Charlottesville

"When the Psalmist saw the transgression of the wicked, his heart told him how it could be. 'There is no fear of God before his eyes' he explained, and in so saying revealed to us the psychology of sin. When men no longer fear God, they transgress His laws without hesitation. The fear of consequences is no deterrent when the fear of God is gone." -- A.W.Tozer "The Knowledge of the Holy"

I was a freshman in college when I first read A. W. Tozer. My roommate was reading it for a class and he read one quote to me and I was sold. Tozer writes from a different perspective than today’s Christian authors. He wasn’t looking for fame or acceptance. He wasn’t out there, writing his books and preaching his sermons, hoping to win friends and influence people. He was a clarion call. He was consumed by the Holiness of God and by the changes that automatically brings in the life of any who encountered it.

Tozer did not mince words or soften the blow of an encounter with a holy God. For him, it was a total surrender or it was nothing at all. I never met Tozer, he died the year before I was born, but I think he would have approved of my often-used description of the cross of Christ as a “head-on-collision.” An inescapable totaling of your person. Your frame is bent and needs to be straightened. Your metal gets wrinkled. The outward skin that shone and gleamed is ruined. It all needs to be redone. That is the Cross. A place where humanity runs headlong into the face of Christ, dying a most vicious death, and realizes that it was for them He died, and that this death requires change. Total, complete, to-the-heart change.

Tozer would never have written books like “Your best day ever” or “The Shack.” He never would have abided smiling, slick-haired game-show hosts, passing themselves off as pastors. He would be the first to address the heresy of Osteen and Hinn. He never would have approved of someone like Lentz Instagramming himself doing shots with Justin Bieber. In fact, he would have been the first to be in Lentz’ face, thundering the enormity of his sin and the depth of his mockery.

He would not have remained silent while “Kanye West’s pastor” hawked himself to Oprah and preached something that permitted West to continue to act like West.

Tozer, Ravenhill, Graham, these men did not preach a Gospel of “everybody is okay.”

They preached a Gospel that demands change. That commands different living. A Gospel that requires saying “yes” to all the Bible, not just the parts that speak of God’s love and make us feel giddy. He would reject, entirely, this gospel that says it’s okay if we sin and it’s no big deal since Jesus covered that at Calvary and God is just a big old sugar daddy who shakes His divine head at the sin of his children and somehow thinks it’s cute.

He doesn’t. He is offended. It insults His holiness. Those who call The Name, and for whom the Cross has become a turning point, are obliged to live differently. Those who preach this Gospel are obliged to preach the holiness it produces and the expectation of that Holiness it demands. Obliged to preach it. You must.

This is a lengthy introduction for this article. This bears all the markings of a challenge to Holiness, but that is really the introduction. This is about Charlottesville.

Yesterday was a black-eye on America, but not in the way most folks see it. Yesterday, while a protest march became a war in the streets, I watch in horror as the left used this event to once-again attack President Trump. He instigated this, they said. He didn’t condemn it strongly enough. When he issued a statement and it wisely and properly called for all people to unite, he was attacked again by the left. Why? Because he wanted unity and after eight years of a “president” preaching division, this message is dangerous. What if we really did unite? The game would be up.

But back to Charlottesville…

I watched in sadness as certain voices from the Christian Left immediately started attacking The Church, as if latent racism is their fault. They immediately made statements like “Racism has no place in Christianity!’ Who ever said it did? I know the fringe racists claim the Faith, but nobody takes them seriously. The leftists who claim Christianity is racist, do so only when they have nothing else to complain about. Yet they’ll take the aid given by Christian churches as soon as the next disaster hits, and never notice whether it was delivered by a black hand or a white hand.

The notion that Christianity in America is inherently racist is a farce and an insult. I’ve heard the same tired statements about “Church is the most segregated hour in America…”

Only by choice. And so what? My preference in worship style and doctrine has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with personal taste. I love black Gospel music. The classics at least. I loved Andrae Crouch. I loved Sherman Andruss. I wish we had that style in the church I attend. But I love my pastor’s teaching and doctrine and music is secondary to me where church is concerned. I don’t go to church for the music, but there is music there when I go.

But what does all this have to do with holiness?

Yesterday I watched as Christian after Christian puked apologies all over social media. I saw the hand-wringing and the self-loathing for being born with white skin. I watched the same voices attacking the church again and the church responding from the defensive. Guilted into confessing some sin they never committed. The Church folk kept reminding everyone how the Church doesn’t abide racists. The sad fact is…yes, they do. But not in the way the Left claims.

The Church hates racism. Let’s be clear. They don’t approve of racial hatred, bigotry, hate, or any such thing. The church is guilty of allowing racism to simmer under the surface because the church no longer preaches holiness.

