The Bar
No not the lawyer test, or the whiskey place. Especially not the salad thing.
I've been thinking quite a bit about the phrase used often in business, academics, sports, music, politics, etc. "Raising the bar." This is a cliche' used figuritively to represent the fact that someone has reached a level in one of the above mentioned catagories not reached before. "She really raised the bar with her sales this month." It implies that those coming after will have to at least reach that level, if not move it higher. I've used the phrase myself after watching certain incredible feats.
Lately I've seen this phrase come into the church. This is a troubling concept to me. I guess in many ways the concept has been there for as long as I can remember. We've used the descriptors, "Great man of faith," "Incredible woman of God," "Mighty Man of God," to describe individuals we see as having a achieved some "status" in their journey. These have been very acceptable titles to those of us in the faith community. They sound righteous, and noble. They imply a level of spirituallity only a few chosen people can or have reached.
Lulled by these "titles", I guess it took actually hearing the words "raise the bar", in the context of a friends christian walk to get my attention. A great deal of my thinking has been captured by the fact that this concept has creeped into the church to the point that we now embrace it even in its rawest and most blatant terms.
I'm not one of those guys who says we can have nothing in Christianity that resembles "the world". I also admit to being a very competitive individual. I hate to lose. My grandfather taught us, a good loser is just that, a loser. Infact he was famous for changing the rules in the middle of a game if he was losing. We affectionately called these the "D.G. Council rules." However, it seems to me that Jesus himself, and several of the New Testament writers had a different concept altogether.
For centuries "the bar" had been the law, given by God, handed down by Moses, reinvented, added to, reworked, and harshly enforced by the Pharisees. Jesus, the juxtaposition to the Pharisees, came to deal with "the bar" once and for all (Heb. 7:27, 9:12). He did so by placing it so high no one can reach it on their own. (Eph. 2)
It is interesting to me that rather than boasting in their own spirituallity, or bragging on one another, the authors of the New Testament not only down played their lives, but were almost insulting. Paul called his own righteousness dung in one place and filthy rags in another.
In I Corinthians 1, he reminded the leaders that they were not wise, mighty or noble, but foolish, weak, and despised. He went on to explain that God chose them to show His greatness, His power, His grace, not ours.
It is a scary thing when we challenge one another to look to another person and attempt to live according to their standards. Peter tried that with Jesus. He said, "What about John?" Jesus' reply was classic, "What about him? It's none of your business." Paul said, no man could judge him, only God. It scares me when young believers are challenged by well meaning older believers to "strive to be like so and so", or live up to the standards others have set. We are only setting them up for failure. Jesus put the bar in a place we could not reach it so that we would have to rely on His grace.
God deals with us as individuals with individual journeys, individual calls, individual pasts, presents, and futures. He does not rank us against one another. He only looks for the presence of the covering of grace of His son. He does not look on the pastor of a mega church and rank him over the bivocational pastor of a small rural church. God does not rank the person who has followed him for 80 years over the one who has followed him a week. We are all special to him as individuals.
Following Christ is not a competition. It's not a race to be first, best, highest, most favored, most righteous, most church attendance, most accomplished, most read, most followed, most listened to, most anything. It's not a golf score to have the lowest total sins, lowest wrong choices, fewest unsaved friends, fewest years of unbelief. History (including current history) is littered with men and women who "achieved greatness in the Kingdom," but fell hard because they saw the Kingdom through the eyes of a competitor.
Following Christ is just that. Following. Following is accepting. Accepting His grace in our lives and the lives of others as sufficient. Accepting his call as adequate. Accepting his work as complete. It's not about achieving, it's about accepting.
Last week Alisa was in Texas at a Cowboy Church. 80% of the people are not just from unchurched backgrounds, but plain ole heathen backgrounds. However, they've found and accepted the grace of God for themselves and their fellow followers. One man during a testimony time seemed to wrap up the gospel in a 3 point nutshell. He was an old leathered cowboy, who still had whiskey on his breath. He stood before the congregation on a make shift plywood floor under a big tent next to a roping arena. Tears filled his eyes as he said, "The first time I came here the pastor told me God loved me. The second time I came here the pastor told me I could belong, The third time I came, the pastor told me to get my my head out of my ____ you dumb ___ __ ____ __ _____." The pastor explained, that was the Cowboy's interpretation of what had been said, not an exact quote. You can imagine the reaction of some of the "competitors" in the crowd.
I think it may be one of the most incredible testimonies I've ever heard.
If I were to use this as my outline, It would sound something like this. God loves you so much, he allowed his son to take the punishment you deserve for the way you live (past, present and future). He loved you so much that he wanted you to belong to him and his group of followers who will love and support you on your journey. Now it's up to you to recognize that it's a very simple thing to accept his grace for your life. He'll help you get your head on straight no matter your intelligence, status, or abilities.
