Recruiting for the Kingdom

 

"Try Zip Recruiter, the smartest way to hire!"

I was listening to a podcast and this advertisement interrupted the podcast about history that I was listening to.  Since I'm not currently recruiting for new members of our family, I tuned it out.

Later, as my mind began to turn this ad over and over again, I began to think of God and how He recruits people to His service.  Certainly, He doesn't use Zip Recruiter or Linked In or any of the other normal internet job posting sites.

Isaiah 6 reveals a vision that Isaiah had at the beginning of his career as a prophet.  He saw God with all His might and glory, seated on a throne.  Then, Isaiah heard "The voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?'"  In response to this, Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me."

God is still looking for people willing to serve Him.  The problem is that so many of us believe ourselves over qualified for the positions that He has available.

It is a sad day when you are too big and important to work for the Creator of the Universe.

What would an internet board job posting for God's kingdom look like?  Maybe a little bit like this:

"In search of:  a man or woman who is willing to be small enough to listen, patient enough to stay, brave enough to go, and focused enough to remember who he or she is serving, regardless of what situation they find themselves in.  Willing to give up a lifetime of personal glory and accolades.  Short term anguish guaranteed.  Lifetime heavenly rewards waiting as well."

This posting is for all who follow Jesus.  It is not dependent on our talents or amazing abilities, but on our willingness to be small enough to be used.

The only real response to such a call is the one Isaiah made.  "Here am I, send me!"

Christians and Branding

 

"Is your nose a little stuffy?"  my wife, Elaine, asked our oldest son.

"Well, Mom," Vincent answered.  "I do feel the need to use a Kleenex now and then."  

He paused a second, then said.  "I'm sorry.  I should have said, 'tissue.'  I really don't want to advertise for companies when I am talking."

"But what do you say when you are talking about off brand Legos?"  Elaine queried.

"Maybe you could call them 'Legos that aren't Legos,'" Elliot suggested.

"That's way too long," I put in.  "Part of the point of names to have shorter ways of referring to things than long descriptions."

"The right term for them, Dad," Vincent said with great conviction.  "Is 'Bricks with Studs.'  That is what people should call them, because that is what they are."

"Maybe so," I said.  "I think the real thing the word Lego has going for it is that it is short."

The world is full of brands.  In the south, most soft drinks are referred to as "Coca cola."  An insulated mug is a Yeti and a vacuum flask is called a Thermos.

The reason is that these companies have impacted the marketplace.  Their products stood out in some way that ended up sticking their names on all of the other subsequent, similar products that ended up on the market.

I think about the term "Christian" in the same way.  It has been nearly 2000 years since the first believers were called Christians.

In the beginning, the apostles and those who followed on their heels called themselves "Followers of the Way," but at Antioch, people who were not believers called them Christians.  Over the years since then, the term Christian has come to mean many things, some of them good and some of them very bad.  

I am afraid that when we tell people around us that we are Christians a mental picture is conjured up.  That image is not always a good one.

Perhaps, non-Christians think of the political stances that many Christians take on social media.  Maybe they remember the time they were waiting tables and a man with a WWJD bracelet short changed them on a tip or, got angry with a manager.  Maybe they think of a Christian pastor who was revealed to be having affairs or involved in pornography.

Those of us who are branded as Christians cannot change that past narrative.  The only thing we must be certain of is that as we speak into other's lives our impact is for good.  

Every action we do will speak to others of what it means to be a Christian.  Let those actions be filled with love and purity.

By our actions we can show people who a Christian really is -- someone who behaves like Jesus in every situation, every time.

Even on the Internet.

Top Ten Sins?

 

"List of the Top 10 Presidents," the caption read.  "Number 5 will shock you!"  I didn't bother clicking on the link.  The only thing shocking to me would have been if turned out that "Number 5" was Manuel Noriega.

I am often amazed at humans need to rank things.  They seem to ask themselves constantly what basketball player was the greatest of all time or, (if their interests lie in a more cerebral direction) what chess player was the greatest grandmaster of them all?  I'm not sure what purpose these questions and arguments serve.  It may be an interesting argument to rank Gary Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen ahead of Bobby Fischer, but since they never played each other in their primes, it is meaningless.  The same if you rank Kareem Abdul Jabber ahead of some more recent players.  Your answer to these questions says more about you than it does about the players.

These sorts of list aren't something new.  We know that a couple of hundred years before the time of Christ guidebooks had listed the Seven Wonders of the World.  They listed things that travelers of the ancient world couldn't miss -- things like the pyramids of Egypt, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

I have seen a concerning trend among American Christians to rank sins.  I'm not what the impetus behind this is, but often they seem to identify serious immorality or abortion as some of the worst offenses against God.

I think it makes sense.  First of all, these sins just seem really bad.  Even better, they are activities that most Evangelicals are pretty safe condemning.  They fall solidly in the "Someone Else's Sin" category.

Jesus never said what the greatest sin was, but He did say what the greatest commandment was.  He said, when asked, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment." (Matthew 22:37,38).  The second commandment doesn't even come into the Ten Commandments, but is to "Love your neighbor as yourself."

It follows from this that the greatest sin is a violation of the command to love God.  Pure and simple, the one thing that God despises above all else is idolatry.

Of course, Christians today do not make idols of wood and stone and bow down to them.  They do put many things in the place of God -- political figures, money, work, entertainment, and even themselves are all things that I have seen Christians vault above God in their pantheons.  They would never say that they value these things more than their relationship with God, but their actions tell a different story.

The Bible is clear that even if we worship God more than other things in our lives, that is not enough.  Not only is God not willing to be in second place, He is not willing to be the greatest God among many gods.  If we have any other things in our lives that we serve, even a little bit, this is sin.  God will either be our only God, or He will not be our God at all.

This is a challenge.  We live in a real world.  We have to work.  We need money to eat and to do many basic functions.  We need times of rest and enjoyment.  These things must never slip into the category of a god.

I don't think it is helpful to rank the Commandments.  They should all be done, but done because we love and worship the God of the Universe.

If we never kill, never covet, and never commit adultery, but do not love God with all that we are and our neighbors as ourselves, I am afraid it is all meaningless.

This world has lost its love for the important things (if it ever had it in the first place) and it is not surprising as a result that there is darkness upon the face of the deep.

Rather than focusing on behaviors, the church needs to start at the beginning.  We need to recapture a love for God within our own hearts.  Then we can teach this world to love.  Nothing else will change the church.  Nothing else will heal this world.