Holy Discontent

“The person who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to discover places no one has ever been before.
Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties. For peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate things about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along.
You have two choices in life: You can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must be what no one else but you can be.”

As I was at a church planting meeting one of these days, I heard a testimony of someone that has problems with some stuff that happens with the church. That really caught my attention, because I have been a big critic of the mainstream religion nowadays.

Lately I have been wondering why I am so critical about the church. My wife also has been questioning this more and more, and I cannot explain it to her. It is hard for me to explain it to anyone, because it is hard for me to understand what the problem is.

During these past 3 weeks I have even questioned my Christianity. The deal is this: I don’t like to see the wrong in the church and the body of Christ all the time; it is time consuming, and not very well appreciated. I feel like an outcast sometimes, and trust me, that is not a very good feeling. I have prayed many times asking God to allow me to conform to the patterns of what our Christianity became. I would like to be able to just go to any kind of church and appreciate it like most people seems to. I’ve asked God many times to make me blind to all the wrong and mistakes that the church does. The interesting thing is that He is not blinding me or allowing me to conform, but I am becoming more and more edgy. So, I came with 2 options: all this is either a God given thing, or I am not a Christian and am just trying to create dissent in the body of Christ. The problem with this is that I believe with all my heart that I am a Christian.

So if I rule out that I am not a real Christian that means that God is allowing me to go through this. Talking to a friend of mine, he told me that I do not babble against the church with disdain, but every time that I say something, he sees and feel my love towards the church. He told me that I am going through something called HOLLY DISCONTENT. I laughed out loud when I heard that, but the more I thought, the more I realized that he was right. I am discontent with what I see, and God is allowing me to see all this.

This HOLLY DISCONTENT is like a curse though, because it makes me feel like a Mac computer: Mac Internet browser, the Safari, is not compatible with a lot of web applications. You can’t find Mac software and components anywhere you go. Very few people understand how to run a Mac, so when you have questions, the answers are very limited.

But I promise that for now on I will be content with my HOLLY DISCONTENT. I don’t know where this will take me, and pray for God to lead me. I believe that God has something stored for me; otherwise He would not allow me to go through this.
What and why is my HOLLY DISCONTENT? The church is not effective. The conventions (SBC, BGCT, CBF and others) are not effective. My fellow Christians are not effective. The messages preached from the pulpit are not effective. Our discipleship is not effective. Our church programs are not effective. Our Christian events are not effective. Our tithe is going to non-effective ministries. Our leaders are not effective.

We are failing in all aspects.
Let’s use evangelism as an example: when was the last time that you shared Jesus with someone? When was the last time that you lead someone to Christ? When was the last time that you sacrificed some leisure time to go visit and tend to the poor? When was the last time that you passed a track to the supermarket clerk? When was the last time that you visited all the neighbors of your street, and gave them some cookies or something like that?

What is the point of spending enormous amounts of time in bible studies, leadership meetings and ministerial positions if none of the above was part of your life on the past week, month or year?

Many pastors, board members, elders, conventions directors and staff are on the same boat. They only minister inside their box, and sometimes even use the excuse that each one of us have a gift, and “his gift is to be behind the desk making the plans or coordinating.”

My boss told me these days that I have the gift of evangelism, because I lead 80% of the girls of our ministry to Christ. I told her that I don’t have the gift of evangelism. I really don’t. What I have is the burden for the unsaved, for the lost, and I somehow understand that I must share the gospel; I must talk to others about Christ. Am I scared of the ridicule? You bet! Am I scared of being ostracized? You bet! Do I feel bad to have a door shut on my face? Yes, I do! But I have to share about Christ. Christ is the only way, and if we Christians don’t share, who will?

Only 2% of Christians share their faith. Are you one of them?

Read this article: http://www.afajournal.org/2005/march/3.05cameron.asp

That was only evangelism; there are many other failing that we Christians are doing. To fail is not the problem; the problem is the blindness that we are on the right path, when we are not.

I spent 5 years on a Bible College. I experienced grace over there, but I was never taught in deep the significance of grace in a person’s life. Seminaries and bible colleges continue with that old and defeated theory that “we are sinners saved by grace”, or that we have a “sinner nature”. How can I have a sinner nature if I have the nature of Christ and the Holy One lives in me? How can I be a sinner and a saint at the same time? I am not a sinner, I am a saint. Why is this so hard to hear, and even sound a sacrilege? Because we have been mistaught for decades, our theology is poorly divided into sacred and mundane, and we are scared of talking about the freedom, the total freedom that a Christian have in Christ. Instead of teaching victory in our churches, we are teaching defeat.

