Sorry Pat Robertson, but that’s not a Christlike response

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about. [Haitians] were under the heel of the French… and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, ‘we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the Devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.” — Pat Robertson

A spokesman for Pat Robertson’s ministry has since issued a statement attempting to backpedal this shocking statement, but the reality is that the statement implied the Haitians went through the recent earthquake because they deserved it. The comment, unfortunately, displays the same spirit that the late Jerry Falwell exhibited in 2001 when he blamed 9/11 on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way.”

Is there any merit in their statements? First of all, let me say that I understand where they are coming from. I wholeheartedly disagree with them, but I understand where they’re coming from. They’re coming from a particular theological view, based largely upon a specific interpretation of the Old Testament, that sees God as a God who avenges sinful nations. They expect judgment from Him whenever they see people living in ways that they believe to be against the morals of the Bible.

There are a few problems with their logic, however.

1. “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death.” Those words are from the Bible (Romans 3:22-24 and 6:22-23) and what they tell us is that, from God’s perspective, we ALL deserve God’s judgment. Where we get off deciding for God that certain groups of people are more deserving of it than we are, I do not know, but such an attitude is definitely not biblical.



2. “It is not God’s will that any should perish.” This verse from the Bible shows God’s heart for people. In the Old Testament, we see His judgment exerted upon nations that have turned against Him. We can’t deny that. However, even in the Old Testament, we see that God was already working out a plan wherein people could be saved from the judgment they deserved. And that plan was made available to EVERYONE, regardless of what nation they were born in!
3. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Although, according to the Bible, we are ALL deserving of judgment, Jesus took the judgment for our sinfulness in our place. He paid the price for all the junk in our lives, and then He rose again. Now He’s alive, and He says to EVERYONE who will believe in Him that He will forgive them and give them the gift of eternal life. Those who focus more on blame and threats of judgment than upon grace seem to have forgotten that we now live in the age of the New Testament, on the other side of the cross!

Rather than trying to cast blame when bad things happen, we need to realize that we live in a broken world and that we need to demonstrate God’s LOVE in every situation. The best thing we can do as followers of Christ is to pray for Haiti and seek out ways we can demonstrate His love in practical ways by helping the people who are hurting. This is the best thing we can do for ANYONE who is suffering. That’s part of what following Christ is all about.

My mother is not green

Imagine three people talking about their mother. A stranger wants them to describe her, so they each offer a description.

Person Number One says:

“My mum is green. She has antennae sticking out of her head, and her hair is yellow. She’s as big as a sumo wrestler and has muscles that Mr Universe would be proud of.”

Person Number Two says:

“She’s got very pale white skin and blonde hair. She’s very petite and short.”

Person Number Three says:

“She’s got dark skin and black hair. She’s tall and beautiful.”

Could all three of these people be correct in their descriptions of one person when their descriptions are so contradictory? Of course not. If she is a real human being, she can’t be both a giant green person with antennae and a petite blonde with pale skin at the same time.

You can believe whatever you want about who she is and what she looks like, but she will always be who she is regardless of what you believe about her or how you describe her.

Of course, you probably know that already. You wouldn’t describe your wife as green or purple unless she is (probably), and you would likely be hurt if you heard people describing you as somebody completely different than you really are, especially if they describe you in a way that you would consider to be insulting.

Yet so many of us treat the subject of God in the way the three people above talked about their mother. They say that whatever you believe about God is fine, as long as you’re sincere.

This belief defies logic, though. If we believe God is a myth, then of course we can paint Him however we want. But if God is REAL, as I sincerely believe He is, we need to realize that not everything that is believed about God can be true.

Some believe that Christ-followers are arrogant to suggest that there is only one God, but I don’t believe it is any more arrogant than it would be for me to suggest that I only have one mother. She is who she is, and what others believe about her doesn’t change reality.

I am on a quest to know the God Who Is, not just a god whom I wish existed. If I wanted to create my own religion, I could create any kind of “god” I wanted, but that god wouldn’t be REAL. I want to be careful, as much as possible, not to misrepresent God. That’s why I try to seek Him in the ways He’s revealed Himself and not to create God in my own image.

