Millions of Christians pray: ”Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” all over the world every single day. On markets and in souvenir shops worldwide you can buy cutting boards and beautiful wall decorations that show the Lord’s Prayer as it is found in Matthew chapter 6. In many Christian homes you’ll find this prayer on the wall somewhere. We have the prayer memorized in our different languages and can recite it at 3 in the morning if needed.
Maybe we have forgotten what we are praying? Do we honestly believe what we pray when we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? Do we see God’s will in our nations? Do we believe it is possible to experience the will of God in our nations, in our neighborhoods, in our families, in our friendships? Or is it just empty words? I sadly think that a vast majority of all Christians are thinking that “your will be done” is a prayer about the future. A prayer about heaven. A prayer about a new re-created earth. Because we don’t see God’s will here on earth as it is in heaven, and it’s never gonna happen anyway...
But Jesus wasn’t teaching his disciples to pray about something impossible. And he wasn’t teaching them to pray about something that wasn’t possible to achieve on earth either. There is no real reason to pray for God’s will to be done on the new earth. It’ll be done anyway. We know that from the book of Revelation. That’s a done deal. But what about our lives here on Planet Earth? Is the will of God possible?
What's your worldview?
Do you have a Biblical worldview? Or do you just follow the world and agree with everything non-Christians say? I sadly know a good number of Christians who never seem to have any problems in the company of non-Christians. They never seem to disagree with what non-Christians say or do. Sure, they’ll tell you that they don’t have sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend and you can hear that they don’t swear and you know they have secret opinions about being against abortions (but it’s not something they would ever share with a non-Christian....”we’re not called to be condemning...”, they’ll tell you...), but other than that they watch the same movies and soap operas, vote the same way, go to the same concerts and clubs, view society the same way, drink the same way, have the same heroes and read the same books and magazines. They see no problem in having a non-Christian girlfriend or boyfriend. And why should they? They are not that different from non-Christians anyway. There is no real significant difference. They are born-again Christians, but their worldview is not a Christian worldview. Their souls are saved, but their minds are unchanged by Christ and his teachings. A more scary thought is that I think that a lot of people who think themselves Christians because they said a prayer once probably are not Christians at all. If there is never any fruit from a tree of faith, is it even a tree that God has planted?
Dualism
Most likely these Christians I mentioned are caught up in dualism. Dualism seems to be one of the biggest challenges for the Church in the 21st century. Dualism tells you that as long as you’re spiritual, sing the right worship songs, lift your hands in church and maybe even witness, it doesn’t really matter what else you do. Following dualism you can lead worship at church on Friday and sleep with your girlfriend on Saturday. You can talk about God, love, unity and humility until the cows come home, but you’re still hard, you’re still hostile to other people; you still think that American Beauty, Wedding Crashers, Sex in the City and Friends are wonderful to watch and semi-pornographic tabloid magazines are okay and fun. “It’s just entertainment”, you say, “and besides everybody watches it”. This type of dualism is known as Gnosticism and is hardly a new concept. A lot of the New Testament and especially John’s letters are written to battle the understanding that as long as you are doing fine spiritual things, it doesn’t matter what you do or what you don’t do.
Dualism also comes in other ways into our Christian circles. Many Christians believe that there is a clear and strong line between what’s secular and what’s Christian. Jobs are neatly divided into Christian or spiritual jobs such as being a pastor, a Bible teacher, an evangelist and a missionary (I notice how many Christians think that only a pastor or at least somebody who has studied theology can tell them anything worthwhile about God and his will). The secular jobs are the rest: teacher, nurse and doctor are okay because at least you can help in missions. Carpenter is kind of cool since it was Jesus’ occupation. But working in a bank, owning a business, selling clothes, working as a journalist, working with kids or old people and all other regular jobs are considered secular and seen as a necessary evil that you have to get through in order to earn money for the church and to earn your Sundays with God’s people away from the annoying non-Christians......I realize that few people would express it exactly this way, but isn’t that how many of us think? But is that Biblical? Has God labeled some jobs Christian and some jobs secular? No. God wants all of us to work and witness wherever we are. God wants us to be in the world and influence the world. God wants us to show Kingdom of God-values to a world which desperately needs it. God wants us to be in the world yet set apart from the world. Jesus’ longest recorded prayer in John 17 talks a lot about this. Jesus realized that it would be difficult to be a Christian in the world. If you never find it difficult to be in the world and be with non-Christians you probably don’t have a Biblical worldview, and you’re probably not living out your faith.
