Being happy

I here often in America, the phrase "I just want you to be happy." Or "I just want so and so to be happy." My mom says that to me often, as if she is stating that as the end goal for my life.

Happiness is not a bad thing, but I think the Bible teaches us that happiness isn't the end goal. Just "being happy" is a near impossibility in my mind, as we live in a disastrously fallen and broken world. I don't think we'll truly be happy until we are redeemed in the New Heavenly City, experiencing our joy and life directly from Christ.

That is where happiness comes from, real happiness I think. But that doesn't mean happiness in this life like our culture imagines. Jesus was tortured, He sacrificed the ultimate...the things Jesus did, people in our culture would not deem them as happiness-inducing actions.

Psalm 68:1-6 states:
May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.

As smoke is blown away by the wind,
may you blow them away;
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.

But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.

Sing to God, sing praise to his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds —
his name is the LORD—
and rejoice before him.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families,
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

and then Psalm 68:19 states:

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.

I think it's key to remember that our happiness comes as a result of our righteousness being found in Christ. Like Psalm 68:3 states.

"But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful."

Being found in Christ is not necessarily going to bring us the good and comfortable things of our culture that we may think might bring us happiness.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:30

May we find all our happiness locked up in the redemption we find in Christ. For it is through Him, by Him, and for Him that we live and have any of our being.

Wisdom difference

One of America's most celebrated writers is William Faulkner. In his novels, he used multiple lenses of understanding, or points of view of different characters, in not necessarily chronological order, to weave together a unique and meaningful story. Movies such as Crash, and Amores Perros pursue a similar framework...multiple points of view and understandings interweave and connect to showcase a unique story.

I was thinking about how this is similar to the wisdom of the world vs. the wisdom of God.

The wisdom of God is unique and often antagonizes, or opposes the way the world might do something. Things thought in the heart of God are considered foolish or silly when those same things are considered through the world's wisdom glasses.

As a believer of Jesus who is God's only Son, and with a desire and attempting to follow Christ, I think it's important for believers to distinguish clearly these differences and pursue, in our lives, the wisdom of Heaven.

This is going to be hard and invite all sorts of doubt and ridicule. But remember, that's coming from a wisdom of the world perspective.

So which one do I bow down to and confess my allegiance to...here are some lines, just like Faulkner's novels or those movies, that weave through Scripture at different points at time, but still uniformly point to the wisdom of God being greater and higher:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
(Proverbs 3:5-8 NIV)

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
(Romans 11: 33-36)

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
(1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
(2 Corinthians 10:3)

In this battle between the wisdom of God and the way of the world, let us wage war with the weapons of God's wisdom, the Spirit of Truth...His wisdom is far superior and far greater!

judgement

In many ways, I think the modern day church in America is missing the mark when it comes to using "judgement" at the appropriate time and in the appropriate context. By American church, I mean the collective individuals of Christians that make up that body. In the name of "tolerance," which has something that has developed more and more in our culture in recent decades, I think the church has done too little (staying quiet and not saying anything) or done too much (congregation fights or splits over various issues).

Please don't get me wrong, I think tolerance is a good and healthy thing, but it can be taken to far so that one, or a group of people basically becomes unprincipled and standing for nothing.

This post is meant to focus on the church and internal issues of the church. I'm trying not to link external issues and their relationship to the church, which obviously influence and play a part, but I really want this post to focus on the church itself.

One of the most highly quoted verses from Scripture, and I would think most highly quoted by non-Christians would be "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:1-3 NIV)

In this passage, I feel like Jesus is instructing believers regarding their relationships with those outside the church, non-believers. I think this because a) this is early in Jesus' ministry and a church doesn't really exist yet, the apostles are hardly in place, and so without a church really being formed, I don't think Jesus means this in the context of believer to believer relationships and because b) this passage follows a group of passages that Jesus highlights dealing with beliver-relating to the outside world issues. In Matthew 6, He talks about: giving to the needy, prayer (by comparing the worldly Pharisees, who I think Jesus certainly sees as outside the "church"), fasting (again, comparison to worldly Pharisees), treasures in heaven, and having not worrying for worldy sustenance (food and clothing). So I think that theme continues to the beginning of Matthew 7 where Jesus is giving instructions to belivers on external world issues, and how to deal with them.

What I'm getting to is that I think Jesus means it's not okay to judge those outside the church, but it's okay to judge those inside the church*. Notice I put an * mark, because I think Jesus would mean that you can judge those inside the church if they're clearly doing something that is out of line with Scripture and Christ's teaching.

Paul is more clear later on expelling the immoral brother: "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 5:1-3 NIV)

Now this presents a whole host of problems. And this may result in a "duh" Hunter, this post isn't saying anything new. Different people are going to interpret Scripture in a different way. This will lead to differences in issues that are controversial. That's one of the main problems of the church today.

Why am I writing about this? I think the church needs to figure itself out. As quickly as possible. Instead of fighting among itself, or teaching something completely contrary to Christ's intention (health and wealth gospel), it needs to get back to a more pure, original intent of what the church is supposed to be, which I think, also includes stop being so fragmented. Now, I just wrote that the health and wealth gospel is contrary to Christ's teaching. Others are going to completely disagree, in light of their interpretation of Scripture.

In light of this, I think Christians that have opposing viewpoints should sit down together, ask the Holy Spirit to guide their meeting(s), and seek out the real Truth of what Scripture is saying. If a Christian refuses to do this, or is unwilling, I think that's a sign for concern.

