A Personal Relationship with Christ

How many times have you heard someone talk about having a “personal relationship with Jesus” or a “personal relationship with God?” People are told that they need to “accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.” That kind of language is used to stress the need for each person to make his or her own choice to follow Jesus-- as opposed to adopting or inheriting the religious faith of their parents. And that is surely important. Each of us will “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor 5:10).  The only way this is going to be a pleasant experience for us is to know the Judge personally.

It may surprise you to find out that the language “personal relationship with Jesus” does not appear in the New Testament. In fact, as Mark Luepke recently pointed out, the word “personal” doesn't really appear in the News Testament. Yes, my NIV uses the term “a trusted personal servant of the king” to describe a man named Blastus (Acts 12:20) and has Jesus talk about those who “gain personal glory” (John 7:18). Nut more literal translations (NASB, ESV) don’t use the word “personal” at all. It’s a bit surprising that this “personal relationship with Christ” mantra of modern Christianity just isn’t found in the New Testament.

Is that really such a big deal? Well, it might be. When many Christians today use the term “personal relationship with Christ,” what they are really talking about is a “private relationship with Christ.” More and more believers are opting-out of church altogether and are choosing to have a more personal religion. The idea is that my religious faith is between only me and God and doesn’t need to involve anyone else. The bottom line, we are told, is that “It’s not about religion; it’s about relationship.”



The New Testament never uses the language of “personal relationship with Christ.” And it certainly doesn't envision a religion that is a private matter between me and God and that everyone else can leave us alone.  In the New Testament, faith in Jesus is ALWAYS communal and lived out in relationship with other believers. Over and over again, Christians are encouraged live their lives of faith together in relationship with one another. There is no personal relationship with God without a living relationship within a community of faith. The cross that brings us closer to God also brings us into a "common unity" with other people of faith. So while the language of “personal relationship with Christ” is not used in the Bible, what we do hear over and over is how we are to live with "one another" or "each other."

• Rom 1:12- That you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith (1 Thess 4:18)
• Rom 12:10- Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
• Rom 12:16- Live in harmony with one another. (1 Pet 3:8)
• Rom 13:8- Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another (1 Thess 3:12, 1 Thess 4:9, 2 Thess 1:3, Heb 13:1, 1 Pet 1:22, 1 Pet 4:8, 1 Jn 3:11, 1 Jn 3:23, 1 Jn 4:7, 1 Jn 4:11-12, 2 Jn 2:5)
• Rom 14:13- Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another.
• Rom 15:7- Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
• Rom 15:14- You yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
• Rom 16:16- Greet one another with a holy kiss. (1 Cor 16:20, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Pet 5:14)
• 1 Cor 1:10- That all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you (Phil 4:2)
• 1 Cor 11:33- So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.
• 1 Cor 12:25- No division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
• Gal 5:13- But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
• Gal 5:15- If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
• Gal 5:26- Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
• Gal 6:2- Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
• Eph 4:2- Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Col 3:13)
• Eph 4:32- Be kind and compassionate to one another (1 Thess 5:15)
• Eph 4:32- Forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Col 3:13)
• Eph 5:19- Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. (Col 3:16)
• Eph 5:21- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
• Col 3:9- Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
• Col 3:16- Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
• 1 Thess 5:13- Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.
• Heb 10:24- And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
• James 4:11- Brothers, do not slander one another.
• James 5:9- Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.
• James 5:16- Therefore confess your sins to each other
• James 5:16- and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
• 1 Pet 4:9- Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
• 1 Pet 5:5- Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another
• 1 John 1:7- But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another

Some of these passages tell us what we are TO DO with one another—teach, be humble, encourage, show hospitality, etc. And some of these texts warn us what NOT to do with one another—do not lie, do not bite and devour, stop passing judgment, etc. What these verses should tell us is that there is no way to live the Christian faith PRIVATELY. God made us for community and fellowship. He made us for accountability and worship. He did not make us to stay at home and watch religious TV and think that our personal and private religion” is “Christian” in the Biblical sense of that term

Are You a Pretty Good Person?

Most people probably see themselves as a good person.  Even those people you consider to be pretty petty, mean and selfish, they probably consider themselves to be a pretty good person.  And even those people who do demonstrably evil things tend to excuse themselves by say, "Yes, but basically, I'm a pretty good person."  My point is that we generally set the bar pretty low on what it takes to be a good person.  I remember Bob Clark reviewing of Lewis Smedes' book, A Pretty Good Person.  I seem to remember him saying that it was a pretty good book, but I don't remember anything about it-- I was bummed that the guy reviewing the Max Lucado book didn't show up.

