good will toward us

At the time of Christ’s birth, the angels said to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” (Luke 2:14) Isn’t that an amazing idea that God extended His good will in our direction? He did so in the very act of Christ taking on our flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14). It’s the act of incarnation. Christ gave up the comfort and prestige of heaven and willingly chose to live a life filled with discomfort and mockery. Our Lord went through times of loneliness, being misunderstood, physical exhaustion, hunger, agony, pain and yes, death.

Christ knew from eternity what would come with His incarnation. This Christmas, perhaps we can recognize our calling to be like Christ in this way. We are called to go into the world in the same way Christ did. All too often Christians instead choose to live cozy lives of faithful church service attendance, Bible studies, and friendships with other believers. We are quite comfortable to speak to each other in Christian-ese and continually listen to our favourite style of worship music.

Of course, I’m not trying to devalue the importance of Christian fellowship. Quite the contrary. I’m just saying that our calling is to so much more than fellowship. We must go into the world. We must learn the language of the world. To do this we must risk being… uncomfortable. This willingness doesn’t come naturally, but super-naturally. May we have the courage of Christ in us to motivate us to sacrifice our comfort, reputations, productivity, lifestyle or anything else that is keeping us from fully answering our calling to be incarnational.

biblianity incorporated...

I think Modern Christianity misses the point in many, many areas. Evangelism, Prayer and Fellowship are just a few, but perhaps the one that comes to mind at the moment is the misunderstanding of the role of the Bible in our faith. Having taken various classes at a non-Christian university, I've been exposed to a bit of negative criticism of the Bible. Much of this criticism is un-warranted, but a bit of it may be the fault of Christians. What I mean, is many Christians talk as if the Bible was penned, printed, bound, gift-wrapped and handed down on a cloud by God Himself. This is closer to the tradition of the Book of Mormon than to the reality of how we got the Bible! The Bible is much more of a Real book than that. It's historical. It's authentic. It's... True. Real people, Real stories, Real events in real time and in real places. However, many Christians are in danger of worshipping the Bible! It Christianity, not Biblianity! I think the Bible has an important role in the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but the way some Christians talk, they sound like they care more about spreading the Bible than it's message!

It's not Bible-reading that changes us, it's Christ! How in the world was anyone changed before most people had access to the Bible after the Reformation? I'm guessing it had just a little something to do with them hearing the Gospel of Grace and being transformed by the renewing of their minds! The thing that I've really been passionate about lately is the centrality of Christ in our faith. Anything taking His place is idolatry. Even the Bible, as good as it is. One of my favorite terms lately has been 'the Apostles' Teaching' - a.k.a. the Gospel. This is what we are commanded to preach. Sounds a little weird to say, "Go Ye therefore in to all the world and preach the Bible," doesn't it? But that's sometimes what we do with our bumper stickers, billboards and picketing. We use the truth like a weapon and gun people down with it, hurling bible-verse after bible-verse at people. We don't speak in their language! What we need to do is to commit to knowing the Gospel, then we must commit to learning the 'language' of the world so we can communicate the Gospel in their 'language.' To learn their language, we need to have a friendship with them! We need to know them!

I think the 2nd verse to Coldplay's song 'Talk' on X&Y can be seen to beautifully express the frustration of non-Christians when Christians fail to speak their language...

(questions)
Are you lost or incomplete?
Do you feel like a puzzle you can't find your missing piece?
Tell me how you feel...
(response)
Well I feel like they're talkin' in a language I don't speak,
and they're talkin' it to me...

Paul said that he tried to 'become all things to all men, so that by all means he might win some.' What a beautiful picture of learning the language of the world! Before Paul preached at Mars Hill, he spent hours in the marketplace walking, talking, listening, looking and learning. Then, he applied the Gospel brilliantly to their context! We not only CAN do the same, we are CALLED to!