A preacher named T.F. Tenney once said,
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” And
what I've seen around me in recent times (especially in 2012) has
done a pretty good job of convincing me that many of my fellow
Christians and followers of Christ are not doing a very good job of
following Bishop Tenney's idea. And I think I've finally gotten fed
up enough to blog, so hold on to your hats.
I think the short version of what
Bishop Tenney said is one word: priorities. And I think we need to
examine ours.
Playing the blame game does not
help. Sitting around moaning about how everything has gone downhill
since the Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible-reading in schools
in the early 1960s is a cop-out. For one thing, all it banned was
state-sponsored prayer and Bible-reading. If students want to
pray silently, they can (and many probably do, come test time). And
it did not ban prayer and Bible-reading in the home. Most work
places do not open with prayer. Most college classes don't. And yet
we hear no one complain about that. We need to take a much deeper
look at what's wrong in the world instead of just fussing because we
don't have teachers leading their first-hour classes in prayer.
Quit fussing about little stuff,
folks. Quit looking at people who say “Merry Xmas” and “Happy
Holidays” like they're a bunch of God-haters and heathens. For one
thing, I say it. Xmas is just a short way of saying Christmas, and
as for saying Happy Holidays, not everybody celebrates Christmas.
And where in the Bible does it command us to disrespect those who
disagree with us?
Quit making big things out of
smaller things. People are dying lost without Christ in their lives
every day in this country, and too many in the church are worried
about whether the liberals are going to ban assault weapons. If the
government does ban assault weapons, the world isn't going to end
and Big Brother isn't going to drag you into Room 101. Worry about
what's important, not what isn't.
America is not New Israel. Don't
get me wrong – I'm thankful for the freedom we have, especially
the freedom to worship God. But I feel like the church has made a
mistake by diving as hard into politics as it has. Max Lucado once
said, “Love is only love if (it is) chosen.” But today,
Christians are worried more about making people choose what's right
than they are about letting them do it voluntarily. I think one of
the biggest reasons that people, and especially younger people, are
turning off to Christianity is that we're spending too much time
trying to legislate morality than we are shining the light of Jesus
Christ. It's like I told one of my best friends just a bit ago, “I
think too many Christians are more worried about guns and gay
marriage than they are (about) spreading the Gospel.”
I think James said it best more than
1,900 years ago. He simply said, “But be doers of the word, and
not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face
in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately
forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect
law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but
a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If
anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his
tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to
visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself
unspotted from the world.” (James 1:22-27, NKJV)