“It’s all going to hell anyway”
I could write a lot more about dualism, but I also want to mention two other obstacles that we as Christians face in coming to a place where we have a truly godly worldview. Fatalism is a big problem. Many Christians are fatalists. They’ll say things like “it’s all going to hell anyway, we can’t do anything, we’ll just have to make sure that we’ll be saved on Judgment Day”, or “I’m the way I am and I’ll stay this way” or “things have never been worse than they are today and they’ll continue to get worse, we can’t do anything”. In Denmark where I grew up there are many Christian fatalists. I’ve grown up believing that there is no hope for Denmark. We were one of the first nations to legalize abortions and pornography. Where other nations are post-modern or maybe even modern still, Denmark has moved way past that and today it’s a post-post-modern country where Christianity is as irrelevant as belief in the old Nordic or Greek gods. And Danish Christians have given up. Not officially of course. Not many people would admit to have given up, but that’s still the case for many Christians. Christians will say things like “God has moved his lamp from our country, there is no light left and all we can do now is to hope and pray that we’ll be saved ourselves”. There are very few visions for making a difference in society. Obviously there is some talk about witnessing to non-Christians, but there is not a lot of talk about making a real, lasting difference in society at large. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we also pray in Denmark. But few believe that God’s will can be done in Denmark. Few believe that positive, godly things can happen. Some take up the challenge and fight for kingdom values and righteousness, but most have given up due to fatalism. Denmark is like many other countries. Many American Christians are fatalistic and dream about the good, old days where everything was much better....The same applies to Christian in many other countries. Romantic fantasies about how wonderful life was 20-70 years ago control a lot of Christians’ mindsets. But are these romantic ideas realistic? Were things really that much more wonderful 50 years ago in the West. Sure, most evil was hidden from the public sphere. But were there less immorality, more godliness and more true faith in God 50 years ago? I doubt it! Maybe there was more religious Christianity. But religious Christianity doesn’t save anybody. To put it frankly: a nice religious grandmother-type is just as eternally lost as a young, hard child rapist if none of them know Jesus Christ as their personal savior! There is no difference.
Individualism is another challenge, especially in the West. The individualist says that he doesn’t need other people, she’s got her own little “personal Jesus” and he certainly doesn’t need the fellowship of other believers. The individualism is within the church where it’s all about me: “What can I get out of this? When will I see a miracle? When will cool things happen to me?” Me, me, me, me. God’s Word tells us about the Body of Christ being the Church. The Church is God’s tool to reach lost people. Whether we like it or not. We need each other. We need each other to sharpen each other. As it is put in Proverbs 27, 17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”.
God’s will?
Where are you in all of this? Are you dualistic? Are you a fatalist? Are you living your individual Christianity? “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – do you believe that God’s will can be done in your country? In your neighborhood? In your family? Among your friends?
So what is the will of God? Hmmm....that’ll require a very long blog or maybe a book:-) I might come back to that topic later on, but for now I’ll leave you with these thought-provoking Bible quotations:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7, 21)
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12, 2)
“Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1. Thessalonians 5, 16)
...and finally....
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5, 17) ...and then the rest of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a wonderful instruction book about living according to God’s will!
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Beautiful spring days
%20of%20Uzhgorod%20033.jpg)
Here we are a couple of weeks ago in the beautiful city of Uzhgorod in Western Ukraine:-)
Monday, May 08, 2006
Plumb line, Satan and the Church
Three weeks ago we had a week of teaching called the Divine Plumb Line. The name of the teaching (which is a fairly classical Youth With A Mission-teaching) comes from the Old Testament book Amos chapter 7, where God tells that he’ll put a plumb line against Israel to see if they are measuring up to his holy standards.
The week was about the lies we as Christians still believe. It was about the different building blocks in the walls all of us build which separate us from true freedom and intimacy with God. And it was about ministry, healing and restoration of truth. It was a powerful week. The lecturers did a very good job explaining the different lies we believe and where these come from. And that’s what made me mad that week. I got really angry. At Satan. And at the Church.
