Obedience

Obedience is a word that our modern culture doesn't embrace too easily. In fact, I think it is a concept that we readily dismiss. We send our dogs, maybe, to obedience school. But that is probably the extent to which most of us regard obedience.

Parents don't typically demand obedience from their children. They don't teach it to their children either. Even at the toddler stage, we see American parents encouraging their children to express themselves, develop an opinion, etc. Parents will ask the children where they should eat out. They may buy a certain car or other large ticket item because the child said it was the best decision.

There are lines for obedience all around us too. Our governments make rules and laws that we are to obey. Our work places have procedures and rules that we are to obey. Of course, the Bible has its own set of commandments and other things that we are to obey. And yet, most of us, if we're really honest, pay little regard to the concept of obedience. Going a little over the speed limit doesn't seem like much of an issue for people who would otherwise regard integrity highly. And skirting rules at work to make sure your own agenda is fulfilled doesn't seem so wrong. After all, the companies expect people to do this. Right?

The point is that, in terms of virtues, obedience isn't highly valued. I bet if you gave people a list of virtues and ask them to rank them, things like honesty, loyalty, generosity, or even open-mindedness would rank higher than obedience for most of us. In fact, I imagine there are people today who wouldn't even agree that obedience belongs on a list of virtues. In terms of priority, it's probably lucky if it can rank in that "nice-to-have" category.

I have to confess that I've been a very disobedient individual myself - both as a child and as an adult. It wasn't until I became a true Christ-follower that obedience began to matter in my life. Somewhere along the line, obedience started take hold in my thinking processes. It was at about that time that I began to also realize just how disobedient I really was. I'd always known that sneaking a cookie in childhood or violating curfew as a teen were disobedient. But I'd never considered obedience as an employee or citizen. And I most certainly hadn't given much thought to the notion of obedience as a Christian.

One day, during my daily Bible time, I stumbled on a passage of Scripture that really seared my consciousness. It was Jesus talking in the 14th chapter of the book of John. Let's take a look at what Jesus said here.

"Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me ... Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching ... Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me." (John 14:21-24)

So here I had been going to church, reading my Bible, praying, listening to Christian music on the radio, attending conferences, volunteering and doing everything else I thought went into the making of a good Christian. But Jesus stops me cold in my tracks. "If you love me, you'll obey me. If you don't obey me, then you don't really love me." That's essentially what He said to me. Moreover, He told me that this wasn't just His perspective, but rather it is God's perspective.

Through the years since that day, I've come to understand more deeply that God is unchanging on issues like this as much as He is unchanging in areas like love and mercy, for example. So God has always felt this way about obedience. He looks past my prayers and my good deeds and my church attendance and my volunteering and all the Christian stuff I buy at Mardel's book store. He looks past all that ... searching for my obedience, the true sign of my love for Him.

In the Old Testament, we can observe a consistent pattern for the Israelites. Frequently the language says something like, "During this time the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." In fact, those very words are found in several places through the Old Testament. And each time, it described a period when the people weren't close to God, their lives weren't going very well, and God was angry with them. He was looking for their obedience and not finding it.

In 1 Samuel 15:22, we are told that God values our obedience even above our sacrifices and gifts or offerings to Him. Said differently, we learn that there is nothing more valuable that we can give to God than our obedience. Were you aware of that? Our obedience is the most priceless thing we can give to God. And, as Jesus said, it is the truest evidence of our love for Him. Volunteering in the children's ministry at church, donating canned goods or serving at the homeless shelter? Not so much.

It's easy to say that we love the Lord. It's often not even difficult to do His work, give money or make other expressions of loyalty and devotion to Him. But if God looks past everything else to try and find our obedience, what will He find? Will He find someone who is ignorant of what it means to be obedient? Will He find someone who hasn't read His Word and doesn't even know what it is we are to obey (i.e., His will for our lives)? Or will He find someone who is in His Word regularly, seeking to hear His will for their lives and then turning themselves to the task of making the choices that result in obedience to Him and His ways?

There are many aspects of our relationship with God. We're often most focused on how God responds to us. God loves us. God forgives us. God saves us. God calls us. God even seeks us. If we understand them, we ourselves are pleased with God's responses to us. They're edifying. They're purifying. They're live-giving. So you might say, for example, that people love a forgiving God. And of course that would be true.

Similarly, there are just a myriad of ways that we can respond to God. And many of those are assumed to be pleasing to Him. Of course those are the responses that we like to think the most about. You'll hear things like, "The Lord loves a cheerful giver." Of course that is true. But the caveat to that or any other rhetoric we could muster up would be that, "The Lord loves an obedient and cheerful giver."

