I remember a few months back, I don’t know maybe 7 or 8 I wanted to get a bible study going at my church, really a man’s study. I was talking with a brother of mine and he said “Lionel you dudes don’t need to study the bible more, man go out and help somebody fix their car”. I thought to myself, “this brother doesn’t have a high view of the bible”. But then as time went on a month or so, I figured something out. He was right.
Let me explain if I can. As one who may be more wired to study the scriptures and read theological books and spend time thinking through and writing this stuff I realized something. I realized that I would rather read The Death of Death in the Death of Christ then help my friend paint. Let me take it a step further. I would rather read a good book then go around the corner and hang out at a neighbors watching a football game. I would rather spend my time memorizing scripture then hanging out at the neighborhood block party establishing relationships and putting what I had read into practice.
You may say “so what Lionel whats the big deal?”. Let me see if I can convey this. Jesus has called us to be His hands and feet but we spend more time in our bibles than really being who the bible calls us to be. Let me put it this way. We spend less time building relationships and serving one another and more time treating Christianity as a one day a week deal. Okay we do have small groups so lets make that 2 days a week.
I believe that Jesus calls us to sacrificial love for each other then those outside of the Church. The basis of such love is relationships. I will only give personal examples. I remember going to family engagements. Especially around the holidays. So me being the Spiritual dude that I am (I am double anointed, with insight into the prophetic) or the biblical scholar that I am (though I would be my son compared to Michael Jordan to real scholars) I would show everyone just how righteous I was by bringing along my bible and my books.
People would want to talk about the latest trades, or how the kids were doing. They would want to talk about the latest movies, or what was going in world affairs. But oh no, not Mr. Spiritual. I would want to talk about Jesus. I believe this is proselytizing but I ain’t sure. Who cares how well the Patriots are doing, I just want to talk about Jesus. When everyone would get together to play games and have fun, I would retreat to the room, because I didn’t want to be around all of the drinking, cursing and joking. I wanted to be about Jesus! When people wanted to go see a movie. Un, unh! Not Apostle Lionel, he wanted to read his bible, I wanted to show them just how serious I was about Jesus.
But something funny happened and is happening. I am starting to see that Jesus spends much more time with people. Touching them, healing them, encouraging them, forgiving them (I can’t forgive but I can issue the Gospel of forgiveness). Jesus’ very presence of love, grace, forgiveness and acceptance commanded a response. They either hated Him or loved Him and if you have spent anytime reading the bible correctly (I haven’t) you will see that the religious hated Him and the others loved Him.
Jesus is God’s Word! He is the Logos, the full revelation of God in bodily form. God’s fullness clothed in humanity, Both man and divinity! And for some reason His heart was for relationship, it was for people, not mere education. I believe our bible study should point our feet outward to share this message, both verbally and nonverbally. Sometimes our presence should be salt and light enough. A loving gracious presence, not condoning of sin, but optimistic for reconciliation. We can do both I promise. We don’t have to remind people so much about the bible if we just be the bible.
Jesus Christ was really more about mercy than theological astuteness! Why, because if we “love the Lord our God with all of heart minds and souls (radical dependence and prayer) and love our neighbor as ourselves (radical self-sacrifice, we sacrifice everything for ourselves and our own well-being and this is what Jesus was really calling us to) theological astuteness will come. Most of out theological astuteness I don’t believe Jesus cares much about. The Pharisees would “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel”. I have been guilty of the same charges.
As I mature and become more confident in all of who Jesus is and wants to do through me, I think I will be able to serve people more and more. I believe I would bring my bible out of fear. Fear that sin would stain me. Fear that I would fall back into my old ways. That is why avoided the non-believers. That is why I didn’t want to explore deep relationships with those who didn’t trust in my God. I am still a bit nervous. Last night I was invited to a watch party and the first thing that came to mind is that man this would be a good chance to share Jesus. I could carry my bible with me and hopefully spark a movement for Jesus. I initially didn’t want to go to have a good time and meet new people but to evangelize.
