Bullies Must Die - A Violent Christianity

“It is easier to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own.” John Flavel

Psalm 120:7
I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

There is a certain violence in Christianity - and it is the death of self and all that goes with it. Christ speaks of it when He says that He came not to bring peace, but a sword. (Matt. 10:34) He is saying that there will be a violent, spiritual separation of the true believer from his sinful ways (and the means to those ways.) When Nadab and Abihu tried to compromise the initial sacrificial system, they were violently taken out. When Ananias and Sapphira tried to bring compromise into the church, they were violently 'separated' from the flock. When Simon tried to bring the purchase of spirituality into the church, he was violently rebuked by Peter. When Christ Himself found the moneychangers in the Temple, He fashioned a whip and violently put an end to it. And when God tells us to get into His Word, He tells us that it will be like a sword, violently cutting to the core of our being. (Hebrews 4:12)

I think we need to define 'violence' in a way that makes sense. Because spiritual violence is all through the teachings of Christ. So where do we stand with that? All I know is what I experience in my own walk: that unless something or SOMEONE violently enters in and rips out my pagan heart that is hell-bent on spiritual adultery and the things of the world, then I simply am not changing. I am so grateful that Christ did this - brutally - when I was crucified with Him. (Romans 6). I would not have done this on my own. Bullies never leave on their own.

Where this applies in the physical world, I don't know. I suggest you read Dave Capozzi's blog on this matter and some of the responses. It's a great discussion. For me, it's a spiritual battle and I have spiritual bullies constantly attacking me and my experience with bullies is that they must be taken down, they are never talked down. How does this relate to the 'bullies' of the world in Hitler/Stalin/Hussein, etc and what is the appropriate Christian response to that? That's another blog for another day.

I'm directing this posting to the spiritual battle. I have to tell you - if you want victory, you must allow Christ to violently enter the Temple of your soul and crack the whip and clear out all of the compromises, all of the buying and selling that you enter into on a daily basis. Your sinful nature will never leave your heart on its own accord. Again - bullies must die. I cry, as David did, that I am a man of peace. That is the way I want to live. However - as he continues to say: But when I speak - they are for war. And just as he had to physically removed them from his kingdom, so we have to remove our spiritual enemies.

Random Thoughts

Just a sampling of some things working through my brain:

• The Cutting Edge

Books. Videos. Methods. "30- Days." "Everything Must Change." Global. Local. Relevance.

I think the desire to be on the "cutting edge" is a trap for Christians. The cutting edge is wherever a lost person resides. Spend enough time praying for someone and interceding for them and you are in the most radical place on earth. You don't need a book or a method or a video series to get there.

• "But God Has Shown Me" (Acts 10:28)

Note: This is the passage in which God tells Peter to go to the house of Cornelius.

Wait a minute . . . . Peter had already been filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, and had subsequent 'fillings' as the Spirit moved through the world. Why then, did he need to be shown anything, let alone something as basic as human rights? The Gentiles were part of the PLAN, they weren't outsiders. You mean to tell me that a Spirit-filled man didn't automatically know that?

How is this relevant? Well, one of the slams against our American Christian culture is the ignorance of issues such as slavery, racism, poverty, homelessness, etc. They wonder how these problems continue while " great awakenings" occur. But listen - - - Spirit-filled Christians still need to be led outside of their understanding to see truths that in retrospect appear to be self-evident. It may take a vision of God that rocks you to the core (like Peter). While I'm not excusing this ignorance, be careful about making claims against Christians who don't understand every cultural inequality that exists while Christianity rambles on.

Peter, a man filled with the Spirit, who walked with Christ - still needed to be led outside to see a major truth of Scripture and a basic human need.

• Come To Your Senses

One of the things about the Levitical sacrificial system that I envy is their engagement of all of their senses in worship. The sights, the sounds, the smells - even the taste of these sacrifices brought them to a greater understanding of all that was going on. They could literally rip apart the sacrifice, smell the aroma (and the stench), taste the meal, hear the noises of the animals.

How can we engage in that now? As physical creatures, it's important to retain the physical aspect of worship. Many look for this re-engagement through experiential Christianity and tongues and healings and slayings of the Spirit. This is their entire focus - which is understandable considering our basic need for sensory experience.

But we are now called to a spiritual sacrifice. I think we can still have the full-body Christian experience - but it happens when we follow Romans 12:1,2 and sacrifice our entire beings to His will. It's a different kind of sacrifice. It puts us back into the world with all of its sights/sounds/smells/tastes. Interacting with the beauty and filth and all that goes along with both. With people. That's about as sensory as it gets.

• Movable Ramps

We are building a ramp at CBC that will be movable in case of expansion. We don't want to be locked in because we need to be ready to move if God moves.

I hope that in our spiritual walk we have the same mindset. Certain things are foundational, but others should be movable ramps. They should help lead us into worship, but ready to be cast off as He moves. Music styles, traditions, and the like are great as they lead us into worship. But they must be movable. The problem is that our church culture is quick to break down the foundations (Christ alone, inerrancy of Scripture, depravity of man) and hold fast to their movable ramps.

• The End of the Relationship

What if you were one week away from the end of your life - and you found your one true love? How would you feel about that? Would you be incredibly happy or would you feel a deep sense of loss - or a combination of both? I think that there would be deep regret over the loss of the years that you had missed.

Then why do we think that people 'have it all' when they live their entire lives apart from Jesus and then find Him at the very end? They have missed everything! I don't envy them. They've missed years with the love of their life.

Also, the more you love someone, the more you want to know everything about them. Imagine finding the journal of your one true love - wouldn't you devour it from cover to cover, to soak in all their thoughts, their dreams, their plans? It would be your treasured possession, gaining intimate glimpses into their heart. Why is it any different with His Word?

I think that we simply are not in love enough with Christ if we imagine that people who get saved at the end of their life "have it all" or when we don't see the absolute joy of digging into His thoughts. Honestly - I just love Him so much that I couldn't fathom waiting to the end of my life to find Him and His Word.

Humble Stoop

I Corinthians 8:11 "So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge."

I read an interesting article about Sandra Day O'Connor. It seems her husband of 54 years is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and is in a nursing home. . . where he has found himself a girlfriend! He can't remember his marriage, so he has responded to this woman that he has just met. Now here's the kicker: Every day she goes to visit - and sits with the two of them. She knows that his level of understanding doesn't allow him to remember their relationship. But for his peace - she sacrifices her deeper knowledge.

This is an incredible act of submission - when you forfeit your "higher knowledge" and stoop to the level of understanding of a fellow Christian so that they may be at peace. Instead of spending our time proving our greater understanding, instead of reveling in our freedom in Christ, imagine if we looked at our weaker brother and humbly put aside everything and allowed him to sit in the peace of his limited knowledge. Without bitterness, without regret, without even the motivation of thinking how great we are for doing this.

Christ did exactly that for us. While we were dead in our sins, sitting in the darkness of our limited understand of Him, He came and died for us. He broke into our ignorance, and stooped to our level of understanding, and opened our eyes to the Truth. That is such an amazing act of love that I can't believe we would ever turn around and harm a brother for whom He also died.

We really aren't that smart in the first place, and any knowledge that is worth anything comes from Him, so what is the source of our pride in the first place?