Soft Hearts

As often happens to me, multiple information streams have converged on a unified theme this week, so this is kind of a compilation of those inputs and an extension of what I wrote last week. I was sharing this quote from C.S. Lewis with a friend:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable” (The Four Loves).

While I was typing that, this passage from Ezekiel came to mind:

“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My rules and obey them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19-20).

So my immediate thought was that the goal of the Christian life is to have increasingly soft hearts, which means we are increasingly vulnerable, not impenetrable. Jesus fleshed this out (literally and metaphorically) to say that the heart of flesh that results in obedience is revealed by our love:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

And while I was pondering that, I listened to the latest sermon podcast from Immanuel Nashville, where Sam Allberry was preaching on Romans 15:7: “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” He commented:

“What makes the church different isn’t that we’re committed to meeting together—lots of people are committed to meeting together. What is meant to be different is that there’s meant to be a uniqueness to the way we are with each other—for the glory of God... The word Paul is using for ‘welcome’ in the original text is a strong word. Other translations translate ‘Accept one another as Christ has accepted you.’ But ‘acceptance’ sounds like merely tolerating. We’re not to tolerate each other, because Christ hasn’t merely tolerated us. He’s welcomed us. So the kind of welcome Paul is speaking of here is a welcome of deep belonging, because Christ, through His death on the cross for us, has pulled us deep into His heart. That is what it means for Him to welcome us.”

He went on to illustrate what that looks like from various “one another” passages in the New Testament. I think many churches have settled for a rather anemic view of community and fellowship. I’ve heard somewhere that most churches think they are more welcoming of newcomers than they really are. And even people who have been in the church for years may not really be known by the people in the next pew. As Allberry noted, these days everyone needs encouragement, yet we assume that everyone else is fine because we never get close enough to find out. Are we truly welcoming people into the depths of our hearts, or are we just meeting together once or twice a week?

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25).

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Related resource:

This was a thought-provoking article on the difficulty of finding community:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/july-august/confessions-loner-community-loneliness.html

© 2024 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Hearts Revealed

Once in a while I like to read The Message paraphrase of the Bible. These verses jumped out at me:

“It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government” (1 Peter 2:15-17).

Some of the actions we’ve seen this year make me wonder how many so-called Christians have actually read the Bible and know that there are verses like this in there. But then I saw Christianity Today’s article that there’s been a 5% drop in daily Bible reading among Americans in recent months. They speculate on lack of time and lack of in-person connection with the church during the pandemic. While that may be true in some cases, I think there is a more fundamental problem—a lot of people who call themselves Christians have no real interest in God or the Bible. If they are only reading the Bible or attending church out of guilt, peer pressure, or habit, the pandemic has not really changed their hearts but revealed them.

Many churches witnessed a temporary increase in engagement when we all went online at the start of the pandemic. Now the numbers are lower in many cases. And if you don’t count the people who are watching multiple church services online every Sunday, I suspect that most churches have seen an overall decrease in participation. The faithful Christians have remained faithful while many of the nominal Christians have dropped off the radar. I’ve never understood how a church can report more members than active members, and the gap between the two numbers is getting wider.

Although we may bemoan the statistics when this season is past, I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing. Jesus recognized that there would be weeds growing among the wheat up until the harvest time (Matthew 13:24-30). He warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7:21 ESV). It may take a pandemic to reveal which church members are actually followers of Jesus Christ and which ones are simply along for the ride. Pastors and leaders need to be able to see who are the true disciples of Christ and who are the ones still in need of salvation.

And church members themselves need to realize if they are among those whose hearts are not engaged with God. Some may be thinking, “You know, I really don’t believe this stuff and I don’t care about it,” and in their departure we need to be praying for God to change their hearts. Others may be realizing they’ve drifted away from their first love but they want to return, and so we welcome them back and pray for God’s continued work.

Jesus said, “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:18-20). All too often, it seems like we’ve accepted participation in church activities as the only evidence needed of good fruit, even if it has only been artificial fruit. And now that church activities are curtailed, we’re seeing that some people have never actually borne any fruit because they are not connected to Jesus Christ in a life-giving way.

So, to return to where I started, are we bearing the fruit of good works that point to God as our source of life and hope, and silences the ignorant talk of unbelievers? Are we truly living as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10)? If not, we need to check our hearts.

“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? …Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:1-19).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Heart and Mind

The other day I was listening to Christian radio and heard a song I was not familiar with—“More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray. As I thought about the lyrics they made me distinctly uneasy. One line that is repeated several times is “It’s gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in; more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance.” The story behind the song (found here) clarifies his intent somewhat, but I still have problems with the message. Gray said,

“I think we’re in danger of making our faith about intellectual beliefs of facts of who Jesus was and is today. The danger, at least for me, is that a solely intellectualized faith can lose its heart, and over and over we are told in Scripture that the heart matters.”

While that may be true to some degree, I don’t think that is the predominant problem with American Christianity. It seems to me that we are far more likely to pursue some kind of emotional response that may have very little to do with the facts of who Jesus was and is. Yes, faith is more than an intellectual exercise, but it is also more than a love affair. Gray’s lyrics set up a false dichotomy. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 ESV). Faith requires engagement of both heart and mind.

