Cutting into the Heart of the American Christian

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Over the past couple of years, I have developed a bitterness and anger towards what we as Americans call church. These feelings do not come from what I see the church here accomplishing, but rather the lack of what we do not accomplish. And you see, the lack of what do not accomplish should be the main focus of what we as followers of Christ should aim to accomplish. This frustration can be explained by answering one question: What is the task of the church? As Steve Corbett, author of When Helping Hurts, says it: “The task of God’s people is rooted in Christ’s mission. Simply stated, Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom in word and in deed, so the church must do the same. And as we have seen, Jesus particularly delighted in spreading the good news among the hurting, the weak, and the poor.”

Here we see our task, but it seems we make the mistake of getting “caught up” in other less important things. Israel, God’s chosen people, were supposed to mirror what the coming King would be like and attract people to God. And what would it be that would attract the masses to the King? Was it a fancy looking temple? Or a showy temple service? Or even a great music performance? No! It was God’s command through his prophets to care for the poor and oppressed. This is why God gave Moses commands for Israel to care for the poor. Things such as Sabbath years that would cancel debts for the poor and  to set slaves free to try to start afresh were included in these laws. Yet, Israel did not fulfill them. In fact, they did the opposite in the worst way- by claiming to follow God, but not acting on His commands-what we may deem as being overly religious. In fact, God sent Israel into exile because of their lack of action, not the sins they did commit. A passage in Isaiah I hold very dearly speaks to this situation Israel found herself in:

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “The multitude of your sacrifices-what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations- I cannot bear your evil assemblies….Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isa. 1:10-13, 16b-17)

Do you see it? Do you understand where God is coming from? He is not pleased with our ceremonies, our sabbaths, our religious tradition, when they don’t include those who are oppressed and broken, those who are marginalized and shunned. This is what God wants. Not our bitter tasting religion. Isaiah goes on still in a later chapter:

Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Decalre to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and had not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed” …Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not the share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to cloth him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will try for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with he pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you send yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isa 58:1-3, 5-10)

The sense of justice this verse conveys. This is truly the heart of God. We must fight for people and become selfless. God was disappointed and righteously angered at the Israelites for not doing what God commanded them. God wanted justice and Israel instead gave the world a superficial religion, a mockery of God. So here is the issue: we as Americans suffer from a sin of omission. We are guilty not only of the sins that we do commit but the good we don’t commit. We tolerate instead of alleviate. We pick away at the stem the problem rather than dig out the root of the problem. We act as if all is well, oblivious to the real issues the world faces, when the majority are sick and lost. And to be honest I myself grow weary of a church who does not even realize what they are doing wrong. But rest assured, God says His yoke is easy and burden light. We must learn not to be angry against the church, for the church is God’s body. But, we must be aware of the issues we need to fix in order to advance the kingdom, for it takes a certain type of man and woman to do that. We must turn to Him to help us change the world around us and not try doing things by our own strength. Our hearts and mind sets must change from the American dream way of thinking to the biblical way of thinking. We must remember this: Doing nothing, does something.

What are you doing?

What Does God Want?

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“You trample on the poor and force them to give you grain…

For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins.

You oppress the righteous

and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

I hate, I despise your religious feasts;

I cannot stand your assemblies.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them.

Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,

I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

righteousness like a never-failing stream. (vv. 21-24, emphasis added).

These words from God were to the religious leaders of Israel. They were a response to arrogance and hypocrisy of those who claimed to follow God. They exploited the poor, and in their quest to remain righteous before God, they were rejected. I am sure you can imagine why- a people who’s only form of religion was to impress God through a ceremony, or to sing songs of worship without living a Godly life outside of that. And when I read this, and think of the church today (myself included), I cannot help but hear A.W. Tozer’s words:

“Christians don’t tell lies – they just go to church and sing them.”

How often do we get caught up? Sing songs we can’t truly say we actually take heed of? There is a major problem in the world today, and that is the problem of the claim to be religious. We talk a big talk, but can barely walk a small walk. Like verse 24 says, God wants justice. God did not want anything to do with the ceremonies or songs of worship when they came from a people who lived a two-faced life. For what good is it to sing the songs we do, to preach the things we preach, and ignore the poor and keep the gospel to ourselves. Jesus came for the sick, and yet we somehow are in denial that we- calling ourselves saved- are still the sick! We have been commissioned to spread the God that we have come to know through Jesus and the Holy Spirit yet we complain about the things we don’t have, or keep our faith to ourselves. Is that even logical? By living in constant denial, by not helping those in need, by ignoring the oppressed, we become no different then the people God is talking to in Amos 5. Doing nothing, does something. By knowing what and Who people need, and not giving it to them, we commit a sin of omission. Let’s do something. We are all guilty, but the great thing about God’s grace and relationship is that He puts us back on our feet if we choose to grab a hold of his hand and let Him pull us up. God wants us to spread justice.

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.

   I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects,

   your pretentious slogans and goals.

I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,

   your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.

   When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want?

   I want justice—oceans of it.

I want fairness—rivers of it.

   That’s what I want. That’s all I want. 21-24 (MSG)

The Hole in Our Gospel

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I am reading a book called The Hole in Our Gospel and it has challenged me. It has made me realize that I have been living with a hole in my own gospel, that my gospel has been more centered towards myself. You see, the book is written by a man who gave up what he thought was success, in order to bring something to the table not many do, and that is dedicate his life to the poor. The man is Richard Stearns, President of World Vision. World Vision has been providing food, shelter, disaster relief, and more across the globe to those who can’t themselves.

The object of the book is to challenge us to look at the gospel we follow. I have been to church services that have seemed more about the formula to a “successful” life, rather than the actual purpose of the Bible- to reach those who have not heard the gospel (spiritual), and to take care of the needy (physical). Oh how much I see the church not doing her job. And YES- it is our JOB to do these things. It is not an option if you claim to follow Christ. There is no faith without works, no love without action.

The hole in our gospel is that we distance ourselves from the uncomfortable, we get caught in the American dream and let it seep into our Christian theology. The gospel begins to be about our own well-being, instead of the willingness to suffer and be persecuted. We forget about the dying. We forget about the hopeless; the downtrodden; the hungry. And that is NOT what God wants,  and that is NOT following Christ.


“People do not drift toward Holiness. 

Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith,

and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom;

We drift toward superstition and call if faith.

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;

we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism;

we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

-D.A. Carson