Self inflicted wounds

Posted on September 16, 2015 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

“But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.” (Ezekiel 36:21, ESV)

What did the nation of Israel do to profane God’s name? In reading the Old Testament prophets I find these themes recurring:

They allowed the surrounding culture to corrupt their worship of the one true God.
They ignored Scriptural commands when they conflicted with their material gain or personal pleasure.
They became unconcerned about social justice issues.

Let’s be honest. On a personal level and as a group we struggle with these same issues. The very first temptation began with the words, “Did God really say . . .” and we have struggled to obey ever since.

My observation of Christendom in 2015 is that we sometimes profane the name of God by misrepresenting him in our dealings with those outside the church. We are seen as judgmental and unforgiving by much of the populace. As a group, we can be quick to denounce and slow to forgive. A cursory internet search will provide numerous examples of condemnation and “holier-than-thou” nonsense coming from Christians. The nonsense is not only targeted at non-Christians, we have a tendency to condemn other Christians over the slightest provocation.

When those outside the church criticize our lack of love and hypocrisy, we respond as if we are being persecuted. But much of the perceived “persecution” is self-inflicted. We are rightly condemned by the culture around us when we fail to represent Jesus well.

We will fix this when we become less concerned about our own reputations and more concerned about God’s name. We need to be less inclined to misrepresent God to the people who do not claim a relationship with him.

In John 17:1 Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you . . .” Jesus was all about bringing glory to the father.

The next time you feel like going on a rant about your pet issue, ask yourself these questions:

Who gets the glory? Am I concerned about my reputation or am I concerned about people recognizing the glory of God?
Does my action misrepresent the character of God as displayed in Jesus?

I keep coming back to the fact that the only group toward which Jesus was harsh were the Pharisees. Jesus was harsh with them because they should have known better.

They say that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I agree and freely admit that I have a long way to go and God has a lot of work to do in me so that I can more accurately reflect the character of God. So, this post is not in condemnation of anyone.

What this post is intended to condemn is unrighteous anger, stony hearts and self-righteousness. All of which I put on display at the most inopportune times.

Perhaps if we all look in the mirror and admit that we fail to accurately represent God, we could then begin the process of restoring the damage and show people in 2015 AD why the Jesus who walked the Earth was so appealing to people in 30 AD.

On hypocrisy in the church

Posted on September 7, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 6 Comments

The Charge of hypocrisy

One common criticism of the church is that it is full of hypocrites, people who say one thing and do another. The problem with countering this criticism is that it is true. If we are honest, we will have to admit that none of us lives up to our own standard of behavior, let alone the standard set before us in Scripture. We all practice some level of hypocrisy in that there is a gap between what we know to be right behavior and how we actually live. I call this the belief gap.

The question is not whether there is a gap between belief and practice, the important question is whether members of the church are actively seeking God for the purpose of closing that gap.

The church is not alone

I feel the need to point out that the church does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy. In every sphere of human activity a higher standard of behavior is held than is lived. The gap between stated belief and actual practice is no less a problem outside the church than in it. Hypocrisy seems to be a universal problem.

The point of this post is not to excuse hypocrisy in the church, it is right to condemn it. The point is that we should evaluate a system on how effective it is in narrowing the belief gap.

The response

One way of narrowing the gap is to reduce the standard. If we have lower expectations, if we reduce the standard to the lowest common denominator, then perhaps the belief gap will be closed.

In western society, we have lowered our standards for what is considered decent and respectable. A short stint at channel surfing in the evening will produce ample evidence of the lowering of standards. It may be accurate to say the belief gap has been narrowed by this method, but are we willing to say that individuals and society are better off with the lower standard?

The other way to go about closing the gap is to seek help from outside. This is the Christian way. We seek the help of God to be better tomorrow than we are today. As John Newton so nicely puts it

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

Jude identifies Jesus as the one who is able to close the belief gap by growing us closer to the standard. Jude writes:

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24–25, NASB)

If we, as Christians, are right about who Jesus is and if we stand in relationship to him, we have the hope of one day standing in his presence as blameless. Then, and only then, will the belief gap be finally closed.

Amen!

