Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

I am an observer of life. I often overhear people say things when I’m at local coffee shops or restaurants and some of the things they say make my ears perk up. I recently heard two women talking about how God had blessed them. The one lady’s evidence of God’s blessing was the fact that God sold their house for a profit in less than a week. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of that thinking in the past. But we’ve had mixed success with selling our house. In fact, we sold our house in Mobile in less than 24 hours when we moved to Charlotte. I felt that was God’s blessing and evidence that we were in God’s will. I don’t believe that anymore.

Matthew 5 says blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus said the widow who gave a mite was closer to God than the Pharisee who threw in a bunch of money in Mark 12:38-44.

When we moved from Mobile to Charlotte I received a pay raise. Wow! I guess we were blessed. But to say that our time there resulted in blessing would be false. I’m making considerably less money today than I have in 12 years. By American Christian standards I’m going backwards. I must have angered God and am not receiving His blessings—right?

Wrong. How arrogant for us as believers to associate material wealth with God’s blessings. There are some people whom God uses to make money so they can bless others but I don’t think that how much is in one’s bank account tells how blessed they are. They could just work harder than others. They might be lucky. They may have inherited the money or maybe they did something dishonest. Money has nothing to do with God’s blessing in my opinion.
Before we left Atlanta to go to the Gulf Coast and then North Carolina I believe God did bless me. Not financially but in ministry. For some reason God used me to share my faith and people would accept Him. I realized it was a Spiritual Gift that God gave me. But I don’t know if it was out of disobedience or just to bring me to a dry period but we/I have experienced the driest period in my life.

I’m making less money now but feel like God has given me back my Spiritual Gift. God has given me the privilege of leading more people to Christ in the last 3-4 weeks then I did in 3 years in NC.

So am I blessed or does the fact that we are starting over financially mean I’m not blessed? Luke 9:23 says that if we want to follow Jesus we have to take up our cross and follow Him. So by Jesus standards one who is blessed is one who dies. That won’t preach well on TV will it? I think following Jesus is much harder and complex than we make it. There is no magic genie that gives us all of our desires. When you look at people who are homeless and those who live in 3rd World Countries we shouldn’t have any complaints. I think we need to come up with a better definition for what a blessing really looks like.

I was a minister of evangelism for several years at a great church in the Southeast a few years back. It was my job to train people to share their story with their friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. My favorite style of sharing my faith has always been relationship oriented. However, because I was the “Evangelist,” there was a lot of pressure on me to see people give their lives to Jesus every week. Which meant I had get them to “walk the aisle” every Sunday during the invitation. It got to the point where it became more of a job than a concern for people. I became convicted that I was teaching people a form of evangelism that I didn’t believe in. I was leading people to Christ, but we would see people accept Christ and leave the church shortly after because we had no relationship with them. I even led someone to Christ on a dare with some other ministers at dinner one night. The turing point came when a man on my street had a crisis and we didn’t even know him because I was too busy evangelizing people who visited our church when I should have been building relationships with my neighbors! I began to feel like a professional evangelist instead of a friend and someone who really cared about people. That is why we left to start a church.

I’ve been serving as a minister in the workplace on and off since 2001. I worked for an organization that placed chaplains in the workplace part-time for 4 years while we were planting a church in Atlanta and then for a while in South Alabama. What I found out while I was a workplace chaplain was that I enjoyed being a chaplain more than I did pastoring or being on staff at a church. You see, I left coaching football and the business world because I wanted to minister to the people I worked with and I didn’t know how. However, once I became a pastor I was separated from the people whom I really had a burden to reach.

The organization I worked part-time for doesn’t hire full-time chaplains but I heard about Corporate Chaplains of America who does. I began serving 2 companies last year when I moved back to Alabama. My job also includes finding new companies to partner with us. I now serve 7 companies in the Birmingham area. We have another chaplain in Birmingham and one in Mobile and Huntsville as well as hundreds around the US. God is truly using our chaplains.

