American Christianity is Sick

After reading two books ("Radical" by David Platt and "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan), I have discovered two things:

1. I am incredibly discontent with the present state of the church and Christianity (my own faith included) in the United States, and definitely want to change it in any way I can.

2. Much of the way church in the States is carried out is not Biblical and requires extremely little faith in God.

I will start off with some verses, and then get into a full explanation.

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Revelation 3:15-19 (Jesus speaking to the Church in Laodicea):

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent." (emphasis added)

Matthew 25:41-45:

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'" (emphasis added)

1 John 3:17-18:

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." (emphasis added)

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- The first point that really struck me is how Jesus straight-up says "If you're not totally committed to me, I'm going to reject you." Let's face it: the majority of the church in America is incredibly lukewarm. We continue to pursue the American dream, the cycle of "college-good job-nice family-college-good job-nice family" throughout the generations, and it is so pointless! Where does this require any faith in God? Why are we so ready to stow, covet, and get more and more "stuff" and money when the Bible is explicitly clear that we should not be doing that?

We're (when I say "we," I mean most of the Christians in America, not a specific group) extremely lukewarm. We tend to reserve sharing the gospel/loving others for "mission trips," and even then we don't go on those unless we feel "called" to. What a cop out! Yes, God does call us to certain things in our lives, but he also commands us to "go and make disciples of all nations," not "go and make a couple of disciples in a nation only when I place extremely obvious signs in your path that you should be doing so." Just because we don't have some revolutionary calling inside of us doesn't mean we still aren't to go and make disciples. Yet, we make it into a "God will call us when He wants us to go" situation. News flash: God wants us NOW, not later. Maybe later we'll get that specific calling, but in the mean time, why do we sit around and wait for it? Rather, shouldn't we obey what He has directly commanded us, and wait on our true calling through continuous action?

Francis Chan writes, "God says that the lukewarm will be spit out of his mouth, and that is drastically different than God embracing you and welcoming you into heaven. The lukewarm still need to be saved. How can we say a lukewarm Christian is saved?"

Are we really saved then? I think there's going to be a lot less people in Heaven than we originally thought when we really look at Revelation 3:15-16 and take the word of God seriously. Where is our zeal? Why do we push the God of the universe who created you and me and all we see and do and hold and eat and drink and breathe and feel and love? Everything we have is from God, yet we covet His creation, NOT He, the Creator! Is there not something wrong with that?

If you're anything like me, you are both scared and intimidated to proclaim the Gospel by yourself. Two thoughts on that have entered into my heart: one, we're never alone because God (and more specifically, His Spirit) resides in us; two, we are all part of the body of Christ. As Hebrews 10:24 says, "let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." We're not in this alone, by any means. Sometimes we will have to act on our own, but we have the Spirit of God and the body of Christ-- "if our God is for us, then what could stand against us?"

My challenge to myself and anyone who might be reading this is to stop waiting for a "call," stop waiting for the courage, stop waiting for opportunities to slap us in the face, but to step out the door to GO and DO the work the Lord has laid out for us. He'll reveal His true purpose for our lives in due time, but meanwhile we have a lot of commands we can and most certainly should be following that we put to the wayside until we feel we're called.

Let us not forget that although we are saved by faith and NOT works, that faith without works is dead! (James 2:14-26) Faith without works is a lukewarm faith, for which we will be spit out.

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- The second point is how disgustingly we spend our money. We are among the richest people in the world, whether we personally feel like we are or not. A huge portion of the world lives (many die) on a mere fraction of what we spend frivolously. One dollar to them is life, one dollar to us is a drink or an order of fries, neither of which we really need.

As if that gap were not wide enough, we still have lots of leftover money we don't spend on essentials and variations of essentials. The rest we usually either stow away for security in the future (which requires no faith in God and is therefore easy) or plan to buy some new "toy". Here we are, planning and saving to buy our HDTVs, PS3s, new computers, CDs, nicer cars, bigger houses, larger lots, a nice boat, while our brothers and sisters around the world are doing whatever it takes to survive. We worry about when we're going on our next date, who we're going to marry, where we would like to live, how big our house will be, how many kids we'll have, if we'll have a well paying job, and they are worrying about how they are going to eat, where they will sleep, if their parents/children are still alive, and many more extremely pressing concerns that very rarely even cross our minds. Is this not wrong? How can we enjoy these things without even a slight twinge of guilt? Where is the compassion? We throw around words to describe ourselves, like "hungry," "broke," "poor," or "starving," when we are none of these things, while our suffering brothers and sisters are all of them.