I’m angry at Satan for being so good at doing his job. I’m angry that he’s so excellent at stealing, killing and destroying (John 10, 10). I’m so angry at how good he is at deceiving and paralyzing God’s children so that even though they’re saved and born-again-Christians they are also more or less completely useless to the Kingdom of God, because they are held back by fear and lies about God and about how God sees them.
Passive parents, sin and abuse
The students were openheartedly sharing stories about how passive parents, bad father figures, mockery in school, insecurities about being too fat or too beautiful (!), legalistic theology at church, sexual sins and all kinds of other things have happened to them that have made them A: hate themselves, B: not trust God, C: not trust other people completely (“they’ll end up hurting me”)
We live in a fallen world. Life on this side of the new earth is not going to be perfect for any of us. But still. We make life too easy for Satan. We either don’t take him seriously enough (naivety) or take him way too seriously (paranoia). But far too many Christians are not aware of the fact that the “fight” between God and Satan is not a fight between two equal opponents. God is far stronger than Satan, and he does not want his beloved children to live in captivity. We were bought at a huge price when Jesus died for us. And he bought complete freedom from us. We do not have to live in captivity here in the world. But Satan has a couple of different strategies when it comes to human beings. He prefers to keep people away from God so they will eternally be lost (this week’s speaker, Pastor Bob Forseth from the United States stated that approximately 150.000 people die and are eternally lost every single day!! The greatest of all tragedies, but one that is never reported on...!)
What do we spend time on in the Church?
I’m really angry at the Church for not doing enough. Or not doing a good enough job. I’m angry at us (myself included!) for spending so much time debating little issues such as baptism and other minor theological soap box-issues, this or that strategy for this or that project, budgets, types of music, etc. instead of focusing on helping people to see freedom in Christ. It doesn’t help you at all to have all the head knowledge in the world about God as your loving father. It doesn’t help you at all to sing beautiful worship songs about God’s love. It doesn’t help you at all to witness right and left about how much God loves everybody. It doesn’t help.....if that’s not what you truly believe! I have a very simple definition: “You truly believe what you believe when the door is closed and you are all alone with yourself and your thoughts”. What you believe in that situation is what forms your life. It’s not what you profess in public or what you repeat somebody else has said. That won’t help you. You can’t live in somebody else’s understanding of love. You can’t live in somebody else’s freedom. And this is what we as churches should focus on. Jesus announced at the beginning of his public ministry that he had come to “ (...)preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4, 18-19). Preach good news....Proclaim freedom....Freedom should be our message. Jesus put it this way in John 8, 31-32: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.
Freedom!
Freedom is more than freedom from eternal death. Freedom is freedom in life. Freedom is not about freedom to do stupidities and be free to stay as far as way from God as possible. Freedom is not a license to sin. But true freedom in Christ is freedom to live in victory over sin. Freedom in Christ is freedom to work through the things that have hurt us and will hurt us and choose to walk in the freedom that Christ has won for us. Freedom is a way of living. Freedom is choosing every day to say: I know who I am. I am God’s beloved son (/daughter) and today I’m going to walk in that freedom with him!
That’s what our churches should be known as. Houses of freedom. People should come to our churches, and we should help them to a life in freedom through pointing to Christ as the giver of all true freedom. Life here on Planet Earth hurts, but we don’t have to be held down by the different blows we all receive. We don’t have to believe lies about who God is, about who we are and how God sees us. We can know God’s love and freedom in the deepest hurts of our lives. There is no relationship or hurt that is beyond God’s repair, if we surrender to him, and let his healing power work in us and among us.
I could go on for many pages about this subject, since it’s very close to my heart. I hope and pray that if I meet these dear DTS-students in five years from now they’re living in their freedom and helping others to live in freedom. If that’s the case then discipleship training is worth all the effort. I don’t want the students to have a notebook with cool-sounding notes and a bunch of spiritual stories to impress their friends with. I want to see changed hearts. Hearts that are being set more and more free to live for Christ wherever they are and whatever they do.
I want my life, and the lives of the students, to measure up as closely as possible to God’s sovereign and holy plumb line. Not because of our great efforts, but because we live in the freedom that Christ has won for us, and because we believe who God says he is, who he says we are and how he says he views us.
The week was about the lies we as Christians still believe. It was about the different building blocks in the walls all of us build which separate us from true freedom and intimacy with God. And it was about ministry, healing and restoration of truth. It was a powerful week. The lecturers did a very good job explaining the different lies we believe and where these come from. And that’s what made me mad that week. I got really angry. At Satan. And at the Church.
