears off.  Anger shows up.  Then those ugly questions arise and demand answers:

Why did Daddy leave us?
Did Daddy not love us?
Could we have stopped Daddy?
Why didn't my husband come and say he was at the end of his tether?
Why didn't we go to our pastor and tell him to take time off and really focus on healing?
Did our pastor do absolutely everything he could to ease the pain?  Do he see a therapist?  Did he take medications?  Did he engage in any therapeutic procedures (like EMDR)?  Was he seeing anyone at the time of his death?
Why didn't Dad follow his own rhetoric?  
Where was our church in all of this?  Didn't they see this coming?
Where was God?
Why did Dad do this to Mom?
Why did Dad do this to us?
Couldn't God, if He is so mighty and loves us so much, have stopped Dad?

Those questions will never be satisfactorily answered on this side of heaven.  This kind of abandonment is shattering. It shatters faith, families, friendships and fellowship for years and years, and even effects those not yet born.

Why aren't our well-intentioned pastors preaching on that?

 

Letter to Leaders: Sardis (Rev. 3)

"Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches."  (Rev. 2: 29)

This quote is the most significant counsel we can receive as followers of Christ and those of us who lead the Body. Jesus is the Head and we follow Him.

Jesus' economy is different from the world's.  

The world says numbers mean success:  a movie with a huge opening weekend; a man with millions or billions; a company that explodes and garners the market.  In our capitalist system, money equals the dream of having made it; of being admired; of being in control and having access to all the world offers.

But Jesus talks about counting the cost of following Him; losing your life to find it; being meek and inheriting the earth (not buying it); denying self; carrying a cross; having faith like a child and going through the narrow gate, as opposed to taking the wide road.

Totally opposite of what the world would say.  Yet, today, we have megachurches with big everything:  celebrity preachers; powerfully influential worship bands; millions and millions of dollars spent on buildings, programs, jets, houses, and a lifestyle that would be hard to distinguish from Park Avenue residents.

All in Jesus' name.

What?

When you go deeper into Revelation, you will find the city whose values are luxury, conspicuous consumption and adultery:  Babylon.  Yes, adultery.  Literal, to be sure, but when God's people lust, unite and live out the world's values, they are committing spiritual adultery.  Back in the Old Testament, we read:

"Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves..." (Gen. 11:4)  

Arrogance, self-sufficiency and pride runs through this quote:  It's not about God, it's about us.  Our city is gonna be amazing.  People will come from miles around and marvel at what we have done.  We will get the honor and the glory.  All our admirers will think about, as they walk around, is our greatness. Our values get stuff done, buildings built, and something for everybody.  No commitment, no humility...just a sense that as you walk in, you are part of something BIG.  Yup.  That's gonna be our sign right outside the city gates:  WELCOME TO BIG.

Sound familiar?  I wish this only applied to secular America. 

Our next church is Sardis:  "These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.  Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Rev. 3:1-6)

Wow.  I find the word "reputation" significant here.  That's what people know about us.  So, people know of Sardis' reputation of "being alive."  How so?  What's the evidence?  Amazing services?  Amazing preaching?  Friendly folk?  But the reality doesn't fit the reputation.  All of the externals point to life in this church, but Jesus is looking deep in the heart of the people there, of the leaders there, and sadly, He finds a moribund church.

If we walked into this church today, with a worldly measuring stick of success, we too might find Sardis a happening church. In fact, its very reputation might be the draw; who doesn't want to go to a church where it's all about an experience?  A previous church I attended renamed the Sunday service, "the Sunday experience."  Yup.  That puts Sunday squarely in my lap: if I have a good experience, then it was a good service.  If I don't, then it wasn't and the church needs to know about that.  Nothing about what I bring to God; nothing about serving Him (serving the church, yes) and nothing about a humble offering of adoration and praise.

Solution?  "Wake up!"  Do the work God has called the leaders to do and do it.  No rocket science here.  Focus on the foundation:  what you have heard and received from Jesus and the Word of God.  Jesus is the Word of God and the only foundation that can sustain His Body here on earth. No big productions, stories, video clips, props and anecdotes have the power to bring forth faith.  Just preach the Word: 

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?'  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:14-17) 

No story, production or awesome worship band will bring someone to a deeper relationship.  It will be an experience, but we stand on Him, not good feelings.

How do you grow a church?  Preach His Word.  Walk in His righteousness alone, for He is enough:

"Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'" (1 Cor. 1: 26-31) 

Jesus' economy is based on Him and our humble acceptance of what He did for us.  

Wake up American churches! 

Letter for Leaders: Thyatira (Rev. 2)

Let's keep moving through the letters to each of the churches with their application to church leaders in view.  We are in Revelation, chapter 2, verses 18-29.

“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.  20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.  24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’  26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Once again, it is Christ Who is addressing His bride.  His eyes are as fire: a strong light, filled with heat to warm or heat to burn.  Fire provides comfort or terror; context is everything.  Jesus stands and addresses His church not as the humble carpenter from Galilee, but the Almighty God, Whose radiance is either reassuring or terrifying, depending on which side of the cross you stand.  

His feet are of burnished bronze--this relates to metal that has been heated to a high temperature.  Christ stood in the furnace with the three young men in the book of Daniel who refused to bow down to a pagan's king's image:  

"And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, 'Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?'  They answered and said unto the king, "True, O king."  25 He answered and said, 'Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.'  26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.' (Daniel 3:23-26)

Christ stood in the midst of the fire then and here in Revelation, He stands not as an unknown figure seen by a pagan king and comforting three young men, but as the overcoming Son of God.  

If you know the Son of God, the Son of the Most High, then the fire and white-hot bronze is not terrifying.

