More On Thinking Differently

My pastor and I view things differently. That is a good thing. Come to think of it almost everybody seems to view things differently than I do. I am not sure how good a thing that is. I still stand by my ability to hear from the Holy Spirit while admitting that anyone of us can lapse into deception at anytime.


This topic, difference of viewpoints, comes up because it occurred to me recently that is the greatest benefit I personally derive from attending church. Pastor Rob sees things differently that I do. Undoubtedly he is right as often as I am, but he is the one who does most of the talking in church. Frequently, he will say something in a way that I had not previously thought about. Hearing his perspective helps me refine my understanding of the topic under discussion. Well, not discussion in the case of his sermons, but you get the point.

In my own teaching, I have often gained insight from the Holy Spirit in the process of the teaching itself. I know a preacher a generation ahead of me whom I heard claim that he could get every bit as inspired in his study on Tuesday morning as he could in the pulpit on Sunday morning. Without being unkind here, I just never heard him sound all that inspired on Sunday morning. That brought the question to my mind of just how inspired he was on Tuesday morning.


Pastor Rob does not have a problem with lack of inspiration on Sunday morning. I have no idea where he gets his energy. Even accounting for the 20+ year difference in our ages (he is younger) he just seems as though he must be running on energizer batteries. I know I never had that much energy. In fact it wore me out typing that paragraph.


So what is the point anyway? We are all different. Obviously there is right and there is wrong. There is also a lot in between the two we just do not know. I am not talking about shades of gray here. I am talking about things we just do not know. I mean nobody knows. I am not sure we can know it all, especially where God is concerned. There are a lot of things we know. In fact the Bible tells us all that can be know about God. That is what it means that the Bible is the "word" of God. We have written about that previously in these pages. If you have forgotten, look up the word "logos" in the labels. I am not going to do all the work for you.


The ironic thing about ignorance is that we do not know what we do not know. Spiritual deception has the same irony. We do not know where we are deceived. In fact, the more ignorant we are, the less we know and the more deceived we are the more we think we are not. Selah. (Hebrew for "think about that".) God graciously gave us the concept of fellowship with one another because there is always someone who knows more, someone who has more experience, and someone who has better spiritual insight than we do. When we get the idea of Biblical fellowship down, we have access to those people. Maybe they also need some of that knowledge, experience or insight we have. We will never know that if we do not have fellowship with them. I feel a future post on fellowship coming on.


I could almost make a case for giving you my resume here, but I always hesitate to do that. I am not sure it matters anyway. Were I to do that, some would be tempted to misunderstand and think I was doing it simply to glorify myself and/or my accomplishments. There would also be those who would rightly conclude that all that study and experience and all those diplomas and certifications amount to a pile of, well, the apostle Paul called it "rubbish" in a more polite translation of Philippians 3:8. I am just a guy, a guy with a calling to be sure, but just a guy. I have written about that before too. (I tried to place that link here, but it did not want to work. It is the post from 9/20/09.)

Thank you for reading this far. My point is that education, diplomas, degrees, certifications, experience, titles, accolades, etc., like the mountains, melt like wax at the coming of the Lord. (Psalm 97:5) I might have started something at the end of the previous post when I did not comment on a verse of scripture. I probably should not comment further on that. God bless.

Denial Cuts Both Ways

My current occupation is program coordinator of a residential, substance abuse, treatment program for men. As you might imagine, I am confronted with some form of denial at least a few times a week. The most common of those, of course, is that the addict is not addicted. They are not addicted to street drugs, prescription drugs, or alcohol. I am currently working with one man who unabashadely tells me the only addiction he has is to women. Of course he uses a different term. Our larger organization inplemented a tobacco free policy for all our facilities and program participants effective January 1, 2010. When that policy was announced around December 1, 2009, there were very few complaints. Maybe it is the addictive mentality, I do not know, but not a one of our smokers seemed to even consider quitting before January 1. Then a few of them hurried to find nicotine substitutes to help them quit or just went underground, so to speak, with their addictions. Yes, that word is carefully chosen. The primary way one can tell if he or she is addicted is to turn away from the addiction and see what happens. In an addiction, the addictive substance will be constantly in the forefront of the mind.


We do not talk too much about addiction in our program. It is our belief that the only way to really overcome an addiction is to have our minds renewed toward addictions. It is not really an oversimplification to say God can take away any addictions we have. We generally have no problem identifying some addictions as bad. The aforementioned drugs and alcohol are considered to be bad things to do. Of course, we have just lumped illegal substances together with one which the law considers legal until it is abused and/or causes the person using it to perform illegal acts, such as driving a car while intoxicated.


There is, however, a totally different sort of denial we can fall victim too. Again, we are choosing our words carefully here. A person who becomes addicted to any substance is not a victim. He or she is a willing participant in the addiction, at least in the beginning. We do have a propensity as human beings, to inadvertently fall into the other sort of denial. This one occurs when the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is watered down or diluted. One of my former pastors, Jack Hayford, wrote, "A diluted gospel, produces deluded Christians." A deluded Christian is one who is in denial about how the Christian life is to be lived. (I think I just heard a few people get smacked in the forehead with that one.)


There is absolutely no way to justify being unloving toward anyone. Period. My current pastor, Rob Litzinger, often says, "We have to move from the idea that it is all about me to the idea that it is not about me at all." Is there anything more selfish than spending God's resources on substances to abuse? We are simply trying to broad-brush stroke the idea that we are permitted to do anything we think we would like to do. That concept does not apply if we have made Jesus Lord of our lives. Lordship means He is the boss and we do what He says.

I have mentioned the opposite of love is selfishness (or self-centeredness if you like) have I not? It is still amazing to me how many Christians do not understand that concept. When asked what the opposite of love is, the almost universal answer is "hate". That would be true if love were an emotion. (Incidentally we once heard the pastor of a large, local church say exactly that.) Hate is an emotion. Love is a fruit of the spirit. They cannot be opposites. To be sure, there are forms of love that are emotional. Is it any wonder that we are in denial about being able to walk in love when we do not even know what love is? Wait! What did I just say? We are in denial about being able to walk in love. You may remember that one of the symptoms of a religious spirit is that people have a form of godliness, but deny its power. (2 Timothy 3:5)

I cannot is simply not acceptable, but it is a place to start because it is true. At least we are being honest. We cannot. God can. Is it not amazing how those two, two word sentences clear away the fog? Knowing we cannot is the place to start to leave that denial behind.

I know people who are in denial about being able to walk in freedom from addictive substances. Frequently I see hope start to grow in some of them, as in, I hope I never go back to abusing (fill in the blank). We all have to start somewhere. Any spark of hope will help us at least see the right direction to go. The way to start loving is to act lovingly. The door to acting lovingly is to quit acting selfishly. That is probably enough of that for now.