the sin scale

April 28, 2004

the sin scale. an almost universal, man-made rating scale used to measure the severity of sin, which results in the differentiation of sin into different categories (ex. bad, worse, worst). the problem lies in the fact that we tend to live by this sin scale, whether we're conscious of it or not. and what's worse, is that we live by this man made scale as if it had some strong validity to it, perhaps biblical, when in actuality it has no bearing to God at all. God does not have a sin scale. He does not rank sin and judge it differently if it's a "bad" one or the "worst" one. sin is all the same to Him. it's sin!

where did the sin scale come from? perhaps from the universal (and i say this loosely) ideology of moral values that we, as the human race, tend to have. committing murder is severe, but stealing isn't so bad. but, when stealing is compared with lying, then it takes a turn for the worse. stealing is much worse than lying. there are millions and millions of rules, far too many to list here. and here's the problem. these rules make their ways into the way we regard sin.

picture the following two scenarios, and allow yourself to respond freely. make note of your gut feeling.

scenario a
you meet a new Christian friend at church and get to talking. you hit it off, and you believe this person to be a godly person. the next week, you're talking to them, and they start cussing a bit, as part of their everyday language. how would you feel about them? what would you think?

scenario b
you meet a new Christian friend at church and get to talking. you hit it off, and you believe this person to be a godly person. the next week, you're talking to them, and realize they're lying. how would you feel about them? what would you think?

would you treat the person in scenario a differently from scenario b? maybe, maybe not. i would think most people would lean toward the latter. but, would you THINK about the person in scenario a differently from scenario b, even for the slightest of seconds? if you're honest, i think you would. because i have, and i'm like any other person on planet earth. even if for a split-second you thought it, what has happened is that you've applied the sin scale to them AND you've judged them. "oh, why kind of Christian are they? they cuss!" would probably be a response you've heard before. but how often do you hear "oh, what kind of Christian are they? they lie!"? not as often. we label swearing worse than lying. and so, we judge a person by this scale as if this scale had some kind of authority. matthew 7: 3-4 [NIV], says "why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? how can you say to your brother, 'let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye". if, even for a fleeting moment, we have thought differently of these two people, we have fallen subject to the content of this verse. and while we may think that the problem is on their shoulders, it lies more on our own. who are we to pass judgment of any kind?

the reason why i bring this up, and why i find this phenomena so interesting, is that our perspective of Christianity can be through the lens of culture, the lens of the world. there is nothing inherently wrong with that, because Christianity should be seen through the lens of culture/the world to a certain degree (otherwise it would become disconnected and disjointed). however, it can have the complete opposite effect, and result in a skewed or even distorted perspective of Christianity, a very dangerous situation.

we need to take a radical new look at what we do, and the things we think, believe and say. it's hard to step back and have a purely objective view of things, without distortion, because whether you like it or not, we live in the world. it's hard to see things outside the world when you are in it (ex. the matrix). but it's possible. and that's the kind of live we are called to live: to live in the world, but not of it.

side note: there are of course some Biblical merits to some sins being greater than others (imo, i believe it to be worded that way to warn us, because there are some sins that have greater consequences than others), but that's not the point of this entry.

obese Christians

April 14, 2004

an obese Christian is one who attends all kinds of Christian events, such as fellowship outings, church events and activities, praise and worship nights, evangelical meetings, parachurch events and Sunday morning worships. each event serves their spiritual appetite, often resulting in over indulgence and finally spiritual obesity.

obese Christians are like squirrels preparing for the winter. they scurrying about from tree to tree preparing (or sometimes hoarding) acorns for the winter. while sometimes self-indulgent (squirrels may take more than they need), these squirrels have a purpose for their actions. and so do Christians. these Christian events help to strengthen and deepen our faith. and while seemingly innocent and entirely positive, there are dangers. severe dangers at that.

