Today we tend to take relationships for granted. The Internet offers them at practically no cost, and so does the local school, sports club… oh, yes – even the church. So far – nothing wrong. Sadly enough, the fragrance of the koinonia seems to have faded away. Instead of being like a fresh Spring bloom, it’s more like a frozen vegetable which has then been microwaved – you wouldn’t know it smells like something if it weren’t for the big fat colored label on the package that tricks your mind into believing it does. We’re either really dumb fools or really lazy and indifferent to our own lives.

We like having partners in life as long as they don’t require much of us. As long as they don’t disturb out comfortable and well planned and organized living. It seems to me that the fancier mobile phones one can buy, the less we care about sincerely maintaining our relationships. Perhaps this would be quite a shock to Johann Philipp Reis (whom I credit as the inventor of the telephone). Nevertheless, my point is – the things that ought to draw us closer to each other seem to actually scatter us apart.

I believe the answer is to be found in Matthew 6:21 where Jesus said: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (NIV). So long as we place other things at the top of our life, instead of God, we won’t be able to enjoy that hard-core, pure bread koinonia that the first believers had in Jerusalem shortly after Pentecost.

The Bible says in Acts 2:42, that they were προσκαρτεροῦντες (proskarterountes) or earnest towards, constantly diligent, continually giving themselves upon the teachings of the Gospel, remembering Jesus through communion, sharing the precious time of meals with each other and last but not least – praying. It’s that kind of devotion towards God that enabled them to be devoted to each other as well. It’s that kind of devotion that allowed them to flourish in what appears to have been a rather hostile environment. It’s that kind of devotion that empowered them to sacrifice without constraints and barriers, so that the needs of the people around them may be met.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (NIV)

Seriously, when was the last time you saw a brother sell his iPod in order to feed another? When was the last time you heard of a sister selling her collection of unused t-shirts, so that a child somewhere else may have the chance to go to his first day of school wearing shoes as opposed to wearing the dust from the road on his bare swollen feet? That’s just about whre the believers in Jerusalem started – some went as far as selling their land, cattle, estate property – knowing that they could meet a need, and knowing that God will faithfully deliver. Moreover, they didn’t just do it – they were diligent in constantly doing their best in selling stuff away as they saw needs emerging from around them. Not foolishly, but as the Holy Spirit led them.

While most scholars agree that these events could be described as an ongoing revival, they also claim it’s rather improbable that this can occur in our culture and society today. I beg to differ. If people could be changed by God so much that they could be true partners in life, I see no real reason why we could not undergo the same transformation. But then again, we Christians often fall back on the “unreal” and “insignificant” as reasons for why we don’t do the things we should do.

image by: Morozova Tatiana | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Jesus uses the example of worrying to show us how strong our faith ought to be and how we need to live and consequently – pray. Let us turn to his words from Matthew 6:19-34:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:19-34, NIV)

The worrying which Jesus is talking about leads to division between us and God. In fact, the Greek word translated as the very “worry” means  “to part, to disunite, to divide, to distribute between.” Simply said, the more we worry about things different from God’s kingdom and our holy living, the farther we go from God. Instead of Him, we place money clothing, food and all the rest in first place.

So, it is necessary to keep an eye on how we’re doing in this aspect of life. It is important to check-up on our prayers as well. It is far too easy to drift away slowly in our prayers and one day end up being far from God’s way. Do you pray that it will be God’s will first or do the daily troubles and worries take His place? Is your faith strong enough to enable you to ask for His will, even when this means that you’ll face even more sufferings and struggles?

It’s a well known fact that we’re all standing before material needs and this continuously. However, it is our reaction to them that reflects our faith in God, not the needs themselves. Jesus’ promise to us is not for a flawless life and absolute safety and independence. If that was the case, it would actually draw us away from Him because there would be little need of a mighty God. But our Savior promised and gave us peace like no other. If we believe Him for our salvation, then we are also able to place Him at the top of our lives and prayers. Seek God’s kingdom first!

