All humans are “tribal” by nature. By that I mean we all belong, voluntarily and involuntarily, to various groups. We are born male or female, of a particular race, and we in the U.S. are born “Americans” (although the Canadians, Central & South Americans may disagree with that designation!). We are born in a certain state, city, and go to certain schools that influence who we are & how we view ourselves. Then we freely choose tribes, based on who we associate with, such a politics, faith, etc. Some of these tribal associations are positive and make us better in character, and others are destruction and downright evil in their ideology (the KKK, Nazis, etc.) Some tribes are just meant for fun & entertainment (Spartans, Wolverines), although some of us take that WAY to seriously!

But, because we are all sinners (flawed in thought, character, & actions), in every generation there are those who use our tribal differences to accuse, blame, and belittle other tribes so that they can feel better and superior (or today, raise political contributions & gain power to impose their tribal views on others). Such action causes pain, division, and brokenness, and we as Christians must recognize that as sinful and refuse to participate in such behavior. In Galatians 5, Paul lists discord & dissention as common sins of our human nature that Christians are to avoid:
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV) Just like today, people in Jesus’ day identified with certain tribes & hated the others! (They just didn’t have the Internet to spew their hatred as we so easily do today!) The Jews acted self-righteously at times and hated Gentiles, calling them fit only for the fires of Hell! In Temple worship, the Jewish men worshiped in an area closest to the front, then the Jewish woman in the next area, then there was a wall and the Gentiles could worship beyond that. There was a friendly sign on that wall warning the Gentiles that if they crossed past that wall, they would be killed!

So, what happened to change that? Jesus came and offered God’s grace to bring us forgiveness and the power to change our hearts! (See my last blog on grace to understand that better) When we trust our lives fully to Jesus and accept God’s offer of forgiveness, he empowers us through the Holy Spirit to begin to forgive others even of the most hateful and destructive deeds. He makes us into new creations and give us a new heart with the ability to love more like Jesus loves us. He calls us to commit our lives to him above all else, and make the Kingdom of God our ultimate tribe!
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 (NIV) In the New Testament times, when people surrendered their tribal identities and made Jesus Lord of their lives and focused on His Kingdom as their main identity, they were able to forgive each other, love each other, and live together as brothers & sisters in Christ! The same has happened in every generation, and can happen today. The dividing walls can come down, and unity can happen. Look at how Paul describes this amazing transition in Ephesians 2:11-22:
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)– 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
God changed their hearts, which changed how they saw others, and they began to love and act like Jesus! Look at Paul’s description in Colossians 3:7-14 (NIV)
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

So, what are we to do as Christians?
We are given the task of being reconcilers in our culture!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)
On a daily basis, we can :
1) PRAY! Pray for your enemies, those who are different, and pray that God will open your heart and eyes to see others as Jesus sees them. Prayer connects us with God and he shows us how he wants to us us to be reconcilers in our sphere of the world.
2) Watch what you say and how you say it! Use the acronym THINK: Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Informative? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind?
Paul says it well in Ephesians 4:29-32:
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
3) Look for, work with, and support groups and causes that are positively working at bringing reconciliation and peace to our world, not only in the U.S., but around the world.
This is not only a cultural battle, but a spiritual one as well. Pray and take up the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus has called his people to, and let’s advance His Kingdom of peace and love!

What makes Christianity different than any other belief system, whether it be a religion, a philosophical view, or today’s popular cultural belief system often described as secular humanism? In one word, grace! Grace is the word the Bible uses to describe the amazing gift God offers us through his son, Jesus Christ. Grace entails God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness, and offers us his power to change into new people and become more and more like Jesus! The difference is, grace is ALL GOD, and NOT anything we do.

At the time I write this, we have all just heard of the sad passing of perhaps the greatest boxer ever, Muhammad Ali. After he converted to the Muslim religion, one tribute mentioned that he saw all his acts of kindness and service to others as “points” or good works that will get him into the Muslim concept of heaven. This is certainly true of Muslim teaching as well as other religions in some form or another. Even many Christians mistakenly believe our “good works” will somehow impress God and get us into heaven. As good as you and I might think we are, the Bible clearly teaches that because of sin, NONE of us are “good enough”, and our sin separates us from God and a loving relationship with him. (See my last blog for the problem with sin.)

