Why have Christians abandoned the Old Testament?

Many Christians believe that the Old Testament has no application to the church today--except, of course, to use Biblical characters as moral role models (but shhh, don't tell the children that David had an adulterous affair or that Moses and David were both murderers or that Noah got trashed and ran around naked!). I believe that many Christians have made the Old Testament a second-class citizen because many fail to see the overarching story that God has been writing since the beginning of time--a story that is incomplete without the Old Testament.

But rest assured, God has not changed and His purposes have not changed. And so the Old Testament is still relevant to Christians and the church today. Sure, with the coming of Jesus God's story has progressed and some things of old are no longer practiced--at least in the same form--like animal sacrifice. But this does not mean that the sacrificial system and the covenants of old are meaningless to Christians! But what about those wars in the Old Testament? Why did God have the Israelites kill innocent children along with the adult inhabitants of those evil nations? This violence can't apply to the Christian today, can it? Doesn't this just show that God was mean and violent in the Old Testament and that the coming of Jesus showed that God found his better side and has now become a cosmic teddy bear? This is what you might conclude if you don't understand the storyline of the Bible. So let me explain how the wars and such reflect what God was trying to accomplish on this earth...and how they relate to the New Testament.

So when Adam and Eve rebelled against God by eating from the 'tree of the experience of good and bad' (my translation), bad came into the world in the form of curses. The story tells us that after this, mankind's evil increased and began polluting God's world. So God reveals his plan for removing evil and restoring good back to this world (Genesis 12). God was going to 1.) Grow a nation numerically that would reflect His GOOD design for life to the surrounding nations, 2.) Plant this nation in a protected land 3.) Make this nation famous and appealing to the surrounding nations as they lived out God's GOOD design for life, and 4.) Bless those surrounding nations that make God their king by connecting themselves to God's GOOD design for life.

So what is God supposed to do with those nations that refuse to abandon their evil and make God their king? Well, once the sin of these nations reaches a point of no return (i.e., the point of utter defiance), God has to wipe these people off the earth. Why? Because God's plan is to cleanse this earth of evil using His chosen nation. This type of treatment was not reserved for other nations alone. The book of Deuteronomy makes it clear that God took the same measures to keep His chosen nation free from evil corruption. How? Well, those who did not fear God and lived in defiant, high-handed sin were to be purged from among their people (Deut. 13:5; 17:12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7)! Ouch! The principle we draw from this is that God was in the process of reestablishing His GOOD rule on this earth in the Old Testament--by overcoming evil with His GOOD in this world! And He is still in the process of doing this today (although in different way!). In fact, Jesus' slogan was, "Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand!" Jesus was about the business of reclaiming this world for God by inviting people to embrace God's rule in their lives!

So how does this principle apply to the church today? Well, 1 Peter 2:9-10 gives us a hint when it says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Notice how Peter takes Old Testament concepts and applies them to the church today.

First, when Peter talks about us being CALLED out of DARKNESS and into His wonderful LIGHT, he is picking up on the creation theme of Genesis when God CALLED LIGHT out of the DARKNESS. And so in essence, God RECREATES people through the regenerating work and power of the Holy Spirit when they decide to follow Jesus (see 1 Peter 1:2). This is how people are called out of the darkness and into the light! And God wants us to display our new Spirit empowered identity to the surrounding world through our good deeds (1 Peter 2:11-12). So does this mean that God wants us to be good for the sake of being good? Not really. God wants us to be good, at this point, for the sake of drawing people to His kingship (see 2:12; see also Deut. 4:6-8)! This explains the next two points.

