"But, Jesus said..."

I've been blogging in Christian circles for about nine months now and I've noticed a trend that's got me thinking about something. As I've been reading the posts and comments of believers on many different sites I've seen a certain statement repeated over and over again. It always starts with the phrase "But, Jesus said…"

What follows is usually an exact quote from one of our various translations of what Jesus said, along with an explanation as to why what He said refutes what the blogger or person commenting on a blog has posted. What I've been thinking as a result of seeing this blog warfare tactic used repeatedly is that the person using it sometimes has the wrong idea about what Jesus said and, therefore, uses His words in an inappropriate manner, usually as a proof-text weapon. Let me explain...

I think that we sometimes believe that Jesus came to give us another, or second, law. We would likely never say it this way or agree with someone we heard saying it, but it's often how we demonstrate our understanding of His words. I confess that I can even see the point in doing so. After all, He did say, "A new commandment I give to you..."

So, what do we do? Well, we try to live everything that Jesus said to the letter, and try to convince others that they should do the same. Anything else is just being driven by emotion, a heretic, new age, or unbiblical. And again, we justify these actions and attacks with His words..."Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock."

Now, you're probably thinking, "And...what exactly is wrong with trying to do what Jesus said, especially since He said we should and since He is our God?" My answer to that question is that nothing is wrong with it, and that everything is wrong with it. Drop your stones, and let me elaborate. ;-)

The first thing we miss here is the timing of what Jesus said. We forget that Jesus came as a Jewish man under the law. In other words, he came under the old covenant. He lived a life that we couldn't, a life that fulfilled the law. His teachings prior to the cross often reflect this reality. However, as new covenant people, we sometimes bind ourselves to what He said while speaking as an old covenant man to old covenant people prior to the cross. We make His words our Christian law.

But, you may be thinking, "Shouldn't we? After all, He is our Lord." Well, I think the answer to this question is in the second thing we miss about what Jesus said. We miss that He spent a good portion of His earthly ministry conveying the heart behind the law (the old covenant) to those who missed the heart of it. Look at any interaction with a Pharisee and you'll see this reality.

He said things like, "You have heard that the ancients were told…but I say to you," or, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you…," and proceeded to expose how they had missed the heart of the law while obeying the letter of it. Today we have this same concept. You'll hear folks say, "Well, he didn't disobey the letter of the law, but he certainly violated the spirit of it." We understand this concept in worldly terms, but miss it in our interactions with other believers.

So…back to what I said before…that nothing is wrong with how we handle His words, but that everything is wrong with it. We think He gave us a law, and we try to live it. We pick His words apart. We build doctrines and theologies. We examine the Greek. We take courses on hermeneutics (Who is Herman, and why do I care if he was neutered?). In the process we build mental lists of shoulds and should nots, principles to help us live the Christian life. We preach messages on "How to _______."

What is the end result? We make ourselves Christian Pharisees. Just like they knew every word of their scriptures (our Old Testament), but missed the heart of it, we know every word that Jesus said, both before and after the cross, but miss what He gave us.

And what did He give us? He always taught and preached the heart behind the law, the spirit of the law. He revealed the One who gave the law. Therefore, my conclusion is this. The new covenant promised, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances…I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it." Here it is...He taught us what new covenant people look like. They are people who live from the heart, and their heart is good and imprinted with the spirit of the law. When they live from that place they are the personification of all that He said and taught.

This understanding of what He gave us is the reason we cannot dismiss what He said before the cross as simply old covenant teaching. However, it's the same reason that we shouldn't make it another law to try to live. Simply put, it is an explanation of who we are in Christ. It's an explanation of new covenant people, which brings me back to how this post began…

We sometimes beat "new heart" people over the head with a Pharisee-like understanding of what Jesus said. We go to war. All the while, the two cannot understand one another, though some of the "new heart" folks used to do the same, and, therefore, understand those who are pointing fingers at their supposed errors. Still, others have always lived from a "new heart" and simply can't understand their Christian brothers and sisters.

My advice...stop using His words as your weapons and recognize them for what they are - a description of all you can be when you're living in all that He came, died, and rose again to give you.
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From Frustration To Freedom

If you're even a casual observer of our current American political arena then you've probably heard it said, "Freedom is not free." It certainly seems true that freedom has a price tag. It requires a fight. There is a cost.

As is often the case, the same is true in the spiritual arena. The verse at the top of this web page makes it clear that our freedom has been purchased. Jesus paid the ultimate price for it. However, this same verse also implies that keeping our freedom will require a fight on our part. Paul said, "therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." In other words, there will be thieves who will try to rob you of your freedom, who will try to enslave you again, but keep fighting! This war was certainly being waged in the churches of Galatia.