The problem with many religious people, Christians and non-Christians alike, is that they tend to create their “god” in their own image. If they are of a particular political persuasion, they assume that God is too. If they believe particular things about morality, life, culture, or whatever, they assume that God does too.

But God is Who He Is, not who we make Him.

I think we all have the tendency to project our own ideas or perceptions upon God, so this is something we all have to try to fight if we are going to begin to discover the God Who Is REAL.

Yet I will always continue my quest, not to describe God as I think God should be, but to discover more and more of Who God really Is.

How can I know the God Who Really Is?

God is infinite. That means He has no limits and no boundaries. God is bigger than me. How can I ever truly understand a mind that is infinitely bigger than mine? The fact is that I can’t. The best I can hope to do is to get the tip of the iceberg, to learn to know SOMETHING of Who this God is.

That isn’t cause for despair, however. Why? Because I believe I can know SOMETHING of God. In fact, not only can I know something ABOUT God, I can even KNOW God personally.

How, you may ask?

Well first of all…

1. I can know God through the things He has made.

   Romans 1:20 says:

   For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

   I sincerely believe that any great masterpiece must have the hand of a master behind it. The Mona Lisa didn’t come into existence by accident, and neither did this beautiful and vast universe we live in. We can argue all we want as to HOW God created it, but I believe that no effect can exist without an ultimate Cause. And I believe God is that Cause.

   Furthermore, I believe all that is good and beautiful in this universe points to the Creator. Yes, I know there are a lot of things in this universe that have been messed up by humankind but, before we messed it up, it was all beautiful. I also believe God has a plan in place to make it all beautiful again one day.

   When I look at the masterpiece of a sunset, a snow-capped mountain, or a star-filled night, I believe it points to the Hand of the Creator. However, that alone only points to the idea that there IS a source and that this Source must be beautiful if He can create such beauty.

   How do I know anything more of Who this Source is?

2. I can know God through the Words He’s given us.

   The Bible says:

   All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

   These words from the Bible are claiming that all the Bible comes from God in some way. This may seem like a ludicrous claim, but I sincerely believe it’s true. I believe that this book, which is really a library of 66 ancient books, has been somehow preserved through the centuries in better condition than any other books from the ancient world for a reason. People have tried to disprove it time and again, and yet it still remains the best selling book in the world. Instead of contradicting science, as some have unfortunately tried to claim, it is supported time and again by the discoveries of science and archeology. It is also supported by the reality of the millions of lives its words have changed.

   It tells us about One God, and I truly believe that the God it reveals is the One True God. Its words are often debated and misinterpreted, but I am dedicated to the study of these ancient texts because I believe that the God who inspired it is the God Who is Real, and I’m convinced that the God Who is revealed in its pages is the One Who has the power to rescue lives and restore all of Creation to its intended glory.

3. I can know God through His Son.

   Jesus said, in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” In other words, he says that if you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen God.

   Of course, none of us have SEEN Jesus either, but we learn about Him in the Bible. We learn about His plan to rescue us from all the junk in our lives and to give us a life that never ends. We learn about His radical love for every one of us, and if His words are true, we learn that He is God’s way of revealing Himself to the world. The more we learn about Jesus, the more we learn about Who God Really Is. Not some preacher’s idea of God, not the ramblings of some crazy son who talks about his mom being a green sumo-wrestler — but WHO HE IS IN REALITY.

   He also says that we can do more than know ABOUT Him. He teaches us that there is a way that we can know Him personally.

Of course, you don’t have to believe any of what I’m saying. What I suggest, though, is that you investigate the facts for yourself before you come to a conclusion. Don’t just listen to what somebody says ABOUT God, or what you think God is or should be like.

If God is real, then He will be real regardless of what you think about Him; just like my mom is real no matter what you choose to think about her.

But if you don’t investigate the facts for yourself and find out if what I’m saying is true, I fear that you will miss out on the most wonderful experience you could EVER have… the experience of KNOWING the God Who is real.

Won’t you check out the evidence? You might be surprised what you find!

Is Christianity about fear?

