Shame on you . . .

Posted on November 25, 2015 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

I have previously written about how truth is the antidote for shame. In that post, there is some discussion about a shame based culture that exists within some churches. Shame is antithetical to the Gospel and should be rooted out of the church culture whenever it is discovered.

That being said, I have become increasingly aware of how I have been negatively affected by shame. This has been a process of discovering how deeply ingrained and how insidious shame can be. Recent awareness came in response to a few events that could not be considered moral failings, but produced shame in me.

The more silly of the events that caused shame happened on Saturday morning. I was up later than usual on Friday night and somehow slept through my alarm on Saturday. As a result, I was late for the Men’s Bible Study. Of course, I got some good natured teasing about being late.

later in the day I realized that being late tainted all of my interactions during and after the study. I felt obligated to explain why I was up late and how I must have turned down the volume on my alarm, etc. Feelings of letting people down led to feelings of shame. Shame lead to defensiveness.

Why should I feel shame at being late? There is no good answer to this because shame should not have played any role whatsoever. Perhaps it was a feeling that I set a bad example by being late. Perhaps it was just shame at failing at something (being on time). Perhaps it was because I felt that I had let my brothers down.

Whatever the cause, it inhibited my ability to interact with my brothers. It caused me to hold back in some interactions and to be defensive in others.

Call it shame, call it condemnation, whatever you call it, it should not have any effect on my self image or how I interact with others (Tweet This).

This is where the Gospel does its work. Jesus came to Zacchaeus’ house before he cleaned up his act. Jesus came to the woman at the well while she was still in an extramarital relationship. The Gospel dispels the illusion that we should clean ourselves up to come to Jesus. Furthermore the Gospel dispels the illusion that we even have the ability to clean ourselves up.

A proper understanding of our standing before God apart from Christ should make us realize that we are all equal at the foot of the cross.

This realization will displace shame wherever it is found. Like spiritual chemotherapy, the Gospel goes on a seek-and-destroy mission against shame.

For that I am grateful.

It has the ring of truth . . .

Posted on July 18, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 3 Comments

One of the things I enjoy about reading the Bible is how real the characters are. With the exception of Daniel and Jesus, we read stories of men and women who were seriously flawed but were used by God to bring about his will for humanity.

Moses had anger issues. Jacob was a conniver and a dad who played favorites among his children. Joseph flaunted his favored position over his brothers. David was an adulterer and tried to hide his sin by committing murder. Elijah won a great victory on Mount Carmel and then experienced depression and withdrawal from society. Peter, oh how I really appreciate Peter, would open his mouth and say the dumbest things. Saul, who became Paul, persecuted the church before he was converted. These are some of the better known stories, look at any Bible character and you will see greatness and folly juxtaposed.

Several responses come to mind when I consider the presentation of these flawed characters.

The flaws support the veracity of these stories. They seem to be true accounts with no varnish or cleanup, they have the ring of truth. Why do I suppose that the flaws point to the truth? It is because when I look at myself and the people around me, we are all a similar mixture of greatness and folly in differing proportions. These characters seem real because we can point to episodes in our own lives or those of the people we know where the same flaws have been displayed (OK, so I don’t personally know any murderers, but I have known some adulterers). Like Peter, I can be praising God in one breath and then saying something incredibly stupid in the next. I can catch the wave of elation as I see God work in someone’s life and then be overwhelmed by the ever presence of evil in the world.
I am encouraged by the admission that my forebears in the faith were all flawed. The fact that they were flawed did not nullify their usefulness to God, nor did it diminish God’s reciprocation of their love. Certainly, their final standing with God is dependent upon repentance and response in faith to God, just as it is with all believers through the ages. But I am comforted by the fact that moral failure was not the means of disqualifying them from receiving grace. In fact, in some cases, failure was the means God used to move the one who failed into deeper relationship. Think how Peter must have felt while having breakfast with Jesus on the shore after the resurrection. Bitterly aware of his failure, Peter discovers forgiveness and purpose for his life moving forward.
Like all good stories, the struggles of the characters force me to take a hard look at my own failures. The fact that these stories are true makes them even more poignant. These stories act as a mirror when we read them and they reflect back to us the areas in which we struggle to live in love and truth. Who can read the story of Jacob and not feel ashamed of his own attempts at inappropriate manipulation of his circumstances?

