Superstitious Faith Part 2: Seeing things merely from a human point of view

This morning I found myself in Mark chapter eight. Here's Jesus talking freely with his disciples (verse 31) after having miraculously fed 4,000, healing a blind man, and dealing with religious people (a normal day at the office!). It was a vulnerable moment that only real friends can know about. Then, seemingly out of the blue, He says something that absolutely stuns his devoted followers. "The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead." (NLT version) What a negative confession of faith!

Of course, Peter, the mighty man of faith(remember, he had just gotten this big revelation from God that Jesus was the Christ, so he's flying high right now, ready to conquer the world for the Kingdom!), begins to reprimand Jesus for this awful negative confession. How could Jesus say these things? Doesn't He have enough faith to get the victory? And after all, we do need to watch what we say, right? We can speak things into existence with our words...blah blah blah...Jesus should not be saying these things. What if something bad does happen to Him now that He's made this declaration? But notice Jesus' reaction to Peter's reprimand... (again, NLT) “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Get away from me, Satan? Peter? The rock? The one Jesus says to in another account, "flesh and blood has not revealed these things to you, but my Father who is in Heaven"? Isn't Jesus being a bit harsh? A little over the top? Maybe...maybe not...

If not, then what could possibly be so satanic about Peter's comments? I think we get a glimse in what Jesus says immediately after (vs. 34 and 35)... “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. " So...according to Jesus' words, Satan would want us to save our lives, do whatever it takes to avoid discomfort...even be the top dog...crush the enemy under our feet in Jesus' name...anything...so long as we don't fulfill our purpose and calling in God.

Could it be that Peter's "faith" was based on self-preservation at all costs? He was willing to proclaim Jesus as Messiah, His Victory...but not as the Passover Lamb, the suffering servant...our scapegoat. Could it be that he did not understand that sometimes faith involves suffering many terrible things in this life, in order to fulfill God's greater purpose in eternity? That God's ways are higher than our ways? That true faith comes by hearing, and hearing is from the very words of God spoken to us, not based our confession? That useful faith requires looking at things from God's perspective, rather than seeing things like merely from a human point of view?

Of course, looking at it all from this point in time, we know that Jesus' ultimate mission was indeed to suffer and die a horrible death on the Cross, then rise from the dead after three days for our sin and justification. But ponder this for a moment...what if Jesus' faith was like ours... instead of doing the Father's will, He decided that He would do whatever to save His life...maybe even rebuke these crazy notions of dying on the Cross, as if they from the devil? Where would we be today? Could it be that there is more this thing called faith than our positive confession?

And what am I going to do with this? Am I willing to give up my superstitious self-talk and self-aggrandizing delusions of faith for a life not so certain...where the lines are not so straight...one of constant surrender, loss...dare I say it, even doubt... all for this Jesus? Even if it means I too may suffer terrible things by making this choice every day? Or will I continue clinging on to my petty wants, my carnal idolatries, making hollow declarations of peace and prosperity, all in the name of faith? Will I give in to just playing it safe...Satan's way of fulfillment, still clinging to the cares of this life...this illusion called all that this world offers? And it makes me wonder...can I even have any part of this abundant resurrection life Jesus promised apart from this death to my ease and comfort?

My prayer today is that, by God's grace, Jesus will not be ashamed of me "when He returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” That's my confession. Amen.

Superstitious Faith

I was reading the book of Job again the other day and was reminded of some of the lessons we can learn from this ancient story. It seems to me, in spite of all his integrity, that Job was a bit superstitious about his faith in God. Why do I say this? Well, for one...he believed as long as he did right things and pleased God, nothing bad would happen to him. Secondly, he feared what would happen to him and his family if he didn't. Just look in the fifth verse of the first chapter... (NLT version) "He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts..." Then, after Satan was given permission to strike Job, he says in chapter three, verse 25, "What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true."

Job's three friends seem to have the same view of God; one example here...(4:7,8) "Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed? My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. "

My point? Job, while maintaining his integrity, had a small view of God. We, the readers, looking in from the outside, know the whole story...we know the part Job can't see with his eyes. But I remind you that this is about the only time we ever do know everything that's going on in real life.

