In It, Not of It

I hide me far away from trouble
The world outside me grows darker by the day
So I promise to stay here close beside Him
Surely God would want His children safe
Then reading, how my eyes were opened
I find that He is leading us out into the world
Into the middle of fallen saints and sinners
Where a little grace is needed most

Wait a minute
If we say we love them
Why are we not in it
Why we run and hide
Entertain a stranger
Maybe entertain an angel
The danger is if our worlds don’t collide

Come take the light to darker parts
Share His truth with hardened hearts
We are not like the world
But we can love it
Come bring the hope to hopeless men
Until the lost are found in Him
He came to save the world
So let us be in it, not of it
Avalon

Today I am in Erie, Pennsylvania. This is where my sister’s college resides, so we brought her up here for her freshman year. This being her freshman year, we decided to check out a local church’s evening service.

Now, this is no ordinary church. This church does not meet in an elaborate building; there are no stained glass windows depicting Jesus’ miracles, robed choirs with organ accompaniment, or a preacher in a black suit, shouting about fire and brimstone from behind a distant pulpit.

Far from it. This church meets in a place downtown known as the Cell Block. A bar. Yes, Bud Light banners and all.

No one else is there on a Sunday night; it’s just the church. The songs are sung with the accompaniment of two guitars; no piano, no drums. The pastor and worship leaders are wearing jeans and T-shirts. They’re very friendly and down-to-earth; they don’t sound “holier than thou” when they’re preaching or talking.

So why do they meet in a bar? One of the worship leaders said, “Some people think it’s weird that we meet here. But the church is not a building, it’s the people, so we’ll go anywhere necessary to reach them.”

As we were leaving the Cell Block after the very Bible-based, very church-like, very casual service, I said to my sister, “That is the best illustration of ‘be in the world, but not of the world’ that I’ve ever seen.”

Well, it’s true. Holding a church service in that kind of atmosphere, yet being so different from it at the same time, is pretty awesome, in my opinion. They’re doing something right by standing out from the crowd. But the same thing couldn’t be said for all of us.

John 15:19 says, If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Translation: being in step with Christ might mean that we’re out of step with the world. We’re not of the world, so they’re going to hate us. There’s no escaping that fact.

Yet, Matthew 5:13 says, You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? 2 Corinthians 4:4 mentions “the light of the gospel”. We have the gospel, so we have to be light if we’re to reach the world with it.

Out of these verses, we can logically conclude that God has intended for us to be in the world, but not of the world. Let’s take a closer look.

Not Of
“Not of the world” means three things: not loving the world (1 John 2:15), not being attached to the world (Matthew 24:25), and not being like the world (John 17:14).

Not loving the world: First of all, it’s important to understand that the “the world” is not a place. “The world” is what we have made it – very different from “the earth”, which is what God made. Loving the world means loving the sin we brought into it. (This doesn’t mean that we can no longer enjoy books, fashion, sports, nature, food, or friends anymore.) Obviously, we’re all still going to sin, but there’s an enormous difference between sinning and deliberately choosing to do something again and again when you know it’s wrong. While all sin is wrong, repetitive, willful sinning shows love of the world. God hates sin, so we should make a conscious choice to hate it as well.

Not being attached to the world: This world is not our real home. It’s pointless to become attached to material possessions, because they won’t carry over to heaven. It’s fine to enjoy them while we’re here, but it’s not fine to completely focus on them, because that will always leave us unsatisfied with what we already have.

Not being like the world: We’re called to be different. We’re called to a higher purpose than shrinking into the crowd and being the same as everyone else. We’re called to listen to different music, wear different clothes, read different books, talk about different things, watch different movies, and act in different ways. We’re called to stand out so people will take notice.

In the World
I don’t think it’s the “not of” part that a lot of Christians have the most trouble with. After a few years of being a Christian and finding Christian alternatives, it’s not so hard to be different. Pretty soon we settle into our home schooled, sheltered, comfortable conservative lives, raising our children to be different, having family devotions every night, going to church on Sundays and maybe helping around the church in other ways. We vaguely support our political parties, listen to classical music or hymns if we don’t like CCM, pick up our entertainment from the local Christian bookstore, receive our Christian worldview magazines, home school our children or send them to a Christian school, get involved in various Christian sports teams or art classes or homeschool functions or other Christian activities, support our Christian churches, and try to lead our non-Christian acquaintances to Christianity.

Did you notice how many times the word “Christian” appeared in that sentence? It’s not a bad word, and none of these activities in of themselves are not bad. They’re all great. It’s important to be totally plugged in to Christianity. But we’re missing half of our conclusion!

“In the world” does not just mean “live on the earth and be different”. We all live on the earth. It’s not a command. Breathing and sneezing aren’t commands either; they come naturally. Truly living in the world means that we need to be integrated into the world, living “among” the world, so to speak, and being different there.


Salt and Light
Have you ever tried shining a flashlight in broad daylight? I have. There’s not much point. You can hardly even tell it’s on. But when you shine it in total darkness? Whoa. It’s got a lot of power. It changes the atmosphere and can light up the darkest corners.

So what’s the point? You have to be surrounded on all sides by darkness to shine.

We are called to be the salt and light of this world. That is a command. If you’re always surrounded by light, how do you expect to fully fulfill that command? If a bunch of flashlights got together and all shone, what a great gathering that would be. There’d be light for miles around. All the flashlights would learn better ways to shine from various other flashlights, totally ignoring where the reach of the light ended.

Well, I’ve got news for you. Darkness doesn’t move. The only way for light to reach the darkness is for the light to move. We can’t expect the darkness to come to us.

