Customizing Christianity

“I believe in God. I believe the Bible is a good book. And then I believe whatever I want.” And this is how Christian pollster George Barna describes the  American religious ethic in his latest book “Futurecast.”  From 1991 to the present, the percentage of self-proclaimed, born-again Christians who are “unchurched” has gone from 24% to a whopping 37%. One woman who still calls herself a Christian tells how she drifted away from a mainline Protestant church and found peace in the Baha’i tradition along with Native American healing practices.

The bottom line is captured in Barna’s statement, “America is headed for 310 million people with 310 million religions”—customizing Christianity to fit our personal needs. It appears that the state of Christianity in America is not unlike that of Israel during the time of the judges. “In those days there was no king in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). Or worse, like Israel’s response to Jeremiah’s cry for repentance: "Don't waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to…" (18:12). Can such an attitude come from a true believer? Let the Bible speak for itself.

“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused… Even though there is a path before each person that seems right [the way of a fool seems right to him], it ends in death” (Romans 1:21; Proverbs 12:15; 14:12).

Backseat Drivers

Greyhound Bus Company used to have a slogan "Go Greyhound—and leave the driving to us." Now of course their slogan meant that you could sit back and enjoy having someone else drive. I am quite sure their slogan was not an indirect way of asking you not to interfere with the drivers, as if to say “please leave us alone while we’re driving!”

But a lot of people approach God this way. Instead of being able to relax and enjoy His driving, they become very expert ‘back-seat’ drivers. I think the most annoying thing about a backseat driver is his/her assumption that you, the driver, don’t know what you are doing. How insulting! So why do we presume to tell God how to direct our lives? ‘But I would never do that,’ you say. Well, may I suggest that whenever you complain about one of God's “turns,” you are back-seat driving.

During a time when Israel refused to follow the Lord, the prophet Isaiah spoke for God: “I am patiently waiting for you to return (let me back in the diver's seat), and when you do, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, turn to the right or to the left” (Is. 30:18, 21 author’s translation). They were definitely going the wrong way on a one-way street, and God was trying to turn them around. But they paid no attention; and got into a terrible accident (they drove right into their enemy's camp and were slaughtered!). Maybe God’s word to us is not to unlike the Greyhound Bus Company slogan: “leave the driving to Me.”

Do We Look Like a Pile of Dry Bones?

Last month, I preached a sermon on Ezekiel 37—the passage where a huge pile of dry bones comes to life (if you’re not familiar with it, you must read it). Through the prophet, God breathes into the bones, quickening them to life—a picture of the energizing power of the Holy Spirit flowing from limb to limb, resulting in a huge army of God: the Church.

This brings to mind Paul’s description of the Body of Christ: “From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:16, NIV). Paul says we are a body, a living organism, made up of individual bones, sinews, joints.

Sometimes it’s hard to be ‘fitted’ to someone else. We are quite sure it won’t work. But a proper fit will require each member, or bone, to be broken of his own rights and his own way to fit into God’s plan, or His way—otherwise we will look like a pile of dry bones. "Lord, please break me of my own way so that I can be properly fitted to those around me."

You May be Left-Handed, but You Better Be Right-Footed!

When I was a teen-ager, I had to go to an orthodontist to get my teeth straightened. Of Greek origin, the word ‘ortho’ means “straight,” or “right.” There was something wrong with my teeth—the braces made them “right.” Orthopedic shoes are made for people who may have something wrong with their feet; the shoes make their feet “right.”

The old English word “upright” is the Greek word “orthopodeo” combining the words “straight” or “right” with the word “foot.” The Bible commands us to be upright, which means, quite literally, “right-footed.” While the word “upright” is used only once in the New Testament (Gal. 2:14), it is used many times in the Old. God commends Job as a perfect and upright man: he was rightly related to God. Significantly, after King David took a wrong moral turn in his life, he asked God to “renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). Solomon uses the word for a person on a journey: “if you acknowledge the Lord in all your ways, the Lord will make your path straight [right] (Prov. 3:6). In other words, you won’t get lost—you will always be going the right way.

So, if you want to follow Jesus, you must be ‘right-footed.’ And if you are consistently right-footed, God will even turn your right foot into a “hinds” foot. (The hind is a female deer that is able to move easily across rocky terrain without losing its footing.) “He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high places” (Ps. 18:33). Don’t you wish being upright was as easy as wearing orthopedic shoes!? You may be tired of tripping over your left feet, but God is more than able to keep you from stumbling (Jude 24 NLT) and lead you on the right path (Ps. 16:11).