I am sick and tired of seeing new born Christians being taught a theology of defeat. I am sick and tired of seeing our leaders fighting over doctrines, when both of them practice a defeated theology. I am sick and tired of the divisions in the body of Christ; not just the conventions divisions, but the racial divisions, the denominations divisions and the economic divisions. First Hispanic Church, First African American Church, First Brazilian Church, First Korean Church, and others are separatists, segregationists’ churches. The body of Christ is not united. BGCT members don’t like to even hang out with SBC members.

I will not conform to the patterns of this world. My mission in earth is way bigger than this circus that is happening right now.

And then I keep receiving blogs, journals and other Christian infomercials about how this or that ministry is achieving well their goals.

"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as Skubala ! - so that I may have Christ"

S.H.I.T.

You need to be warned that this post contains a bad word. But it does so only because the Bible itself contains a bad word. You probably don't know it either, because you've been protected from knowing it.

ἀλλὰ μενοῦνγε καὶ ἡγοῦμαι πάντα ζημίαν εἶναι διὰ τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς γνώσεως Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου μου δι' ὃν τὰ πάντα ἐζημιώθην καὶ ἡγοῦμαι σκύβαλα ἵνα Χριστὸν κερδήσω



The word you want to keep your eye on is "σκύβαλα"--pronounced "skubala." Here's a literal translation of the verse.



"But indeed I also consider everything to be loss on account of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I forfeited all things; and I consider them shit so that I may gain Christ..." (Philippians 3:8)



Yes, you heard me right. Skubala means shit. Not only does it literally mean shit--i.e., human excrement--but it also has the same connotation. It is a vulgar word. Paul would not have said it in mixed company unless he expected a reaction.

It's difficult to find Christian sources that discuss skubala, but its use in ancient writings outside of the Bible makes clear that it was considered very impolite. The leading modern Greek lexicon--BDAG, it's called--glosses skubala as "refuse," "garbage," "human excrement," "crud," and "crap"--very strong words for this Christian scholarly book.

So the original text of the sacred Scripture contains a so called "dirty word". I don't know about you, but I felt a profound sense of relief when I discovered this.

English translations don't like this word. They take the edge off it.

King James: ...Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ...

New American Standard: "...Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ..."

New English Translation: "...Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things– indeed, I regard them as dung! – that I may gain Christ... (I suppose the exclamation point is there to make it a bit "edgier.")

Revised Standard: "...Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ..."



It's interesting that all these translations "soften up" the original vulgarity. What does that say about the people who make and buy Bibles? What does it mean when the Bible is more profane than we are?

Why Do We Sanitize the Bible?

I'm betting there are two sorts of people reading this post. One sort of person will be asking, "Why have the translators been sanitizing the Bible? If Paul said it, surely it's not our business to change it." The other sort of person will ask, "Why are you writing about this? Why air this dirty laundry? How is this discussion helpful to Christianity?"

Interestingly, the answer to both these questions lies in Philippians 3 itself. Paul uses this naughty word for a reason. Look at what Paul is saying here (Phil 3:4b-9, NET translation).



"If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things– indeed, I regard them as dung! (shit) – that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ's faithfulness–a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ's faithfulness."



So what's the connection between the fact that Paul uses a dirty word and the fact we purge it from our translations? The connection is legalism.

How Good is Good Enough?

Legalism is the pretense that some human beings are nice and others are naughty: that there is a standard of "normal" behavior that defines what sort of person is "decent" and what sort is a scumbag. The Philippians were starting to buy into this idea, and Paul wrote to them to wake them up. He says, in effect, "Don't bother trying to be 'decent': I've already tried it. I was as 'normal' and 'decent' as you can get and I was still a scumbag. If you want to be righteous, it's going to take a whole lot more than politeness and normalcy. It's going to take a divine intervention." And to make sure they get the point, as well as to illustrate his contempt for human standards of normalcy, Paul drops the s-bomb.

In his discussion of legalism, Paul is saying what Jesus himself said again and again. Here are some of the ways Jesus said it.

"Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matthew 23:27-28)

"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27-28)

"On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!'" (Matthew 7:22-23)



Interestingly, in the Old Testament, Isaiah uses another "vulgar" image when talking about this same topic:



"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight." (Isaiah 64:6)



In other words, what human beings perceive as upstanding behavior, God perceives as a soiled tampon. Thanks for that image, Isaiah.