One of the biggest problems before the Christian faith today is that all Christians claim they believe in God, but not all of them live according to their own claims. In other words, many of us daily call ourselves Christians, but far too many of us don’t live like Christians.

Let’s look at the relationship between a child and his or her parents as an analogue of ours with God. When a child truly trusts his or her parents, he or she waits patiently and faith till their promises come true. When mummy and daddy promise their son a new bicycle he doesn’t immediately run out, seeking for ways to buy it himself earlier than it’s promised to him. Where there is trust in a relationship between two sides, there is also patience and faith.

Between many believers and God, however, the trust is little… so, naturally, many Christians quickly run out of patience and lose faith. God, on the other hand, doesn’t cease caring for us, but how is it possible to feel Him caring if all the time we’re trying to solve our problems on our own and pay more attention to them than we do to God?

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7, NIV).

Apostle Peter encourages us to humble ourselves before God. In other words – to confess that without Him there is nowhere we can get to; without Him there’s no feature for us; without Him our lives will be an endless fight against yet bigger problems. It’s about time for us to realized that we are the weak and God is the strong one. Doing this doesn’t mean that all of a sudden our lives will be flawless and problems will be nowhere to be seen. If we are humble before God, however, the problems will not dominate our lives but daily we will be above them, with our focus turned to what is of true matter – God.

When we start trusting God as much as we claim that we believe in Him, then we will begin to feel his care in a different, for some of us even unknown way. If we really have trust and faith in God, then as a problem comes before us we will first turn to God with a prayer for help. We will wait on His answer patiently and full of faith. And because God Himself has promised us – the answer will come, undoubtedly.

If, on the other hand, we chose to first go and try fix everything ourselves, with our own strength… or even worse – with money, then we better get ready for catastrophic consequences. Not only materially, but also spiritually. Although God will not cease caring for us and loving us, should we continue living our lives in such a way, we will one day wake up with more faith in ourselves than in God. And this is the day God will become unnecessary. We can easily lose our faith, the people around us, but worse of all – our future.

Our life with God requires daily care and a continual communication with Him. Two or three quickly put together prayers just won’t cut it. We ought to first establish our trust in Him. When this trust is real, then it won’t be hard for you to turn to God even for the smallest of things in life. It will be a joy to tell Him even of the biggest issues and troubles in your life. So, cast your cares on Him because He cares for you. Then you will have even more time to spend growing in your faith and relationship with God.

Ok, by now you should be interested.

A new thought occurred to me a few days ago and hasn’t left my mind ever since. It’s the thought of on-my-own type of Christian life. See, I was initially wondering on the topic of miracles and why they seem to not happen as much nowadays, yet we claim God has not changed. Sometimes we go so far, that we actually are satisfied with less – “Oh, I feel this is the miracle”… when God actually hasn’t even started.

I find it to be a matter of trust… Thus the title above. Speaking about myself, I’m discovering that in reality I don’t trust God as much as I used to. Give me a problem – I can solve it. If I figure I can’t – I can learn to live with it. Rarely, however, do I actually trust God to the extend of believing in a miracle. This goes for simple things such as daily provisions, but also for more major things, such as changing myself, others, the Church (universal)… people I know and I love.

The scary part is – I think it’s not just me that’s gone that far out there. I’m seeing more and more Christians either getting comfortable with pain and hurt, not believing it can be healed and/or changed… Or – even worse – going about it on their own. Struggling to make enough money for living. Unsuccessfully juggling with serving God and serving the company, school or whatever else.

Sadly, it’s only every now and then that I’m having those revelation moments in which I realize – Whether it’s with or without this or that… it doesn’t really matter. I can be dead and gone in an instant and then only one thing matters. But speaking about daily life… oh well, if I say I trust God I’d probably be lying. Cause trust, in my understanding, is not what I live out in practice right now.