by constantly attending these type of events, there can be a potential that it [our faith] ends there. we forget that our purpose here is to not gather in holy huddles with other believers, but to share the greatness of the Gospel with others who have not heard or seen it. we forget that the purpose of the church is NOT for the members, but for the world. Jesus didn't come to this earth to heal the healthy, but the sick. for what reason does a healthy person need a doctor for? i think a lot of churches struggle with this. we make excuses about needing to solidify our own faith before sharing it with others. we make excuses about first developing our own community before opening it to others. we make excuses about not having enough resources, manpower, or experiences to share our faith with others. and so quite often, what ends up happening is that we all sit on our hands and do nothing. we end up becoming obese in our spirituality. and to put it bluntly, we hoard it to ourselves.

and to be quite honest, the extent by which we hoard is appalling. look at the enormous wealth of Christian material is available to us as resources. just walk into your local Christian bookstore, and you'll be utterly amazed at how many products they carry. it's ridiculous. don't get me wrong. i don't think we should go to an extreme like completely abolishing products like books, cds, etc. there are places for these types of resources. but, at the same time, if we poured the same amount of resources that we spend on ourselves, into things like missions, developing third world countries, sponsoring children, imagine the impact and difference we would make for the glory of God!

the sad reality, however, is that we rarely do that and that includes our churches. most churches reserve about 10% of their financial resources to missions. the rest of the 90% goes towards expenses like salaries, utilities, mortgages, etc. wouldn't it be incredible if that ratio was reversed? maybe i'm living in a fantasy world, but if the early church could do it, why can't we? it certainly is a model to follow, or at least aim for. the early church gave to the communities and those in need. acts 4:32-35 records that the early church believers considered their possessions to be common property with each other. there was not one needy person among them. can we say the same thing about our churches? about ourselves?

if we continually sit on our hands, what are we doing? if we love God, we love our brothers and sisters (1 john 4:21). it's as simple as that. and love, friends, is not passive. it is active. so then, what can we do? as individuals, we can actively love those around us, by praying for them, spending time with them, getting to know them, being there for them, and sharing Christ with them through the words we say, and more importantly through the things we do. as a Christian community, we can actively serve the community through a variety of things (simple things include free car washes and food). one model that we can follow is the body of believers in abbostford, british columbia. the local churches in abbostford have the vision of sharing the love of God within their city, together, as one body (see www.loveabbostford.com). what they are doing there is incredible and very encouraging.

we need to start becoming involved in our communities and knowing the issues that exist with them. if the church is not aware of these very present social issues, there is a problem. we are called to be the salt and light of the earth (matthew 5:13-16). but we must remember, that light is only apparent in darkness, not in the present of other light. the church should be a beacon of light to the world. but how can it be a beacon of light, if it doesn't know where to shine (or what to shine on)? the sad reality is the majority of local churches aren't reaching local communities because the focus is still mostly internal. think about the local churches in your city. which of them are really making a difference in your city? which of them are making the 'headlines' for their impact in the city?

so often it isn't Christian churches or groups making the headlines for their service to their local communities. it's other religions, or other groups. what does that say about them? about us?

i must admit though, as a Christian living in sub-urban richmond hill, i am very disconnected with the issues like homelessness, drug use, violence in my community and the GTA. and to be honest, i don't care much about them. it's not that i don't want to care, but a large part of the reason why i don't care is because of my ignorance. because i simply don't know what's going on around me. i'm so focused on myself, that i am oblivious to what's around me. i fall into the same sort of dangers that i've been writing about.

the second danger about spiritual obesity is that there is also a potential for us to hoard these experiences to ourselves and allow it to become me-centric. it becomes all about us, what we feel, our own personal encounter with God, our thoughts, when the whole point of these experiences is to point us towards Him, a Him-centric mentality.

sometimes i think we focus on so much on the 'building' part of ourselves that we forget just how much we can grow in serving. and, ironically, serving is probably the BEST way for us to grow, because we aren't simply caught up in theological discussions and debates, but instead, the things we know make the long journey down to our hearts. and that, is much more valuable. if we ever practiced the things we knew in our minds in our daily lives, the world would be a different place.

