Christian Identity Theft

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments
Picture from Destiny Family Christian Centre

Picture from Destiny Family Christian Centre

Last week, someone hacked into my email account and sent out spam to all my contacts.  It was highly frustrating as I had to change all my passwords (a herculean task for me – read Forgotten Passwords for the reason why) and let as many people know as possible that I had not sent them a dropbox folder containing investment “opportunities.”

As I mused on making my new password “Ih8hacker$,” I felt violated and indignant that my trust and my contacts’ trust had been so disrespected.  I was also wary of potential identify theft and spent hours combing through online accounts for my credit cards, utility bills, and social media.

No one likes a poser.

Perhaps that’s why so many are reluctant to take on the name, “Christian.”  Are we afraid of committing identity theft or violating the commandment not “to take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7) by claiming to be a follower of Christ when we’re so messed up?   Is being branded a “Christian hypocrite” worse than the Scarlet Letter being pinned to our chest?

Christians first got their name, “Christians,” in Antioch, an ancient Greek city.  The early disciples of Jesus were being persecuted in Jerusalem, so they scattered throughout the Roman Empire.  When they reached Antioch, they shared the good news of Jesus with the Greek pagans – “for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26, NIV).

What made them Christians?  It wasn’t about how “holy” they were or how Christ-like they might or might not have been.  It was simply about their focus on Christ – on His life, ministry, death, and resurrection.  They loved to share about Jesus.

And why not?  He mingles with sinners.  He calls the outcasts.  He touches the untouchables.

A hypocrite is not someone who fails to live up to the ideals of his or her principles.  (If that were the definition, then we are all hypocrites, for no one observes perfect congruity between belief and practice.  Who doesn’t eat junk food even though we know it’s unhealthy?  Who gets adequate hours of sleep?  Who does not procrastinate?)  A hypocrite is someone who pretends to have virtues that he or she dos not actually possess.

You are not a hypocrite if you claim to be a Christian but fail to live a sinless life.  A Christian is someone who recognises that we are all sinners and that we need Jesus Christ to forgive and represent us in our place.  A Christian is someone who is honest about his or her vulnerability to selfishness, someone who is not ashamed to claim Jesus’ righteousness as our own.

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

It is only when we pretend to be holy on our own, or when we mask how we’re really doing, that we become Christian hypocrites.  It’s time to stop that kind of Christian identity theft.  Let’s give the name of Christianity back its original dignity by taking our mind off of ourselves – the anxiety about what others think, the desire to please or be praised – and by returning homage to the matchless Person of Jesus Christ.

Inside Out

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 2 comments
Calvin & Hobbes

Calvin & Hobbes

I don’t even like chocolate.  Yet as I wiped away the angry tears I gnawed down the Snickers bar viciously.

It was one of those days.  The parking ticket attendant had almost snickered as I ran to the car, saying as he walked away, “Too late.”  $150.  That’s 3 months of nappies, I thought.  I was already having a down day, having had some bad news earlier.  The ticket was just the last straw.

I had a long commute to Melton, and as the tears and rain refused to abate, I started my diatribe against God.  He didn’t deserve it.  I also called Roy and belted out my feelings.  He didn’t deserve it either.  Then I told God, “Ok, you know I don’t really mean it.  And I know it’s really not that bad.  But this is how I feel…”

Have you seen that trailer for the new Pixar movie, Inside Out?  It’s all about the emotions (joy, fear, anger, disgust, sadness) living in our minds and determining our choices.  I have no idea if it will be a good movie or not, but it poses interesting questions: Do our feelings dictate our decisions? Can we control them?  How do we balance all our conflicting emotions?

By the time I got to Melton, God had given me peace about the day’s events, but I remained contemplative about how easily our moods can change.  Our favourite sports team wins, and life is awesome.  The same team loses, and life stinks.  We find a free parking spot in the city, and it’s our lucky day.  We get a parking ticket, and the world is against us.

It’s normal to feel a variety of emotions based on the circumstances.  However, are our extreme reactions indicative of an imbalance of perspective?

For example, could our hopes be too set on earthly things, which can disappoint and fail us? [“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matt 6:19-21]

Have we forgotten that our first-world problems are just that – symptoms of lives that are focused on self and unthinking of the real needs and issues of others?

Because, at the end of the day, thank God I can afford the $150 parking ticket.  I don’t have to go without food and Micah doesn’t have to forego nappies in order for us to pay that ticket (again, thank God).  And, as a friend astutely observed, we pay a lot of money for courses and training.  I paid $150 for a lesson in parking laws that I will never forget.

After all, it’s just money.  What I lost in my reaction was peace, perspective, and almost people – I took out my grumpiness on God and Roy, who are very understanding and gracious.  Not everyone who are unfortunate enough to be in our space during our emotional outbursts are as forgiving.  What if the parking attendant saw my irate face and then walked into my church the next week?  After all, he didn’t deserve my rage either.  It was really my fault.