How is selection being practiced by Christians? It’s quite simple to answer actually – just pay attention to it as you go in your everyday life. The first thing which comes to mind is (sadly enough!) God’s very Word. We (me including) all have what we call “favorite verses”, favorite books, favorite characters. But what about the rest? Does our narrow focus mean that we don’t consider the rest of the Bible as important, as valid, as applicable… as directed to us? Yes, yes, yes!!! That’s exactly what it means. I know this will challenge you a bit, but answer to me, please, why then do you not study all parts of the Bible equally and apply them so? A bit too many Christians rather learn the “give me” and “bless me” verses, than the “I will do” or “I will be” ones.

Christian music… I’ve two examples to share and will leave the thinking to you. The first is Luther’s song “Create in me a pure heart” which is based on David’s Psalm 51. Way too often I’ve heard this song only in its first half – God make me this, make me that… But in reading Psalm 51 one clearly sees the heart of David’s devotion to God. He wants God to make him all this and “Then I will teach transgressors your ways… and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.” See, right there is the power of Psalm 51. Strip that and it turns into a selfish and fake prayer. The second example is Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name“, a song, the last verse of which states:

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Now, I’ve heard that one way too often stripped as well. Here it’s more an issue of complete dependency and Paul’s joy from all of Philippians. Have we turned into selective Christians?!

One more thing I have noticed very often among Christians is complaining about one’s circumstances. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve done it too, and most likely I’m still doing it on daily basis – just not noticing all of it yet. However, I want to turn my and your attention to the issue, because I see it growing and growing… Circumstances in life are a funny thing. Actually, most of the time we pray for the circumstances, but not for ourselves. We pray that God will change this or that… but only rarely do we pray that God will change us. And it is even more rare that Christians in general do take on the daily journey to changing themselves consciously. And this is a hot topic because we cannot select the circumstances in which we live – be it poverty, loneliness, cancer, opression… This is for most people the moment when we hit the floor and come broken and empty before God.

Lastly, many Christians world-wide do selective theology. Life isn’t black and white they say, so I can twist a bit the meaning of God’s revelation. No! You can’t! If there is only one truth, one true way of living, and one true belief… It is black and white! Just that we’ve all been in the dirty and sticky waters of our culture for too long doing nothing, and now it seems impossible to live differently. And people get to claim their right to select when things get rough and tough. That’s when we tend to twist meaning and interpret a bit too much.

So, are you a selective Christian too? Remember, God doesn’t call us to select from Him only what we like. He has called us to obey His will… entirely! And that doesn’t always coincide with our own wishes and desires. Most of the time it actually opposes them.

The thought of lost lives has been on my mind for quite some time, but these sermons helped it develop much deeper. Have you ever thought about the lives of people you read about in the news? Where will they end up? Take it a step further – as God’s sent one does it impact you at all? I mean, we’re so used to reading about people dying today in so many ways, that it would take a fairly rare or massive death to shock us or surprise us. And that’s just heart breaking! Have we become so cold towards the human life? Has it totally lost its value? No? Are you thinking No, of course it hasn’t! Well, then why in the world are we just playing Christians… as if it’s a role-playing game for preschool kids?!

I see a Church which struggles. I see a body of believers which is far from being united. I see crippled Christians – lame in their faith, deaf to God’s voice… mute to the call to proclaim the Word which brings life. Where did the faith that move mountains go? When did the everlasting and unchanging God switch to a different mode? When did the voice of God stop calling? What happened to the water that gives life?