Now, I'm not going to go walking into every health and wealth gospel church and stand up in the middle of the service and start yelling and shouting. There's a proper Spirit of love that Christ would use to go about this I think, maybe He would do that, but I don't know.

My ending point to all this is that I think Christ-seeking Christians should be convicted more in their thoughts about the Supremacy of Christ and His Truth taught in Scriptures, and to not settle for all sorts of fluff the world, or other aspects of "the church" might present. I don't think they are to do this in a mean-spirited way, but follow Christ's example in standing firm in love and in Truth. If that involves correcting a brother or sister (again, in a spirit of "firm love"), then so be it.

marriage and serving God

I think a prevalent goal that exists in our society is to marry. Well DUH you might say. Yes, I agree, the human race wouldn't be able to continue if marriage wasn't a really big deal. I don't necessarily believe that God has placed a specific desire in everyone's heart for a wonderful other of the opposite sex. I do think that God has placed a desire for community in everyone's heart, and that very well could look like a woman and a man married together (the most intimate form of community). Even looking outside of the Christian community, I think this would pan out in the statistics: people divorce quite a bit, marriage rates are down, but people still live with each other and don't tie the knot (be it for saving money or having sex). Marriage doesn't quite have the premium it used to, but being together surely has not gone away.

I've read about some communities of single men and women who live together under the banner of Christ, who live in community, but choose to remain single to be devoted to the Lord first and foremost. I think this offers an interesting example to think about.

Marriage is not a bad thing at all, please don't get me wrong. My married friends tell me it's an awesome thing. And I believe them. But, I find that there are a lot of Christian brothers and sisters who pursue marriage as a primary goal to accomplish in life. Culture surely has had an influence on this. Little girls start thinking about their wedding day when they are still in diapers. I think guys start thinking about marriage later and a bit more gradually, maybe around their early 20s, but it still can grow into a passionate desire to be married. Think about various aspects of our culture, a lot of structures and institutions are set up that lead towards encouraging marriage (once again, these aren't necessarily bad in themselves). I think even that awful cotillion stuff my mom made me attend in middle school was a part of this whole call to marriage from society. The result from all this is that I observe many times that Christian brothers and sisters often have a decent amount of anxiety related to just that, marriage. Finding a mate. "I'll never find Mr. Right" or "I'll just be one of those lonely old men." I don't see as heightened anxieties about serving the Lord or orienting a vocation towards serving the Lord. Culture has cultivated a huge premium on getting married, and it's like if somebody doesn't, they're deemed a big fat loser.

But that's culture's opinion. Not God's. Paul talks about marriage in 1 Corinthians 7. I mention this insightful passage of Scripture to encourage you to read it for yourself and see what the Holy Spirit reveals to you regarding marriage. Some things I observe about it: Paul never says or explicitly commands, "don't marry". Or "marry." He does not lay out any specific absolutes. He talks about the benefits of being single so that one would be free to serve the Lord without disagreements or distractions that may arise in a marriage. Biblical scholars note that Paul was single during his apostleship period of Jesus (most likely when he wrote 1 Corinthians), but was very likely married during the time he served as a zealous Jewish persecutor of Christians. Paul knew both sides, he speaks from experience, which gives him more credibility.

In our culture, I wish that Christians would desire to seek and serve Jesus first and foremost, and not necessarily count on marriage as a given in their life. That they would pursue the Lord above all, and that if an opportunity for marriage does arise as a way to strengthen their service to the Lord, that they would get married! DUH! There are many situations that two together serving the Lord is a stronger ministry TOGETHER AS ONE than two single individuals serving the Lord, and so they should get married (that being that they love each other and seek each other's best interests before their own)! Marriage isn't for everyone, and shouldn't be pursuit #1, as our culture so often seems to claim and encourage.

Christ in the context of organizational leadership

So I've had a big change of environments of late. Small, Christ-centered intentional community in Argentina to relatively large college campus with a wide range of beliefs where knowledge and the pursuit of it mostly prevails.

Thus far, my one class and the material related to it has been very interesting and though provoking. One thing I see missing though is where does Christ fit into the context of organizational and individual leadership.

He's not talked about or mentioned at all.

The argument could be made, "well, all that religious stuff has no basis, it's just religion and the like..." Well, I'd disagree. From a purely academic study, let's say, non-bias viewpoint, I think one could make a fairly substantial argument that Christ is the leader of the longest-standing, most numerous, most complex, sometimes controversial yes, organization the WORLD has ever seen. Looking at the sheer numbers and the historical numbers over time, I think it could be statistically proven without a doubt that Christ is the most outstanding leader the world has ever seen, and His church, once again, when done inline with Scripture's outlays for how the church should truly be, the most enduring and life-giving/sustaining organization that exists.

Even in the sea of multiple competing thoughts and ideologies, Jesus comes out on top.

So how does this fit in to nowadays? Very much so. The principles that Christ taught and lived are very much applicable to organizations nowadays.

Do we dare in organizations, be they academic or corporate, to attempt servant-like mentalities in all our tasks and the directions in which the institutions are going? Would it just be too crazy to attempt to lead like Christ led, and set up our organizations according to the structures and principles we find in Scripture?

I'm not really surprised I haven't seen this talked about yet in my classes or around campus. I don't really expect it to happen. But is somebody missing a big huge elephant in the room? Is it just too good to be true, although it is true?

Two great books as a starting place on this regarding individual leadership, but that has relevance in organizations, are Henri Nouwen's In the name of Jesus and a more corporate look in Ken Blanchard's Lead like Jesus.

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

(1 Corinthians 1:18-31 NIV)