I ran across the following video while looking for something to use with my Middle School students in our small group study on the Ten Commandments.  Warning: There is a commercial at the end; feel free to hit the You Tube stop button when you get there.



This little clip reminds us that maybe we're not really the pretty good person we want to think we are.  We think we're a pretty good person, but that's because we're comparing ourselves with other people.  That won't fly.  Paul reminds us "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Rom 3:10).  That is the first of a series of Old Testament quotations that leads Paul to conclude "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin" (Rom 3:20) and "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). As long as we keep the bar low and compare ourselves with others (and are pretty selective about the others to whom we compare ourselves), we can convince ourselves that we are pretty good people.  But our only real hope at goodness is through an act of God, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." We'll never be good on our own, but in Christ we have a righteousness granted from above.

But that is really not my point.  When a many people "out there" in our increasingly secular world think of "Christians," what comes to their mind is not those who are "a pretty good person." The three words that most come to mind when they hear the word "Christian" are "anti-homosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical." According to David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons in UnChristian (Barna, 2007), many (particularly younger) non-Christians view the church through the lens of what we're against. There are six negative themes that sum up the perceptions and attitudes of younger non-Christian people of Christians-- hypocrisy, treatment of outsiders as conversion targets, hatred of homosexuals, seclusion from the real world, over-politicization, and condemnation. Their perception of us is that we don't come across as pretty good people. In fact, sometimes we can come across as pretty mean-spirited, harsh and condemning in the name of Jesus.

 Sure, many of those people have formed opinions based on perceptions gleaned from the media. If by "Christian," they think Pat Robertson or even Fred Phelps, it is no wonder that they have negative views about us. But most of the people surveyed in the Barna study knew Christians personally, and thus some of their opinions were formed by first hand experience.

So here's my point... finally. While it is not enough for us to be "pretty good people," our Christian faith must lead us to live in the world of non-believers in a that "will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life" (Phil 2:15-16). It is not enough for us to be a pretty good person, but if we don't live so that the people around us see us as a pretty good person, then we more or less invalidate our belief that Jesus makes a difference.

Eating Humble Pie at McDonald's

I don’t really follow pro basketball, so the current NBA lock-out doesn't bother me at all. It amazes me-- the minimum wage in the NBA is $473,604 for a rookie and $1,069,509 for a six year vet. I’m sure the NBA owners make a ton of cash, but it is hard to feel too sorry for any of these guys. I did have a little fun at Labron James’ expense yesterday. I was reading an article on the NBA labor dispute where the writer quoted Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” For some reason that made me think of Labron James and his commercial for McDonalds, so I cobbled together pieces of two You Tube videos—



Predicting 7-8 championships is a lot easier that producing championships. Someone suggested that Labron James has a cell phone that only vibrates—no rings! OK, enough poking fun at Mr. James; he may yet win his bunches of championships… if he ever gets to go back to work.

The only reason I can’t make the same point on pride form my life (or yours) is that (thankfully) our bouts with pride and arrogance have not (yet) been posted on You Tube for our viewing pleasure. The verse quoted by the sports writer is just one of many Proverbs than warn of pride--

• Prov 8:13 - “I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech”
• Prov 11:2 - “Pride comes, then comes disgrace, with humility comes wisdom”
• Prov 13:10- “Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice
• Prov 14:13- “A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.
• Prov 21:4- “Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the unplowed field of the wicked—produce sin. 
• Prov 29:23- “Pride brings a person low, but the lowly spirit gain honor.”

Why all of these warnings? Because you don’t have to be a millionaire athlete to struggle with pride! We all do. And it is dangerous in ALL of us!

On Being a Visionary

I suppose you've heard that Steve Jobs, the founding visionary of Apple Computers, died this past week from  pancreatic cancer. When I heard the news, I couldn't help but think of my friend Joe Vitello. Joe and I carried on a good humored "Mac vs PC" argument for years, long before Apple came out with their commercials. It bugs me that "Mac" is the cool guy in the commercials, but then Joe was much cooler than me-- he once played drums for Carlos Santana; I once owned a Santana cassette. I also thought of Joe a lot because, like Steve Jobs, Joe died of pancreatic cancer eleven years ago.