Thanks cowboy for reminding me of God's grace.
I've been thinking quite a bit about the phrase used often in business, academics, sports, music, politics, etc. "Raising the bar." This is a cliche' used figuritively to represent the fact that someone has reached a level in one of the above mentioned catagories not reached before. "She really raised the bar with her sales this month." It implies that those coming after will have to at least reach that level, if not move it higher. I've used the phrase myself after watching certain incredible feats.
Lately I've seen this phrase come into the church. This is a troubling concept to me. I guess in many ways the concept has been there for as long as I can remember. We've used the descriptors, "Great man of faith," "Incredible woman of God," "Mighty Man of God," to describe individuals we see as having a achieved some "status" in their journey. These have been very acceptable titles to those of us in the faith community. They sound righteous, and noble. They imply a level of spirituallity only a few chosen people can or have reached.
Lulled by these "titles", I guess it took actually hearing the words "raise the bar", in the context of a friends christian walk to get my attention. A great deal of my thinking has been captured by the fact that this concept has creeped into the church to the point that we now embrace it even in its rawest and most blatant terms.
I'm not one of those guys who says we can have nothing in Christianity that resembles "the world". I also admit to being a very competitive individual. I hate to lose. My grandfather taught us, a good loser is just that, a loser. Infact he was famous for changing the rules in the middle of a game if he was losing. We affectionately called these the "D.G. Council rules." However, it seems to me that Jesus himself, and several of the New Testament writers had a different concept altogether.
For centuries "the bar" had been the law, given by God, handed down by Moses, reinvented, added to, reworked, and harshly enforced by the Pharisees. Jesus, the juxtaposition to the Pharisees, came to deal with "the bar" once and for all (Heb. 7:27, 9:12). He did so by placing it so high no one can reach it on their own. (Eph. 2)
It is interesting to me that rather than boasting in their own spirituallity, or bragging on one another, the authors of the New Testament not only down played their lives, but were almost insulting. Paul called his own righteousness dung in one place and filthy rags in another.
In I Corinthians 1, he reminded the leaders that they were not wise, mighty or noble, but foolish, weak, and despised. He went on to explain that God chose them to show His greatness, His power, His grace, not ours.
It is a scary thing when we challenge one another to look to another person and attempt to live according to their standards. Peter tried that with Jesus. He said, "What about John?" Jesus' reply was classic, "What about him? It's none of your business." Paul said, no man could judge him, only God. It scares me when young believers are challenged by well meaning older believers to "strive to be like so and so", or live up to the standards others have set. We are only setting them up for failure. Jesus put the bar in a place we could not reach it so that we would have to rely on His grace.
God deals with us as individuals with individual journeys, individual calls, individual pasts, presents, and futures. He does not rank us against one another. He only looks for the presence of the covering of grace of His son. He does not look on the pastor of a mega church and rank him over the bivocational pastor of a small rural church. God does not rank the person who has followed him for 80 years over the one who has followed him a week. We are all special to him as individuals.
Following Christ is not a competition. It's not a race to be first, best, highest, most favored, most righteous, most church attendance, most accomplished, most read, most followed, most listened to, most anything. It's not a golf score to have the lowest total sins, lowest wrong choices, fewest unsaved friends, fewest years of unbelief. History (including current history) is littered with men and women who "achieved greatness in the Kingdom," but fell hard because they saw the Kingdom through the eyes of a competitor.
Following Christ is just that. Following. Following is accepting. Accepting His grace in our lives and the lives of others as sufficient. Accepting his call as adequate. Accepting his work as complete. It's not about achieving, it's about accepting.
Last week Alisa was in Texas at a Cowboy Church. 80% of the people are not just from unchurched backgrounds, but plain ole heathen backgrounds. However, they've found and accepted the grace of God for themselves and their fellow followers. One man during a testimony time seemed to wrap up the gospel in a 3 point nutshell. He was an old leathered cowboy, who still had whiskey on his breath. He stood before the congregation on a make shift plywood floor under a big tent next to a roping arena. Tears filled his eyes as he said, "The first time I came here the pastor told me God loved me. The second time I came here the pastor told me I could belong, The third time I came, the pastor told me to get my my head out of my ____ you dumb ___ __ ____ __ _____." The pastor explained, that was the Cowboy's interpretation of what had been said, not an exact quote. You can imagine the reaction of some of the "competitors" in the crowd.
I think it may be one of the most incredible testimonies I've ever heard.
If I were to use this as my outline, It would sound something like this. God loves you so much, he allowed his son to take the punishment you deserve for the way you live (past, present and future). He loved you so much that he wanted you to belong to him and his group of followers who will love and support you on your journey. Now it's up to you to recognize that it's a very simple thing to accept his grace for your life. He'll help you get your head on straight no matter your intelligence, status, or abilities.
Thanks cowboy for reminding me of God's grace.
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