Discipleship Archives - Page 53 of 167

We were in the middle of packing up for our move from New York to Oregon.

There was chaos everywhere. Piles of stuff to pack. Piles of stuff to throw out. Phone calls to make. Errands to run. Landlords to deal with.

In the middle of all this chaos, we received a friendly visit from the the Jehovah Witnesses. My wife answered the door, and here is roughly how the conversation went:

Knock, knock.

Wendy (opening the door): Hello?

JWs: Hello, do you have a few minutes so we could talk to you about Jesus?

Wendy: No, we’re in the middle of packing up for a move, and everything is chaotic right now. Besides, we already know, love, and follow Jesus. Thanks, though!

JWs: Oh, your moving? Well, is there a time we could come back and talk?

Wendy: No. We’re moving out of state. Look, I have phone calls to make and boxes to pack. I gotta go.

JWs: Okay, but would it be alright if we gave you some literature for you to read and had someone call you?

Wendy: No, we’re moving. We don’t need more books, and definitely don’t need more phone calls. We already believe in Jesus and read the Bible. We’re good. Seriously, I gotta go.

JWs: Okay, well we just wanted to tell you about how to go to heaven, maybe if we could come in for just a minute…

Wendy (wisely interrupting): Look, my father died last year, and we know he is in heaven because he believed in Jesus. We know the same will be true of us because we also believe in Jesus. Now, goodbye.

And with that, she shut the door on them.

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Starting my Life’s Work

By Jeremy Myers

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Later in October (if all goes well) I am going to start my life’s work.

What is my life’s work?

I will be announcing on this blog what that work is, but it is something I have wanted to do since I was about ten years old, and I recently realized that pretty much my entire life has been preparing me to do it. I have fought against it several times, especially during the last decade, but have recently decided that I can fight it no longer.

I believe it is what God gifted me for, and when I am engaged in this work, I feel His pleasure.

Besides, if I wait too much longer, it will be too late. I did some rough calculations last week, and realized that if I maintain a somewhat “manageable” schedule, finishing my life’s work will only take 63 years.

Yeah…The chances are pretty good I will not finish…

Once I start, things might change on this blog somewhat. Here are a few changes that could occur:

I may end up posting less frequently. (But maybe not… we will see how it goes.)
I will continue to send out free ebooks every 3-4 months, but they will be of a different sort than those in the past. (Of course… I still have about 15 ebooks that have already been written and just need to be formatted and published… so these will be similar to what I have written about in the past. – Have you signed up to get free ebooks?)
I might start a podcast. (Or maybe not. I will need to determine if a podcast is a good use of my time.)

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Everyone is Following Jesus

By Jeremy Myers

Why are Christians so mean? Here are 10 Excuses Church People Give for Treating Others Badly

By Jeremy Myers

551 Comments

Christians are notorious for bad behavior. Some Christians and church people are just downright mean. Why is this? Why are Christians so mean?

In some recent surveys (reported in books like unChristian and They Like Jesus but Not the Church), it appears that most people in our culture believe that Christians are about as trustworthy as car salesmen and lawyers.

And I will admit, I myself can behave pretty badly at times, and many of the Christians I know behave in far worse ways than many of the unbelievers I know. I am always amazed at the grace, love, support, and forgiveness that is found among the “unchurched” which is rarely found among those who go to church.

There are numerous contributing factors to this.

Reasons Christians are Mean

Some of it is our theology. Many Christians develop a sense of entitlement because we are the “chosen ones” the “elite” the members of the family of God. We feel this gives us the right to look down upon others who are not one of us.

Sometimes, our behavior is a result of our understanding of God’s grace and forgiveness. We feel that because God forgives us for all our sins, we can treat others in terrible ways, and God will still forgive us. While it is true that God will forgive us for such behavior, His grace is never a license to treat others so shamefully.

Then there is the critical, judgmental, legalistic attitude so often taught and practiced in churches. Since we feel we have a corner on the truth and that we are the ones who are always right, this makes us believe that it is our responsibility to be the world’s policemen, going around pointing out where people are wrong and how they are sinning. This is rarely received well by anyone, especially when we have glaringly obvious sins in our own life.

Finally, there is the fact that Christians love to pick and choose which sins are the worst – things like homosexuality and murder – while ignoring sins that are prevalent within our own congregations (which might actually be much worse) – sins like gluttony, greed, and pride. The watching world sees our blatant hypocrisy and criticizes us in return for our unjustified criticism of them.

But over the years, as I have personally engaged in hypocritical and sinful behavior, and as I have watched other Christians do the same, I have found that there are several excuses we give for our poor treatment of other people, and for sin in our own lives. When we treat others badly, we give excuses for why our treatment of them is justified.

Here are the top ten reasons I could think of:

1. We Christians are sinners too.

There are other versions of this excuse, such as “Hey! Nobody’s perfect!” or “I’m not perfect; just forgiven.”

The idea behind this excuse is that the watching world has put unrealistic expectations on us as Christians. We complain that they seem to think we should live perfect lives, which is impossible. So when we sin, and our sin is pointed out to us, we excuse our actions by reminding others that we are sinners too.

Theologically, this is correct.

But such a statement should never be used to excuse our sin. When our sin is pointed out to us, either by a Christian or a non-Christian, the proper response is not “Hey, I’m a sinner too, so get off my back about my behavior” but rather should be, “You know what? You are correct. I messed up. I am sorry. Thanks for pointing that out. With God’s help, I will do better next time.”
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