I start most mornings skimming through the headlines on Google News and CNN. Both of these have been dominated recently by articles on the life, accomplishments and death of Mr. Jobs. In fact, Michael Oher, the Baltimore Ravens football player featured in “The Blindside” made the news because he had the audacity to admit that he had no idea who Steve Jobs was! For a time the media was all Steve Jobs all the time. Now, I love my iPad and iPod, and I will get an iPhone just as soon as one's available for the $35 a month I’m paying now. But even as an Apple admirer, I was amazed at all the press his passing generated. Some of it was likely due to the fact that no one really realized how really sick he was (some thought he'd make a "one more thing" appearance at the iPhone media event the day before he died).

In the midst of all the Steve Jobs retrospectives that I skimmed, the following post from Brett Harrison on his “Aliens and Strangers” blog caught my attention. (Thanks to Alan Smith for pointing me to this).

I don’t know much about Steve Jobs. Frankly, neither do you. That’s what seems strange to me about our world’s response to his death. We collectively mourn for a man with whom we never shared a meal, a man with whom we never had a conversation.

I’m not suggesting death shouldn’t sadden us. But we do this every time someone in the public eye passes away. Are we grieving the death of Steve Jobs? Or are we simply celebrating the technological advances he brought us — and calling that celebration sorrow, masking our love for things with tears for a man?

I am full of sorrow, though. I recently read this article, which explains why Jobs, on his death bed, authorized a biography to be written about him. Here are his words: 

“I wanted my kids to know me. I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why…” 

I am sad for Jobs’ children. And I am equally sad for a nation who praises and glorifies a man simply because he achieved much in the world of business and technology. That’s a polite way to say it, I suppose. Maybe it would be more accurate, or at least more pointed, to say it this way: I am saddened that we worship a man simply because he gave us phones with touch screens. (Well, look on the bright side: at least we don’t place undue importance on the athletic achievements of 18 and 19-year olds.) 

How I wish our society honored those men who love their families with a love that is second only to their love for God.

I think he nails this pretty well.  No one is really a "visionary" if he allows his children to grow up needing to read a book in order to know their father.

Don't Go to Church; Be the Church

Two churches made headlines recently when they cancelled their Sunday morning church services. We did that not too long ago and there were no headlines… except for “Hurricane Irene Batters East Coast.” But New Life Church and Lincolnway Christian Church in Illinois didn't cancel their services because of bad weather; they cancelled services to encourage their members to spend their Sunday outside of their “church services” to engage in Christian service to people in their communities. So they served at grade schools (mulching, weeding, picking up garbage, etc.), shopping centers (free car washes), homeless shelters (serving meals) and low income neighborhoods (proving free home maintenance). The slogan on the T-shirt here says it all—“Don’t GO to church. BE the Church.”

One of our former elders liked to talk about people having limited amounts of “disposable time.” Granted, we often dispose of that time in non-productive ways (a euphemism for “watching TV”). But sometimes asking our members to be at “formal” church service 3-4 times a week leaves them with little time (or maybe “little perceived time”) for other Christian activities. This is especially true for people with children involved in sports and band and scouts and a lot of other great things that require large amounts of time acting as boosters and taxi drivers. We discussed at a recent leaders’ meeting the possibility of reallocating some of our meeting times (or parts of them) for more service-oriented activities. I got the general idea that many were both intrigued and disturbed-- what exactly is “forsaking the assembly” anyway?

The church certainly hasn't outgrown the need for “the assembly of the saints.” But maybe we need to mature to the point where we realize the PURPOSE of the “worship service.” We must not be “neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some” (Heb 10:25, ESV). But the end purpose of our meetings is to help us “think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works” (Heb 10:24, NLT). For too long, Christians have considered coming to church as their religious duty (see this previous post). In reality, our assembly to worship refocuses attention on the Kingship of God, and this allows us to be motivated to out serve our King. The “worship” part of the “worship service” takes place inside the assembly; the “service” part takes place only after we leave. In fact, the service we give to God outside of church is also our “true and proper worship” (Rom 12:2, NIV) or “spiritual worship” (ESV) or “this is truly the way to worship him” (NLT).

“Don’t GO to church; BE the church?” OK, maybe it should be don’t ONLY go to church; be the church.  But I do like the idea of the church making that point by sometimes intentionally shuttering its building and shooing its members out into the community to serve.