Over the last several months I have lived this fight, and I have come to learn one thing for certain. The path to freedom leads through frustration. Looking over my shoulder to where I've been I see a few frustrations that almost seem to be necessary parts of the journey to freedom. There are no shortcuts. There is no other way. After all, freedom requires a fight.

For me, the first of these frustrations was the frustration with the way things were. As I transitioned from church system to church system, from seeker sensitive to elder-led to house church, from one church paradigm book or teaching to the next, it became increasingly clear to me that nothing was working. Now, when I say that nothing was working I can't add that I understood exactly what wasn't working, or even what we were working toward through these different models. But, it was obvious from the wake that each left in its path - church splits, a feeling of emptiness, strained relationships, and a trail of broken hearts - that something wasn't right. Still I was clinging to the next Christian book of the month and the next prophet to blow through town, hoping to find what worked.

Ultimately, the last church model that I had placed all of my hope in became the greatest frustration of all. All of the idiosyncrasies that existed in the institution of church were magnified in this particular house church - control, isolation, and law. I was devastated and became incredibly frustrated. This frustration was the first of three on the road to freedom.

The next frustration came when I walked away from that last church model. It was deep loneliness. Maybe it was the fact that I had left much of what I had known to pursue house church. I had even moved across the country. The only friends I had here were the very folks who had tried to enslave me in that model. One of them would still push me for one-on-one meetings, but I always felt there was an agenda, and I found out that I was right after agreeing to one such meeting. When I didn't submit to this agenda I was no longer needed. It's not that I didn't have true friends. I did, but they were 1300 miles away, and most of them failed to fully understand my heart. Not all of them, but most.

During that time I had few outlets for my frustration or for the good lessons I was learning and longed to share. I felt like a tree in a forest making an awful noise as I fell, but there was nobody to hear it. And, when I was blooming instead of falling there was no one to see it and share in the joy of it. It was horrible. Gradually, two things happened. First, I began to relate to Jesus myself instead of living vicariously through others. Second, I began to find others like me via the Internet - whole networks of people in the same boat, and I was able to climb out of my second great frustration of loneliness.

As I found myself in this new habitat I realized that I had no idea how to live in it. It required living by instinct, not rules. Fortunately, it was around this time that I was reminded of an almost lost teaching - the teaching that those who have believed and received Jesus Christ have a new heart, a new instinct if you will. I had no idea how to live from there, from that new heart. So many things had propped me up for so long that I didn't even know who I was.

As I journeyed into living from this new heart I didn't always like what I saw. Sometimes I found the old, dethroned heart, not the new. Sometimes I found hate instead of love. Sometimes I found depression instead of joy. Sometimes I found resentment instead of forgiveness. I didn't like the me I was finding and this part of the journey became my third big frustration. I didn't like Chris, and the people around me didn't like him either.

Still, I was encouraged to continue the quest. I knew I was on the right path, though I could barely see it through all of the underbrush at times. I knew that my heart of hearts, a new, good heart from a good, loving God, was in me somewhere. I embraced the good, the bad, and the ugly. I became OK with my weaknesses. I became real with myself and with God. After all, He knew me anyway. He was not shocked or surprised.

It was during this time that I began to notice glimpses of the new heart. I was sometimes surprised by love, joy, and forgiveness in the place of my old hate, depression, and resentment. I found myself more confident, more encouraging to others, and less rattled by circumstances. I found the new instinct that Jesus had given me for life. More importantly, I found myself further down the road to freedom, and on the other side of my three frustrations.

Maybe you are in one of these three frustrations right now. You might be finding yourself frustrated with your system, your loneliness, or yourself. I encourage you to keep going. Don't stop and don't turn back. There is freedom on the other side of these obstacles. And, when you find it nobody will be able to take it away from you. Nobody will be able to burden you with a heavy sack of religion. Nobody will be able to fool you with a line of legalism. You will be able to move in and out of the institution of church in all shapes and sizes. You will be able to encourage as you go, side-step the land mines of religious bondage, and receive what is good. You will be free.
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What John 3:16 Doesn't Say

I was recently reading the blogs of another free believer. A few folks had commented on her site about the one-sidedness of talking about God's love. They insisted that God's wrath against us and our sin drove Him to kill His Son in our place, and to talk of God's love was to only tell a part of the story.

