God is Not Religious

Went to church. Sang a song.
Heard a sermon. Said a prayer.
Drank the wine. Ate the bread.
Passed the plate. Shook some hands.
Church is over. I feel better.
Where's the remote?

Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary defines religion as "the services and rituals and rules by which faith in and devotion to God" is expressed. The word comes from a Latin root meaning "to hold back or restrain."

Services. Rituals. Rules.

Check 'em off.
Get 'em done.
Just be sure,
to have no fun!

But Jesus calls his children to a full life. He said that worship of God must be in spirit and truth. In other words, he wants us to Get Real! with our faith. He wants us to come with a seeking heart.

In his devotional series Invading the Privacy of God, Cec Murphey writes about prayer as an adventure. Cec addresses God by titles that relate to his personal interaction with God. Bible stories and prayer are connected to daily living.

For instance, when struggling to hear God's voice like Elijah did in the wilderness, Cec addressed God as The God of Whispers. The Lord became The Wholly Other when Cec related to God's unexplainable love for the children of Israel in the Old Testament. And when Cec wrestled with the tyrany of the urgent, just as Abraham did centuries ago, he prayed to The Big Time Operator.

Cec gets it. God isn't about rituals and rules. God is relational.

The Zondervan dictionary says that the Old Testament has no word for religion. The words translated fear and worship refer to attitudes of the mind and acts of adoration.

Attitudes. Actions. I like that.

Went to church,
because I need my Christian family.
Sang a song,
to celebrate my God.
Listened to the preacher
connect the Word to daily living.
Talked to the Lord,
and listened for his voice.
Took the bread and wine,
to remember what he did.
Passed the plate,
after I gave to God's work.
Shook a lot of hands,
and hugged a friend or two.

Church is not over.
I take it with me as I go.

Gettin' Real!
Melodie

Quote above taken from Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary by Merrill C. Tinney. Copyright (c) 1975, 1976 by The Zondervan Corporation. Used by permission of Zondervan.

Why Lie? I Need a Beer

So read the sign of the homeless panhandler I saw on the corner this week. I found his honesty so refreshing I almost stopped and gave him a buck.

Of course, he is being honest with us, but not with himself. He runs to drink from a well that always runs dry. Still, I appreciated his candor.

As I drove by, my thoughts turned to a conversation I had with my five-year-old earlier that day. "Mommy," she begged, "I want to hang out with you."

I was trying to spend some time with the Lord. I looked up from my book and journal, "Sweetie, I'm having my time with Jesus."

I couldn't stand to see her crest-fallen face. So, I tried to explain. Drawing her into my lap, I said, "Honey, Mommy is a sinner."

Her eyes clouded with concern and shock. Mommy? A sinner? "But, why are you a sinner?"

"Well, I was born that way. But it's OK. I have Jesus in my heart, and he is changing me."

Pause.

"I have to fill up with him every day if I want to be joyful."

"But Mommy, I want to hang out with you now." The theology lesson was officially over. I needed to make this simple.

"Well, would you rather hang out with a joyful mommy or a grumpy mommy?"

"A joyful one!"

"Then go play for a while and let me fill up!"

A few days later, I tried this tactic on my ten-year old son. He, too, interrupted my devotions, this time with a plea to play video games.

"You see, son. I am a sinner..."

"Whoa, Mom!" He interrupted. "I already knew that!"

That's the way it goes with kids. You can't hide anything from them.

So, I guess when it comes to surviving as a parent, what I really need to do is hang a sign around my neck that says, "Why lie? I need God!"

Who knows? Maybe one of them will give me a buck!

Gettin' Real!
Melodie

Sarah Palin, David Letterman, and Jesus

A few nights ago I was up watching late night television and was surprised to hear David Letterman issue a pseudo-apology to Sarah Palin. In case you haven't heard the story, Letterman made a crude joke about Palin's daughter while Palin was visiting NY with her family. After receiving criticism from Palin and others, David issued two apologies. I saw the first, and a day or so later, he issued a second, more sincere retraction.

I've followed this story with a sense of curiosity. There are all kinds of dynamics -- Letterman's reputation, Palin's political career, Palin's responsibility to protect her children, etc. The pundits have had fun with it. Little has been said, however, about the spiritual side of it all. Perhaps I should be grateful about that.

Since Palin is a Christian, I wonder if she had given much thought to how her outrage might affect Letterman's relationship to God. Her reaction has certainly brought attention to the dangers of something the Bible calls coarse joking. I wonder, too, how I might have reacted if the joke had been about my daughter.

I'll leave Palin's heart to Palin, though. And hypotheticals about myself will not reveal much, since I can muse over the answer while on the safety of my living room couch. The Real! issue is, "How do I handle my words in my every day life?"

When the girl in the checkout line has a long chat with the man in line in front of me, how do I react? Especially if I'm running late for something and my kids are begging for every pack of sweets they can get their hands on? I want to be rude to the girl. There's no doubt about that! In fact, what I want to say shouldn't be running through my mind...but it is.

The truth is, as a Christian, I represent Christ while I wait in that line. Whether I want to admit it or not, the way I react may affect the checkout girl's openness to God. Besides, my kids are watching.

Philippians 2:14-16 says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life ..."

When people drive me crazy, do I shine or shout?

Every day is a chance to shine like a star in a dark universe. And every day Real! challenges will test the Real! nature of our faith.

Personally, I do OK with the slow person at the register. It's the people I love the most, my husband and kids, that provide the majority of opportunities for me to -- uh -- grow in this area. Do everything without complaining or arguing? Wow, I've got a long way to go on that one.

One thing I have learned, though: I'll never find success by simply making up my mind to do better. Determination is a good thing, but character change comes from relationship not rules.