Second, we are a holy nation. The word 'holy' means 'set apart' or 'separate'. Our lives are to be lived DIFFERENTLY from the lives of the surrounding world. Our values, pursuits, character, motives, goals, and decisions should be God-centered (not American dream-centered). While the world pursues fame and fortune, we are to pursue God and His purpose for our existence. While the world pursues sinful pleasure, we are to pursue pleasing God. The church is to be a reflection of God to the surrounding world. And so just like God was insistent on keeping His nation free from evil (for His name's sake) by purging the evil people, we too, through church discipline, need to keep the church free from evil (and I'm not just talking about people involved in sexual sins here...how about people who give the church a bad name by displaying greed, un-love, divisiveness, pride etc.?). But does this mean that Christians must disengage from the world for the sake of being separate from the world. NOPE!!!! But how do I know this?

Well, third, we are to be a royal priesthood (i.e., the king's priests). The priests in the Old Testament helped to connect people back to God. People who sinned would bring their sacrifices to the priests and the priests would reestablish that person's relationship with God. In a similar way, the church is to be about the business of connecting people back to God. But how can we connect people back to God if we never rub shoulders with people who are far from God? We need to 'go' out into the world and engage people with Jesus' message. But not only this. Our church communities need to give validity to the fact that we represent God's kingdom. Who will believe Jesus' message if we contradict it in the life of our community?

And so, today God is still working out his plan to grow His kingdom (by overcoming evil with HIS GOOD in this world) and make His rule appealing to the world so that people want to be a part of it. Through our lives and our church community, we either make God's kingdom appealing or a turnoff to people. JUST LIKE JESUS...May we be priests to the world around us and as people see our holy lives may they be drawn back to God, the King of the Universe!

Why is God an Ego-maniac? Or is He?

Is God an ego-maniac? Certainly He has the right to be one. After all, anyone who creates a universe has some legitimate bragging rights! But is God actually a self-consumed, narcissist (because there is a difference between having the right to be full of yourself and actually acting like you're full of yourself)? God says time and time again that he does things "for His name's sake" (Isa 48:9; Eze 20; Eze 36:22). Does this not make God sound conceited? I guess the question boils down to, "Is someone who does things 'for His name's sake' self-focused?" What do you think? Here's what I think...

What we learn in Genesis 1 is that the best place to be is in the midst of God's presence (in the 'good' garden) where true peace, rest, and wholeness exist. And so it would make sense that this is where God wants you and me to be! God desires nothing but the best for us! This is why God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of 'the experience of good and bad'! He created and designed life to be good and to be experienced in His presence.

So let me ask you this...What would happen if God's name got a bad reputation? Would people want to pursue Him and live by His design for life? Or would people want to disregard and even run away from Him? I'm guessing God would lose some market share on earth if 'He got a bad name'. And if God's presence is, in fact, the best place to live, wouldn't this decrease of God's popularity constitute a travesty? I mean people would be running away from what is best for them to pursue what would essentially amount to a deficient life. That's sad to me! In light of this, do you think it is selfish of God to want to do things for His name's sake and to preserve his good reputation? I don't know about you but this doesn't seem to make God out to be much of an ego-maniac. If anything it demonstrates that God is love. But maybe I'm just missing something. What do you think?

The truth is that God is relentless in bringing humanity back to Himself because He knows that the best place to experience life is in His presence! And so God couldn't just turn a blind eye to the Godlessness that had entered His world. And so He initiated a rescue operation with a man named Abraham. The purpose of this rescue operation was to spread God's presence throughout the world and reestablish His good kingdom. So what was God's plan to accomplish this?

Genesis 12, 15, & 17 tell us that God was going to make Abraham into a great nation (i.e., a plethora of people), give Him a peaceful land in which to dwell (i.e., a protected property), make his name great (i.e., give him prominent popularity), and bless the entire world through him (i.e., give him a positive purpose).

So how has this plan worked itself out throughout history? Well, in Genesis we see God working out PHASE ONE of His plan. He makes Abraham and his descendants into a huge nation (despite the setbacks of barrenness, drought, and famine) so that by the time we reach the book of Exodus, the Pharaoh is concerned that the enormous size of his slave-force will encourage a revolt. In fact, once God frees Israel from slavery, He needs to give the Israelites a WRITTEN law because there's no way Moses can manage such a large amount of people on his own (Genesis 18). After Israel receives the law, God's presence then comes to dwell with the Jewish people in a place called the Tabernacle. Why would God do this? Well, like we said before, God knows that the best place for humans to live is in His presence (so when God moves onto the block, property values go UP). The arrival of God's presence brings PHASE ONE to completion.