As I was reading their thoughts about her posts something suddenly came to mind. I thought of probably the most recognizable verse in the whole Bible - John 3:16. You see it on signs held by fans at almost every sporting event. Anyone with any Sunday school or church exposure at all has likely heard it. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

But, on this particular occasion I was more struck by what Jesus didn't say than by what He did say. He didn't say, "For God so needed to pour out His wrath on us...," or ,"For God so wanted to punish our sin...," or anything similar to either of these phrases. He said, "For God so LOVED..."

Unfortunately, what Jesus didn't say is what we too often hear in churches today. What's worse, we think that what we heard or were taught is who God really is. As a result, and as a friend of mine states, we are conformed to the image of who we think God is. We go on sin and doctrine patrol, pouring out our wrath, which we believe to be God's wrath too, on anyone who sins or has a different perspective on scripture, politics, life, etc. Why? We think that's who He is and, therefore, what He would want us to do. We do it all in the name of love, truth, and God.

Here is a simple question. If these fellow believers are doing what they are doing out of love, then why do their relationships suffer? Why would folks on the receiving end of their "love" not want to be around them? Is it because the folks on the receiving end don't understand what godly love is, or is it because they DO have some understanding of what it is and simply aren't seeing it in those who are supposedly dishing it out so generously? The "dishers" are not the least bit appealing to those they are beating over the head with truth, and, unfortunately, the Jesus who is portrayed through their actions isn't either.

I am reminded of my dad. He and I were visiting a long-time neighbor who was on his death bed. The man looked at me and pointed to my dad and said, "That there is one of the best Christian men who has ever walked the earth." Now, I am 99.9% certain that my dad had never beat this man over the head with biblical truth, never pointed to a single sin in the man's life, never turned his back on this neighbor because they didn't agree on something, or any of the other nonsense you would see in some Christian circles today. My dad was simply a good neighbor to this man, and this man was likewise to my dad. Love was present, and nobody had to even call it that. It wasn't the result of being told how to be a good neighbor at church on Sunday morning. It wasn't the result of an evangelism program, a revival, or any of the other things we do to get people to come to church. It simply was, and where love is God is because God is love. Sure, our neighbor glorified my dad, but what loving father isn't also glorified when his son is glorified?

Funny, there is no response to John's first letter in the Bible saying, "Uh, John, there is something we need to tell you. Now, please keep in mind that what we're about to tell you is completely out of our love for you. The One that you saw, touched, walked with for three years, and who said, 'If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father,' you've only got it half right about Him. Sure, He's loving sometimes, but you're really only telling part of the story by saying, 'God is love.' What you're saying is dangerous and you are going to mislead many." Bologna!!!

God's love was the driving force behind all that has been accomplished for the world in Christ. Perhaps the world would gladly receive the One who accomplished it all if they saw that same love in us. Perhaps brothers and sisters would be encouraged and equipped if they saw their Father as He really is instead of how they have perceived Him to be for so long. Perhaps strained family relationships could be restored if we were reminded that God doesn't care about so many of the things that we think He cares about, but for the people in our lives and what's in our hands right now. Wake up and love! It's how God is to be revealed to the world through us!
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No Line

Today I was waiting to place my order with a cashier at Chick-fil-A. What can I say? I'm a southern guy living in Colorado where sweet tea isn't always easy to come by, and Chick-fil-A has some good sweet tea. OK, enough of the commercial. I'm not getting paid for this endorsement. ;-)

So, I'm standing there and I hear one man ask another, "Are you in line?" The second man responded in a negative tone, "There is no line. We're all just out here."

I was immediately reminded of a recent announcement at a church I've been visiting in Colorado Springs. It was for an upcoming men's group. The announcer was standing before the people with a climbing rope. He proceeded to explain how being connected to another climber when you're scaling a cliff is essential to staying alive. If one climber falls then the connection to others will keep him from plummeting to his death. He likened it to this new men's group, saying that the accountability offered by the connection with other men will save a man's life if he's falling into sin, false doctrine, unemployment, illness, etc. They will hold him accountable and, therefore, be his life line.

I've been without a life line for several months now. No accountability to anyone except...well...no accountability. I admit that what the announcer was saying used to sound good to me. For a moment it even sounded good when I was hearing it anew with the climbing analogy.

Problem is that these life lines have weak spots that begin to unravel as the climb progresses. One of the biggest weak spots that I have encountered in recent months is control. It began when I disagreed with the teaching of a man whose house church my wife and I had joined. This particular teaching was that tithing is foundational to the church. When I encountered this weak spot on the line then the whole thing began to unravel. Horrible things were said to me. First, I was told that I would miss the blessing that would come back to me if I didn't tithe. Next, I would be prohibited from shepherding others in the church because I disagreed with the leader on such a fundamental doctrine. Then, I was called uncommitted for missing some meetings due to illnesses and family visiting from out of town. Never mind that I had moved across the country to be there. Finally, I was expected to share anything in my heart with the leader. There could be nothing private between Jesus and me. When all was said and done the seemingly robust rope that I had been climbing had become a small thread by which I was suspended. I could no longer climb, or even move, because the thread would simply snap. I could not progress.

