Getting caught in the blame game – Part 2

Posted on March 9, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

This is a continuation of Getting caught in the blame game – Part 1

The fact that we are inclined to blame others is an indication of the guilt (sometime legitimate, sometimes illegitimate) or disappointment that seems to be the universal condition.

The Judeo-Christian world view does provide an answer to the question of why humans have a sense of why life should be different than it is. The Bible also provides the answer as to why we feel the need to blame others when things don’t turn out the way we like.

If you go to the Bible, you will find the answer in Genesis Chapter 3, where the first rebellion against God is recorded. If you read this chapter, please note how Adam and Eve responded when confronted with their sin.

Our first forebears tried to blame others for their behavior. Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the serpent. When Adam reminded God that Eve was a gift, Adam was essentially blaming God also. We have been blaming others ever since this first sin. We struggle to face up to our own failings and then look to blame others for the mess we find ourselves in.

The problem with blaming is that the person who blames others does not understand that many of his wounds are self inflicted. It is not until we stop blaming others that we begin to see that we cause many of our own problems. I understand that the human psyche is complex and that there is difficulty in understanding what prompts us to blame. We do irrational things when we act out of our woundedness. Yet, we must face up to our own failings.

I’m not saying that any of this is easy. Our desire to blame others is inherent to our humanity. Yet growth requires that we face this tendency and work toward healing.

Not only does the Bible provide a diagnosis of the problem, it also provides the solution to the problem of blaming others. Scripture indicates that the antidote to guilt is righteousness. Furthermore, the Bible tells us that this righteousness is not something that we can generate on our own. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:16-17:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Paul tells us that the gospel is the good news of how to be relieved of the guilt associated with our failures. The gospel contains the power to bring that righteousness to those who believe it.

Later in the book of Romans Paul pens the freeing words, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). In the absence of condemnation, we should have the confidence to get our guilt out in the open and get it dealt with. We know we will be forgiven, so why do we hang on to the guilt? Why do we continue to blame?

Love – not busyness or programs

Posted on March 6, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

So much of church life in America is centered on busyness, programs and meetings, that it is possible to lose sight of what is really important. There is a danger of losing our focus. Paul tells us that our focus should be love.

Part of the danger is the great need that is within and without the church. People are becoming increasingly battered by life choices that are validated by the culture but prove to be damaging to the individual. There is much to do.

Yet the danger is that we take this on in our own strength and move ahead of God and without realizing it, supplant what God is trying to do.

In the opening verses of Philippians, Paul lets us know how he prayed for that church. In Phil. 1:9-11 Paul prays that the Philippians’ love might abound in knowledge and discernment. He did not pray for their busyness to abound. Nor did he pray for their programs to abound; he prayed for their love to abound.

He further qualifies this statement by praying specifically that the love would abound in knowledge and discernment. This is not a squishy, emotional love. Paul desires that the Philippians (and we) would have a love based on truth and good judgment. Our love must make the object be well not just feel well.

The purpose of this love is so that we might approve the things that are excellent, be sincere, not give offense and might be filled with the fruits of righteousness. Love is the basis on which all these things depend. Our love should work itself out in a life that is worth emulating.

I was reminded recently that it is very possible to be so busy doing good things that we miss out on opportunities to really convey love. When this happens, it is like being on a treadmill. A lot of activity takes place, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

How many times have we had to have 20 second greetings in the church lobby because we have to rush to pick up a child, provide child care, cover the coffee ministry, the library ministry or some other activity? We have sign-ups and schedules and coverage charts which need to be updated and communicated. These are all good things, but the breathless activity often makes it difficult to deepen relationships.

I get the sense from the gospels that even though the needs surrounding Jesus were great, he still found time for teaching his disciples. He found time to share meals with tax collectors. He found time to be alone with his father.

Maybe we need to cut “ministries” rather than adding them. We certainly need a lot more love and perhaps a few less programs. Rather than rushing off to that “ministry” post, we should take the time to really minister to the person next to us in the pew. We could use a little less superficiality and a little more honesty.

Take a deep breath, relax and be real.

The God of new beginnings and second chances

Posted on March 1, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Failure is a part of daily life. The best we can do is to keep the failures small, but failures they are none-the-less.

The question is not whether we will fail, but how we will respond to failure.

Every motivational speaker will tell you that the best way to respond to failure is to pick yourself up and keep moving. Learn from the failure and move forward. There is some truth to this. Yet our moral failures require more than just getting up and trying again.

Even a casual reading of the Sermon on the Mount will provide the understanding that from God’s point of view, sin is an internal process that sometimes works it’s way into outward behavior. The sin of lust can sometimes lead to adultery. Inappropriate anger can sometimes lead to murder. The moral failure happens before the external action.