Perhaps even worse, our churches spend millions on big and fancy buildings, extraneous programs, refreshments, etc while giving away a small portion of their budget. Perhaps we do this to draw more people in to the church, which at first glance seems to be a most noble cause. Dig a little deeper, and personally I find it to be drawing people to the church to pursue a lukewarm faith. So yes, attendance might be up, and that seems to be a great thing, but if most of the 4,000 people that attend a given church hold lukewarm faith, is the church effective? (keeping Revelation 3:15-16 in mind). Bringing them in, convicting them of a few things, but in some ways perhaps even encouraging their lukewarm faith by offering so many amenities that church becomes more a social event than anything else? Imagine what Christians in America, some of the wealthiest people on this planet, could do if we broke away and gave of ourselves, time, and money as God has commanded us to! While I was in Ireland, I saw a beautiful picture of the church and local bodies encouraging one another and keeping everything focused on Jesus. After seeing their dedication and faithfulness, I can't help but feel like we're almost totally missing it here.

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I think I will stop with that, because this post is huge and I know most people probably won't even read it.

To end, I just want to say that I am going to make some changes within my own life, to live in a "radical" way that really ought to be the norm for true Christians. I am tired of worshiping a most Holy God and then turning away from His commandments. I'm finding the American dream to be terribly disconcerting, and I don't think it could ever bring me contentment. From God is where all blessings flow, so if I live my life entirely for Him then how could I ever be discontent?

So I'm going to throw off my old self and put on the new, subdue my Earthly desires and concentrate on my great Father and the space awaiting me in Heaven given to me by extreme grace and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I invite everyone to jump on board, and let's change the world! If you are like me, timid and scared to go at it alone, then let's do this thing together! I would love to have some of my brothers and sisters with me on this journey. Let's be radical and make a difference, proclaiming the gospel of our Lord and Savior Christ, and spur each other on to love and good deeds, all for His great name.

I'll end with something a woman in Ireland said when I told her how many students we had attending church in Opelika:

"You all should be turning the world upside down."

Why aren't we?

Summer Reading List

- Isaiah
- Daniel
- Romans
- Other readings from the Bible depending on what I'm studying/feel led to read

- Forgotten God , Francis Chan

- Crazy Love , Francis Chan

- Start Here , Alex Harris and Brett Harris

- Heaven , Randy Alcorn

- Desiring God , John Piper

- Black , Ted Dekker

Broken heart/being on fire/Holy Spirit

I was reading in Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" tonight, and something I read convicted me and broke my heart in a whole new way I had never considered.

While we were in Ireland, our group adopted two sort of "theme" verses for the week. These were James 1:2-4, a passage we kept in mind to encourage the believers we met there and the people working so diligently in their churches and seeing so little fruit, and Revelation 3:15-16, which we reminded ourselves of often to keep ourselves from "settling in" and not fervently doing the work the Lord had laid out for us. I think we touched on both of these verses during orientation/training through OM, and they seemed fitting so we revisited them often throughout the week in devotion and prayer times.

Revelation 3:15-16 is a challenging verse, but I suppose I had never fully pondered the implications of that verse (which are not so much implied as obviously and bluntly stated). As Chan writes, "God says that the lukewarm will be spit out of his mouth, and that is drastically different than God embracing you and welcoming you into heaven. The lukewarm still need to be saved. How can we say a lukewarm Christian is saved?"

When I first read that, it was slightly convicting as I (selfishly) thought of what that meant for me, i.e. I am kind of lukewarm so I need to step it up and show some more zeal. End of story, right? Not so much...