We are at the same time deeply flawed and deeply loved. Sometimes these are hard to reconcile, but both remain true. The good news is that we can make progress toward being less flawed, even in this life as Jesus brings cleansing and growth.

It may be slow progress, but any progress is a win.

Maybe true but hardly helpful

Posted on February 24, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 12 Comments

I tend to hang with people who subscribe to reformed theology, which emphasizes the sovereignty of God over his creation. This should not be too surprising given that I attend a PCA church. But one of the struggles that I have with such people is that sometimes truth is given in a way that is hardly helpful.

A friend of ours was in a Bible study with some other ladies where she expressed concern for her brother who is not a believer in Jesus. One of the ladies (I can only assume in an effort to be helpful) informed our friend that perhaps her brother is not one of the elect and will never believe in Jesus.

This is like saying to me, “tomorrow you could be diagnosed with cancer.” While this is a true statement, it is certainly possible that I might receive such a diagnosis, it would not be a helpful one. What good would result from such a declaration?

In the same way, it is certainly possible that her brother will never respond to the claims of the Gospel, but this statement was not helpful and quite frankly was an affront to what we see in Jesus.

Jesus declared that he represented the Father and that to see Jesus was the same as seeing God (John 14:9). So the way that Jesus interacts with believers and unbelievers gives an indication of how they are viewed by God the Father.

At the Last Supper, Jesus announced that one of the disciples would betray Jesus (Matt. 26:21). The disciples did not automatically know who Jesus expected to do the betrayal. Notice the next verse:

“And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”” (Matthew 26:22, ESV)

We all know that it was Judas was the betrayer, but when Jesus made the announcement, the disciples did not automatically think of Judas. Each disciple suspected himself and questioned Jesus, “is it I?”

From this I concluded that Jesus did not treat Judas any differently than he did the rest of the disciples. Jesus offered Judas the same evidence and opportunity to exercise faith that the other disciples had. Yet, Jesus knew when he chose Judas as a disciple that Judas would be the betrayer.

What is my point in this? The understanding that God knows who will respond to him and who will not does not give us permission to write anyone off as being beyond the power of the Gospel. There are too many examples throughout history of people thought beyond redemption who Jesus touched and changed.

A Biblical example of this is the story of the Gerasene Demoniac in Mark chapter 5. If any man seemed beyond the power of the Gospel, it would have been that man, yet we know that Jesus cast out the demons and that man became a missionary to the residents of the Decapolis.

While it is true that not all will respond to the Gospel, and while it is also true that God knows who will and who will not respond, we do not have such knowledge and need to interact with everyone as if they will respond. In other words, we must follow the example of Jesus and relate to everyone as if they will come to faith while knowing that not all will.

We cannot know the outcome for any person and to act as if we do is an affront to the Jesus that we claim to worship. We are called to make disciples and we cannot know ahead of time who will and who will not become one.

So while telling our friend that her brother may not be one who will respond might indeed be true, it was certainly not helpful.

Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow

Posted on July 18, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 6 Comments

The Culture

Over the last week or so, I’ve tweeted about several stories regarding proposed or approved concessions that the “main line” denominations would make to the prevailing culture. For example is this one:

They wonder why people are leaving?: Rev. Emily C. Heath: The Religious Right (Side of History) http://t.co/mNxyCt69
— Mark McIntyre (@mhmcintyre) July 16, 2012

As Rev. Emily Heath writes in that article:

For Christians in the mainline Protestant denominations, this has been an interesting summer. First, the Presbyterian Church (USA) rejected an amendment that would have opened the church up to blessing same-sex marriages. Then, less than a week later, the Episcopal Church approved a new liturgy to bless same-sex unions and also affirmed the ministry of transgender clergy.

The PCUSA rejection of that amendment was a narrow victory for those who desire to stay true to Scripture.

The Truth

While Rev. Heath and others are euphoric over these monumental changes. I am reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13–14, NASB)

Truth is Narrow — Image via freefoto.com

Truth, is by its very nature narrow. The description of an object is always narrow as compared to what it is not. I have on my wrist a watch, it is not a hammer or a motorcycle or a puppy or a yacht. It is one thing and there are an infinite number of things it is not.

When the New Testament uses the word homosexual, the Greek word from which it is translated is a very graphic term which describes a sex act between men. You can work around this all that you want, but it is the homosexual act that is condemned. The word means one thing and no amount of wrangling of words can make it mean something different. The definition is narrow and specific.