What I love about what we do is that we get to hang out with people who would never set foot in a church. The other thing that is great about our jobs is we do everything with the employee’s permission. Some people think that we shouldn’t force ourselves on employees. I agree and we don’t. Everything we do and the care we give is up to the employee themselves. If they don’t want to talk to us they don’t have to. There are a few employees at every company that chose not to talk to me and that is their choice. But we are always there for them 24/7/365 via our satellite paging system if they ever need us.

I never realized how God had prepared me for what I’m doing today. Two days ago I talked with an employee who is going through some things now that 2 years ago I would never be able to relate to. However, as of now, I can honestly tell this employee I can relate…I’ve been there…I am there. I can be open and vulnerable now. When I was a pastor, there were some church members that didn’t like knowing that their pastor struggled. Well, reality is we all struggle. I had the privilege of leading this employee to Christ.

While I was writing this I got paged by an employee whose father is in the hospital. I will be going by there tomorrow to see him and another employee I’ve been visiting since November. The one I’ve been visiting since November we once thought might die and may never walk again. Today he is learning to walk again. These are real life stories that happen everyday. Many of these people would have no church and no one to care for them emotionally and spiritually if it weren’t for their employers providing this service. If you want to read real life stories about what happens in the workplace I encourage you to read C-Change and The Third Awakening which are books written by our founder Mark Cress. The stories are real but the names have been changed because of confidentiality.

Yesterday I was making rounds and one employee told me he was reading Old Testament. He said, “there is a lot of strange sh@* in the Old Testament.” I don’t know if he was trying to see if I would scold him but I chuckled inside. We talked for a while and during our conversation he told me he had been kicked out of church as a youth because he threw a Coke bottle out of a church bus. What kind of discipline is that? Anyway, as we continued to talk he “Gave me Permission” to share how he could have a relationship with Jesus. He asked if he would have to quit drinking 1st. I told him that Jesus wanted him just like he was. Now Jesus may convict him and challenge his thinking later on but you don’t “clean up” 1st. So right there in this heavy industrial area this man a whole lot bigger than me gave his life to Christ.

I’m convinced that if Jesus were here in person today, He would go where the people are. The biggest mission field in the US is the workplace and people bring their hurts and problems to work. There are 115 Full-time chaplains with CCA and there are other workplace ministries that are similar. Many of these Chaplains are a whole lot more effective than I am. We have chaplains that lead people to Christ almost every day! Why? Because they genuinely care for these employees and their families. I would like to challenge those of you who do work in the secular world to be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading with your co-workers. For Pastors I would encourage you to find a way to be around people in the workplace. Our organization is now partnering with Southeastern Seminary to offer a degree in Workplace Ministry. Our founder’s dream is to see churches with Pastors of Workplace Ministry that are on staff to assist their members to minister to their co-workers. After all, most people are at work longer than they are anywhere else. If you are interested in what we do contact me, I’d love to share more about how we care for employees and their families.

[Yahoo News]

The Presbyterian Church USA’s statement of faith says God through Jesus Christ delivers followers “from death to life eternal.”
But one in three members of the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination seem to believe there’s some wiggle room for non-Christians to get into heaven, according to a recent poll. The Presbyterian Panel’s “Religious and Demographic Profile of Presbyterians” found that 36 percent of members disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: “Only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.” Another 39 percent, or about two-fifths, agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.

“There seems to be some universalist streak in Presbyterianism, where some Presbyterians are open to the idea of other paths that folks in other faiths might be taking,” said Perry Chang, administrator of the Presbyterian Panel, which convenes every three years.

The Presbyterian Church USA, with about 2.1 million members, is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country. A total of 3,450 Presbyterians responded to the study, which was mailed in October 2008. The panel issued the religious and demographic report last month.Polls asking similar questions about views on salvation have provided a wide range of results. A 2005 national survey funded by Baylor University found that 53 percent of the 1,721 adults who were polled agreed with the statement,

“Many religions lead to salvation,” and another 19 percent said “My religion is the one true faith that leads to salvation.”
A 2007 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation believe many religions can lead to eternal life.

