Author: lesterhutson316

Christian is a pretty broad term. The term showed up first in Antioch of Syria (Acts 11:26).Copycats! Disciples of Christ who were mirror images of Him! Since then the definition has been denigrated as a name for most anyone who even remotely professes belief in Jesus Christ. It is not necessary to believe what Jesus believed and taught let alone practice His lifestyle. For most people today Christian is a pretty empty, meaningless name. Except as a punching-bag!

 

Doctrinaire atheists and other haters of the God of the Bible have had great success in painting real Christians as radicals. In general they have tainted and be-smirked the term and portrayed us to be what we are not. Yes, there are some radicals among true Christians, but they are the rare and exceptional cases.  (Every group has those who embarrass them and who are not at all representative of the beliefs and practices of the whole. It is not uncommon to hear of a rogue policeman, fireman or doctor. Surely the fraternity as a whole cannot be condemned because of a few thugs within its ranks. To condemn and damn a group as a whole because of the misdeeds of a few is the rankest form of discrimination and bigotry.)

 

Furthermore, Christians after the order of Jesus Christ and His first-century followers should not be lumped into one big hopper with those whose beliefs and practices barely resemble those of Christ. As a whole, current Christianity barely resembles first-century Christianity; and first-century Christianity is the real thing.

 

It is certain that the teachings and practices of Jesus Christ were quite radical in comparison to the general teachings of humanity: love your enemies, return good for evil, forgive, work hard, pay your taxes and bills, carry your own weight and the list is long. However, Jesus Christ was no radical. Neither were his first-century followers and neither are those who follow Him today. In fact, it is the heart of true Christians to do good and never hurt anyone. We care about others and love them. Love is our #1 characteristic and not just thetouchy/feely kind. The love that motivates true Christians is the kind that does right because it’s right to do so. We stand resolutely against those who do evil and hurt others.

 

What is radical about loving people with a wholesome, unselfish concern for their welfare? What is radical about paying your bills and living within your means? We believe in the sanctity of life for all people including babies. Helping poor, needy people is our idea; it’s vintage Christian. The Good Samaritan story is ours. Mercy, compassion, integrity, honesty, forgiveness, giving, unselfishness, dependability, hard work and obedience to civil law are Christian positions. We reject racism, discrimination, bigotry, hatred, irresponsibility, laziness, injustice in any form and abuses of all sorts. Nothing in this picture is radical. We are not violent people. We do not kill or attack those who differ with us. In fact freedomespecially freedom of conscience is at the heart of true Christianity. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”(John 8:32). He continued, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

 

Yet, true Bible-believing and practicing Christians are increasingly portrayed as the radical, dangerous religious right. We are the most peace-loving, caring people on the planet, yet many would like to eradicate us from the face of the earth. The liberal press viciously slanders us and blames all of us for the evil ideas and actions of a very small few who claim to be Christians but who do not at all represent true first-century Christianity. In spite of such evil and injustice against us, we remain true Christians with the beliefs and practices of our founder, Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Society needs more real Christians, not fewer. In an America and world torn with violence, financial crisis, crime and hatred Christian values are sorely needed. If we were radicals, we’d do bad things to those who lie on us and who want to erase us from the world; but we are not radicals. We are caring, peace-loving people who seek the welfare of all people, even our enemies who spitefully misrepresent and misuse us.

Two ears, two eyes and one mouth! There appears to be a message; listening seems to be more important than talking. What a rare concept! It seems downright divine; however it is extremely rare and hard to learn.

The White House surely isn’t listening; there’s an agenda there that is heedless of the consequences. And, there are always consequences! Politicians have never been known for listening and there seem to be politicians in government, at work, at home and even at church; only their occupations are different. They all seem to have agendas and think they’re smarter than everybody else.

They butt right in when other people are talking. Really! Right in mid-sentence! Advice! Reproof! (Especially reproof!) Who is it that is conceited enough to tell ME anything? About morality, about rearing children, about how to worship God, about smoking (or any other drug), about money management, certainly not about right and wrong! Somehow each generation thinks it’s light years ahead of the one just before. Those ancient and stupid parents and founding fathers! Those old, out-of-touch preachers and “old people;” they really didn’t know how to have church till we got here.

How many dads have wished with anguish that they had listened to their sons when they were young, but dad was too busy with more important thinks like work, sports, reading the newspaper and TV? How many sons have grown up and wished to God that they would have listened to dad? Yes, a dad that is now in the grave! How many parents have wished they had listened to their parents? And, we could talk about work places, friendships, churches and pastors and even governments that should have been listening. But!