Finally my last paragraph is about believers. I would do the same to believers. My work schedule can be rough so my devotional time can get bad and can become sporadic. So I would spend a great deal of my time on the weekends studying my bible and reading. Soaking up a bunch of great information that became like the manna that spoiled. It was life giving information that made me combative with other Christians. I would say “how can you not believe the 5 Points”, or “the baptism of the Holy Spirit, man there is no way any good Christian can believe that”. I became sectarian, schismatic, divisive, all of this came by spending more time with the bible than people. I am not saying not to study, but I believe we are to do it with the community in mind. So instead of asking “how can I serve you today” I would say “how can I correct your theology today”. How can I make someone else’s theology line up with God’s?! All the while having no real concern with them as a human being and as a redeemed individual of God.
I close with this, study the bible, but also do what it says. Community is synonymous with service. We are to pray for opportunities to put the tough sayings and practices of Jesus to work. Our bible study should effect our hands and feet or it is worthless, just like the extra manna Israel collected in opposition to God’s command to just have enough for that day. We are fat on information and the only way to slim down is to burn off some of those biblical calories by serving. I will begin to adopt the starfish mentality. No I maybe can’t build a huge orphanage like George Muller, or start a huge food bank like some other Christians. I maybe can reach 100’s but I can reach one. I can’t help every single mom get a car but I can help one. I can’t visit every nursing home but I can visit one, I can’t heal as many as Jesus did, but maybe I can heal one. Just like we can’t save every starfish that washes ashore but we can toss the one back that we just walked past. So the next time you see a neighbor moving in, or laying grass, or fixing on his car, ask him “hey can I help” I think God will understand that you didn’t make devotion time today.
Lionel,
Great post as usual. Be careful though, you know someone is going to say you are promoting a “deeds not creeds” Gospel like an often attacked author who I won’t mention. Personally I think what we are missing most is balance. People tend to go to one extreme or the other without realizing the God wants the whole package. He is a judge AND a forgiver. He requires holiness yet gives grace and mercy. He says “Study to show your self approved” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He says “come out from among them” yet tells us to be Salt and Light in the world. My prayer is that I will strive for the balance of doing ALL he has commanded and not just the part I enjoy most.
Carey,
The bible actually teaches “deeds not creeds” I think the Reformers got it wrong here friend. Holding to a set standard of objective doctrine that doesn’t change the heart is foreign to the bible. Romans isn’t the centerpiece of New Testament Salvation the entire NT is. Paul emphasizes deeds as much as creeds. We have to understand what Romans is written for and to, the audience is much more important in some biblical interpretation.
Lionel,
I agree with you. I hope I wasn’t unclear in that. I am with you that the Bible is more about what you do. All you have to do is remember what Jesus said the greatest two commandments were. I don’t think one of them was to read as much as possible although my lifestyle even a year or so ago would have said claimed that.
Oh no I understood Carey.
Good…btw the “Apostle Lionel” line…classic..LOL
Great post, Bro!
I, and a group of friends, are in the process of developing a men’s resource center were we will seek to help those “in the system” obtain jobs, housing, transportation etc. This is confirmation and encouragement for me as I venture into the unknown and definitely unfamiliar. My goal is to be salt and light in this crazy world.
Make that the raw and handsome Apostle Lionel!
ROFLOL!
What was that nickname again?
You know if you hang with the unbelievers this holiday season and share a pint of Guiness with them, the religious will call you a drunkard and a friend of sinners! What better reason to go ahead and do it!
Great post Lionel. If Christians across this nation would get that mentality we would change this country in ways we can’t begin to imagine.
Thinking,
Do it brother please!
Hutch,
The name is Hot Chocolate “what the doctor ordered for the Winter”!
Mark,
I don’t know if more would be saved, but at least Bill Maher would be put out of business. It is fine if people don’t trust our Jesus because of His strict demands on Lordship, but when people are turned off because we are misrepresenting Him that is bad.
Lionel,
I would love to invite anyone of you to where we minister every Sunday and Thursday. As the Lord has me where you are talking about. Not bragging on me NO, but how the Lord has changed my heart to do the things he called us to.
Hutch,
funny thing you mentioned a pint of Guiness. When I go to the mobile home park on Thursdays to minister most of the people at the home I meet in are drunk. I literally endure cigarette smoke, cussing and alcohol all for the gospel.
They all listen to the word and some who are struggling want to be free from their addictions. Conviction not condemnation is happening Amen.