I’m angry at Satan for being so good at doing his job. I’m angry that he’s so excellent at stealing, killing and destroying (John 10, 10). I’m so angry at how good he is at deceiving and paralyzing God’s children so that even though they’re saved and born-again-Christians they are also more or less completely useless to the Kingdom of God, because they are held back by fear and lies about God and about how God sees them.
Passive parents, sin and abuse
The students were openheartedly sharing stories about how passive parents, bad father figures, mockery in school, insecurities about being too fat or too beautiful (!), legalistic theology at church, sexual sins and all kinds of other things have happened to them that have made them A: hate themselves, B: not trust God, C: not trust other people completely (“they’ll end up hurting me”)
We live in a fallen world. Life on this side of the new earth is not going to be perfect for any of us. But still. We make life too easy for Satan. We either don’t take him seriously enough (naivety) or take him way too seriously (paranoia). But far too many Christians are not aware of the fact that the “fight” between God and Satan is not a fight between two equal opponents. God is far stronger than Satan, and he does not want his beloved children to live in captivity. We were bought at a huge price when Jesus died for us. And he bought complete freedom from us. We do not have to live in captivity here in the world. But Satan has a couple of different strategies when it comes to human beings. He prefers to keep people away from God so they will eternally be lost (this week’s speaker, Pastor Bob Forseth from the United States stated that approximately 150.000 people die and are eternally lost every single day!! The greatest of all tragedies, but one that is never reported on...!)
What do we spend time on in the Church?
I’m really angry at the Church for not doing enough. Or not doing a good enough job. I’m angry at us (myself included!) for spending so much time debating little issues such as baptism and other minor theological soap box-issues, this or that strategy for this or that project, budgets, types of music, etc. instead of focusing on helping people to see freedom in Christ. It doesn’t help you at all to have all the head knowledge in the world about God as your loving father. It doesn’t help you at all to sing beautiful worship songs about God’s love. It doesn’t help you at all to witness right and left about how much God loves everybody. It doesn’t help.....if that’s not what you truly believe! I have a very simple definition: “You truly believe what you believe when the door is closed and you are all alone with yourself and your thoughts”. What you believe in that situation is what forms your life. It’s not what you profess in public or what you repeat somebody else has said. That won’t help you. You can’t live in somebody else’s understanding of love. You can’t live in somebody else’s freedom. And this is what we as churches should focus on. Jesus announced at the beginning of his public ministry that he had come to “ (...)preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4, 18-19). Preach good news....Proclaim freedom....Freedom should be our message. Jesus put it this way in John 8, 31-32: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.
Freedom!
Freedom is more than freedom from eternal death. Freedom is freedom in life. Freedom is not about freedom to do stupidities and be free to stay as far as way from God as possible. Freedom is not a license to sin. But true freedom in Christ is freedom to live in victory over sin. Freedom in Christ is freedom to work through the things that have hurt us and will hurt us and choose to walk in the freedom that Christ has won for us. Freedom is a way of living. Freedom is choosing every day to say: I know who I am. I am God’s beloved son (/daughter) and today I’m going to walk in that freedom with him!
That’s what our churches should be known as. Houses of freedom. People should come to our churches, and we should help them to a life in freedom through pointing to Christ as the giver of all true freedom. Life here on Planet Earth hurts, but we don’t have to be held down by the different blows we all receive. We don’t have to believe lies about who God is, about who we are and how God sees us. We can know God’s love and freedom in the deepest hurts of our lives. There is no relationship or hurt that is beyond God’s repair, if we surrender to him, and let his healing power work in us and among us.
I could go on for many pages about this subject, since it’s very close to my heart. I hope and pray that if I meet these dear DTS-students in five years from now they’re living in their freedom and helping others to live in freedom. If that’s the case then discipleship training is worth all the effort. I don’t want the students to have a notebook with cool-sounding notes and a bunch of spiritual stories to impress their friends with. I want to see changed hearts. Hearts that are being set more and more free to live for Christ wherever they are and whatever they do.
I want my life, and the lives of the students, to measure up as closely as possible to God’s sovereign and holy plumb line. Not because of our great efforts, but because we live in the freedom that Christ has won for us, and because we believe who God says he is, who he says we are and how he says he views us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)