Why I Love Preaching to the Choir

You could call most of what I do here “preaching to the choir.” Most of my writing primarily targets Christians rather than non-Christians. Of course, there are times when the occasional non-Christian bothers to spend a few minutes on my lengthy posts and begins to seek Christ. I am grateful for such moments. I pray that I will be able to generate more content that, beside feeding the Body of Christ, also draws the curiosity of unbelievers towards this Gospel that I am always so passionate about. Even so, it is not uncommon to find some people criticizing blogs such as this one for “alienating the world”.

Alien Citizens is not a popular blog, and there are many reasons for that. Apart from the obvious fact that I am not the best writer out there, there are other reasons including the fact that I am not very relevant, entertaining or attention grabbing in my titles and subject matter. It can get quite discouraging at times. We start off saying that we are only exercising the gift that God gave us for the good of the Body. But after a few posts, we find ourselves caring about the traffic and the site stats. Idolatry is a crafty chameleon.

I know that if I wanted to redirect massive traffic to the blog, I just have to focus on controversial topics, politics, latest gossip, and of course… naming names. That’s always a great temptation. I do address some of these popular topics now and then, but I always have to hold myself back not to be swept by the tide of relevancy at the expense of truth and faithfulness to mission. God has specially equipped me to minister to His Body, the church, and I strive to do my best with the help and leading of the Holy Spirit.

I guess this is why I found myself relating deeply to Da Truth’s song “Jesus Is For Everybody” (J.I.F.E). Question: What usually comes to your mind when you hear an expression such as “Jesus is for everybody?” It usually has something to do with why we should strive to reach out to the last and the least, the poor and the lamest of the society; as opposed to the rich and comfortable members of our church. But Da Truth’s focus is different this time, and quite unexpected:

They say I love the church, I don’t care about the streets. That’s so far from the truth, why they lying on me? I’m where am supposed to be, trying to play my role. Staying faithful to the gospel seen a lot of growth…

It used to be a gift, now it’s criticized, if my heart is for the church, why is this a crime? Whatever happened to the days when ministers cried when speaking life to the Body, am a bit surprised…

No doubt is in my mind, it’s making perfect sense. Am I doing something wrong talking to the saints? Am just giving it my all when am in my own skin, while am building up the Body, walking in His grace. And while am talking to the church I hope they overhear, we want the whole world to know we’re over here… am talking from the lawyers and the doctors to the corners with the choppers to the hommies in the barber’s chair.

I guess I relate to Da Truth’s frustration. His song may be a bit defensive, but it communicates a great truth. Jesus is for everybody, and some of us have been specially gifted to relay and relate His truth to His Body, the Church. Sometimes I may prefer to do this because it’s comfortable. At such times I need to repent and be a little more intentional about my evangelism. However, that should not derail or disqualify me from preaching to the choir. The truth of the matter is that the church of Christ, especially the 21st century church, needs the Gospel now more than ever before.

“I open up my eyes to the church and I see, some automatic weapons and they’re aiming at me. They say I’m preaching to the choir, people dying in the streets. You’d be preaching to ‘em too if you seen ‘em lately.”

Yes. Jesus is for everybody, including the church.

Blog Break (14 May 13)

Feed your mind and soul with these wonderful reads today:

1. THE PLASTIC FRUIT OF ONLINE LIVING. Lindsey Carlson; “It can get pretty comfortable on the sofa of social media. I like living in an online world where there’s no need for my community to truly bear with me. I’d rather bask in the love of my digital perfection than stumble and fall before real people who will call me out and hold me accountable.” Ouch!
2. BUSYNESS IS NOT A VIRTUE. This one was definitely meant for me, “When you go on to other people, or to yourself, about being so busy, you’re often engaging in doublespeak. Let’s dig a little deeper to translate what you actually mean when you get in the habit of saying or acting like you’re too busy.”
3. PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE IN THE AGE OF FACEBOOK. Alex Chediak; “An endless assortment of instantly-available media and non-stop social interactions are making uninterrupted study less common for young adults in our day (and for all of us). Such distractions radically short-circuit the learning process, preventing students from reaching their God-given potential for usefulness in the kingdom and workplace.”
4. WHY DOESN’T GOD ALWAYS HEAL THE SICK? Sam Storms proposes 7 reasons from the Bible, and an encouragement for those struggling with unanswered prayers for healing.
5. Lastly, PORNOGRAPHY AND THE BRAIN, 9 things you should know. “Knowing how [the brain] is wired together and where it is sensitive can help us understand why pornography affects people the way it does.”