The Bible records the colossal failures of some of the heroes of the faith. Abraham twice lied about his wife and nearly caused international incidents on both occasions. Isaac perpetrated the same lie about his wife with similar result. David committed adultery and covered it up with murder. Peter denied Jesus three times. Paul began his career as a bounty hunter bringing Christians to persecution and death.

All of these men, like us, have experienced failure. They each have also experienced forgiveness and restoration. They were in relationship with the God of second chances. God promises to forgive when we confess and repent (1 John 1:9).

The restoration of Peter in John chapter 21 is illustrative of this. Not only did Jesus restore Peter to fellowship, he gave him a ministry of caring for the church that was about to be born. Tend my lambs is what Jesus commanded Peter to do. Jesus did not excuse Peter’s behavior but gave him the opportunity to move beyond it. Not only did he get to move beyond it, he was also able to be a key figure in the growth of the early church.

I should point out that the major difference between the Peter of the courtyard (Matthew 26:69-75) and Peter the street preacher (Acts 2:14 ff) is that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples (including Peter) and empowered them for ministry.

God uses our failures to help us to learn humility and dependence upon him. This humility and dependence is the foundation on which the ministry can then be built. Perhaps failure is the only sure path to humility.

Since our God is the God of second chances and he has given us the opportunity for restoration, we need to be the people of second chances. Being the knuckleheads we sometimes are, we are bound to hurt each other. When this happens we need to forgive as Paul instructs to do in Ephesians 4:32 which reads, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” We are to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Too often in the church, people are labeled as a result of some event in their lives and not allowed to recover from that failure. Unfortunately there is some truth in the criticism that the “church is the only organization that shoots its wounded.”

There is nothing so heinous that cannot be forgiven by God and we should not be slow to practice that same forgiveness. My guess is that if we did a better job of forgiving, our stress level would go down and our church attendance would go up.

Toward being a peacemaker

Posted on February 28, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Toward being a peacemaker – #11 in the Sermon on the Mount Series

Blessed are the peacemakers

According to the Bible, human history began in peace and will end in peace. The middle part has been a little rough.

John Lennon asked us to give peace a chance, but how can we do this? Even if you define peace as the absence of war, humanity does not have a very good track record. According to Will Durant, out of 3421 years of documented history, there were only 268 years without war at the time of his writing. That means that roughly 92.2% of the time, some part of the globe was in open hostility. With the rise of Islamic unrest in the Middle East, this percentage is likely to rise rather than fall. Human history cannot bear out any assertion that man is capable of producing peace, John Lennon notwithstanding.

To be a peacemaker first requires that one be at peace. Even Muddy Waters knows that you can’t give away “what you ain’t never had.” Man has not been at peace since our initial rebellion against God as recorded in Genesis 3. Beginning with that initial rebellion, man has been at war with God, his neighbors, his world and himself. The external conflict is a product of the conflict within. Until that internal conflict is resolved, there is no chance of anything better than a superficial peace.

Paul tells us in Romans 5:1 that the path to peace with God is through Jesus Christ. It is by being justified by faith in Jesus that peace can be obtained. This is the first step to being a peacemaker in the sense that Jesus presents in Matthew 5:9.

In 2 Corinthians 13:11 Paul tells us to “rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” Elsewhere Paul tells us to live in peace with one another (1 Thess. 5:13).

If we accept God’s provision in Jesus Christ for fixing the vertical relationship with God, it will then allow us to work on the horizontal relationships with our neighbors. I do not think that it is possible to over emphasize the two Great Commands that Jesus catalogs in Matthew 22:37-40. Love God; love your neighbor. They must be done in that order.

It seems obvious, in light of these verses that a peacemaker cannot be self-focused. I am not at peace with God or my neighbor when I am focused on my wants, my needs or even my rights. A true peacemaker is one who surrenders to God and trusts in him.

A peacemaker is one who is redeemed and justified by faith in Jesus Christ, who is actively developing his relationship with God and who is actively seeking to share that relationship with those around him. A peacemaker is one who takes seriously the call of Jesus to make disciples in Matthew 28:19-20. For it is only as a disciple that I can begin to know peace.

They will be called children of God

Paul tells us in Romans 8:14 that all who are being led by the Spirit of God, are sons of God. The author of Hebrews tells us that God disciplines us as sons (Hebrews 12:7).

By being in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we are adopted into God’s family. We have become sons and daughters and will be treated as such. This verse emphasizes that one of the hallmarks of a son or daughter of God is that he or she will have a legacy of peacemaking. When we are at the end and stand before Jesus, we should be able to hear him point to that legacy as evidence of our relationship with him.

A call to action

Even as I write this, I am convicted that I do not take every opportunity to be a peacemaker that is presented to me. I am often self-focused, insensitive or insecure. To be a peacemaker, I should have a strong desire to share the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone who hasn’t heard it.

Not only does our peacemaking have a passive component, it should have an active component also. Let’s make it active and see what happens to our churches and our communities.