30,000 Kids a Day, times 2 = ?

Christians for a long time have defined themselves by what they do not do. For many evangelicals this means that they have come out of a church background that reminds them that they aren’t to drink, smoke, gamble, sleep around, etc. But more often than not, the church has been so busy telling them what they shouldn’t be doing that they haven’t also emphasized those things that they should be acting out.

It comes down to the biblical teaching on sin. There traditionally have been considered two types of sin by theologians throughout church history-sins of commission (acts that go against God’s character) and sins of omission (not acting in a situation where God’s Word would have us act).

For many believers, it’s easy to make sure that we aren’t doing (committing) those things that are sinful. But it makes people uncomfortable to talk to them about the parts of the gospel that they aren’t doing (omitting). No one wants to hear about the things that they aren’t doing well-we all want to hear about the stuff that we have already mastered.

When a church has traditionally been strong on points of righteousness and truth, they have been emphasizing the biblical commandments against commission of sin. Most think of fundamentals and evangelicals in this category, who choose to enter the public and political arena to debate morality in areas of abortion and homosexuality. Like William Wilberforce, who chose to use his life fighting to outlaw slavery, these believers are doing battle to stop the commission of sin in our country.

When a church has traditionally been strong on points of justice and mercy, they have been emphasizing the biblical ideals of acting in a positive way as Christ would in a situation-not omitting the act of love, mercy or justice (yes, this should also include confrontation of sin). Most think of liberals and progressives in this category, main-line churches and denominations that try to do good deeds in the name of Jesus. Like Mother Teresa, who chose to give her life in loving the poor and oppressed in Calcutta, these believers are passionate about the acts that believers should be living out.

This is the testing ground for churches as we move deeper into the 21st century. The question isn’t if your church is cool enough, trendy enough, or if it has great music and media. The question has now become, can you balance the two? Can you be just as concerned about the poor and oppressed as you are about the unborn and the gays? Can you be just as concerned about living a holy life as you are about the AIDS victims in Africa? Because in the end, it isn’t an either/or issue. It’s a both/and issue.

30,000 kids are dying each day from starvation-a completely preventable problem. And 30,000 kids are being aborted on average every day worldwide-a completely preventable problem. And because we are believers who value life-both of these statistics should hurt our heart because of the sanctity of life. Unfortunately, most churches have chosen only one of these problems to care about while ignoring the other. I hope that you will see the injustice in both-the results of the sins of commission and omission.

The Information Age

If we would take a moment to look around, we would see that we are in the middle of a period in history where information is being gathered, traded, and esteemed above almost everything else. We consume information at an incredible pace, almost at the point where our comprehension is at an all-time low.

Newspapers, radio, television, Google, Myspace, internet news sites. All places that are dealers of the new drug called ‘information.’ And my fear is that the church has also joined their ranks.

We laud the person who has memorized the longest chapter in the Bible, and ignore the one who is daily carrying their cross and following their Savior. We award those who can recite the 66 books of the Bible in order yet forget the ones who have embraced humility and crucified their pride.

An information overload in the church? It’s the newest sermon series or the newest book from our favorite author. And may I say, it’s the new blog post. These things aren’t bad at all. It’s simply more information about the same message. It would be easy (and hypocritical) to claim that we don’t need more books, blogs or sermons. But the truth is, we need more people to follow the Scriptures that have been taught and revealed for centuries. G.K. Chesterson was right when he wrote “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

I’m concerned that we have simply substituted knowing about something or someone with actual relationship. You can take someone who knows all your favorite things, what you think, what you like, and where you hang out. Inside of a great relationship where there are conversations and time spent together we call that person a best friend. But if that knowledge is gained outside of a relationship we call that person a stalker.

And I’m afraid that many of us are turning into God-stalkers. Doing, serving, attending, learning and knowing. These aren’t bad, but without a relationship they are meaningless. Relationships are two way streets that involve both people getting to know each other and that includes shared memories and inside jokes.

This is the crossroads we discover in Luke 13. Jesus is teaching about the narrow way and He teaches us that when the Master closes the door so that no one else may enter, those who are knocking are claiming that they have eaten in His presence and listened to His teachings. And His answer is one of the more sober phrases in the Gospels-

“I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. (Luke 13:27)”

Did you notice that the question isn’t how well we know Him? His gauge is how well He knows us, which can only be measured by time spent together. And in the information age, time is a precious commodity because we spend most of our time consuming information. And we follow a Savior that in His omniscience knows all the information that ever has existed, yet values a relationship with us above all else.

Will we do the same and value our relationship with Him above all else? Can He say that He knows us?

Labels-the first part.

Have you ever reached the point in your life where you are tired of being labeled by something? Where you felt like you were more than that one thing that everyone else saw?