so what next? what can we do? we can start opening our eyes to the issues and people around us and taking our focus off ourselves. we can start serving the community after we've understood their needs. we can start praying for our communities. we can start actively living out our faith in everything that we do, for the purpose of glorifying and magnifying God in all things.

jehovah-jireh

April 9, 2004

during my mission trip in mexico last summer, God called me to join a summer tour with CTI. in my heart of hearts, though i had my share of doubts about financing and other things, i knew that God would sort it all out for me. but as time passed, my fickle heart began to feel and believe otherwise. i worried about how i was going to raise the funding and i worried even more about my summer internship. where was i going to do it? when was i going to do it?

as time drew closer to april, i became more worried. april was in fact, the only month that i could do my internship because i planned to do summer school in may-june and july-august was of course, my missions trip. by february, i decided that i had to take things into my own hands. i couldn't wait for my program to give us the company contact because it would be too late. so i began my process of looking for a company that i wanted to intern at.

a company called burnkit (www.burnkit.com) immediately came to my mind, but i dismissed it as quickly as it came. the reason being was because the company was located in vancouver. so i called another company that i was interested in that was located in london, ontario, but they weren't accepting any interns. so i was stuck. i couldn't think of any other company that i wanted to work for, other than burnkit.

i've always wanted to go to vancouver. i've heard that it's a beautiful place to be. eric loved vancouver. he told me that if i ever went, i would never want to return to toronto. so, a big motivation aside from getting an internship, was for me to find out exactly why he loved it so much. however, there were more factors for me that were on my mind. where would i stay? how would i get around the city? would i survive on my own for 3 weeks in a city that i've never been to and a city where i didn't know anyone?

i decided to give burnkit a call anyways, just to see what would happen. the guy told me they never had an intern before, but told me to send him my work regardless; so i did. a week later, he e-mailed me back and told me that they really liked my work and wanted to offer me an internship position, providing that his partner agreed (he was on vacation at the time). i was stoked. but at the same time, really worried that if i did get the internship, i wouldn't have anywhere to live.

another week passed. i got an e-mail on a wednesday afternoon saying that i was accepted as an intern, so i called the creative director up to finalize the details. that night, i told my parents that we needed to find me a place to live, so we brainstormed people that they knew. thursday morning, my dad told me to book my plane ticket to vancouver asap, so i did. my mom told me that she had a travel agent and that i should go through her to get the ticket. so i did. in passing, my mom asked if she knew anyone who lived in vancouver. she did. in fact, she knew a lady that owned a townhouse and that there was a possibility that she could lend it to us. and it JUST so happened that she was having lunch with that lady that same day. so she told us she would ask her and get back to us. it turned out that we could rent the townhouse from her for the three weeks in april. amazing. in ONE day, i went from not having an internship whatsoever, to an internship with a company i really liked, AND a place to stay to boot.

but, i was also a bit worried about my living on my own for three weeks, especially because i'd be in a whole other province and because i'd never lived on my own before. i half-joked with my mom that she should come with me to help me settle in, but in actuality, it wasn't really possible. she had a lot of work to do, and we didn't think my dad would let her go. so the idea faded away. a few days later, my dad approached my mom with the SAME idea that we had! we decided that she would come to vancouver with me for a little more than a week, and then fly back to toronto.

i also learned that there were people i could go to if i needed anything. tim's brother, josh was there. auntie rita's brother was there. auntie annie (my mom's best friend) had some really good friends who would be there as well.

incredible. simply incredible. all of these events were completely orchestrated by God, because there's no way it could have happened otherwise. God is faithful. He called me to a mission trip this summer and He is showing me how He?s paving the way for it all to happen. He is Jehovah-Jireh, the great Provider. though I still have a long way to go in raising funds, and though my left hand still suffers from RSI (repetitive strain injury), i am fully confident that He will continue to provide everything that I need to magnify Him.

i'm reminded of philippians 1:6, "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." wherever or whatever God calls you to do, no matter how many obstacles are in your way, or how much difficulty you encounter, know that He will carry it through till completion. know that He is painting on a canvas as large as the universe, and that our lives are knit into a small piece of that canvas.