BUT, the good news is that God loves us so much that he came in the form of his son Jesus to die for our sins, taking our punishment instead of us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:6-8 (NIV)
In other words, it is all God’s doing! Paul says in Ephesians 2:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. -Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

So,what’s so amazing about grace? It frees us from guilt and failure! God is saying to us, “Hey,I know you are a screw-up sometimes (or maybe most of the time) because of sin. I know you say & do things you don’t want to, and can’t seem to change even when you try your hardest. Stop trying! I love you, I forgive you, and if you accept this gift of grace through my Son Jesus, I will give you my Spirit to live inside you and give the power to become a whole new person, the one I created you to be, the one you desire to be deep down in your soul!” Find that hard to believe? Look again at Ephesians 2:10, which was included above as well : 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Notice the sequence: God saves us by grace, not by anything we can do for ourselves! THEN, he re-creates us into brand new people! We re his workmanship (masterpiece), created to do good things he has planned for us! He gives us his own power to change, to begin to think and act like Jesus did. Now, we do good deeds, not to get into heaven, but because we are new sons & daughters in his Kingdom forever! The good works are the affirming thoughts & actions God gives us to share with others, so that they can hear about God’s love and grace and have the opportunity to accept God’s amazing, life-changing offer as well!

No matter what your past, God’s grace allows you to let go of your past and begin, today, to live and think like Jesus. One of my favorite quotes is from Max Lucado, who said, “God loves you just as you are. But he loves you too much to let you stay that way. He wants you to become just like Jesus”. That’s grace! If you are a baby-boomer like me, it’s easy to live with regrets over past failures. We regret not being a better parent, or spouse, or not doing well at work, or messing up important relationships. Younger folks may regret not taking classes seriously in school, or taking the wrong major, or dating the wrong people, etc. Grace says “Let it go! Let God will forgive your past, and give you a fresh start in life under his control and power.”

We used to have a sign taped to our refrigerator that said “God’s part I cannot do; my part He will not do”. Grace is God’s part: he’s already done all the hard stuff for us on the cross, and offers us forgiveness & power to live a new life. Our part is to accept his offer of grace, and to put our complete trust in Jesus to transform our minds and hearts through his Holy Spirit, freeing us to finally live and do the good things we were created for. God’s done his part; have you done your part, and accepted his free gift of grace and forgiveness? I invite you to make that decision today. It will change your life forever!
(If you want to know how to pray to God to receive his gift of grace, go to my website page called “Becoming A Christian”).

I know, sin is an unpopular concept today. It’s old-fashioned, Puritanical-sounding, uncool, and seems judgmental to many. But, if the Bible clearly says that Jesus came to die for OUR sins, to take our punishment on himself, then shouldn’t we take it seriously and at least understand what it means? Jesus didn’t primarily come to teach us to treat each other better and just try to love each other more, as warm and fuzzy and popular as that message plays in our culture! He came because he knew we CAN’T fully do that, and the power of sin in our lives will kill us, both physically and spiritually. His coming into the world was God’s plan (and only plan) to rescue and save us from the destructive force of sin in our lives, and give us a second change to be reunited with Him and have the power to truly live as God originally created us to be! While many Christians DO understand the horrible power of sin, others take it lightly, and most of our culture laughs at the idea of sin and has no idea that God offers us a much better and fulfilling life than we can ever imagine, free from the crippling power of sin in our lives. So, what is sin really?

The Greek word for sin in the New Testament is hamartia, which means “missing the mark”. A common way to think of this is to imagine a target and you are trying to shoot arrows at it. Sin means that you always miss the target, no matter how hard you aim and try! As hard as we try to be good and just, God says that because of sin in our lives, we are always “a little off”, missing the target, the beautiful and amazing life that he really wants for us. We often jokingly think “that guy or gal is a little off”, but the truth is, we ALL are! When my 3 boys were small, they loved going to the comic store. Of course, Superman was always a comic hero. He was always powerful, good, and just. But the comic creators also made a new character called Bizarro, who had many of Superman’s powers, but was flawed in character. He tried at times to be good like Superman, but his flawed character always led him ultimately to destructive and evil behavior, and he was part of the Legion of Doom! Sin in our lives is a spiritual disease that warps our very thinking, which leads to wrong motives and actions. Even as Christians we struggle with the negative effects of sin. We are in many ways the “Bizarro” version of our best selves, caught in the snare of sin. And the whole world is flawed, a Bizarro version of what God intends, with many trying to do right but not quite making it (think of our flawed political process!) Paul described his struggle like this:
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:14-25 (NIV)

What Paul is saying in this somewhat confusing passage is that our “sinful nature”, the way we were born, will drag us down every time and lead us to think and do things we may even know are wrong. Sin leads to physical death, as we all know (Romans 6:23), but it also results in a state of spiritual death, which we are born into in this world! Paul describes it this way:
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. -Ephesians 2:1-5 (NIV)
Ah, verses 4&5 give us hope!! Even though we are spiritually dead, God in his mercy and love offers us a change to come alive again spiritually, through the resurrection of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit! My next blog will go into detail about this wonderful hope of new life that Jesus offers us. But be assured of this: as bad and hopeless as sin is in our lives, the mercy, grace and power of God is even more amazing than we can ever imagine, and he offers us a whole new life through Jesus!