Have a blessed day and week ahead, friends.

Cornell

The Moment of Truth [Game Show]

The Moment of Truth is a 2008/09 American TV game show whereby participants get to answer 21 questions and stand to win a grand prize of $500,000. Prior to going on the show, each participant is administered a polygraph exam. This is done by answering 50 random questions, most of which are intensely personal. 21 of these questions are then picked to be asked again in front of a live audience, including the contestant’s close family and friends, and he or she is supposed to answer each of the 21 questions truthfully… or walk away with nothing. What struck me about this show is how much people are willing to risk and sacrifice for the sake of half a million dollars (that’s over 40 million Kenyan shillings!).

It’s amazing just what people are willing to sacrifice for 40 million shillings. When the moment of truth comes, the contestant is willing to forsake all, his friendships, his marriage and his family… for a good amount of money. A wife is willing to destroy a 20 year marriage for 40 million shillings. A son is willing to alienate his parents for 40 million shillings… Husbands will readily admit that they have been cheating on their wives; wives will confess to be in love with the husband’s brother or best friend and a daughter, like Melanie Williams who won the grand prize, will confess that she believed her dad was a pedophile.

I was watching this show the other day when it hit me; these people are willing to literally confess their most heinous sins and uncover their vilest secrets in front of a national audience for the sake of their god. Money is a powerful idol that is often underestimated. Paul was right, “…the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils…” Human beings are willing to bare their souls, revealing their utter wretchedness and lay all their sins at the foot of the money-god.

But am I willing to do the same for my God? Am I willing to lay down my vilest sins, confessing them before God and man for the sake of the ultimate prize of eternal glory? My God, who is LORD of all, Creator of all universe and the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills… Is He appealing enough to risk my dignity and reputation for? Am I willing to hate my mother and father for the sake of this God of mine the way others are willing to do it for the sake of money? When the moment of truth comes, am I willing to lay down my pride, lay bare my soul and count it all as loss for the sake of knowing Him, and owning Him?

I am not so much shocked that people in this show are willing to stake it all for the sake of 40 million shillings; I am more appalled that if the same demand was to be made of me regarding my love for my God, I will hesitate, and most likely settle for nothing.

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” [Romans 7:24-25a]

The Myth of Christian Balance

This life is like a pendulum (or you can look at it as a balancing scale, if you like). We are always swinging from one extreme of a pendulum to another. As many theologians will perceptively point out, we are always either in the danger of trusting in our own ability to keep the law (pelagianism) or becoming complacent in the name of surrendering to grace (antinomianism). Some people will react to complacency by urging us to be radical for Christ. Others will react to radical Christianity by urging us to be ordinary. But what if life is not really like a pendulum? What if the location of true holiness is not midway between two sinful extremes? What if we are describing logically what can only be perceived and understood spiritually? I believe that while this call to Christian balance is full of good intentions, it is often rooted in an unbiblical understanding of sin and righteousness.

BLAME IT ON ARISTOTLE

In Nicomachean Ethics, this is how Aristotle describes virtue:

“Virtue is a purposive disposition, lying in a mean that is relative to us and determined by a rational principle, by that which a prudent man would use to determine it.”

In other words, “Because practical circumstances vary a great deal, there are no absolute rules of conduct to follow. Instead, we can only observe that right conduct consists of some sort of mean between the extremes of deficiency and excess. For instance, courage consists in finding a mean between the extremes of cowardice and rashness, though the appropriate amount of courage varies from one situation to another.”

Jesus Did Not Cast The First Stone

Reblogged from Alien Citizens:

It is a familiar passage. One that almost every Christian has become well acquainted with. A woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus, to serve as bait. The pharisees and the scribes wanted to see if Jesus is going to break the Law of Moses. He seems to have broken too many laws by now. Working (healing) on Sabbath, eating and drinking with sinners...

Read more… 548 more words

He did not cast it... He took it.

Now This is What I Call a Perfect Prayer

I first heard it from my dad more than a decade ago. I was still in primary school. My dad rammed this prayer into my head until it became a permanent part of my memory. No, my dad was not born again, and he was not teaching me this prayer because he wanted me to be more pious. His reasons were different. My dad admired and pedestaled this prayer because it was a revealing prayer. It revealed the hypocrisy in many Christians. The words in the prayer indicated zero self-focus and total God-focus – Something that my father did not see in the professing Christians around him. It was a difficult prayer to live out, and I guess that’s why my dad loved it so much and made sure I memorized it. Here it is:

Oh LORD, If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,

and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.