Yes, that is a log in my eye, thank-you

Posted on August 2, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 8 Comments

The Illustration

Jesus was not opposed to using humor to get his point across. One of his funniest illustrations is the story of the beam and the speck. This illustration is found in Matthew 7:3-5.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?’ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ‘You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.’ (Matthew 7:3–5, NASB)

The log-eye is me

We’ve all been the log-eye at one time or another. I think that Jesus gave us this story so that we can be reminded that we have the tendency to see others’ faults and ignore our own. We are reminded of this fault so that we can recognize it and take corrective action when it surfaces.

Those who seldom or never see themselves as the one with the log are a problem. They are dangerous and often used by Satan to sow confusion and disharmony wherever they go within the Church.

How do you know when you’re being a log-eye? I thought of three types of behavior that are indications that a log-eye is in operation. If one of these describes your behavior, then it is likely that you are a log-eye:

The inspector– These are the ones that are happy to do a “fruit inspection” on you and give a detailed analysis of where you are wrong. This is sometimes done under the guise of helping you toward spiritual maturity.
The lecturer– These are the ones that will use what ever shortcoming you might have as the pretext for a lecture. The lecture usually includes how the log-eye had your fault and overcame it.
The manager – These are the ones who find your problem before you do and give you detailed instructions on how to fix your problem. These instructions will sometimes include memorization of verses that speak to your fault. After all, how can Scripture memorization be a bad thing?

The Fix

The fix for being a log-eye is to ask forgiveness from the one whose speck we tried to remove. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:23 that if we are going to worship and remember that someone has something against us we are to stop everything and seek reconciliation.

As a preventive measure we need to follow the Apostle Paul’s advice in Philippians 2:3 where he presents humility as the means of building and preserving unity. When we are humble, we are more likely to see our log and be willing to have it dealt with before we go hunting for specks.

So before you try to remove your brother’s speck, read Philippians 2:3 and look in the mirror.

Care to add any types of log-eyes that I missed?

Numbering our days: a reflection on Psalm 90

Posted on July 14, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Beyond a temporal understanding

I have been reading through the Psalms. Recently I came to Psalm 90 where it says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) This is a verse that has often been quoted, usually in the sense of expressing urgency to get busy in doing work for the Kingdom of God. In this understanding, the emphasis is on the fleeting nature of time and how we have, on average, some 70 years to accomplish things for God before life comes to an end.

If this is the correct understanding of this verse, wisdom would dictate that we discover our calling and work hard at accomplishing the most in the time we have allotted. Ephesians 5:15-16 would seem to support this understanding when Paul writes:

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

I have even heard it said that we should keep a running countdown of the days until our 70^th birthday so that we can be aware of how much time we have left to work for the Kingdom. While the countdown is not a bad idea, I think that it does not capture the whole point of the prayer in the context of the Psalm. Awareness of the brevity of our days has benefit, but the focus should not be on what we plan on accomplishing but upon what God wants to accomplish through us.

Obedience is the key

Moving a few verses back in the Psalm, it can be seen that the context of the prayer is God’s judgment against Israel for their rebellion. In verse 8 it says, “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.” In other words we are to live with the understanding that we are under the scrutiny of God and as a result, we must have an understanding of our finite nature and respond to God properly. It is not our temporal awareness that is in question, but our ability to obey.

In reading the rest of the Psalm I have a sense that some of the anger at the nation of Israel was due to presumption on their part. They presumed upon God’s tolerance and as a result they reaped God’s anger. Can we not do the same? We can be busy doing all sorts of things and convince ourselves that we are doing it for God. Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees for this type of hypocrisy. The question is not whether we are busy, the question is are we being responsive to God?

On the basis of this, I see Psalm 90:12 as a request to help us understand our finiteness rather than an encouragement to pack in as much in our 70 years as possible. The lesson we learn from Matthew 7:21-23 is that activity is not the cause for reward, relationship with Jesus Christ is. This prayer is not a call to busyness or activity, it is a call to submission to God.

It is God’s plan

I do not for a minute buy into the argument that there is something that God needs me to do and I am the only one to do it. Yes, God allows me to participate in the accomplishment of his will but my rebellion or incompetence cannot derail his plan. I do not have to race the clock to get something accomplished for God. This is freeing if I allow it to be.

What I do need to do is bring my finite understanding to God and seek him for what I should be about today. Do we really believe Jesus when he said take not thought for tomorrow? I don’t need to plan out what I need to accomplish for God, I need to do what he has asked me to do today. God will take care of the years moving forward if I simply submit each day to him.