Another study found that evangelical Christians may adhere to a much stricter interpretation of salvation. The 2008 report by Lifeway, the publishing and research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, found that 75 percent of Protestants who hold “evangelical beliefs” strongly disagreed with the statement, “If a person is sincerely seeking God, he or she can obtain eternal life through religions other than Christianity.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Jesus Himself said in John 14:6:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So either Jesus is telling the truth or he is delusional or a liar. You can’t have it both ways. He is either the only way to heaven because that is what He said or He is a fraud. I believe He is who He said He is, God Himself. You can’t get to God by using opinion polls.

What do you think?

Joel Osteen wrote a book a few years ago called “Your Best Life Now.” I read it and it actually inspired me to be even more positive than I am. I had began to think that I could will my way into success. I actually began to think that my attitude and outlook on life could change my life. But you know what happened? Life.

I will continue to think positive but I will also be “REALISTIC.” Just because I believe something will come true or even pray it will does not mean it is going to happen. The older I get and the more I experience life I realize that we as followers of Jesus have been selling unbelievers a bill of goods. I used to use a tract that said “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Really? Does God have a “WONDERFUL” plan for everyone’s life? All of the Apostles but John were executed. Would you consider that to be wonderful? Job was considered righteous before God but he lost everything. Is that the “WONDERFUL” life that we promised when I shared my faith?

Jesus said in Luke 9:23:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Taking up one’s Cross meant one thing to the 1st Century Jew–Death! That doesn’t sound too “WONDERFUL” to me.

The longer I live the life of a Follower of Jesus I become more realistic. God’s plan for most of us is not “wonderful” in the view of a Suburban American. God’s plan may include a whole lot of suffering. God’s plan may include pain.

I Peter 4:12 says:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

Maybe my life is different than others. Maybe I’m not optimistic enough or I’m not sowing enough seeds of faith. Or maybe I’m coming to the realization that God never promised me a Rose Garden. God only promised that He would be with me always. I may not get the Best Life Now–but I will get it when I leave this world.

I have a friend that I has been in a dark place for the last 6+months. Really it is longer than that but his latest tests in his life have been going on recently. He has had friends and family members agreeing with him in prayer that he would get out of this situation that is out of his control. I’ve been praying for him daily as have dozens of other strong followers of Jesus. I saw him earlier this week and he was in great spirits. God had really been shaping him and he had come to grips and was accepting what was happening.

Then I got word early this morning that things had taken a turn for the worse. Another friend wants me to reach out again because my friend doesn’t understand why God isn’t answering his prayers. I want to help but I wondered why God would want “ME” to try to answer this question. I guess God has a real sense of humor.

You see I have been praying for God to come to the rescue in my own life for something we have been praying for over a year and a half. Actually it goes back longer than that but the most specific “silence” from God has occurred since a year ago last summer. Why would God want me to help someone answer a question that I have no answer for? Not only do I have no answer for him in his situation–but I’m dealing with the same question myself.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make things better for my friend. I really hurt for him. I would rather God answer his prayer than even my own. But I can’t explain why God is “silent.” Sometimes if feels haunting. Our mutual friend says that our friend has had it out with God on several occasions. Hey, I can relate. As recently as yesterday I had it out with God. Maybe it makes me less spiritual. I don’t know. But I think God is big enough to handle my doubts and questions.

I don’t write this for pity or sorrow. God will take care of my friend’s needs and mine. He will take care of your needs too. But that doesn’t mean that everything is so simple. I read the Prayer of Jabez years ago and even prayed that prayer. It isn’t a magic Genie prayer. I get angry when I see TV preachers claiming you need more faith or I need to send them money. Tell that to Job. I can’t explain why parents have to bury their children. It shouldn’t be that way. I don’t understand why people take their own lives. I don’t know why people cheat on their spouses. Lets face life stinks sometimes!

I believe that God does answer prayers. He has answered 1000’s of my own prayers. There are times I want to give up but I don’t. I realize I’m blessed beyond what I deserve. But sometimes I wonder. Especially when my prayers that appear to be in God’s will aren’t answered. Today is one of those days.