In his chapter in Standing on the Promises, Larry Knowles wrote:

“Let it be said again that worship ought to engage the mind and the emotions. Careful wording and cerebral agreement alone do not a worshiper make… There is no doubt that the love of God is something the Christian will want to internalize personally and celebrate with emotive affection… Our concern with heavily romantic or sensory lyrics is that they communicate God’s love as primarily a subjective phenomenon, grasped mainly by its emotional and personal impact. Granted, these words may come from the genuine experience of a lyricist. But the glut of choruses that talk about ‘falling in love with Jesus’ finds no correlate in Scripture” (178-179).

Someone may say, “True, but Christian radio is not worship.” The average listener is drawn to songs that stir their emotions, not necessarily those that clearly represent scriptural truths. That’s one reason I rarely listen to the radio. Listeners tends to identify artists they like, and then listen indiscriminately to anything that artist wrote. A large percentage of the new songs that get introduced in churches start out on the radio, and many church music leaders don’t evaluate songs by their theology. Church leaders should be cautious about “endorsing” artists who are not consistently presenting solid theology.

I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to music used in worship services. In many churches the music is unbiblical, unsingable, or (often) unrelated to the day’s sermon. Since Jesus proclaimed that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23b), those who plan the worship service and choose the music have a responsibility to lead in spirit and truth. Alistair Begg gave three guidelines on worship music:

1. It is biblical, being grounded in the truth of Scripture.
2. It is rational in that it engages our minds.
3. It is clearly spiritual in that it involves the very core of our being.

Begg also quoted from Keith and Kristyn Getty’s helpful guidelines from 5 Ways to Improve Congregational Singing. Their first point, “Begin with the pastor,” states:

“Ultimately the buck stops with him in congregational worship. Every pastor must be intimately involved in the language being placed in the congregation’s mouth, for that singing ultimately affects how they think, how they feel, how they pray, and how they live.”

In Christian freedom, we can each listen to whatever we like on the radio or online, and churches are free to use whatever music seems to best fit their context. But personally, I have found that “taking every thought captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) is closely linked to “making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding” (Proverbs 2:2). Our ears and eyes are the two primary methods of input to our thoughts and beliefs. If we aren’t paying attention for ourselves, no one else is likely to do it for us.

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Do What?!

The Australian Open Tennis Tournament made the news recently when an interviewer asked Eugenie Bouchard to twirl to show off her outfit. Although I missed that bit of “news,” it came to my attention later through a post by Matt Reagan on the Desiring God blog. Reagan’s post drew quite a bit of negative attention on their Facebook feed as being sexist in itself, along with not making a great deal of sense. I wanted to make a couple comments on his post, but then to look at what Scripture has to say.

Reagan implies that twirling is an activity pursued by little girls, but not little boys. Evidently he hasn’t spent a lot of time around little boys. Perhaps his emphasis was intended to refer to girls showing off their dresses, but I’ve known plenty of little girls who won’t wear dresses. He asks, “Why are Eugenie and Serena wearing the outfits in the first place? Are they not intentionally demonstrating their feminine beauty to the world?” I would counter that they are wearing those outfits because that is the standard for their sport, although there is some variation within the WTA. Women in the WNBA aren’t wearing little skirts and being asked to twirl for the cameras. Personally, I think Eugenie responded graciously to an idiotic request. I dare someone to ask a UFC fighter to twirl for her fans!

Both the original interview and the blog post serve to illustrate a problem we have created with gender issues in this country. Apparel and behavior are often linked to gender in ways that are inconsistent and nonsensical. When children (or even adults) measure themselves by this arbitrary standard, they may feel there is something lacking and therefore believe they are in the wrong body. I’m not suggesting little boys should be allowed to wear dresses, but we do need to take a careful look at what our standards for femininity and masculinity are and where they come from.

There are a few references to apparel in Scripture. Perhaps most familiar is Peter’s appeal to wives in 1 Peter 3:3-4, “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (ESV; see also 1 Timothy 2:9-10). Alongside that is God’s statement to Samuel “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7b). Jesus had some pretty harsh words to say about the Pharisees concerns for appearance: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long… Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:5, 27).

God is far more concerned with the state of our hearts than the style of our clothes. Some of the most beautiful people are those who are outwardly marred or crippled, but their love of God shines through. Jesus Himself “had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2).

I’ve searched on multiple occasions for Scriptural instructions that apply specifically to women aside from those related to spouse or children, and the Bible just doesn’t say much. The Proverbs 31 description is about the extent of it, and there is very little there that could not also be applied to men. Conducting business and the affairs of the household with diligence and integrity are the duties of every person. Once again verse 30 makes it a matter of the heart: “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Certainly there are plenty of points where debate could be raised, such as women teaching in the church (1 Timothy 2:12) or hair length for men and women (1 Corinthians 11:14-15), but those are a topic for some other blog.

I come to a couple conclusions: 1) Both men and women want to be recognized primarily for their accomplishments, not their apparel; for their deportment, not their dress. 2) God honors those whose hearts seek after Him regardless of their outward circumstances. God found David to be “a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). We get into dangerous territory when we create our own standards that have nothing to do with God’s law— “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).

Perhaps if we truly chase after God’s heart, we can learn to let go of all the secondary issues and fulfill Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:9-10: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” What better way is there to honor someone than by recognizing the desire of their heart above all else?

--Also check out my friend Rebecca Chasteen’s blog post on a similar topic: https://thesteadyblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/and-then-you-remember-shes-not-you-and-youre-not-dying-on-that-hill/