Lying in bed a few hours later, what exactly that meant suddenly hit me. My friends and my family, many of whom are professing Christians and live the "good" Christian lifestyle (and certainly I can be placed into that category as well) may not be as saved as I or they think they are. And that totally broke my heart. This is an idea I had thought of in small part before, when reading through James and coming across James 2:14-17 (the "faith without works is dead" passage) as well as while reading through David Platt's new book "Radical". But never until I read that bit of Chan's book have I realized the gravity of that situation.

But then something great happened, and I daresay it is no coincidence given that we just started a study on the Holy Spirit. I felt this sort of overwhelming calm come over me, and I was instantly reminded that God saves people, not me. I was also greatly encouraged that even though I cannot myself save them (the lukewarm), I can "stimulate one another to love and good deeds" and help them to be on fire for the Lord (coincidental that you put that verse in the mass e-mail about 8th Street? Nah). After the calm and encouragement I felt this uncontrollable need to worship, so for the next twenty minutes or so I was singing, shouting, clapping, falling to my knees, and jumping around like a fool, probably waking up my entire apartment complex. I can't logically explain why my heart was broken and then immediately I felt at peace, but that's what it is and I can only say that God works in funny ways I can't fathom. I felt so many feelings all at once that it is impossible to describe, but I undoubtedly had a very real encounter with God that was so strong I felt as though I could reach out and physically touch Him, and that He was standing right beside me with a hand on my shoulder. Reassuring, to say the least.

Memories from Amplify 2010

- Trace double dutching while holding Taylor Jo, and actually succeeding

- The little girl who ran away screaming when I offered her cole slaw at the block party

- Trace driving by to check on us every single time Baylee sat down

- Madison standing on Carrie and Taylor's shoulders to fix a swing "for the kids" =)

- Teeter-totter vs. seesaw

- Barclay's awesome humor and laugh that brings joy to any conversation and a smile to your face

- The moment of silence after Andrew asked us a question in Bible study because we couldn't even get close to comprehending the answer

- Talking about God's creation and how there's no way it happened by chance with Jeffrey

- Calling Veronica "Nevada" or "Vegas"

- Getting sick Monday night and missing dinner, but being able to witness the amazing sunset on the beach alone with God

- Being nicknamed "Jarebear" by the guys in my house

- "Heads up," when Trace kept remembering things he needed to tell us right before prayer

- Seeing our group love on the whole community during the block party

- The amazing final worship service

- "Ridin' deep" in Cameron's truck all week (five people in the back seat, on top of each other)

- Cramming into Cassie's car when she thought we were on outreach, and playing with Gray all the way back home

- Singing "Revelation Song" at the last worship service

- The huge waves and the sand blowing up at your face that felt like needles

- Moving up from Scum 2 to Vice President chair by chair, only to be demoted back to Scum the very next round

- Meeting a fellow Decaturian at Trace's and talking about ridiculous basketball games

- The horribly messy room with my clean and organized corner

- The awesome bus ride back home with Barclay, Luke, and Carly

- Baylee telling us about some of her odd tastes in food

- The goldfish in the PB&J sandwich

- Trace walking in the house we were working on and half of us are asleep

- Everyone else being really cold when I'm burning up

- Seeing all the beautiful families we had come with us on the trip

- Talking to Barclay and Luke for several hours until after 2 AM when I'd barely talked in my house the whole week

- Working right next door to a crew that was relentless in their work and as cheerful as could be

- Madison jumping at the opportunity to use any power tools =)

- "We need sandpaper, but you got SPONGES!"

- Spilling red paint on a freshly painted white wall, only to have it cover up beautifully in one coat

- 220+ voices praising the Lord in a single room, and a lack of any personal space (awesome place to worship!)

- Alan "Mr. Jim said he wanted to talk to us, he looked like a father that's disappointed in his son"
Mr. Jim "Hey guys, I'm going to make breakfast in the morning around 7:45"
Alan "...totally misread that"

- "I can't find the screwdriver" "Maybe it is in the oven?" (and it was actually under the oven, close enough!)

- Barclay talking about how awesome the photographer of the pictures in McDonald's is

- Getting 11 bags of chips for a 7 person crew

- "Hey Britton, can you get that? I can't reach"

- Taylor sending the girls ahead to the jobsite with Cameron while the guys waited for another hour because Trace couldn't leave yet

- George Strait

- "This won't work..." "Lick it"

There's probably a lot more, but that's all I can think of for now. Good times!