I heard an interesting piece of trivia a few months ago that really stuck with me. I have no idea if it's true, but think with me on this one.....In Britain, it is considered extremely rude to ask someone in conversation what they do for a living. And the reason is this: if someone is sitting at a pub next to someone else, their opinion should be equal to the other, no matter what the pay scale or job title. They should be able to talk politics, religion, or whatever without any labels-while simply just being people. Unfortunately, in America that's one of the first questions we ask each other in conversation. And then we label each other based on that one attribute.

Labels-why do we concern ourselves so much with them? On clothes, cars, zip codes, neighborhoods, watches, jewelry-they dominate our thinking when it comes to spending our money. But what about the labels that we place on each other?

I was at Animal Kingdom a couple weeks ago, and I was taking a walking tour of some exotic animals, and I was standing in front of the Okapi area. I had never seen an Okapi before, and I have to say that it did look pretty wacky. For a picture, check here.

While I was amazed at the creativity of a God who made this animal, and made its DNA unique from anything else, a lady walked up behind me with her husband and after about 5 seconds said this. "Oh, this is just a half-horse, half-giraffe." And then they kept on WALKING!

I couldn't believe it! Here was an animal that has been transplanted from the other side of the world, and this woman labeled it and was immediately disinterested after 5 seconds. She didn't care to know any more about it-she had already put it in a group she thought she already grasped.

And guess what? We do the same thing, but with each other.

We tend to label people in order to categorize them into groups that we think we can easily understand. It keeps us feeling proud that we "know" someone without any depth of relationship. If we can label them with minimal effort, then we can tell ourselves that we already know what and how they think. And therefore, we don't have to spend any time getting to know them. It's horribly unhealthy and is part of the reason we don't have real relationships and community with each other often.

Labels are usually based on traits that we can't change like gender or race or nationality OR they have to do with skill sets (like job, hobby, and talent) and the result of the skill, which is job title and pay scale.

Labels tend to separate and divide. Think of your church-how do they separate groups? Marital status? Age? What happens is that we put people in groups with others who we think are just like them, and that somehow this creates good community. That somehow we can take this one attribute and figure out something about them. Think I'm wrong or weird yet? Try this....

Think of who you respect more: a plumber or a doctor? A nurse or a housewife? A minister or a construction worker? No matter what your answer is, it's based on a preconceived notion of what the label entails. Maybe you don't trust ministers. Maybe you think doctors are better because they went to school longer. Whatever the reason, it immediately separates and stereotypes people unfairly.

The label takes away the uniqueness of the individual. Like every snowflake, we are all different, and even though we are all under the label "human," we have forgotten how each one of us is completely unique from the others. We label each other. But the truth is we all hate to be labeled ourselves. We are very passionate about our own labels-we insist that we are more than just that label, right?

I would argue that Jesus purposed to act in such a way labels were clearly emphasized as wrong. He ate with labeled people, and in doing so, treated them as forgiven and equal. He freed a harlot from demonic oppression, and she became one of his closest followers. His 12 right hand men included tax collectors, fishermen, and construction workers. Blue collar, white collar, it didn't matter.

Jesus absolutely loved to use the people's preconceived ideas and stereotypes based on labels, and flip them around. (A few examples? The Good Samaritan, Lazarus and the rich man, the woman at the well). He took labels and showed people that they couldn't generalize based on any of them. He showed that our own stereotypes only point out our own hypocrisy.

The ideas Jesus proposed were so opposite to the world and the culture He was living in. He never joined the popular revolution and rebelled against Rome. Instead, He took the labels that got the most glory and respect and pointed out the obvious hypocrisies and weaknesses. He actually never spoke against the wickedness of Rome. He spoke against the religious establishment and told parables about their lack of heart. He spoke of their pride and their religiosity regularly, which ultimately led to his execution.

As people who carry the name of Christ, what can we learn from this? As we walk this journey with God to become more like Him, what should happen?

The beauty of the kingdom of God is that labels don't matter anymore. They don't help you or hinder you with God. For example, God truly loves the poor, but he loves the rich just as much. Being one or the other doesn't help or hinder you when it comes to His love. It's the idea that God doesn't look upon our labels. He doesn't need to subgroup us into categories in order to understand us.

Just remember that He loves you very much, and He thinks you are more than your label. Whatever people have thought about you, whatever term they use to describe you-you are more than that one thing. Whether it is black, white, Hispanic, nerdy, athletic, lonely, weird, rich, or whatever-you are loved by Him, and He knows who you are. Not based on outward categories or attributes-He loves you for you, and knows your heart, the real you, and loves you anyways.

Gal. 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Col. 3:11
In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.