The bottom line: don’t “settle” for sin! Most non-believers, and even many Christians, settle and resign themselves to a life limited by their sinful nature! They try their best, but are still slaves to their sinful nature. They give up hope and use the false excuse “I was born this way, so I can’t change”. But God wants more for you NOW, not only in the future Kingdom of Heaven! Max Lucado, author & pastor, said “God loves you just as you are. But he doesn’t want you to stay that way. He wants you to become just like Jesus”. The Bible says we are all either slaves of our sinful nature, or we accept God’s power to change and become followers of Jesus, living by his power and direction. Don’t settle for your Bizarro self. Let God change you to become more like Jesus each day, and become the person God created you to be!

Fellow believers, aren’t you getting sick and tired of politics? It seems like things have gone to an all-time low in discourse and even ideas. It looks like whoever wins the next Presidential election, at least half of our country will be disappointed and even angry for the next 4 years (even many in the party of the winner!). Then the cycle begins again! I believe Christians (and others) need to stop putting our trust, time and money in political solutions and get back to what Jesus called us to do. In Matthew 28 it says, 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) Jesus came preaching about the Kingdom of God,which is not of this world and is not political, and is far superior to any political agenda and any nation, even the United States. Our calling is to invite people to become followers (disciples) of Jesus, inviting them to receive forgiveness and new life in Him, and then join us in his eternal Kingdom.

Does that mean that politics and politicians are evil? No, of course not. But neither party will ever solve all your problems, and they will not meet your needs. Only God can ultimately do that. All politicians are sinful,imperfect people, just like you and me. And it appears the two likely nominees at this point will both have an abundance of character flaws, perhaps too many to even deserve our vote and support. Do we really think they can live up to their sweeping promises? Has any President delivered on the “new America” theme that they all promise? Not yet! And they can’t, because slogans and legislation can’t change way people think and act. These are heart issues, and Jesus came to save us and make us into new creations by transforming our hearts and minds. (Romans 12:2 (ESV)- 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ) When we begin to think and act more like Jesus, we treat each other better, we are more forgiving and compassionate, and we become more humble and actually learn to put others’ interest ahead of our own, just like Jesus did for us!(read Philippians 2: 1-11) Isn’t that the kind of world and culture that we all would prefer to live in?
Many folks are looking to an “alternative” to what’s before us. I would suggest committing your time, life, and energy to following Jesus and his Kingdom! No, it’s not a 4 or 8 year plan to change America; it’s an eternal plan to redeem the entire world, and to remake us into the people we were originally created to be! And for those who accept his offer of forgiveness and new life, Jesus promises us to come back and create a new world where all believers will live together under his love. There will be no sin, no sickness, no death, no injustice nor hatred, and (thank God) no political parties and “us verses them” mentality! Plus, we get new and eternal spiritual bodies, which sounds pretty good to many of us aging baby-boomers!

So, what can believers do NOW to impact the culture? In future blogs, I hope to point out how radically different and better God’s kingdom is to anything we have now. As Christians who belong to God’s Kingdom but still reside here temporarily, I would suggest we begin by trying to alter the negative, divisive conversation around us. Look what has this has led to: I have many friends over the years that include both Democrats and Republicans. They are all fine people, but political discourse has led many to turn on those who disagree politically and say mean and hateful things about “the other side”. Part of being a Christian is remembering that we are ALL made in the image of God, and Jesus loved each of us enough to die for us (and that even includes Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton!). Even those two, believe it or not, probably at some level desire to help people, and have done some good things in their lives. Jesus came to redeem us, not to condemn us, and we Christians can be leaders in changing the way we speak to each other. I challenge you to find good things about others and emphasize that, even with those you disagree with! Paul gives us a great format to follow in Philippians 4: 6-9:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Rather than get so upset and worried over political discussions, I invite you to refocus your time and energy in God’s ultimate plan for the world! He wants to reconcile the world to himself, and he wants to use you and me to help do this! Won’t you join him?