And don't we tend to have this same kind of superstitious faith? Our "leading of the Lord" is based almost entirely on our outside circumstances--what we see with our eyes--not on actually hearing God. If our circumstances are going well, we must be pleasing God, it must be His will...and if things aren't going well, we must be missing God or lacking faith. We believe that God will never let anything bad happen to us if...we don't sin, or say the right prayers or have the right kind of positive confession of faith? So, what happens to our faith when the "bad things" do happen? It must be that we've sinned, we confessed the wrong things? To this, I ponder again...can our God be this small?

I won't want to minimize the value of believing and faith confession... but I don't think we can put God in this "nothing bad will happen to me if..." box. Are we not treating an almighty sovereign and omnipotent God like some Mesopotamian idol we pray to...His anger to appease, or a genie's lamp we rub so our wishes always come true...all so we can get what we want? And didn't Jesus also promise tribulation in this life? (John 16:33).

But I think that God wanted Job to see something a lot more important than what's in it for you and me, and I don't believe He was engaging in some sort of cruel gamesmanship with the devil either. From my own experience, it seems that our Heavenly Father is more interested in the process than the answers. He's more interested in what we're becoming while walking through the valley. And I believe He wanted Job to see something about Himself throughout his time of testing. And my question here...do we ever really learn these kinds of things any other way? And can we really appreciate the mountaintop without going through this mysterious valley of testing?

We don't want to miss the fact that Job did indeed maintain his integrity and faith in God throughout these horrific trials. And his friends were...well...wrong. But, more importantly, Job got a bigger picture of God; a God not created in our own image, or one that can be managed and manipulated. To me, the point of the whole thing here is in Job's revelation in chapter 42, verse 5..."I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes."

Oh, that we, too, would understand this about our indescribably, infinite God! His ways are past finding out! That we would go beyond our superstitions about God and grow in real faith...to really know the One we worship in spirit and in truth.

Narcissism and playing "pastor"...

According to legend, Narcissus was a Greek hero who ended up falling in love with his image, hence, narcissism could be accurately defined as someone in love with the image of something rather than the real thing. To be narcissistic, then, would be someone having trouble distinguishing between what's real and the image of what's real.

Having said that, I don't think it requires astute observation to conclude that we live in a narcissistic culture...one that feeds on images, even desiring the image over the real. Movies,T.V., books, video games, fantasy, fiction, pornography...all with their larger than life heroes and celebrities, all feeding this insatiable appetite for the image of what we think is (or should be) real. Companies spend billions of dollars on marketing and advertising, creating images, all designed to make you unhappy with what you have. Keeping up with the Joneses is, in fact, keeping up with an image of the proverbial Joneses. So we stress and wear ourselves out, pile up debt, want what we don't have, and lose sleep...over what? Chasing images of what we think will make us happier, richer, smarter, thinner, sexier, more fulfilled.

To quote, Morpheus in the first Matrix movie, this is the world that's been pulled over our eyes. And we've grown comfortable with following after these images and even look up to them, idolize them, spending our money and time on them, perhaps, even deriving a sense of self-worth from their promise of fulfillment. And we also spend of lot of our time trying to project an image of who we are. After all, we want to present an acceptable image and fit in.

And, sad to say, the same is true in the church today.

So...here I am, finding myself being called "pastor" of a Pentecostal-Charismatic church. What image should I be projecting then? I've been called one of these for about a year and a half now. Now, don't get me wrong; I love being a pastor. I love my church congregation. It's wonderful! But everyday, I find myself being pushed into this image box called "pastor." Should a "pastor" look a certain way, wear certain clothing? Should I look like I have all the answers?

And, being a "Pentecostal-Charismatic" pastor, should I project a certain image like preachers we see on T.V.? You know, talk Christianeze lingo, shout amen and hallelujah, strut around the platform, parrot all the Pentecostal affectations, and hype people up into a frenzy? Amen? Maybe, use guilt and manipulation to make you come to my church and tithe? And what if I don't play this game? Then, will people be disappointed in me and wonder if I am even called? I mean, do I even have the "anointing?"(pronounced, "anointingggg-ha!) Maybe, they will look for another "pastor" who projects a better image to follow and love? And probably the most important question for me is, would I even want to be part of a "church" that chases these kinds of images? So...welcome to my world! Some ponderings to consider and let you know a little about me...hopefully, the real me. Well, enough rambling for now...I may continue this when I get more time...
God bless,
Mel