I recently heard somebody saying they didn’t want to become a follower of Christ because, as they understood it, the Christian life is all about fear. They said that the idea of a God who requires people to live in constant fear of hell and judgment seemed counter-intuitive to them.

Fair enough. In fact, I would actually agree with that last statement…

In my previous post, I talked about the difference between man-made religion and life with Christ. I don’t believe in the modern understanding of religion, which is basically the creating of a cultural system that uses the idea of God in order to get people to conform. Whenever “church” becomes all about “religion,” the truth is it tends to become an organization that is based on pride and fear.

That is the opposite of what Christianity is meant to be about. The life of the Christ-follower is meant to be about love, which is the opposite of pride and drives out fear. Though there are churches that fall into the trap of religion, a church that is true to Christ must do everything it can to avoid it.

The Bible does talk about having a “fear” of God, but the biblical idea of the fear of God is not about living in torment and terror. The word, in that context, refers more to a holy reverence for God and a respect for Who He Is.

Now don’t get me wrong. There IS a place for a healthy kind of fear, but only in the context of respect.

Here’s an example:

I fear the ocean.

However, I’m not afraid of it.

What’s the difference, you ask? It’s simple.

When I stand at the brink of the sea, I recognize its incredible might and power. I recognize that, if I jump into the sea without knowing how to swim, I could drown. I recognize that, if I don’t pay attention to the laws of nature and go out into the sea on a boat in the middle of a storm, its waves might destroy me.

I’m not afraid of the sea, but I respect it for what it is and treat it accordingly. I went on a cruise once and I wasn’t afraid because I trusted that the ship was well-designed, the crew was well-trained, and the lifeboats were ready in case of emergency. That doesn’t mean I chose to be stupid though; I knew better than to jump in with the sharks!

The fear of God is about respecting God for Who He Is. It doesn’t mean being afraid of Him, but it does mean I’m not going to be stupid. If there is a God who made the heavens and the earth and is more powerful than any ocean or force of nature or man, I’m not going to try to pick a fight with Him! And, of course, when I begin to recognize how powerful, glorious and real He is, you’d better believe I’m going to stand in awe of Him.

The fear of God is about respecting God, standing in awe of our great Creator, and submitting ourselves to His rule just as I would submit myself to the natural laws of gravity and the laws of the sea. I don’t stand in terror of those laws, but I respect them as they deserve to be respected.

So do I fear God? Yes, I do. But am I afraid of Him? Absolutely not.

The Bible says:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. — 1 John 4:18

When we begin to have a healthy understanding of Who God is, He actually chases all fear away. This Bible verse says that “fear has to do with punishment,” and the Bible teaches that God doesn’t want to punish us. In fact, He wants to save us from punishment. He went so far as to take the punishment for us.

And when we trust our lives into His hands, we don’t ever need to fear that He’s going to change His mind about us and inflict terrible punishment upon us. On the contrary, He has promised to love us and take care of us.

“In this world you will have troubles,” Jesus said, “but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33)

I remember a friend years ago who was always afraid of God’s punishment. Whenever something bad happened to her, she would say, “God’s punishing me because I’ve been bad.”

Although Jesus teaches that bad things do happen in this world, and they will continue to happen until He returns to make everything right once and for all, Jesus does NOT teach that those bad things happen to punish us. Life can be messy sometimes, and things happen that we don’t understand. But God’s promise is to take us through even the worst of times and lead us to eventual victory.

When we trust Him, He doesn’t reward our trust by throwing stones at us. He promises to be with us and to be faithful to the very end. He promises to deliver us from eternal death and to give our lives purpose and meaning. We don’t need to be afraid that He’s going to give up on us or punish us, because He has made us His beloved children and will never abandon us.

The life of a true Christ-follower is not about being afraid.
It’s about being delivered from being afraid.

Romans 8:15 says:

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

I’m so glad God is my perfect “Dad” and that, in His arms, I don’t ever need to be afraid.

Love yourself, part 1

Jesus said there were two great commandments that He wanted us all to follow. The first was to love God; the second was,

“Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

Was Jesus commanding us to love our neighbour and also to love ourselves? Technically, no. The command was to love our neighbour in the same way we already love ourselves. However, the assumption here was that we do love ourselves.