May each of us focus on the ways that God responds to us. And may we focus very sharply on the ways that we can respond to God which He finds pleasing. But above all else, may we respond to Him obediently. For there is found the true measure of our love for the Lord.

Submission Continued

So by now you've had a couple of days to ponder the fact that true love for Christ always results in obedience to Him. A loving heart is a submitted heart. Now let's talk about why it is that so many people think they love Jesus but don't back up that love with obedience to Him.

Consider if Jesus were here in the flesh and you could physically see Him, touch Him, even smell Him and audibly hear Him.

Let's say you go to Wal-Mart. As you walk through the aisles, pushing your shopping cart, Jesus is walking alongside you. When you pick something up, maybe an R-rated DVD, Jesus says, "No, I don't want you or your family watching that. Please put it back." You would do it.

Perhaps you have trouble with anger and frustration. Something (or someone) just sets you off and you let fly with some language your mother wouldn't approve of. Neither does Jesus. He pulls you aside and says, "Look, I don't want you talking like that. In fact, you can't belong to me and keep acting like that. Get it together. In fact, go apologize for what you've just said."

"But Jesus," you exclaim, "did you see what she did to me? She totally deserved to be told off!" Jesus reply? "Yes, I saw. Go apologize. Now." And you would do it. You would go apologize. When you finished, Jesus would say, "I'm proud of you. But don't do that again." And you wouldn't!

So what's the point here? The point is that our proximity to Jesus totally inhibits our sinful behavior. The closer one is to Jesus, the more likely we are to obey Him - to live life on His terms. But the further we are from Jesus, the less likely He will be able to influence our sinful choices.

Any good preacher or pastor will tell you that the solution for sinful behavior is closeness to Christ. And he (or she) would be right. That is the solution. As one moves closer to Christ, obedience becomes a natural thing. Submission feels good and right. It fits like a glove.

So when someone tells me they struggle to obey Jesus - or I see them living a disobedient life - not submitted to Christ ... then I know the problem. They aren't close enough to Jesus. He is too far away from them. His presence is to abstract to feel real.

Want to be fully submitted to Jesus Christ? Be in close proximity to Jesus Christ. You'll find that obedience is no longer a struggle!

Obama's Wallet is Telling

Preachers have always told us that you can see what someone really believes if you look at their checkbook and their day planner. In other other words, don't listen to what they say - look at what they do. I never paid much attention to that, but as I've gotten older, I began to realize that it's backed by a very strong truth in human nature: people don't always do what they say, but they will always do what they believe. And so yesterday's news on the Obamas was very sad for me.

Barack and Michelle Obama made public their tax returns for the years 2000-2006. (They issued a challenge to Bill and Hillary Clinton to do the same thing.) I'm not sure why tax returns are such a big deal for presidential candidates, but they are telling about the beliefs of these individuals.

True Christians have, for centuries, tithed faithfully - giving at least 10% of their household incomes to the church or otherwise to the work of the Lord (i.e. Christian organizations and missions). Obama has been running for president on a platform of Christianity. He's told us that he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ and has been a Christ-follower ever since. His tax returns seem to suggest otherwise.

From 2000-2004, the Obamas took in over $1.2 million in household income. That's an average of $244,529 annually over those five years. Their giving to all charity during those years? Just $10,770, or less than 1% of of their income. Folks, these are not generous people. Heck, they are not even obedient people!

When the press questioned this, an Obama spokesman said, "As new parents who were paying off ... student loans, giving ... was as generous as they could be at the time." Could that be true of Christ-followers? I hate to be difficult, but folks, I'm not buying this one. I know people who have two kids, student loans and make only a fraction of what the Obamas make. They still tithe. Children and student loans don't prevent one from being obedient to God.

In 2005, the Obamas' income shot up to almost $1.671 million - and their giving shot up to $77,315. That was 4.63% of their income, almost half what it would have taken to tithe as Christians obedient to God. In 2007, the Obamas' income was only $991,296 and they gave $60,307 to charity. That was just over 6% of their income. I guess the good news is that as they have become more wealthy (the above photo was taken while Barack was relaxing at the Ritz Carlton in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands), they are becoming more generous. Perhaps if this trend continues, they will become truly obedient to Christ!

I don't like taking pot shots at anyone. But this man is asking me to trust him for a lot. Before any of us can really trust someone, we have to know them. I don't think I really know who Barack Obama is. And the troubling thing is that what I do know makes me think he isn't who he says he is.

So Mr. Obama, I'd really like to vote for you. But can you tell me who you really are?