Amplify 2010 - What a blessing!

Last week, a group of college students from Auburn traveled to Port St. Joe, Florida, to serve the Lord's people through construction, cleaning, yard work, and just simple and meaningful love to those in the community. I was blessed to go back again after going last year, and I am so excited to see all of the changes made in this community in just a few years. I wish I had been able to go in 2008, the first year the group went. For those that have, I bet it is amazing to witness all of the changes made and barriers broken down in the community!

It is so cool driving through the town and seeing so many houses being worked on, so many wonderful people being ministered to in the streets and kids being loved by college students. I can't fathom, after seeing what we all saw last week, how any of us could neglect serving in the future! Knowing that God is using our talents and abilities to help those in need is so wonderful, and I don't intend for it to stop there! Everything I am, and have, is God's, and that includes my time, money, and ambition. Worldly things are not important, but the love of God is eternal, and His name of utmost importance. How can I sit idly by while people struggle with poverty, drugs, alcoholism, depression, loneliness, and every other problem humanity faces on a daily basis? I've been blessed to have all of my needs met, and it is about time I let these blessings overflow from myself unto others who desperately need the sustenance of Jesus Christ's love in their life.

Apart from working with the community and seeing the fruits of God's work, we also had an amazing time of fellowship and bonding within our own group. I absolutely loved working with my construction crew! We had a lot of fun and serving others with them was such a blessing to me. Seeing how they diligently gave up their time to serve was really convicting to me and inspired me to put so much more effort into serving. Watching the group building the porch right next to our job was particularly awesome! They never gave up, and formed such a great team. Through loving work like that, there's no reason to believe we can't change the world for the sake of the Gospel.

I also had a fantastic time with the group in my house. Though I didn't talk very much (yea guys, I'm overall a pretty silent person around new people), I did enjoy their company and particularly studying the Bible with them. They had such great insight and personal testimonies, and really opened my mind and heart to what God tries to tell us all on a daily basis. Contemplating some really big questions with them was awesome, like the moments of silence as we all just sat and thought about how mind-blowing God is after we'd talk about something. So fantastic!

I did make a lot of new friends on this trip, a few of whom have already made a great impact on me! I really look forward to getting to know them better in the future, and I hope we'll have a ton of future opportunities to serve others and learn more about the Lord.

God really put me in my place when I witnessed the sunset on Monday night. Thinking about how big everything is and how small I am is such an important thing to remember. He doesn't need me, but I desperately need Him! He's created so much, and so many fantastic and perfect things, yet He loves me and wants me to love Him back--how amazing is that! We don't deserve anything He gives us, yet He freely gives anyway! If only there were a way we could truly return His love. Spreading that love to others is a great way to start though, and I always want that to convict me into action.

To everyone who helped make this trip a possibility, I thank you! I love you guys and it was an honor serving with you!

- Jarebear =) (possibly the best nickname I've ever been given)

Outside Looking In

Here's a poem I wrote about some frustrations I've had about how we (and most definitely myself included!) can go to church and read our Bibles, etc, but we often don't do what we know we should, sometimes even intentionally. It is from the point of view of a condemned soul looking on from Hell at a Christian who does 'church' but doesn't follow what he says he believes.

Outside Looking In

You go to church to hear the pastor speak,
Listening intently though your will is weak.
For when you exit the cathedral door,
The message heard follows you no more.

Praying to the Lord, you ask for His aid,
To cover all the blunders you made.
But all you do when you say "Amen"
Is find new ways to make them again.

When reading the Bible, you meet together.
Does this make the studying better?
Yet out in the world, you are not so wise
In keeping this knowledge from an outsider's eyes.

You raise your hands and lift your voice,
How is worship such an easy choice?
For when you're done, we find your behavior
Does not at all resemble your Savior.

You told us naught of your Lord's affection,
And to us your silence meant rejection.
Do you follow Christ to escape from Hell
Yet condemn our souls there to dwell?)