...in God's likeness...

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness... Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?" ~ James 3: 9,12

One of my favorite books in the Bible is the book of James. I am a very practical, common-sense kind of person. I don't do well with abstract thoughts and I often miss symbolism. But James is about as practical and easy to understand as it gets. Here is a man writing to Christians who, presumably, have put true faith in Christ. His letter is a "how to" guide for Christian living. It is a "how to" guide, that in my humble opinion, needs to be taken out, dusted off, and re-read by some of my modern day Christian brethren. 

I saw on social media recently a call to help support a Christian couple who own a store of some sort that are currently facing a pretty steep fine for their refusal to serve a lesbian who came into their store. This request went so far as to call the owners of this store "persecuted." (I looked up the definition of persecuted to see how accurate that descriptor was. The definition said "to pursue with harassing or oppressive treatment, especially because of religious or political beliefs, ethnic or racial origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation." Hmmmm....)

Anyhow, when I saw this story and some of the comments on it - from PEOPLE OF FAITH - I was pretty angry (but I'm Unoffendable now thanks to Brant Hansen, so it didn't last long) and then I was terribly sad.

My initial anger was at the thought that a fellow follower of Christ, who, by nature of being Christian, is shown unimaginable grace and mercy every day, would be so quick to think refusing to serve a person based on outward appearance is God-honoring. (Do you see the irony in that sentence? A Christian is refusing to serve..... That's our whole raison d'etre!!)

After my anger subsided, my emotion turned to sadness. I have a wonderful relative who happens to be gay. I pictured that person going into a store and being refused whatever it was he wanted to buy because the person who stood on the other side of the counter was passing judgement on him. I imagined how humiliating that would be for him and I wanted to cry. I also wondered why he would ever want to know my God (assuming, of course, that he doesn't - but how do I know? Maybe he knows Him better than I do!) based on the "loving" reception he just received on God's behalf.

This brings me back to my favorite book, James. The wisdom of this book which can so easily be grasped by anyone, is something believers should be striving to live out. One of the most instructive parts of this letter is as follows:

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. ~James 2: 8-13

Don't miss that line. Mercy triumphs over judgement. Think about what that really means. And that's what we are told to do - be merciful. And just in case we aren't sure why mercy triumphs over judgement, keep reading in James. Chapter 4 verse 12 tells us all we need to know. "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor?"

I'll tell you - we're nobody.

And yet, we are of infinite worth to God.You know who is also of infinite worth to God? My relative. And you know what? The woman who was refused service in the name of my God? She is loved infinitely more than she will ever know - especially when those of us who do know tell her she isn't. That she's broken. That she's a sinner. If I knew who she was I would have one thing to tell her - "Welcome to the club." We're all broken. We're all sinners. And that's the beautiful thing about God's grace. It's big. Really really big. And his love? Even bigger. (John 3:16) Thank you, God.

One last thought - if you read the gospels and you understand Jesus even a little bit (if you need a little help on this, read Mark 2: 13-17), then ask yourself this question: If Jesus was in the store with the woman being refused service, which side of the counter do you think he'd be standing on?

Book Review: Unoffendable by Brant Hansen

In this easy-to-read, straight forward, and often times very humorous book, Brant Hansen has written a fantastic, thought provoking work based on the idea that, as Christians, we do not have the "right" to be angry. We should be, as he puts it, Unoffendable.

For the past several years my family and I have been huge fans of Hansen.We listened to him faithfully when he was on the radio, and I still listen to him via podcast. So despite my initial skepticism at the thought of giving up my right to being angry, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. (His track record of honesty, humor and biblical knowledge made that easier for me to do!)

And in all honesty, this book was fantastic. Using stories from his own life (some of which made me laugh out loud), as well as illustrations and quotes from other authors, Hansen effectively puts forth his argument.

Using Scripture, from both the Old and New Testaments, we are shown what God has to say about anger, and who has the right to be angry (not us!) as well as how we are supposed to live our lives with gratitude, love and forgiveness, sharing God with those who may not know Him... and being blessed by the choice to live that way.

As an experiment, I decided to try being unoffendable. (By the way, it's amazing how much practice you get when you make a decision like that!) But it has actually been a pretty cool thing. Not that I have a bad temper or anything like that, but I make the choice each time that something that would normally bother me just doesn't have the power to do so. Mostly it's stupid stuff like other drivers on the road or things like that. But the other day my teenage daughter was in a "mood." She was cranky and just generally not nice to be around. Rather than play into it and argue with her (like I normally do) I just walked away and did something else. A couple hours later she came into the living room and sat next to me and apologized to me for being mean before. She knew I was reading this book, so I said to her, "Thanks for the apology, but don't worry about it. I'm unoffendable!" She smiled, put her head down on my shoulder and said,"I'm so glad you're my mom."

Thank you, Brant!