Am I Living Up to the Expectations of the Pastor?

A church member asked me that question yesterday. He is three years into his journey with Jesus Christ. He had a dramatic conversion experience. He struggles with a lot of issues from his past. He fights physical and mental challenges. His language is salty. He has a hard time socially. He has some addiction issues. He's, I guess I could say, rough around the edges. But he knows the Bible well. He quotes Scripture in almost every conversation. He wants to please God.

I don't think anyone has ever asked me that question before.

My answer? I said, "Absolutely. If you're seeking to follow Christ and being transformed by his Holy Spirit, you are doing all that should be expected."

Years ago, when I was a little more legalistic, I probably would have told him that he needed to attend Sunday School regularly, and Sunday night services, and Wednesday night prayer meetings, tithe, read the Bible and pray daily, go on church-wide visitations, listen to Christian music all the time, stop smoking, stop cussing, stop everything that wasn't "Christian," dress up for church, clean under your fingernails, etc. etc.

I'm exaggerating - a little. I'm glad that I could affirm him and encourage him with my simple answer.

Information Overload

I recently upgraded my cellphone plan to include internet access. Not sure if that was a good move. Now I feel like the poor donkey in this picture. I get phone calls, texts, tweets, and email on my phone. Not to mention that every time I log on to my computer I have emails waiting from another account, Facebook updates, blog updates, etc.

I know, I know - I put myself in this situation and I can back out if I want. The bad thing is that I can't let anything go without my attention. When I log on to TweetDeck, I feel obligated to go through all of the previous tweets that were posted since my last visit there. When I go to my bloglines.com account, I regularly look at every post before I clear them out. When I check email, I feel compelled to open every one that isn't obviously spam.

I'm getting information overload.

Then I read 1 Corinthians 8:1 this morning. "While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church (NLT).

I love knowledge and information. I like to read books, blogs, newspapers, magazines, tweets, websites, etc. I love to learn. In fact, a mantra that I truly believe is leaders are learners. As a leader of my church, I feel that it is part of my job to learn, stretch, and challenge myself to mold my brain in the shape of modern day apostle.

But sometimes I just want to simplify. I can't put my head in the sand and ignore it. The internet is not a fad. It's here to stay. This generation must learn how to handle the kazillion bits of information that enter our brains every day. It's no wonder so many people are ADD. It's become a part of our nature to bounce around from one topic to the other in a matter of seconds.

I heard a grandmother yelling at her young adult grandson yesterday because he was looking at his phone while she was talking to him. "Put the phone down and look at me when I'm talking to you! That's rude! You'll never get a job by doing that!" she lectured.

I laughed. What grandma calls inattention is now called multitasking. She's just lucky he wasn't driving and singing along to his ipod too.

So with all of this knowledge the Bible says we are to love more than anything else. I understand that I don't have to follow and subscribe to all of the different sources of information out there. I have to constantly monitor my information intake. But there is one thing that I MUST do, regardless of the barrage of info. I must love.

Let's give it a try.

You Never Know Who's Reading This

I thought this was pretty cool. I was messing around with my account on StatCounter.com and looked at the recent visitor map for the past week (pictured below). Seems people from all over have stumbled across this place. Granted, a lot of them truly stumbled here. I don't have many friends in India or Japan. But it does show you the power of the internet and the influence one can have even at a simple blog. I understand that most visitors don't stay here long, but what if? What if a seeker in Brazil, Nigeria, San Diego, or the Philippines stumbled on to this simple site and their faith was stretched, their minds engaged, or their hearts convicted?

It's a sobering thought and it makes me think twice about what I say here. For now, all I can say is, "Wow."

Microwaving Pop-Tarts

If you're microwaving your pop-tarts, you need more margin in your life...

All Christians are Not Hypocrites

Over the past couple of weeks, I've heard it publicly declared that, "All Christians are hypocrites."

It's not true.

This statement is a pet peeve of mine. Somehow this belief has entered the minds of many believers, but to believe it as truth is a misunderstanding of the term. I suppose some Christ-followers use this statement to recognize that no Christian is perfect - but we are not all hypocrites. Those unaffiliated with Christianity like to use the convenient excuse that "the church is full of hypocrites." Yes, there are a bunch of them. Full? I hope not. But all Christians are not hypocrites. The truth is the Church is full of sinners!

You can't be a Christian without acknowledging your sin. Jesus is all about rescuing us from our sin. When those outside the Church see a Christian sin, they think he/she is a hypocrite because they have the false belief that Christians are supposed to be perfect. Like the bumper sticker says, Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven.

To be clear: All Christians are sinners and all hypocrites are sinners, but all sinners are not hypocrites nor are all Christians.

Hypocrisy is a type of sin just like lying, cheating, stealing, etc. (See 1 Peter 2:1). We get the word "hypocrite" from the Greek word, "hupocritos" which means to act or play a part. More specifically, to wear a mask. In the Greek theater, actors wore masks to display their mood. A smiling mask was worn to characterize an actor in a good mood and a sad mask was worn to indicate an actor's misery. You've seen the comedy/tragedy masks before, I'm sure. An actor in the Greek theater was called a hypocrite. This is why a hypocrite is sometimes called "two-faced."

The Bible defines a hypocrite many times in many ways. Isaiah said they are people who honor God with their lips but don't really mean it (29:13). The apostle Paul defined hypocrites as people who "claim to know God but by their actions deny him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good" (Titus 1:16). Jesus defined a hypocrite as someone who tries to impress others with their righteous living. They like to be seen by men doing good works, praying, and fasting. They like to appear religious but their religion doesn't come from the heart (Matthew 6).

No matter the definition, the major ingredients of hypocrisy are dishonesty and deception. Someone once said, "A hypocrite never intends to be what he pretends to be."

How do you know if you are a hypocrite? Ask yourself: Do I change who I am depending on the company I keep? Am I genuine, honest, and authentic with everyone? Do I willfully and intentionally put on an act for others?

There is a difference between an authentic Christ-follower struggling with sin and a hypocrite. If you're struggling with sin, you come to God saying, "God, this is a weakness in my life and I really need your help to deal with it." God welcomes that prayer and he promises to help. The authentic Christian knows he is not perfect and is remorseful when he sins.

But the hypocrite doesn't struggle to overcome his sin. He just tries to hide it (sometimes).

There's more I can say on this topic but I hope I've made my point. One word of warning: The apostle Paul wrote that we should keep our distance from hypocrites. They cause division and put obstacles in our way. They are not concerned with serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people (Romans 16:17-18).

It all goes back to honesty. Be honest with God and be honest with others. When you practice honesty, you should have no fear of being a hypocrite.

Gotta See It to Believe It

If you've noticed that I haven't been writing as much on the blog lately, it's because I've been spending a lot of time at peopleofwalmart.com.

People are strange indeed.