The church no longer preaches about a God whose very presence would destroy such sinfulness. They abandoned the message that proclaims a God who will never abide anyone considering His handiwork something less. Something wrong. God created man. He created all man. His creation is Holy. His choice to make some men white and some black and some Asian and some Hispanic, was His Holy Decision. That makes race sacred. It’s sacred. Nobody chooses their skin color. It is divinely chosen for them and that makes it sacred. A person with a healthy, correct view of the Holiness of God would not be able to permit himself to view anyone of any color as something different…something less. A person with a proper view of the holiness of God would never presume to speak ill of a man’s race, because to do so is to speak ill of the man’s Creator!

The church, in her recent mad dash for popularity, has long forsaken preaching about real personal holiness. The holiness that comes from a long, life-altering encounter with the Holiness of God.

Instead, she has taken to hip, trendy, man-made methods of integration, with the hopes that somehow familiarity will breed acceptance. But familiarity does not change a heart. Only a head-on collision with the Cross and the subsequent holiness it engenders can do that. My sinful human nature will never accept anyone or anything different than me or other than what meets my approval unless it is broken and rebuilt by the Holiness of God.

Paul challenged us to “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 2:5)

And there is no question that the true mind of Christ would never abide racism. Not from white nor black. But how often do we hear about this mind of Christ anymore?

When was the last time you heard a sermon about real holiness? Real Godliness. Total change at the Cross? When did you last hear someone preaching a message that grabbed your soul and demanded a trip to the front of the church and drove you to your knees in repentance. The church these days is not guilty of racism…she’s guilty of something far more sinister. She’s guilty of false humility. She’s guilty of a soft-soap gospel that washes the outside a little but leaves the inside full of disease and evil. She has “forsaken the Holiness of the Lord, which He loves.” (Malachi 2:11)

She has become a boneyard full of glad-handing flock stars who refuse to preach the uncomfortable Gospel of Holiness and heart-change.

Until she gets back to the thundering voice of Holiness and righteousness, until the words of Tozer, and Ravenhill, and others of a different generation are heard, and accepted and until she repents in dust and ashes for her callous acceptance of a good-time Gospel…nothing is going to change. Nothing. Not racism, not fascism, not hatred, not greed or avarice or lust or adultery.

Racism is the result of a sinful, fallen heart. It’s not a product of white skin. It’s a product of a black heart. The same black heart we were all born with. It’s a symptom…not a disease. The disease is sin. The cure is the Cross. The healing process is painful, as much medicine is. But there is only one cure for this and it is going to require…to demand, that the Church gets herself back to the beginning. Back to the Cross. Back to the call for holiness that says, “You cannot hold to this sinful ideal and call yourself by The Name!” Read Tozer's quote at the start of this article. The "psychology of sin" is that when men no longer fear God they transgress His laws without hesitation." Men -of any color- no longer fear being racist. Because they no longer grasp the Holiness of God. Because the Church has gone silent on the matter.

Until she once again stands against the tide, she will continue to be swept out to sea by it.

Colin Kaepernick...a line-by-line assessment of his ridiculous statement

Note:I have a dear dear friend who lost both legs at the hip in Vietnam. Before going to war, he had been a standout high school football player. He would probably love nothing more than to dance with his wife, run with his grandchildren...and stand for the National Anthem.

Colin Kaepernick came out with an insulting statement about how he refuses to stand for the National Anthem. I thought I'd dissect it line by line. Here goes.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," 

When one says "A COUNTRY that oppresses black people and people of color" you are saying that this is an official action, sanctioned by the government. "The COUNTRY is oppressing you" means that it's the policy of the nation. Sorry Colonoscopy...that isn't true. In FACT, good people of ALL colors died to make sure those laws were changed so that this was NOT true. You know who fought those against changing those laws the hardest??? Democrats
When you say "The Country" you include ME and all other fellow Americans. Including the millions who bought your stupid jersey after you turned in one good year...and then fell into the abyss of sub-par play. You include the owner who gave you 90 MILLION dollars after one good season...have you offered to return any of that money? When you say "The Country" you include the NFL...the league in which you play, where the majority of players are black. How's THAT oppressive? And can you NEVER use the term "people of color" again??? I have a color too, jackass and mine is as important as yours.

Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game.

"To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way."

No...what's selfish is for you to ignore the men and women who died for that anthem so you could bilk the NFL in the safety of a football stadium, you thankless fraud! There are men who will NEVER, EVER be able to stand for that anthem again, because they stood when it mattered. Think about that the next time you jog off the field after going three-and-out again, on your two healthy legs.