I can, however, spend quality time with my Lord on a regular basis. Drawing from who he is will change who I am. I can also fill my car with praise music while I drive. I can fill my mind with the word of God on a daily basis. I can discipline myself to take bad attitudes to God quickly in prayer as soon as they arise. These things fill me with the Spirit, who then shines through my attitude to the glory of God.

And it probably wouldn't hurt if I cut back on the late night TV!
Gettin' Real!
Melodie

Cyber Community vs Christian Community

Does electron-based social media undermine the Christian concept of community? This is the question explored by Mark Galli in his Christianity Today article, "Does Twitter Do Us Any Good?" It's a valid concern. (This is part two of my reaction to his article.)

Technology offers new opportunities to connect with people around the world. My parents live across the country from me. Our web cam is a wonderful tool for the grandchildren and grandparents to connect. I can also chat with friends who are foreign missionaries. Seeing them monitor-to-monitor helps me stay connected to those who are on the front lines of ministry.

What about web communities like MySpace, Facebook, and twitter? Do they cause more harm than good? I recently joined Facebook. Within the past few months I have reconnected with friends I haven't seen or talked with in twenty years. I now know that one friend has a tween who refuses kisses, another is missing a son who went to camp, an author friend is working on an article, a fellow adoptive family just returned from the beach, a grieving friend found encouragement from the book of Isaiah, and a missionary preached at a hospital today.

Through these little tidbits of the mundane, I'm able to network with other Christian writers and ministers, pray and request prayer, give and receive encouragement, and exhort and receive exhortation toward good works and godliness. Sounds a lot like the biblical concept of fellowship to me!

But, Angel, who posted a comment on Galli's article, says it well, "Ah, but one can touch, smell, connect in the flesh. Can you do this on the Internet? That's the argument." This is the point at which cyber-communities fall short. My parents can see their grandchildren on a web cam, but they cannot hug them.

Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -- all the more as you see the Day approaching." (NIV)

As our world continues to advance towards the day of our Lord's return, we need each other "all the more." Creating cyber-communities is a viable method of providing encouragement for one another. However, this in not a replacement for meeting together. The two can go hand in hand, but one cannot substitute for the other.

I'm thankful for the techno tools now available. Shunning them cuts us off from their good uses and from reaching the mission field that waits at our fingertips every time we sit down to our keyboard. The important thing is to Get Real! about God's word and apply it to everything we do, including our Internet activities.

Galli did a great job of raising important issues for Christian consideration. I encourage you to read his article and add your thoughts to the comments section. For more on the biblical concept of Christian community, I also recommend Nathan Creitz's thoughtful entry "The Case for Community" on his blog, ChurchETHOS.

Gettin' Real!

Melodie

Does Twitter Do Us Any Good?

In his June 13 Christianity Today article, Mark Galli raised some interesting issues by comparing the doctrine of the Trinity to twitter. Twitter and the Trinity? Now that's my kind of thinker!

In his article, Galli compares the relationships among the members of the Trinity to relationships among the people of God. He then raises questions about impact of electron-based social media upon the biblical concept of community. (You can click on the title of this blog, also the title of his article, to read his comments in full.)

Before I tackle the issue of cyber community, first I want to look at an underlying issue in his article: the concept of intrinsic godliness or godlessness. At one point Galli asks, in effect, "Is technology godly?" To me, that's like asking, "Is a pen godly?"

Think of the words written throughout the centuries. Wars have been started, romances flamed, governments formed, contracts made, and (most notably) Scripture composed all, by the use of writing instruments. Yet, no one I know would go to down to the office supply department of their local Walmart and begin a debate with about the inherent goodness or badness of a pack of pens. Clearly, the goodness and badness can be found in what has been written on the page.

What does the Bible say about this? The book of James chapter 1 helps us here. Verse 14 tells us that each person is tempted when he is enticed and drawn away by his own evil desires. In other words, badness and goodness come from the desires within the heart. So, when I sit down to write, the things that go down on the page come not from the pen, but from my heart.

The same can be said of technology. The issues of holiness and evil are not found in the technology itself, but in the hearts of the users.

I want to thank Laura Christianson for alerting me to Galli's article. You can visit her social media solution website at http://www.bloggingbistro.com/ or benefit from her adoption expertise at http://www.laurachristianson.com/laura/.

In my next blog, I'll tackle the issue of the cyber community versus the Christian community.

Gettin' Real,
Melodie

Welcome to Get Real!

Sometimes faith feels stale. Words that sound spiritual don't always penetrate my heart. I'm a preacher's kid and a preacher's wife, so I’m around church stuff all the time. If I’m not careful, I'm like a person who refuses to look into the mirror because she’s seen it all the day before. But just because I brushed my teeth yesterday, doesn’t mean my teeth don’t need cleaning today!

The challenge of getting Christianity unpacked from the crate stamped RELIGION is not reserved for preacher's wives. Many people think spirituality is something done by certain people, at certain places, using certain rituals, on certain days of the week. Others see it as optional – a good thing to do if we can, but something we can live without, like joining the local gym.

But knowing God isn't a duty to be performed so you can feel better about yourself. It's a connection to Someone who can transform and energize every aspect of your life.

A Christian is a child of the Creator of the universe, an imitator of the Savior of the world, and a vessel filled by the Spirit of a Holy God. How could that be boring?

I've found that when I allow God to renew my mind daily, He invades my ordinary routine. When He saturates my life, I’m never spiritually dry.

God is Real. He more than relevant to life; He's the Reason to live!

I want to remain focused on the God who created me. I want my daily life to overflow with his joy. You are invited to join the adventure. Let's learn from each other in our quest for God.

Gettin' Real!
Melodie