I tell them I am not there to judge what they are doing. I am there to present them with the gospel and Jesus will do the judging.
Steven
Hutch,
I am a Long Island Ice Tea fella myself. Maybe a little Crown Royal and Coke (never Pepsi)
Lionel-
I’m not going to write a Vanilla Ice story about how I grew up in the hood, because I didn’t-but I was hurtling towards destruction prior to coming to Christ in similar but different ways.
Long story short, I started drinking when I was 14 years old. My drinking and partying increased and accelerated through High School. I drank most days after school and every Friday, Saturday and Sunday I would drink a case of beer on average. I have woken up in fields, across town, in my front yard, on the floor of people’s apartments that I didn’t know; I have woken up in jail, beaten and rolled. My lifestyle involved all the things that go along with a life of dissipation, drunkenness, violence, immorality, battery, lawlessness and of course self-loathing. My heart was black and cold as ice; I hated myself, my life and people. I have done mean and cruel things to people that I am ashamed of-in fact I will not tell you all the details as I would not want you to think so badly of me. I can recall waking up in August with the temperature over 100 degrees outside and grabbing a wool blanket and laying outside in the sun because I was so cold and could not stop shaking on more than one occasion. I later learned that I was suffering from alcohol poisoning and that most of the time if left untreated, that people normally do not survive. I have had knives and guns pulled on me and even had somebody try to run me and a friend over intentionally. A guy once mouthed off to me and a friend as we were drinking behind his house and when he came out to yell at us and to tell us that he had called the cops, we beat him in front of his family as his wife begged us to stop. One of my friends was known to deal drugs and one of his friends went into the big city to buy a pound of pot and was robbed and stabbed to death. Once at a party that I had just left one of my acquaintances in the group I hung out with was playing Russian roulette with a 357 while playing quarters and blew his head off in front of his friends. I also had three acquaintances decapitated as they drove wasted out of their minds under a stalled flatbed trailer, only one survived with severe brain damage. I can testify to the fact that I am alive by the grace of God alone. I never expected to survive where I was headed-I truly expected and wanted to wake up dead.
While in the midst of living like this, I met a guy named Ricardo and he would tell me how much Jesus loved me and how much Christ had changed his life. I would insult him and curse him and tell him exactly what I thought about him and Jesus. Now you must understand that Ricardo was built like a line backer probably raw and hard like Lionel! Grin. I so wanted this guy to hit me. But, he would just come back and tell me again what God was doing in his life and would share the simple gospel message with me. I would verbally abuse him and let him know that I thought he was a punk and a p**y. Man, I wanted this guy to kick my a**. I wanted his religion to be fake; I wanted him to be a hypocrite. I wanted him to be just like the rest who tried to reach me for Jesus. But he kept coming back and loving me and showing me the love of Christ.
Then some weird stuff started to happen, I started to feel bad about how I was living. That never happened before! I would feel bad about the circumstance sand situations I ended up in, but I never felt bad and remorseful about what I was doing.
Then a girl I had known from High School named Stacy moved back to town and I would go and visit her at her parent’s home. I would tell them about this nut-job named Ricardo who was always being nice to me and telling me about Jesus. I was shocked when they informed me that what Ricardo was telling me was true! So this continues for a while Ricardo witnessing to me at work and Stacy and her parents telling me about Christ over dinner at their home. Why they would let me into their home to hang out, eat dinner and watch the tube God only knew.
Then another weird thing happened, I went to a Christian book store in order to buy a bible. It does not seem like much, but believe me this was a major miracle. I think the lady at the counter almost had a heart attack when she turned around and saw me standing there! I had a sleeveless black concert T-shirt on so I could show off my sweet ink, earrings in both ears and hair down to the middle of my back-no 80’s style mullet-no sir my hair was all one length bangs and all-yes, it was probably as beautiful and silky as Absalom’s-and of course I had on the required skin tight jeans. Anyway, I informed the nice lady that I wished to buy a bible. Still looking like she was not convinced that I was not there to rob her, she asked me a strange question. She asked me which one? I thought that was a weird question, but I politely replied “the” I would like “the” bible. She then began to explain to me about the different translations of the bible. I said oh, okay I’ll take the NIV please, it was one of those cool gift bibles with the newsprint paper-I didn’t have enough money for one of those Moroccan leather bibles, they were expensive, besides, I really did not know if I would even keep it so the $5.00 bible would work just fine. Too bad for me this lady did not know that the NIV was the Not Inspired Version of the bible and who knows what God could have done with a NASB!