But if I worship You for Your Own sake,

grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.

A PERFECT PRAYER

It’s obvious that this prayer expresses an other-worldly attitude of selflessness. It’s true that many people are “Christians” because they do not want to end up in hell. Others are Christians because the images they’ve been fed of heaven titillate their carnal cravings. Very few (if any) of us worship God for who He is. For a long time, I was persuaded that there was no prayer more profound than this one. Not even the Lord’s Prayer came close. Yet, something always bothered me about the prayer. It was an impossible prayer. What appeared to be a perfect prayer was actually a perfectionist prayer. It was a dangerous prayer. I never really prayed it. Whenever I examine my heart, there are always some strings attached in my relationship with God. My prayers and acts of worship are tainted with both explicit and subtle selfish aims. As apostle Paul once remarked;

“I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” [Rom 7:21]

WORSHIPING GOD FOR GOD’S SAKE

Later on, I realized that even though I had elevated this prayer and placed it on such a high pedestal, there’s an important element of the prayer that I never bothered to question. What does it mean to worship God for His own sake? This the question, though unanswered, was actually the most important aspect of the prayer above. To worship God for His own sake means to worship God as He really is. And to worship God as He really is means that one must first get to know this God. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us. God has revealed Himself as the creator and sustainer of the universe. But this is not all. The Bible reveals God as Savior and Redeemer of a world imprisoned in sin and the effects of sin. To worship God for His own sake is to worship God, not just as creator and keeper, but also as the redeemer of the world.

FREEDOM IN CHRIST

So you see, while the prayer above was indeed impressive, it was also imprisoning. I don’t want to tell God to take me to hell because I am worshiping Him for the fear of hell. The truth is that I am afraid of hell, and part of the reason why I worship God is because I do not want to end up there. This may not be the main reason for my worship, but it is part of it. If this makes me sinful, then I am headed to hell, for I cannot perfectly not mix my worship with my fear hell. On the other hand, I want to go to heaven, and I admit that to some extent, I worship God for the hope of paradise. If this means that I am disqualified for paradise, then I am hopeless.

But the good news is that I do know God for who He is. And of all the things that God is, He is also my Savior. Through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, God has redeemed me from the curse of my sin. He has redeemed me from the power and penalty of my ever-sinful ways. I am free in Christ. This means that even if sometimes I worship God for the fear of hell, I will not end up there. It means that even if sometimes I worship God for the hope of paradise, He will not exclude me from paradise. This prayer that I learnt from my dad was profound. It was impressive. But it was also an imprisoning prayer. It disregarded the saving grace of God, and for that reason, it was a false prayer.

*****

PS: Just last year, I Googled the words of the prayer only to discover that it was written/said by an ascetic female Sufi (Muslim) mystic called Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya (717 – 801 A.D.).

No wonder.

Blog Break (08 May 13)

Here are some great links that I believe will be worth your while:

1. WE ARE HYPOCRITES, Amy Henry: “According to a new Barna study, 51 percent of Christians have attitudes and actions more like those of the hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisees than of Jesus.”
2. IS BAD DOCTRINE A SIN? Michael Patton: “I suppose that I want bad doctrine to always be sin. That way, it is easy for me to explain why people don’t agree with me. If we are not on the same page theologically, the answer is simple: they are in sinful rebellion to the truth. Next…”
3. 60 RESOURCES FOR BATTLING PORN. I know that many of us would rather leave this sin unaddressed than lose sleep over it. But I encourage you not to give up the fight. I hope you will find these resources helpful.
4. THE SACRED-SECULAR DIVIDE, “Over the years of laboring to press the gospel deeply into students of increasingly postmodern orientation and sensibilities, Matt has discovered that one of the most important topics to tackle with freshman collegiates and new believers is the so-called “sacred-secular divide.” We all participate in this to certain degrees, and the lessons are relevant far beyond the college campus and this perhaps strangest of life’s seasons.”
5. Lastly, in MY GREATEST UNDOING, Serah Njambi cuts straight to the heart-chase with this one; “My greatest undoing, Is that I quote verses on these twitter streets, And are quick to condemn on Facebook walls, In exactly the same way Pharisees did in Bible times, I blog my prayers, And parade my righteousness for all to see.”

Enjoy and have a blessed day.