When there is real loss, it is appropriate to grieve.  When there is real injustice, we should feel indignant. When others hurt, no matter the cause, we should offer support and sympathy.  But we may also need to spend some quiet time with God and ask Him to re-anchor what we value, prioritise, and feel in Christ – and Christ alone.

 

Learning that Transforms

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

Excerpt from In Step with Jesus: The Journey Begins p 43:

Much of human learning is like addition.  We add to what we know about carpentry or cooking, about our careers or our hobbies, about being parents or grandparents.  But some learning is like an explosion. When the debris settles, we realise the landscape has changed.  This explosive kind of learning is called transformational learning.  And it is the kind of learning that the disciples experienced from the fallout of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus….

Transformational learning changes your most deeply held beliefs or assumptions – sometimes your worldview.  It changes the lens through which you see everything.  Because of the importance of transformational learning, many people have studied it, trying to figure out how it happens.  Here is the way one educator has described how we are changed by what we learn [James E. Loder, The Transforming Moment, 2nd e. (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Helmers and Howard, 1989), pp. 2-4]:

1. You experience a “crisis” or “disorienting dilemma,” for example, with a tragic of disappointing experience or with something you hear or read that your current persecutive cannot explain or help you endure.

2. During the search for an answer, you try to resolve the dilemma.  Your mind attempts to find an explanation.  This can last only minutes – or years.

3. The “aha moment” comes when you suddenly gain insight into the dilemma; you find a solution and experience a sense of relief or a sense that your world has been put back together again.  In spiritual matters, this is when the Holy Spirit gives new understanding.

4. The final step is interpretation and verification.  Now, with your new perspective, you interpret your life in a new way, looking differently at your experiences and beliefs, both current and past.  You also look to others to affirm the truthfulness of your new understanding.

Have you had transforming learning that have changed your worldview?  Did they follow this pattern?

Mercies in Disguise

in Sermons / Videos / Podcasts  by James 0 comments

It has been said that the two inescapable things in life are death and taxes. A third viable candidate that could be added is hardship. The endless disappointments. The drudgery of 9-5. The pain of loss. Is there an end, an answer, a hope?

Download the Discussion Questions here.

The Call of Baal

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

It is loud; it is subtle.  It’s universal; it’s perpetual.

No matter where you are in the world, no matter your background, you would have heard the call of Baal – the god of rain.  That is, the god of wealth – for rain in the agricultural culture of Canaan represented the promise of good crops and abundance.

The Israelites had heard the call of Yahweh, too – the Creator God, who called His people into a relationship with Him that meant self-sacrifice, surrender, and even suffering.  He promised hope, eternal life, and meaning that would surpass the splendours of this world, but to many, the call of prosperity, peace, and popularity was far more appealing.  Never mind that the pursuit and worship of Baal did not actually fulfil their desires.  The illusion of it was enough.

So the nation, even the King, had succumbed to its allure.  King Ahab married Jezebel, a Canaanite princess and priestess whose name meant, “Where is the prince Baal?”  She sponsored 450 prophets of Baal to lead Israel to worship Baal and systematically executed the prophets of Yahweh.

But God would not stay silent at the persecution of the minority and the delusion of the majority.  He manoeuvred nature to stir up thoughts and questions that would shake their worldview.

He caused a famine in the land that worshipped the god of rain.  Day after day, when the children were thirsty and the crops withered away, the people would be confronted with the question, “Why is Baal not giving us rain? Is Baal god?”  Some doubted, but many maintained that Baal was still god, that they just needed to work harder, worship better, to please him and get what they wanted.

So many today are still entrapped in this cognitive dissonance.  We struggle to work, save, buy, sell, and build.  When the job fails or circumstances deter us from that dream, facts point towards the mercilessness of the Market and the instability of the value of riches.  We experience time and again that moths destroy and that thieves break in and steal, and yet we continue to work harder and give more homage (our time, efforts, and obsession) to the pursuit of worldly gain.

But God does not stay silent in this struggle of the masses.  He cries out through messengers for us to come and see for ourselves who is God.

The prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel bled themselves into a fury trying to get Baal to send fire down on their altar.  Finally, when evening came, Elijah poured water over the altar of Yahweh, three times.  Then he prayed:

“Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” (1 Kings 18:36-39)

God has proven Himself in history.  He has revealed Himself personally.  He calls us to resist the call of Baal and to worship Him only:

“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” 1 Kings 18:20

The call is loud; it is subtle.  It’s universal; it’s perpetual.

No matter where you are in the world, no matter your background, the Lord God calls you to worship Him who alone can fulfil the true desires of your heart.