So, what did I do? The only thing I could do really. I cut loose. I began to free fall. I fell into a horrible, hateful attitude and depression. For a while it looked like all of the things the announcer was saying about the rope being a life line were true. I was on my way down.

Then someone grabbed me. It was the strong, capable hand of Jesus. As I settled into the safety of his embrace something happened. My world was suddenly turned upside down, and I realized that I had actually been falling up.

The next thing I noticed was my connection to a new, sturdy rope, the rope of a new heart. I was surprised by love and joy. The hate and depression were gone. Forgiveness had replaced resentment for what had happened earlier on the rope of religion. Jesus and I were scaling this new rope together. When I would ask him questions or even challenge things he wanted, I found him kind and understanding, and this new rope remained intact. As I looked around I noticed others at different places on this same new rope, the rope of relationship, the rope of a new heart. I found myself calling out encouragement to them when they became stuck in places, having navigated some rough spots myself.

Having taken this brief mental journey I was now back at Chick-fil-A, and thought to myself, "Yep, it looks like we're just out here, but we're really connected to the only true life line in this Christian walk - Jesus Christ." A smile crossed my face as I placed my order. "A large sweet tea, please."
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Living From The Heart

If the title of this post sounds suspect to you, then you need to keep reading...

It wasn't long ago that such a title would have sounded "new age" to me, and I would have shut down before reading a word. I'm going to keep typing, assuming that you haven't done what I would have done. My hope is that by the end of this post you'll find the title to be "new covenant" rather than "new age."

Something happened to us when we believed and received Jesus Christ. He explained it to Nicodemus as being "born again" and "born of the Spirit." Those who have believed and received Christ are born again, and the Holy Spirit lives in them. If I were preaching I'm sure I'd hear a resounding "Amen!" But, if I tell you what it really means to be born again, then the "Amen!" may be traded for stones. After all, my first name is Steven (yes, with a "v").

For a long time now many churches have perpetuated a lie (or at best a half truth) about those who have accepted Christ. Perhaps it is based on an Old Testament verse from the prophet Jeremiah who said, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah was right, no question about it. However, we need to keep reading. Jeremiah later said,

"'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord, 'I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'"

The prophet Ezekiel explained further,

"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

For the sake of time, I will simply say that the New Testament makes it clear that Christ has ushered in the new covenant. Jesus said, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."

In other words, the heart of one who has believed and received Jesus Christ is a new covenant heart, promised by God through the prophets of old. It is not the old "heart of stone", which was benched, but the new "heart of flesh." It's a heart that is "dead to sin, but alive to God," as Paul explained to the Romans.

The problem is that believers have often been taught to squelch the heart because it is evil. Disciples have not been encouraged and equipped to live out of their new, good heart. Instead, they have been told to live by the letter, which kills, rather than by the Spirit, which gives life. They learn in sermon after sermon to polish the old benched heart, or the flesh, which cannot be polished. They have been taught that their heart of hearts is still desperately wicked. They have been handed a half gospel. They are forgiven, and headed for heaven, but living by the letter because their hearts can't be trusted. As a result, they sadly have no idea who they are. They don't know what they desire - good desires placed in a good heart by a good God. Sadly, I have been among their numbers for a long time.

Today I am learning to live from the heart. Sometimes the heart I find is not the one I would want to find. The old point guard, the one benched by Jesus, is placed in the game and commits turnover after turnover and foul after foul. The scoreboard sometimes doesn't look so good. But, this doesn't mean that we failed to get a new point guard, a new recruit. He is there. He knows exactly how to distribute the ball and win the game, and my Assistant Coach knows exactly how to coach him to victory. The playbook is useful, but it's only a description of what the new point guard intuitively knows how to execute on the floor, it's the combination of his talent and the Assistant Coach's guidance. That old point guard could never do it. He's not skilled to do it. But, sometimes I beat him over the head with the playbook and try to get him to execute it. He just can't. He and the Assistant Coach don't communicate with one another, and only the AC can coach the kind of execution we're looking for in the game of life. Seems to me that Paul understood this process very well as he explained it perfectly, not in basketball terms of course, in Romans 7.

Friend, if you have Jesus Christ know that He lives in a new, good heart. Learn to live from there, and the playbook (the Bible) will be executed. Your life will be "the pillar and support of the truth." You will win.
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