So what’s the point we’re missing? It’s that we can’t hide in our little Christian corners and hope someone comes along and notices that we’re different! That’s not how it works, nor is that how God intended for it to be. Even Jesus mingled with the sinners and the outcasts. He healed those who didn’t deserve to be healed and touched those who weren’t worthy to be touched. Guess what happened? They believed in him! Jesus didn’t spend all His time with His disciples, ignoring the sinners who were desperately trying just to be near him. He went to them. His disciples? Well, I guess you could say they were there for moral and spiritual support. He said it Himself that He didn’t come here for us. He came for the sinners.

Jesus said that we are constantly to strive to be more like Him. So our focus should also switch to the desperate people all around us who may not even know that hope exists. We know what the hope is, but what are we doing about it? Hanging out with fellow Christians, so that we can be edified and encouraged and so that the world won’t be a bad influence over us.

First of all, the words “we”, “me”, and “I” need to be removed from the equation. This is not about us. This is about God, and His primary goal is to bring more people into His kingdom. If we’re going to be like God, then His priorities have got to become ours.

Secondly, while it is important to hang out with other Christians, only keeping the company of Christians isn’t going to win any more followers. If they’re saved, they’re saved, and that’s awesome, but it’s time to give those who are not saved at least an equal amount of our time. If everything we’re doing is with Christians or with Christian organizations, and we never allow ourselves to get “out there” and live a bit radically, we’re not truly in the world. Break out of the exclusive homeschool group and youth group crowd. Make other friends in other circles. Participate in organized or totally unorganized outreaches.

Thirdly, nowhere in the Bible will you find the idea of “stay away from the world lest it influence you to sin”. That would contradict (key verse reference), and the Bible never contradicts itself. However, you will find warnings about what’s out there and exhortations to be on your guard; that’s all over the place. All of us need to constantly be on our guard, but that’s different than avoiding the world altogether. To be in the world and stay rock solid, you’ve got have a firm foundation, know what you believe in, and be able to make the right decisions.

Intro to the Real World
Several years back, I was reading a small Christian magazine. I don’t remember its topic, but one article said that it’s unwise to keep your kids sheltered all their lives, and then get a sudden jolt into the “real world”. It suggested that around age 12, you begin to let them “out” a little – by signing them up for quilting or perhaps music classes.

Now, how much exposure to the real world do you expect your kids to get from quilting or music classes? That’s not the real world. That’s not the answer to being in the world. The real world is messed up and broken. People all around us are filling their holes with junk, only to find that they’re poking more holes. There’s only one thing that can fill every hole for good, and we know what it is. We have the chance to stand out, but we’re not even in. We’re the light, yet we refuse to go out into the darkness.

Those of us who claim to follow Christ should not be blending in with the Christian crowd. We should be standing out, being different, doing radical, crazy things for God simply because we love Him. We should be shining.

I have one more thought. It’s a quote from the book Jesus Freaks by DC Talk: “You may never have to face the decision of whether or not to die for your faith, but every day you face the decision of whether or not you will live for it.”

Can you truly say you’re shining into the darkness? Venture out farther than you’ve been before. Unless we shine, the light won’t be reaching any farther than it is now. It’s time to make the decision. Are you going to live for what you say you believe? Or are you going to keep it all to yourself?

What would Jesus do?

More than Ordinary

No one of our age has ever taken power...which is why we're too young to realize that certain things are impossible. So we will do them anyway. {amazing grace}

William Wilberforce was an ordinary man. Born in 1759, he became an independent member of Parliament for Yorkshire in 1784 and was converted to Christianity a year later. In 1787, he met Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More, Granville Sharp, and others who convinced him to take on the cause of abolition. From then on, he worked tirelessly for years to abolish the slave trade throughout the British Empire, finally resulting in the Slave Trade Act 1807. He also "tranformed the hearts and minds of his countrymen on education, health care and prison reform to accomplish his second great dream - making a better world."

Ordinary, yes. But God used him to do extraordinary things - no one would argue that abolishing the slave trade was an ordinary task - and his life became more than ordinary.

I'm an ordinary person. I'm a human with human emotions and human desires, limited human knowledge and judgement, a limited human mind. God created me that way. He created everyone that way. We're all human, and we all fail and sin like humans.

William Wilberforce was no different. David, a man after God's own heart, was no different. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was no different. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was no different. But though each of them was ordinary, each of their lives was more than ordinary. Why? Because God assigned them an extraordinary task to accomplish. And then He empowered them with the strength they needed to accomplish it.

God placed each of them and each of us where they were and where we are for such a time as this - whatever "this" means for each person. He created us with our lifespan, our life works, our life story, our life accomplishments in mind. He knew before He created time what we were going to do and why we were on this earth at the time that we are. He has placed you and I right here, right now, for a reason, a perfect reason, and all of us are just a fraction of His bigger plan. Even though at times it doesn't seem like it, He always knows what He's doing.

So I'm ordinary. But God can make me more than ordinary. He can empower me to do bigger things than I ever imagined were possible. He has incredible plans for my life, and He can take the ordinary-ness of my life and twist it and turn it upside-down until I shine with extraordinary-ness. He can make my little plans for my life explode until they make an unstoppable difference in the world.

So I am unstoppably ordinary. I am an ordinary person whom God can make much, much more than ordinary. But a responsibility for me comes along with that. God can bless me all He wants, but if I just sit back and wait for it, I will get nowhere. Blessing, just like salvation, is a two-way conversation: He offers, and I accept.

I'll wait for the offer. And then I will accept. I want to be more than ordinary.

I want to be unstoppable. God is. If He's in me, than I can be too. It's time to move some mountains.