The books of Numbers and Joshua describe the implementation of PHASE TWO of God's plan: Giving the Israelites a protected property in which to dwell. While God ultimately gives the Israelites the land He promised, they never experience complete peace and rest in this land because they didn't exactly follow ALL of God's instructions. But nevertheless by the end of Joshua, PHASE TWO is complete.

The books of Judges and Samuel as well as a large portion of Kings and Chronicles tell about the progress of PHASE THREE of God's plan: Making Abraham's name great. So after God gives Israel a land, we see in the book of Judges that the Israelites aren't all that capable of worshiping God if left to their own devices. Let's be honest, they're like most of us. They want to have their cake and eat it too. That is to say, they want God's blessings and also want permission to 'do what is right in their own eyes' (at the same time). Well, that's not how God rolls. So God solved the situation by giving the Israelites an earthly king to function really as a glorified babysitter.

After doing a little more housekeeping, God makes King David a promise: that he will make David's name great (2 Samuel 7). Now this promise is really nothing new because it links right back to God's original promise to Abraham. But why would God want to make David's name great? Isn't God most concerned about making HIS own name great? Well, let's be honest God is a genius...and so He knew that by making David's name great, His name would also be made great(er). How was this supposed to work? God wanted the nation that HE created to reflect HIM and as a result become so appealing to the surrounding world that people would be drawn back to HIM. And this is exactly how things worked out. When Solomon came on the scene, people were traveling from all over the world to gobble up nuggets of GOD'S wisdom from Solomon (1 Kings 4:29-34). This signaled that PHASE THREE of God's plan was complete.

Unfortunately, PHASE FOUR never really got off the ground in the Old Testament...why? Well, God's people put God's law into one of those self-storage units so they could ignore it and live however they wanted. As a result, God's name got a bad reputation. And so once again, God had to do a little disciplining and so he sent the Israelites to their room (I mean into exile). God had to do this because it's kind of hard to spread God's blessings when you're not living for God or experiencing His blessings yourself!

So do you see what's going on here? Since making His promise to Abraham, God has been working out His plan to bring his GOOD kingdom back to this earth. He wants to establish a contagious community that passionately reflects His presence and as a result becomes so appealing to the surrounding world that people are drawn back to God and His design for life! In fact, this is what Jesus was trying to do while he was on this earth! Jesus came to make God's name great so that people could have the opportunity to be blessed by living in God's presence!

So how does all this relate to the community (the church) that Jesus created and that still exists today? Stay tuned...

Keys to making your kids apethetic about faith

This post is by a pastor named Scott Linscott. It is a great, honest and somewhat convicting article on parenting. It was so good that I wanted to put it here just as he wrote it.

Your kid’s an All Star? Someday he’ll be average like the rest of us.
The church in America is puzzled. Young adults are leaving in droves. Magazines, books and blogs are wagging the finger of blame to point out who is responsible. Some say it is a failure of youth ministry, some point to church budgets and some nail the blame on outdated, unhip worship services. We parents are shocked that our kids just really aren’t all that into Jesus. When I look for someone to blame I head into the restroom and look into a mirror. Yep, there he is. I blame him. That parent looking back at me is where I have to start. If you’re a parent, I might tick you off in this post. But, hear me out. I think that we, as parents are guilty of some things that make it easy for our kids to put faith low on their priority list.

Keys to Making Your Kids Apathetic About Faith
1) Put academic pursuits above faith-building activities. Encourage your child to put everything else aside for academic gain. Afterall, when they are 24 and not interested in faith and following Christ, you’ll still be thrilled that they got an A in pre-calculus, right? Instead of teaching them balance, teach them that all else comes second to academics. Quick … who graduated in the top 5 of your high school class? Unless you were one of them, I bet you have no idea. I don’t.