"There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

WHERE??? Where are the bodies

 in the street and the people getting away with murder? Michael Brown? BZZZZZ false narrative! Hands weren't up...he wasn't running away. He was charging an officer he had tried to kill.

Treyvon Martin? George Zimmerman is a jerk, but Treyvon tried to beat him to death and met his end.
Freddie Gray? Nobody tried harder to convict those cops than that race baiting prosecutor..and yet she went 0 for 6.
Philandro Castille? Turns out he reached for his gun
Alton Sterling? He reached for his gun too and he was a convicted pedophile and he'd already done time for possessing a firearm when prohibited!
Nobody is "dying in the streets" while cops notch their gunbelts, you miserable little turd. And maybe you just have a law enforcement problem after that whole "being in the hotel room while a girl got raped" thing. Was it your money or your skin color that got you off the hook with that? Or were you actually innocent...like those cops turned out to be.
You want to protest, fine. Protest in some way that doesn't disrespect the very anthem that makes your entire dream life possible. But at least have the decency to quote facts and not race-baiting blither.
Rant over...Chip can have him. I hope the 49ers go 0-16

Please, Don't Come Quickly, Lord Jesus

*I literally wrote this about an hour before the barbaric events in Dallas last night, not knowing what was about to occur. 

Sometimes, when we’ve had a day or a three-day period in this country like we just had, I write. I write in the hopes that people read my words, because I love to communicate and I love expressing my thoughts. I hope for feedback and dialogue, because then I know someone has been reading, and thinking about what I wrote.

But today, I’m writing for a different reason. I’m writing different words. I’m probably going against the grain a little, compared to my evangelical friends.

This week we’ve watched as a ruthless, evil, soulless woman calculated her way to committing treason and, not only got off scot-free, but flipped the bird to the entire collective nation. Hillary Clinton knew the fix was in all along. After watching the debacle in the house today, I believe FBI director Comey was in on it from the start.

Justice was kicked in the crotch on national TV, and Hillary was doing the kicking.

Obama is complicit, Lynch is complicit, Bill Clinton is complicit. Who knows who else?

 Then, in a 24 hour period, two black men were killed by police officers. In the Baton Rouge case, the man resisted arrest, and did it forcefully. He also had a gun. In the Minneapolis case, it seems like the man did everything he was asked to do. Still, both men are dead. I can no more believe that there is a conspiracy among cops to execute black men, than I can believe that all black men are arrest-resisting gangsters, who meet their fate as they deserve. There is fault on both sides…plenty enough to go around.

If I zoom in to the picture I get lost in the divide and the anger. So I choose to zoom out. Out beyond the partial video that everyone wants to use to go ahead and have a trial right now. Past the declaration of evil cops or evil black men. Out far enough that I can see this nation from border to border. The whole picture. All of us.

Pardon me for saying it this way…but what in hell has happened to us?

While MY government…that’s right, it’s MINE and it’s YOUR’S, was playing a con game more intricate than the one Newman and Redford pulled off in “The Sting,” racial tensions got ratchetted up to nuclear level. Conveniently just before the major political conventions. Two men are dead and the three cops involved were instantaneously judged and found guilty and the mob wants blood.

What happened to this country of ours? In my lifetime we passed the Civil Rights Act. We saw the elimination of Jim Crow laws, the breaking of color barriers, and, more importantly, the breaking down of the walls of perception that kept us separated far more than any laws ever did. We were making progress, we were getting past that time in our history. In the last eight years we’ve see all that precious ground given up and then some. We are more divided, more angry, more separated than we ever have been in my 52 years. Why?

The easy thing is to correlate this regression with the election of Obama. The man is a racial divider and there is no other way to say it. No denying it. He divides us by race, class, income, gender, sexual preference and especially by religion. I don’t even think he does it because he is a racist necessarily. I believe he does it because he knows that when we are this divided, we cannot stand together, and he and his cronies can get away with what they have been getting away with for eight years now. Division, demolition, destruction. If you think he cares any more about black America than he does white America, you are in denial. He hates America…all of it. He despises capitalism and American values. He simply plays us against each other in order to keep us too busy fighting to see what he’s up to.

But I can’t lay this at Obama’s feet. Not entirely. Not even predominantly, as much as I want to. Obama is simply the symptom of the problem. The evidence that we are sick as a nation. He’s the fever, not the infection. The infection is deeper and more deadly.

What’s really wrong with us is clearly stated in Psalm 9:17 “The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.” (Emphasis mine)

We are descending into Hell, because this is what happens to ANY nation who ignore God. America was founded by Christian men on Christian principals. That did not make us a “Christian nation,” at least not a Theocracy. But it made us a Christian society. And any time a society is made up of predominantly Christian folk, who are living their Faith, God will add His blessing to it. You cannot look at our history and argue against this.

