This word needs some redeeming. Will you help?

I'm reading a book entitled: "unChristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity...and why it matters" by David Kinnaman. That's pretty self-explanatory. This guy runs surveys for research as a profession. His findings are pretty alarming but, ultimately, it starts with us who proclaim to be "Christian." What image are we portraying? FYI, he calls those who are not of the Christian faith "outsiders," for they are outside the Christian faith. But he does explain that he has trouble using this term because it has a tendancy to define them as what they are not. Here's an excerpt that I read and like. Can you relate or have you had a similar experience with those who proclaim to be Christian?

"One thrity-five-year-old believer from Claifornia put it this way: 'Christians have become political, judgmental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry, and without balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the living God, the Holy Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness? This type of life, how I yearn for that.' Jesus was called a friend of sinners, relentlessly pursuing the down-trodden. What an irony that today his followers are seen in the opposite light! How can people love God, whom they can't see, if those of us who claim to represent him don't respond to outsiders with love?"

A lot of those outside the faith of Christianity appreciate what Jesus had to say and how he lived his life. It is becoming more and more evident to them that the church today is far too often claiming to be followers of Jesus without living his same lifestyle. This, understandably so, is not the kind of faith they want to associate themselves with. The book also talked about many young believers today who avoid saying that they are Christian so that they can distance themselves from the current "branding" of that word. Then, they say, it is easier for them to bring their friends into a relationship with Christ.

Hmm, interesante and sobering. I'm only 25 pages into the book but I'm realizing that it's time to wake up... actually it has been time to wake up for quite some time... It is time that this word "Christian" gets some redeeming. We are called to be that, the hands and feet of God. It is up to us, the way we represent him, our love which needs to be unconditional. If you have experienced this love, we are called to give it to others. How selfish are we if we hold onto this experience and keep it for ourselves. You are the light of the world! You have been given this power! Christ says, "Freely you have recieved, freely give." It is not to be abused. Representing our God is a life or death task. You have the ability to destroy his image to someone. But you also have the ability to represent the true loving God and also, maybe most importantly, restore that image to someone who has recieved a contradicting one. Let's wake up. The time is now.

On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.

(A post I wrote a week and a half but forgot to put on here:)

It's like this. Kylee and I raise support in order to do what we do, much like an out-of-country missionary does. Sometimes I see ourselves as missionaries. Sometimes Anderson, IN is as foreign as it gets. For two years now, we've set our goal to raise a certain amount and have met it. We started out the first month of raising support mainly focusing on phone calls and whatever money came in, we bit the bullet and built up a little cushion in our support raising account. As money comes in from our supporters, it gets deposited into that account. From that account, we get paid. No money in the account = no paycheck. This has never happened. As the account begins to dwindle, God moves in the heart of someone and the account gains a little health...but not until we get a little wake up call first...

You see, the only time in the Bible where God actually challenges us to test him is in the area of tithing:
"...Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?' Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Malachi 3:7-10

During the first year, we were struggling to get enough pledges to meet our goal. We were challenged on the tithing end. We decided to tithe at whatever 10% of our goal was. Within the next month, we met our goal. And that has never stopped. There are plenty of similar stories where God has "thrown open the floodgates" and has blessed us beyond belief...and it keeps us humble; it keeps us in our place. This summer has been insane as we bought a house and moved on top of our normal responsibilities. Obviously this house thing has been a test on the financial end...and our account, it's dwindling.

I was reading in Genesis (I'm no saint, I don't remember the last time I purposefully sat down to read my Bible) and read through the story of Abraham's obedience being tested when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac...his only true son...the one through whom God promised would give birth to a great nation. Yet, Abraham agrees. As they are reaching the place on the mountain where they were going to sacrifice, Isaac is wondering where this lamb is that they were going to sacrifice. Abraham replies beautifully: "God will provide the lamb." It comes the time when Abraham had tied down his son and raised his knife when an angel stops him saying that the LORD has noticed his obedience and does not want Isaac to be hurt. God said that because of his obedience, he will make his descedants outnumber the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Then God provided a ram that was caught in a nearby bush for Abraham to catch and use as a sacrifice. This gave birth to a saying of that day, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

It clicked for me and a desire to test God was renewed. Abraham knew that though his own reasoning made sense to him, God must understand the bigger picture and, though he would much rather do what made sense to him, he had to obey God. "God will provide the lamb." God will provide a way...or a way out. In the end, God is still God and things will work out as He plans, and that's okay. And God did, but not until Abraham was willing to sacrifice. You see, God needs a willing soul, someone with the desire to give up something for the sake of gaining God's way.

In order for God to provide where I need Him to provide, I must be willing to sacrifice. And sometimes sacrificing your money in today's economy can feel like giving up your firstborn. I caught up on tithing today and am another step closer to fulfilling our pledge to our church building campaign and I've already seen God give a blessing. We got a utilities bill from our last apartment and one for our new house for this last month, both of which I wondered were off. I went in and found out that both had errors and were going to end up being significantly less. Sometimes the blessings come quickly. Other times they don't, as when Abraham had to wait for the birth of Isaac that God had promised years ealier. And sometimes it does feel like we are stuck on the top of a mountain with no where else to go but down. In fact, it would maybe just seem easier to jump... but who's mountain is it? Let us not forget: On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided. So hang in there.