God is pretty smart. He said, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee”(Exodus 20:12). “Honour” Give weight, put value, esteem, it’s important! Natural parents; yes! Fathers in the faith too! There’s wisdom in the ages. The people who wrote our constitution weren’t dummies. It should be noted that ALL of the 10 Commandments (including this one) are just that; commandments, not suggestions. It’s also pretty important to remember that this is the “first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:2). Those families (churches, nations) which intend to survive had better listen to the old folks. Old Testament Rehoboam (1 Kings 12) is a classic Bible example of one who didn’t listen. He was young and full of himself. He surrounded himself with people just like him. They told him to change, change, change. Don’t listen to those old men. You’re in charge now. This is a young people’s world. So, Rehoboam cheated himself of the great wisdom of his own father, Solomon. He did it his way. He didn’t listen! The price was enormous; for him personally, for all around him, even for the innocent victims and families that were mangled because of him.

Take a walk through Yad Vashim, the holocaust museum in Jerusalem. The German people and the world should have been listening. Spend a little time in a drug rehabilitation center and you will witness the consequences of closed ears and eyes. Look into the face of that person standing on the corner at the red light. Many of them (not all) were the rebellious kids who knew everything and didn’t want to listen to mother or daddy or the preacher who tried to warn them of the consequences of riotous living. Shall I speak of divorced and mangled families, gasping and fragmented churches, shattered dreams and devastated lives and the endless stories of addicts and overdoses?“Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction” (Proverbs 13:18). That’s still true. “Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die” (Proverbs 15:10).

The truckers used to say, Hey good buddy, you got your ears on? Good question! Very few do. So the misery and carnage continue! Strangely nobody seems to think he’s not listening. Somehow it always seems to be the other person who should listen. Hum! Strange indeed!

Listening! What a good thing to do! Everything you hear won’t help; more than you think will. Just eat the chicken and throw away the bones. However, don’t assume that it’s all bones before you think it through. Listen with your ears but listen with your eyes. Read the language. And the body language! Listen to the white heads in your life. Pay attention to the people who have been there and done that. Listen to the one around you. Glean from those who have gone before; many of them left books. Just listening can save you lots and lots of grief, not to mention those around you.

God says listen. It’s pretty hard to say you are listening to God when you don’t listen.

Though the numbers are dwindling there are still millions of people world-wide who claim to be Christians. We saw that at the recent installation of another pope. They come in many shades from Catholics to Baptists to those who despise “organized religion” and have their own brand of Christianity.

Claims and reality are not always one and the same. Calling a bitter-weed a rose does not make it so any more than calling a sin a sickness makes it so. No one is a Christian merely because he claims he is (or because he joins a church, says a prayer or is baptized). In His Word God explained that a true Christian is someone who has been “born again” which is translated into English from the Greek verb gennao. The word literally means to procreate. It is noteworthy that when this word is used the emphasis is on the father. It is closely akin to the Bible word “regenerate” which also speaks of rebirth, recreating or making again. The idea is obvious. People who are saved have been made anew. They have been “born again,” regenerated, born from above. This process is not merely an intellectual belief that God is real and His Word is true. It is that, but it is far more. It is a conscious and deliberate embrace of God as one’s only eternal hope based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is a full surrender of self to Him in the heart. One gives up on who he is and embraces God through Christ. He surrenders his thinking to the thinking of God as set forth in His Word.

The Bible calls it “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Repentance is not what many think it is. It is not deep sorrow, although deep sorrow may accompany repentance. It is not naming all of your sins and turning from and quitting them. Repentance is a genuine change of mind. To be saved (born again) a person in his heart must turn from his thinking and ideas (and all other thinking and ideas) to the thinking of God. To be saved one must come God’s way. Until that happens one is still lost and with no hope beyond this mortal scene. He may say a prayer in which he names all of the sins he knows, be baptized, join a church and quit as many sins as he possibly can; but he is still not saved. The wrath of God still rests on him and at death he will face eternal damnation. He may say he’s saved and a Christian, but that doesn’t make it true. The reality of a regenerated heart made new by the saving power of God must be there.

When true “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” occur in the heart, a new birth takes place. The person is regenerated, made new, recreated. Things change. Inside! No longer is life about me; it’s about the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not about what I want; it’s about what He wants. I’ve given up on my thinking and ideas in favor of His thinking and ideas. When a man is truly regenerated his priorities change. Life is no longer about this world and its goods. His values become God, the Word of God, His church and others. His thinking changes about property and time. He realizes that he is not an owner, a proprietor; he’s a steward. It’s not my life, my time, my talent, my money, my property; all of these belong to God. It’s not up to me to decide what is moral or immoral, good or bad, right or wrong; God decides and I’m with Him. When one is truly born again, he knows he’s a servant, not the Master.