He commends the church:  "I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first." (verse 19)

Wow!  They are aligned beautifully with the values of their King, and are doing more than what they did when they first started!  I hear cheers in heaven here.  What better way to show the love of Christ than to model it in a community where those values are not present and do even more as the needs of  the people become more and more apparent.

OK.  Score one for the home team.  But, and this is huge: the exhortation against them is very serious.  The Bride is being polluted.  It doesn't matter if her name is literally "Jezebel."  She is doing the very thing that Jezebel did in the Old Testament:  she is compromising the Word by Satanic practices.  Let's quickly review this woman:

"Jezebel was the daughter of the priest-king Ethbaal, ruler of the coastal Phoenician cities (now in Lebanon) of Tyre and Sidon (Arabic: Ṣaydā). When Jezebel married Ahab (ruled c. 874–c. 853 BCE), she persuaded him to introduce the worship of the Tyrian god Baal-Melkart, a nature god. A woman of fierce energy, she tried to destroy those who opposed her; most of the prophets of Yahweh were killed at her command. These cruel and despotic actions provoked the righteous wrath of Elijah; according to 1 Kings 17, he accurately prophesied the onset of a severe drought as divine retribution. Sometime later Elijah had the Baal priests slain, after they lost a contest with him to see which god would heed prayers to ignite a bull offering, Baal or Yahweh. When Jezebel heard of the slaughter, she angrily swore to have Elijah killed, forcing him to flee for his life (1 Kings 18:19–19:3)."

"A few years later Ahab perished in battle with the Syrians. Jezebel lived on for approximately another ten years. Elijah’s successor, Elisha the prophet, equally determined to end Baal worship, had a military commander named Jehu anointed to be king of Israel, an act that provoked civil war, for Jezebel’s son Jehoram (Joram) then ruled. Jehu killed Jehoram at the site of Naboth’s property and then went to Jezebel’s palace. Expecting him, she adorned herself for the occasion. Looking down from her window, she taunted him, and Jehu ordered her eunuchs to throw her out the window. Later, when he commanded that she be properly buried as a king’s daughter, it was discovered that dogs had eaten most of her body." (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jezebel-queen-of-Israel) 

Let's list the problems here:

1.  This historical Jezebel married a king of Israel!  That right there is violating the sanctity of the  God-ordained monarchy of Israel and God's chosen people.  

2.  Introduced a new god to be worshiped by the King and the people.  Again, the king is to honor God and lead the people as a role model of spiritual propriety.  

3.  God's spokesmen, the prophets, are killed at her command.  So, God's voice is largely silenced.  The king is accountable to God; if there are no prophets to come before him and remind him of that, he can delude himself of his right to rule, and go his own way. 

4.  Praise God for Elijah, but drought struck the land, displaying God's utter disgust at his king, for he is tolerating actions of his queen that are utterly against all Israel stands for and is in covenant with God to maintain.  If the king opts out of his obligations, God has every right tot withhold rain.

5.  Civil war comes to Israel; God's succession of kings is circumvented by the conniving Jezebel, who wanted this monstrosity of a monarchy to continue, and the practices that have dominated the land.

6.  Her sentence was to become dog food.  God will not allow His chosen to be endlessly violated, even if they are complicit in the compromise of the covenant and the Law.  

How does this relate to our current church and its leaders?  Jesus says:  "Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling." (verses 20-21)  

This Jezebel has taken on the role of prophet and her words are not of God.  She teaches false doctrine, and the church has been convinced that sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols are not problematic.  

WHERE ARE THE LEADERS?  HELLO?  Why are they going along with this, given that they serve the community so well?  Jesus has even called her to repentance, and she refuses.  Why aren't the leaders doing something about this?

The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 makes it clear that sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols were definitely not permitted as Gentiles entered the church.  The earliest meetings were held in synagogues, and Gentiles behaving this way would have alienated their Jewish brethren.  The Law did not save anyone; it is God's grace that saves, demonstrated by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and one's belief in it.  But, the law is a schoolmaster (Gal. 3:24) and it showed new Gentile believers how to behave as they followed Jesus.  

Did the leaders not want to offend those who still engaged in such practices?  Did this woman have some good teachings interlaced with ones that violated God's Word?  Did the leaders themselves lose sight of God's standards because, Hey, after all, we are in Gentile territory!  We gotta reach them!  We can't get too hung up on Gentile practices, or we'd have no one showing up!  The people get their meat from the pagan altars, but the gods don't exist; should we then make a big deal of that?  Sex stuff...well, we are working on that.  As long as its monogamous, let's not make too big a deal.  Otherwise, who'd come to church? 

Do we really honor God by diluting or recasting His Word, just to get people into the church, so they can hear the Word?  But if the Word they receive seems to be applied only when it's non-offensive, then the Word will be preached less and less, because it is God-centered.  The flesh, even Jesus-loving flesh, will want to compromise, and end up living a life that doesn't show victory over sin but a compromise with it.  

The power of God will not be demonstrated in the lives of believers, and many will begin to believe the Christian life and its victory over sin is a fiction.  

But, Jesus will reward those who hold fast to the truth.  Jesus wants us to be like Him, drawing us deeper into who He is, and conforming our newly born spirit more and more to His image.  

But how is compromising sin in His churches, ignoring God's Word and allowing those who preach effectively another Gospel (but you have to know the true one to see the counterfeit) going to help believers do that?  

Worse still, when we encourage the culturally correct, well-meaning, and diluted message-givers to lead our churches, other leaders will follow in their steps.  The sheep walk hand in hand with wolves.  

Such churches may gain approval from the world, but from God, His response is clearly stated in this letter.