Frankly, nothing has changed ever since the Spirit of God hovered over the waters… and then God said Let there be light! And there was light. Where is God’s light today? Surely it isn’t in the latest model of any piece of equipment, neither is it in the discounted clothes. It’s not even in the Church’s financial department. I believe God’s light is right where it is supposed to be, just that we’re often a block before it or a block past it. And it is only when we “accidentally” pass by the right corner that we are elevated to a new level of our faith. Maybe someone turns back to God, another one is baptized… a couple gets married. Have you realized that for most of the Christians you know these are occasions that we call special or extraordinary? Sure there’s extra to all of them, but how low is the mere ordinary then? Are we living a whole life to simply experience a moment or two? Why isn’t the Christian’s life today extraordinary all around?! Well, whatever the reason is, I believe it’s that same thing that is on the way of God’s love and light. Materialism, individualism, selfishness, pure laziness… It sure has a lot of names.

Have you ever imagined what it would be if you could shed God’s light into the lives of the people who have just died? I’m not saying that all of them are lost for good… Who am I to judge? But how much better is it to be certain of the eternal future of those people’s lives? Much, much better! And the price for it – you and I living a true Christian life. Simple.

What do I mean by double faced? In brief – the fact that among Christians I behave in one way and then among non-Christians in another. That was too simple… I don’t want to be misunderstood. I’m not talking about details, certain use of language, etc. I’m talking about a general attitude.

How do I behave among Christians… Well, I’ve noticed that I’m more critical, I expect more… often you would say I’m not as welcoming as I ought to be. I realize that often it’s also harder for me to truly love Christians (compared to non-Christians).

Then among non-Christians I catch myself to be much more lively, much more welcoming, certainly show more understanding… It’s just much much easier for me to express and show love for those people – whether they like me or not.

Recently I was reminded several times of the attitude of many of the religious leaders during Jesus’ time – they simply said despised those who did not profess a belief in God. My case is close to being the exact opposite of that. I’m saying close because I don’t think I’m that far to the extreme they had reached. The issue is alarming to me also because I’ve heard a number of people share with me that they feel in a very similar way.

I wondered and I pondered… Clearly there is no simple answer. However, several things which became more obvious, and I think have to do with the problem, are these:

• Love is much more than what we often limit it to. And by saying this I mainly refer to Jesus’ words that it’s easy to love the ones who love you, but we must love everyone equally. Naturally (for our current condition of humanity impacted by sin) it is preferable to focus our love towards the people we agree with, accept, need, etc. As for the others – some we tolerate, other we ignore, and some we strongly dislike. It should become our priority to love.
• Incomplete forgiveness is another aspect of the problem. We say we forgive, we try to act upon it, but very often our experience is that very few actually make it completely. Most of the time we end up stuck in the middle, not being able to forget and move on. Our interaction with other people sooner or later results in situations which demand forgiveness. However, what I often sense among the body of believers is that forgiveness does not come out of the depths of one’s heart and love, but out of the fear for being labeled a bad Christian by the others. Maybe sometimes we’re too quick to forgive and thus not being able to do it with our whole heart and mind. Forgiveness must be complete.
• We, Christians, often also believe others to be without mistakes. I say it this way, because it doesn’t quite make sense why we would expect it unless we believe it. Yet, all Christians make mistakes. And this is where it gets much more comfortable among non-Christians – because we believe them to be full of mistakes and actually expect them on regular basis.
• Sometimes, in the midst of our religious busyness we totally forget that it is not only the non-Christians who need Christ, his love, and our support (which testifies of it too). That’s what I call the exciting part of being among non-Christians – we get to save them (as if it’s us who do it!), get them in the right way, and move on to the next one. But with our brothers and sisters in Christ we behave in such a way, that thinking of God being present there just makes me ashamed and speechless.

Am I a double faced Christian? – Often, yes. Do I want to be? – Not at all. How do I change my current behavior and way of thinking? – Not quite sure yet… But this list is a good point for me to begin working from. What is your case?

I’ve been thinking. What I’ve been thinking about is the problem of today’s church concerning transparency. Now, this is a fairly new term in the realm of human relationships, but I think it very well relates to the aspect of holiness and wholeness we so often hear about.

What is transparency?