2) Chase the gold ball first and foremost. Afterall, your child is a star. Drive 400 miles so your child can play hockey but refuse to take them to a home group bible study because it’s 20 minutes away.

2b) Buy into the “select,” “elite,” “premier” titles for leagues that play outside of the school season and take pride in your kid wearing the label. Hey now, he’s an All-Star! No one would pay $1000 for their kid to join, “Bunch-of-kids-paying-to-play Team.” But, “Elite?!?” Boy, howdy! That’s the big time!

2c) Believe the school coach who tells you that your kid won’t play if he doesn’t play in the offseason. The truth is, if your kid really is a star, he could go to Disney for the first week of the season and come back and start for his school team. The determined coach might make him sit a whole game to teach him a lesson. But, trust me, if Julie can shoot the rock for 20 points a game, she’s in the lineup. I remember a stellar soccer athlete who played with my son in high school. Chris missed the entire preseason because of winning a national baseball championship. With no workouts, no double sessions, his first day back with the soccer team, he started and scored two goals. Several hard-working “premier” players sat on the bench and watched him do it. (Chris never played soccer outside the school season but was a perpetual district all-star selection.) The hard reality is, if your kid is not a star, an average of 3 new stars a year will play varsity as freshmen. That means there’s always 12 kids who are the top prospects. Swallow hard and encourage your kid to improve but be careful what you sacrifice to make him a star at little Podunk High here in Maine.

2d) By the way, just because your kid got a letter inviting him to attend a baseball camp in West Virginia does not mean he is being recruited. You’ll know when recruiting happens. Coaches start calling as regularly as telemarketers, they send your kid handwritten notes and they often bypass you to talk to your kid. A letter with a printed label from an athletic department is not recruitment. When a coach shows up to watch your kid play and then talks to you and your kid, that’s recruiting.

3) Teach your kid that the dollar is almighty. I see it all the time. Faith activities fly out the window when students say, “I’d like to, but I have to work.” Parents think jobs teach responsibility when, in reality, most students are merely accumulating wealth to buy the things they want. Our kids learn that faith activities should be put aside for the “responsibility” of holding a job. They will never again get to spend 100% of their paychecks on the stuff they want.

3b) Make them pay outright for faith activities like youth retreats and faith community activities while you support their sports, music, drama and endeavors with checks for camps and “select” groups and expensive equipment. This sends a loud and clear message of what you really want to see them involved in and what you value most. Complain loudly about how expensive a three-day youth event is but then don’t bat an eye when you pay four times that for a three-day sports camp.

4) Refuse to acknowledge that the primary motivating force in kids’ lives is relationship. Connections with others is what drives kids to be involved. It’s the reason that peer pressure is such a big deal in adolescence. Sending kids to bible classes and lectures is almost entirely ineffective apart from relationship and friendships that help them process what they learn. As kids share faith experiences like retreats, mission trips and student ministry fun, they build common bonds with one another that work as a glue to Christian community. In fact, a strong argument can be made that faith is designed to be lived in community with other believers. By doing all you can to keep your kids from experiencing the bonds of love in a Christian community, you help insure that they can easily walk away without feeling like they are missing anything. Kids build friendships with the kids they spend time with.

5) Model apathy in your own life. If following Jesus is only about sitting in a church service once a week and going to meetings, young adults opt out. Teenagers and young adults are looking for things that are worth their time. Authentic, genuine, relevant relationships where people are growing in relationship with Jesus is appealing. Meaningless duty and ritual holds no attraction.

There are no guarantees that your children will follow Christ even if you have a vibrant, purposeful relationship with Him. But, on the other hand, if we, as parents do not do all we can to help our children develop meaningful relationships in Jesus, we miss a major opportunity to lead them and show them the path worth walking. I want my kids to see that their dad follows Jesus with everything. I want them to know that my greatest hope for them is that they follow Him too.

Mt. 6:33 says, "Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." (The Message)