To the highly religious church-going people in Sardis, God said, “Thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). Could God say that about you? It’s possible to be a member fully engaged in a church and still be lost. Yes, you can be baptized, join up, get deeply involved, become quite knowledgeable of church life and the Bible and still die and ultimately end up in the Lake of Fire. The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). A white-wash won’t do. An intellectual decision to be baptized, join a church, embrace the claims of the Bible and clean up your life won’t do. There must be a change of heart. Only God can make you a new person. Only He can regenerate your heart and He does that by His Spirit only when there is a true surrender in your heart. There must come a time when you give up on who you are, all you are and all your ideas and in your heart embrace God by faith in Christ. You accept His Son, His plan of salvation, His ways and His ideas. You accept Him as your Savior and Lord (Boss, Master). It’s a moment of catharsis, a rebirth, New Birth. It’s not something you do or put on outwardly; it’s something that happens by the power of God on the inside of you.

Has that happened to you? Have you ever been truly born again? Does your life show any evidence of a New Birth? Can the people around you see it? Are your priorities different? Who is in charge inside you; is God really in control or is it you? In your heart do you support His moral code, His ownership of property, His role as Master over you? Is there a true core difference in you? Do you know it? Deep down, when nobody’s looking and inside where nobody can see, do you really want what God wants and do things His way? Are you basically the same ole person you were before you supposedly got saved, regenerated, born again?

People who go to heaven do not merely get better at acting like a Christian; instead they get fundamentally changed by God. Has that change happened to you? It could and will when you truly come to God in your heart. It’s a matter of giving up on all you are and trusting Him in view of who He is.

Webster defines honest as (1)”that does not steal, cheat or lie; upright or trustworthy. (2) got by fair means, not by stealing, cheating, or lying. (3) sincere or genuine. (4) frank and open.” Honesty runs deep. It is far more than not telling an outright lie.

I suspect there is at least a little dishonesty and deception in all of us; maybe not intentional, but there none-the-less. In as simple a test of honesty as reporting an incident, it is hard to convey it accurately and honestly, in such a way that the hearer gets a true picture. As people pass along their take on matters, almost without exception they scrub what they say to make themselves and their position look good and the opposition look bad. They conveniently leave out details of what they did or said and the manner in with they did or said it. Nearly always the finger is pointing in the other direction. It is so ingrained that few realize their guilt.

Particularly in matters involving conflict, biases are the norm. Preconceived notions and ignorance tend to dominate the landscape. Facts and evidence are rarely the basis of judgments and alliances. People almost always square off on the basis of self-interests, friendships, rumors and who they like or dislike.

Fundamental honesty is seeing things as they really are. It is not inflation or deflation. It is not direction based on hearsay or false reports. Even from friends! Honesty is facing up to truth even when the truth is painful and the culprit is you or your loved one, maybe even a family member. The man holding the balances of justice is blindfolded; justice is based on honesty and truth. It is blind to the actors in the drama. Discrimination, self-interests, preconceived notions, rumors, hearsay, friendships and all other subjective considerations have no place.

Truth is so illusive yet good people are quick to jump to premature conclusions and act upon them. Yes, good people, Christian people! And, the world is watching: the children and the mate, the neighbors and people at work and even other Christians. Our great, honest and just God says to us,“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).

Of all people, God’s people should be living examples of fundamental honesty. All bystanders (family, friends, fellow-employees, etc.) should know honesty was a part of every decision. Objective investigation was done; the facts were found and considered. Decisions were not made on the basis of family, friendships or personal interests or preferences. Their actions and lifestyles should be reflections of their claims. God said, “So speak ye, and so do” (James 2:12).  It is dishonest to claim to believe something and contradict it with your life. The bystanders all know that. Fundamental honest is a lifestyle; not merely a few true words here and then. It is making scriptural applications that are honest; using them to make the points God makes, not to make your points. Somehow honesty has to do with consistency: words with deeds, yesterday with today, with the Bible, with friend or foe, regardless of the consequences, apples for apples, in spirit and approach, in good times and bad, public and private. Somehow honesty is transparent, with nothing to hide. It is not afraid to be exposed or tested. I recall the young lad who was on the witness stand. The prosecutor was trying hard to break him. He said, “Young man, did your father tell you what to say on this witness stand?” “Yes sir, he did.” “What did he say?” “Sir, he told me to tell the truth.”

Oh how I pray for a revival of fundamental honesty among all people, especially God’s people! This world is so full of deception and lies. Dishonesty permeates commercials. Politics and politicians are infamous for smoke and mirrors. Hollywood excels in make-believe.  The mindset of modern church is what the people want, not what God wants. Every day we stand in awe as we learn of the corruption, immorality, dishonesty and deception that went on behind the closed doors of governments, corporations, churches and homes. Isaiah said, “For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth.” We are there.

There is no question that God wants us to be like Him and He is fundamentally honest. Justice is His hallmark. We are His ambassadors, people who should shine as beacons of light and “Provide things honest in the sight of all men”(Romans 12:17). Honest work, doing your homework before opening your mouth and making a decision, standing up for what is right even when it costs you, a private life consistent with your public claims and an humble and kind spirit will make you stand out like a sore thumb almost anywhere. As rare as fundamental honesty is, it is the will of God for all of us. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12).