But we have run as far from that place as possible now. When our Secretary of State not only lies, but plans her lies, and then escapes even a hint of consequence because she was assisted from the top down…we have abandoned God.

When men and women and children and gunned down in the streets…sometimes justly, many times not…we have ignored God. When babies are slaughtered by the millions and people who defend them are mocked and threatened, we have ignored God. When little girls and boys in this country, are sold as sex toys, we have ignored God. When right is wrong, and wrong is right…we have ignored God.

There are those who say “America needs to repent.” But how can a society repent when they no longer even realize they have sinned? The only people in this country who need to repent right now are Christians. Those who name the Name. We have failed. We have broken our promises. We have forsaken our first love. Romans tells us “How will they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14) and yet what are our preachers preaching? “Love” in the form of a fraudulent gospel that requires no change, no surrender, and no sacrifice? “Come as you are and it’s okay if you stay that way?” A “salvation” experience at the cross that is no longer a life-changing, head-on-collision, but a mere scratch in the mall parking lot.

We don’t preach repentance for salvation. We preach: “Find your path.” We don’t hear “Judgement begins in the house of God” and check to make sure our house is in order. We stand for absolutely nothing anymore. Including the belief in Hell. If you want men and women who will stop running in gangs and start listening to cops and therefore not getting shot...change their hearts! If you want compassionate, caring, slow-on-the-trigger cops who command respect AND trust...change their hearts! 

That, more than anything, is why we are here now. The urgency of the Gospel is gone. Vanished. A victim of populist preaching and limp-wristed praise and worship songs that fool me into thinking God is my bud. God is Tom Sawyer to my Huck Finn. Jesus is my cosmic homeboy who just wants to party with me and “do life” with me. I want to puke!

We don’t preach with passion. We don’t speak about the sins that ruin this country: divorce, pornography, hatred, lying, and alcoholism. We have absolutely NO idea what God’s holiness is and what it looks like and what it demands of us.

No changes in our hearts, no communities affected by revivals, no sense of awe at His presence. Only this weak, unholy view of a Holy God. God; my hipster pal who plays guitar with me in the park. No pillar of fire. No burning bush. The great, unnamed nothing.

I can’t change politics. I can’t enlighten 340 million people about voting issues.

But I can share the gospel. In the end…it’s neither Trump nor Clinton who will end corruption in government and stop people from resisting arrest and cops from going too far and using deadly force. It isn’t more money or programs or a Democrat or a Republican who will finally get us to move beyond tolerating each other to really loving each other.

It’s Jesus.

Not Joel Osteen’s Jesus, or Perry Noble’s Jesus, or Steven Furtick’s Jesus or any of the other imposters and flock stars who are in this because it made them famous.

It’s the Jesus of Paul. The Jesus of Gethsemane. The Jesus of Billy Graham and Tozer and Ravenhill and Falwell and my old pastor Paul Walters, and my friend Dave Lewis. It’s the Jesus who shook me at 14 years old when I heard Keith Green’s “No Compromise” record for the first time and knew I could never be the same.

It’s the Jesus who says “Come see this cross. Come to this Rock, this cornerstone. If you fall on this rock you will be broken…and changed…but if this rock falls on you, you will be crushed and destroyed!” (Matthew 21:44)

I’m done with politics as a solution. I will still vote, still discuss it, still think and reason and decide. But I will not look to politics for solutions to the heart problem that is ripping this nation, and this world apart.

I see my Christian friends writing “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Today. I cannot say that. Not yet.

I say, “Please don’t come yet, Lord Jesus.”

Why?

Because the sooner He comes and takes His children home, the more people will be left behind, and their fate sealed. If you think we’ve done a good enough job spreading the real gospel (by The Gospel I mean repent and believe so you will be saved) that you’re okay with Jesus’ coming back right now, good on you. But I am not. I want to roll my sleeves up, spit in Satan’s eye and spend my days preaching the gospel. Seeing lives radically changed, not altered a little through osmosis. I want to wage war in prayer. I want to declare the inner cities off limits to Satan. I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with my black brothers and sisters in Christ and DO something, not just pose for pictures, laugh awkwardly at how different we are, and then go on as if nothing can ever happen. I want to use words like “Born Again” and “Saved” and “Transformed” again. I want to see altars in churches full on Sundays with weeping, broken, CHANGED people…of all colors.

I want to spend what I have to gain what I cannot buy.

Then…I can say “Come Lord Jesus”

I’m restless and sad and broken tonight. I am begging God to use me, starting now. The only hope we have is in the Gospel.

God send laborers. Starting with me.