Furthermore, Jesus himself tells us that marriage is between a man and a woman. According to Jesus, it is for the purpose of being married to a woman that a man will leave his father and mother.

Some would see support for homosexual union in an argument from silence because Jesus does not specifically speak against same sex pairing. Yet I would argue that the silence cuts the other way because Jesus specifically identifies a union between a man and a woman as the relationship that God ordains and God blesses. Nowhere can you find any such blessing for a homosexual union. So the argument that Jesus was silent on homosexuality is a sham.

The definition of marriage is narrow. I understand that for those with same sex attraction, this is very difficult. Yet, the difficulty does not relieve us of the burden of proclaiming the truth.

All sin is condemned in Scripture. For example, the Bible condemns religious pride. Those of us who have grown up in the church can look down on others who have less knowledge of Scripture and Christian principles. Scripture condemns this pride and I am wrong when I practice it. When I am proud, no excuse or explanation will make that pride less wrong.

We cannot lightly set aside the clear teaching of Scripture just because we have a desire and a proclivity toward a certain behavior. Whether it be pride or homosexuality, we cannot aquiesce into acceptance no matter how much pressure there is from inside and outside the church.

The Gate

As Bob Dylan so eloquently tells us, “Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow that it passes through.”

The Truth hurts all of us, but the wound is ultimately for our benefit if we are willing to yield.

Grace, Truth and Difficult People

Posted on January 18, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

It may not be a universal experience, but most of us are forced to interact with a difficult person in either our personal or professional life.

There are a variety of sources for the difficulty.

Some are difficult because they don’t perceive feedback about how they impact others. This is the person who continues the story when all the people in the room give indication of being bored or hostile. This is the guy who thinks he’s doing well in the presentation when all the attendees are checking their smart phones, chatting or sleeping.
Some are difficult because they are so worried about offending others that they are amorphous, it is hard to discern the real person inside them. These are so tuned in to feedback that they often overreact to it. They are hard to interact with because anything you say might prove overwhelming to them.
Some are difficult because they are self-absorbed; it is indeed all about them. The self-absorbed take every difficulty that arises as a personal attack. If a friend is distracted for an unrelated reason, the self-absorbed will take that as evidence of rejection. The self-absorbed will latch on to any sympathetic ear and fill it with a catalog of injustices done to him.
Some are difficult because they are unabashedly selfish. These are similar to the self-absorbed, but this self-absorption is intentional. These will do whatever they think they can get away with to get what they want.

I’m sure there are other categories of difficult people but these four come immediately to mind.

Jesus tells in Matthew 5:44 that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. John 13:35 tells us that love is to be the mark that identifies us as Christians. In Ephesians 4:15, Paul tells us we are to speak the truth in love.

Nowhere in my Bible does it give me any indication that this is easy to do, nor does it give any indication that love is optional. I am called to love difficult people, people who often do not want, or struggle to receive that love.

How do we go about this then? I think that the evangelist gives us a clue when he describes Jesus as “full of grace and truth” in John 1:14. In his dealings with mankind, the difficult and the loving, Jesus was both gracious and truthful. He always told the truth but the truth was softened with grace and acceptance.

Jesus’ ability to do this is directly attributable to his being God. His divinity and sinlessness gave him the power to maintain this balance perfectly. I, on the other hand, do this imperfectly at best and often do not maintain the balance at all.

In our imperfection and based on our personality, we will tend to err on one side or the other. Some of you are more likely to err or the side of truth. “He had it coming to him” may be your motto after imparting a dose of truth to someone who you thought desperately needed it. Others, like myself, will try to avoid the difficulty, erring on the side of grace.

Grace without truth leaves the difficult person in his difficulty with no-one to guide him out. Truth without grace often makes the truth-giver feel a little bit better but the lack of grace can impede reception of the truth.

The two combined, grace AND truth, as we see it modeled by Jesus can be used by God to positively impact the difficult person. We love best when it is done with both grace and truth.

Question 1: What other types of difficult people have you encountered?
Question 2: Do you have any stories of how the combination of grace and truth positively impacted the situation?

Tozer: the truth about exposition –

Posted on October 11, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

I received an email containing the quote from A. W. Tozer and thought it worth sharing:

Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.

via CQOD—Tozer: the truth about exposition.