“free from pretense or deceit : FRANK b : easily detected or seen through : OBVIOUS c : readily understood”

This is what Webster Dictionary says about the adjective form of our word. This is also the general understanding of the term with which I approach my problem with today’s church.

I somehow struggle to see a church which is transparent in its everyday ministry – in any direction. Transparent from the lay-people to the leaders, transparent from the leaders to the lay-people, transparent from inside to the outsiders, etc. etc. This is, I want to see a church which is not afraid of sharing its “secrets” with the people within and outside… Of course, I don’t talk about the churches under persecution having to stand out and proclaim where all their meetings and all that happen… Not at all. I’m talking about our well secured and comfortable church in the West.

The Biblical Side??

At least in my NIV Bible the word transparent/transparency does not appear in the text… However, I cannot but think of Jesus’ relationship with the disciples… Yes, the disciples didn’t always quite understood what their Master was trying to say to them, but one thing stands out to me – Jesus never kept them in darkness concerning who he is, what is he here for, and what are they (the disciples) to do… Yes, even what expects them in their future ministry – see Matthew 10. How much of this type of openness and sharing is present among the people of God today?

? To challenge your understanding of how far is too far – James 5:16 – “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous man is powerful and effective.” (NIV)

Now we either don’t have any righteous people, any true Christians in our churches, or we’re just not liking God’s message to us! Many today will not like this verse, first because of their own sins, but second because nobody likes standing bare naked before his friends and fellow believers. And this is sad. It’s sad, because we ought to be different. We ought to be able to open up, share our sins… TRUST EACH OTHER… But frankly, we don’t. We just don’t trus each other enough within the (supposedly!) united community of believers, so that we can share such things. And yet we boast that we’re different from the world…

So why is that? Why is it like this, that leaders from the church don’t like giving all the reasons for their decisions to the people they impact – the lay-people of the same church? Why is it that one Christian doesn’t always share with another all they perceive, think, wish for, struggle with…?

Why? Why? WHY?

drop me a comment with your thoughts and repsonse… I truly hope you have one! Otherwise – take it as a challenge and come up with a standpoint on this…

Currently I am not going to point out any Biblical examples of why people are to be treated the same. Yet, I’m going to address what was answered to me recently… Jesus chose the twelve disciples (concerning this – I said earlier – leaders are appointed by God and I can’t say anything against that!), he spent more time with them than with the crowds, he did choose to have a special meal with them (referring to the Last Supper)… I somehow can’t buy that! Fine, Jesus did spend time with them… Yet, in the majority of the time we have accounts for in the Bible he was with them… and with the crowds! Sure, Jesus did
choose to have a special dinner with them, but that’s once! How often do leaders today share a meal with the rest of the people from the church and only with themselves?

I’ll pause here… until a future post comes out. Now a bit of clarification why all that noise…

I’m questioning all this, because I become to see more and more the impact this separation has upon the unity in the church. The truth is that many lay people won’t say they feel well included in the church – how many are privileged to travel around for at least one of the wonderful and great, and so on and so forth conferences that the majority of leaders don’t miss. This is happily changing for better here and there, but for the rest – what’s happening for the rest??

Why are leaders always publicly addressed with much more fanfare than a simple lay person, who does pray every day, and does suffer under the realities of the sinful world we live in? Are the “Rev.” “PhD.” “Dr.” and all the like leading somehow to God?! I can’t see that somehow. If we’re to give all the praise to God, shouldn’t we then ask ourselves more and more – but by doing this and that, aren’t we actually drawing more praise to ourselves?

I’ll truly be thankful to hear more comments on what and how you’ve experienced concerning being a leader or a lay person… in the midst of a present hierarchy, which believe it or not – does impact all of us, all the time.

Servant leadership is a keyword… But how about in practice?
Keep yourself up-to-date with the posts, as I’m hoping to write more in the coming days.