That’s a joke.
Anyway, I proceeded to start to read the bible I had purchased and would feel a burning in my heart and a real sense of conviction. I must have been a sight sitting in the park reading my bible with my Slayer T-shirt on! I got a lot of weird looks. I am abbreviating this story, but this tension went on for a while. Still drinking, hearing from Ricardo, being ministered to by Stacy and her parents and reading my bible. Then I started having nightmares where I would literally feel a presence or presences telling me things like “you can’t walk away now!” I would wake up terrified and would take my bible and read it and a sense of peace would come over me. One night I got up out of bed and knelt down and said God I believe that Jesus is your Son and that He died for me on the cross and if you will, will you please forgive me? I have never heard the audible voice of God, but in my heart I heard Him say, yes, your sins are forgiven. I knew I belonged to God and that my life was not just going to change but that it had.
I do not have time to tell of the wonderful things that happened to me, where I started going to church and bible study, how my addiction to Alcohol was instantaneously broken, my experiences with people when I tried to make amends for my prior behavior, how I have a burning desire to read and study God’s Word, how my passion used to be to become a paid staff pastor at a church and why I will never preach or teach in a traditional church setting again.
But I will end with this and then an application. This happened 20 years ago, I still have that $5.00 bible and Stacy and I have been married for just under 20 years! When we meet in person, we can spend hours talking about the greatness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ!
What does this have to do with post? After years in the institutional church I discovered something horrible and obscene had happened! I had to face the fact that I had become a person who was no longer able or willing to minister to people who are just like the person that I once was-how bad is that? Now do not get me wrong, I know people can get saved in a traditional church setting, but I don’t think it happens very often. The fact is I never would have visited a traditional church or gone to a seekers sensitive outreach or a revival or any of those things. But Ricardo stepped out of his comfort zone and loved me with the gospel and thank God he did, and Stacy and her parents loved and ministered to the likes of me. The church is the group that loves and encourages you in your faith, the harvest field is where you and I are at and really loving people will cause them to take notice.
I also had three acquaintances decapitated as they drove wasted out of their minds under a stalled flatbed trailer, only one survived with severe brain damage.
Correction: Make that four acquiantances who drove wasted out of their minds under a stalled flatbed trailer, three were decaptitated and only one survived with severe brain damage.
It is kinda hard to survive being decapitated.
Hutch,
Very powerful testimony brother. Another shining example of the sovereignty and grace of God. It is amazing how “scared” some of us are to witness to people just because of something about them that we disapprove of. But these are the people who most need the witness. Thank you for your transparency.
lionel, I praise God for you and this blog here! As the Lord continues to reprove me by the Holy Spirit, it is becoming clearer by the day that we (I) can become addicted to studying scripture rather than living it out! The Lord has shown me in my own walk that alot of times I study the scriptures to make myself feel better about myself (deception). But the humbling thing is that James 2:20 -Faith without works is dead. Works reach far beyond just studying the scriptures.
The word of God should spur us on to action, but so many times we use studying as an excuse to live out some convenient and comfortable faith neither of which are biblical.
Hutch,
Say it ain’t so brother! Say it ain’t so! Well praise God brother. This statement is moumental. You said “I began to not want to minister to the same person I was”. How guilty I am of that.
Lionel,
I heard a brother say a couple of weeks ago—spend more time on the farm then in the barn.
If only more people understood this message what an impact we would make. I think you have hit the heart of the matter.
this is major……………
Carey-
To God be the glory.
It is interesting who the people were who Jesus went out of His way to minister to and who responded to His grace.
The religious people now and then simply cannot see their sin and need and if we hang out with them long enough we will forget who we used to be and stop caring about those crippled by sin.
Notorious sinners are the perfect people to minister to, it seems to have a higher rate of return on investment.
Lionel-
Yep, I ‘m a good forgetter-God help us.