How can we follow this formula if we hate ourselves? Imagine looking in the mirror and scowling at yourself. Then imagine turning to the people you love and keeping that same scowl in place. That’s kind of what our attitude ends up looking like when we hate ourselves and yet attempt to love others.

I truly believe God wants us to love ourselves.

Four relationships were broken when humanity fell. 1) Our relationship with God, 2) our relationship with each other, 3) our relationship with Creation, and 4) our relationship with self. All these relationships have been broken, but I believe our Creator wants to restore us to these relationships that we may experience the joy of right relationships.

God wants us to learn to love ourselves.

But, some would ask, isn’t self-love wrong? Isn’t that selfishness?

Of course there is such a thing as selfishness, and that is destructive. However, there is also such a thing as a healthy self-love, a love that does not put self on the throne but which — at the same time — has a deep respect for the person God made us each to be. God doesn’t want us to hate what He has made. While that means we shouldn’t hate others, it also means that we should never hate ourselves.

We’ll explore the difference between a healthy love of self and selfishness more in another post but, for now, let’s begin to consider what a healthy self-image looks like.

Many believe that 1 Corinthians 13 is the best description of what real love looks like. That description of real love helps to describe the healthy attitude we should have toward one another, but I believe that the same principles can appropriately be turned upon ourselves as we ask how to rightly relate with the one person we can never get away from…ourself.

Let’s look at just a few of the statements the Apostle Paul made about love in this chapter and consider how they might relate to our relationship with self:

1. Love is patient

   Many of us are hardest on ourselves, expecting things of ourselves that we would never expect from others. We expect more of ourselves than God does, and I believe God wants us to stop being so hard on ourselves. We need to be patient with ourselves.

   Sometimes people get a new job, and they expect to be able to do it perfectly the first day. It’s not likely to happen, however, if we haven’t learned how things are done yet. We need to give ourselves the time to learn and not be impatient with ourselves.

   I remember, when I was learning Spanish, I often got impatient with myself. I wanted to know it NOW, but it didn’t work that way. I had to be patient with myself and learn it step by step; I later reaped the benefits of that. I can speak it fluently today but, if I hadn’t been patient with myself, I would have given up before I ever reached my goal.

   You may not have accomplished everything you want to in life yet, and you may not be where you want to be, but be patient with yourself. Live life step by step…that’s part of loving yourself as God loves you!

2. Love is kind

   A lot of Christians are really good at beating up on themselves. We may try to be kind to others, but we are unkind to ourselves. Sometimes we try to punish ourselves when we don’t think we’ve measured up. However, the Bible says “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

   “Love is patient and kind.
   Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
   It does not demand its own way.
   It is not irritable,
   and it keeps no record of being wronged.
   It does not rejoice about injustice
   but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
   Love never gives up, never loses faith,
   is always hopeful,
   and endures through every circumstance.”
   
   – 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

3. Love is not jealous

   How can I be jealous of myself? Jealousy is the feeling we have when we envy somebody else, and it often has a lot to do with our own self-image and relationship with self. We may look at somebody else and like their hair, we envy them and wish we could have what they have. Why? Because we’re not happy with who we are. We look at somebody else who has a nicer car than us or a nicer house or a better job…and we yearn with jealousy for what they have. Why? Because we’re not happy with who we are or what we have.

   The Apostle Paul said he had learned how to be content in every situation:

   “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” — Philippians 4: 12-13

   What did he say was his secret to living, his secret to contentment? “I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” Through his identity in Christ; He had learned to appreciate that whatever he had, he had because that’s what God was going to use in his life and, wherever he was in life, that’s where God wanted to use him.

   Where was he when he said this? Prison. What did he have of the world’s possessions? The best carriage or the nicest house? No, nothing. He was a prisoner at the mercy of an oppressive government that hated Christians. But he was content.

   No jealousy there. He didn’t want somebody else’s life. He realised God had given him the life he had for a reason.

In my next post, we’ll continue to look at 1 Corinthians 13 and consider how a few other statements in it about God’s kind of love can be applied to our relationship with self.