Your brother,

Pesho

____________

Edits and adds

One clarification to Ali’s reply on “Reaction on a post” – I did not mean to address the titles of various people in the church in my earlier words (see above). What I mean to (and sorry if it wasn’t clear) address was the fact that these “more important” people – or the leaders, are often treated in a way which doesn’t make the rest, or the lay people, feel comfortable. It is often the case that only the leaders are invited to a fancy dinner, only the leaders get to be introduced for 5 minutes, when a lay person gets a minute or so… I do recognize that apostle Paul does make some claims but this is because he has to establish authority. I’m not against the authority of the leaders. I’m just against the fact that they often seem to not lead in servant-like manners. Maybe to make it even clearer – I think leaders are to humble themselves more? – try to say no to these fancy dinners and show that for you it’s not important that you go there… This will give an example to the lay people, and when they fall in a similar situation they’ll say no, and then non-believers will begin to recognize that Christians are different.

In the original words of the post I talked about PhDs and all that… I personally don’t agree with these titles and the fact that they actually do make some people feel inferior. Personally, I’m pretty strong and rarely feel inferior. But, yes – even when I do feel like this I ask myself – are these titles supposed to make me feel inferior? I just don’t think that the Bible would teach and agree with such phenomenon… Paul also addresses this in the early church’s context of marriage… There the woman was thought to be inferior of the man, but what Paul is saying is that both are to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21 and following). All I’m saying is that leaders and lay people are to submit to one another as well. And I somehow lack many examples of that around me.

More comments are welcome… My adds and edits, and responses will go below…

Unfortunately I’m not able to invest all the time I want in addressing the issue, but at least I’ll be able to lay out my worries.

1. One of my greatest struggles for the past three years has been in understanding the place of academics in Christian life. From one side I face the argument that education was necessary, it is still necessary, etc., etc. My concern, though, is not with the presence of education itself, but with the methods of education. And while in the Jewish world the connection between the Rabbi and the students was strongly personal and spiritual before knowledge-driven/oriented, today I notice that Christian education leans more towards the (I would dare to suggest) differing in this Greek Academy. To make that simpler, Christian education seems to be bound to the secular understanding of education in great measures. Christian institutions (sorry for the nasty word here, but it’s just for the sake of sparing me some more lines of explanation) – like schools, collegels, universities, etc. have inherited their curriculums mainly from the secular ones. This also reminds me of the trend ni many churches today to apply business models of leadership and communication to their ministry… Well, no wonder it doesn’t last! I’ll stand by for a while at that point – giving you an option to respond, as well as myself time to formulate further my words…

2) The drying out of the spirit. This has much to do with the previous point, but also with some other things. My struggle began when I was starting to face the pressure of academics. To be honest, at times it can be difficult to decide where to invest more time – in the quiet place, or in the study room. In addition, it’s interesting to consider what influence the continuous academic talk on theology can have on one’s hunger for the Word of God. Sadly enough, today I read my Bible more for getting a grade, than for getting God, which is a bit ironic. The drying out of the spirit, I believe has much to do also with the Christian environment one finds themselves in. One good thing of it is that I recognized the importance of a strong community… of prayer. Too bad that most of the time this came to me via negativa (just throwing out some big words here…). The disappointment in Christians for me personally has been a great issue. I know that often I expect much of myself and others, but at the same time, I’ve been dealing with this issue also shoulder to shoulder with others, who see the same thing. So, that kind of makes me feel that it’s real.

Now, I think I’ll stop here. I mean for now. I’ve been just writing out some basic thoughts, which need to be developed further, in order for one to be able to apply them. But my concern for the time being is mainly that these issues are brought to realization. Sadly enough, Christians often look at the outward performance, and let the spirit dry out… starve… wither… Well, not really… thank’s God, but nearly.

I believe the Lord has not left unnoticed my attempts to crawl near him… And that’s my hope!

P.S. For those interested in a discussion – please, post comments. More on the topic will come soon.