Insiders and Outsiders

We only let G-rated people into our churches. In church, a person who smokes, or cusses, or reeks of liquor, or dresses seductively is viewed as suspect, inferior, abnormal, an outsider. You're only allowed into the church body/family/club/clique if your shirts are starched and your smile is white and your speech is inoffensive.

It wasn't always this way. Jesus himself hung out with "sinners"--including tax collectors, drunks, and prostitutes--to such a great degree that the decent "church people" of his day accused him of being a debauched party animal (Luke 7:34). The early church was a motley crew, not the clean middle-class stereotype of modern evangelical churches.

What changed? One of the things that changed is the reason why we go to church. Now we go to "connect with people like ourselves," to "form community," to "fellowship" and receive "support." We go so that our children will be in a loving, safe setting where they can learn about God and family values. Well, these are noble goals, but what do they have to do with Jesus hanging on a bloody cross? Did Jesus hang on a bloody cross to provide us with a clean, safe, child-friendly mall-like clubhouse where we can hold banal conversations with like-minded family-values-oriented people? Or did he hang on a bloody cross to utterly transform our shitty lives? And if it is the latter, who do you think "gets" Jesus more: the clean, polite middle-class people or the dirty, vulgar funky-class people? He said: "Those who are healthy don't need a physician, but those who are sick do. Go and learn what this saying means: 'I want mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12)



So the Bible says "shit" and "soiled tampon" because that's what the Bible thinks of how good we are. But our translation says "dung" and "filthy rags" because Christians are still trying to whitewash the truth.

Invested in Sin

Well, how's this strategy working out for us? We evangelicals are faring pretty well, right? I mean, maybe we don't uphold God's crazy-high standard of moral behavior, but we sure do a lot better than the normal human standard, right?

Oh sure. That's why our divorce rate is no better than the national average. That's why 50% of all Christian men admit to being addicted to pornography--admit to being addicted. Twenty percent of Christian women do too.

And that's why Ted Haggard's recent confession does not surprise me in the. Evangelicalism has become a religion of appearances. We've created a subculture of politeness and "good morals" instead of humble worship and radical obedience to God. We churn money and votes through our glistening mega churches, but have lost touch with our own deep brokenness. Our talk is all about "conversion" (i.e. selling club memberships) rather than the discipleship (transformation and obedience) that Jesus offers and commands. Why should I be surprised when the king of the religion of appearances turns out to be not as he appears?

There's an interesting article on the National Association of Evangelicals' response to the Ted Haggard scandal. In it, Rev. Leith Anderson, a megachurch pastor who is temporarily replacing Haggard as NAE director, says, "(Most people) will understand that if there are 45,000 churches (affiliated with NAE), that 44,999 of them have leaders that did not misbehave and that one person misbehaved and that that is an anomaly."

So "misbehavior" is an anomaly? See, that's funny, 'cause I thought the Bible said everyone misbehaves; something like: "There is no one who does good, not even one." Is "misbehavior" different from "sin," in Rev. Anderson's view? Is he suggesting that misbehavior is gross, whereas sin is mild and excusable? Or is he saying that "misbehavior" is when sin becomes embarrassingly public, whereas mere "sin" is kept pleasantly private?

It's too bad that a religion that names itself after Christ, that purports to offer his Good News to the world, still wants to deny the very reason he went to the cross. People are broken. Not some people: all people. So which is worse: to be broken in a way everyone can see, or to be broken in a way that you can keep secret--even from yourself? Think about it. To understand the answer to that question is to begin to understand the Sermon the Mount. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." "Blessed are those who weep and mourn." "I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it." "I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The Bible doesn't offer "decency" as an option. Either you're mired in sin, or you are justified. The Bible neither denies sin nor revels in it. It tells the truth about our grotesque brokenness, and then offers a supernatural solution. Isn't that the gospel we are so eager to spread? Then why are we still running from it?

Jesus ' story of the two worshipers sums it all up (Luke 18:10-14).

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.' The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!' I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee."



Proverbs 25:11 says "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." God is not one to make mistakes in choosing and using words. He inspired Paul to use a certain word, which in fact was and is an expletive.

So then, let's stop with the hypocrisy of our Christian tradition and read the verse translated right.



"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as shit! - so that I may have Christ"


Due to the fact that there are several translations of the bible, we can also translate that verse like this:



"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as bullshit ! - so that I may have Christ"