Bjcorbin's Blog

1.    Impatience:  One of the most prominent features of western culture is the ongoing quest to make everything faster and more convenient.  Things like, stopping at toll booths, standing in line at a fast food counter or even writing on a piece of paper, are quickly becoming passé.  Unfortunately, these “advances” also have the net effect of making us less tolerant for anything that isn’t convenient or instantly gratifying.  This is problematic for “followers” of Christ, who are often required to wait on the Lord or be stilled by the knowledge that He is God.  It is also in direct opposition to His character, which is ultimately supposed to be our destiny.  

2.    Self Sufficiency / Stubborn Independence:  The United States was birthed in rebellion; and though most would argue that the tyranny of our early history was ample justification for it, that rebellious nature has engrained itself in our national character.  American’s are famous for their brashness and their failure to adhere to conventional thought or established wisdom.  As such, Americans seem to idolize the traits of stubborn independence and self-sufficiency.  Of course, these traits stand in stark contrast to the character that Christ presented; as He spoke of coming to the Father like little children and allowed Himself to be a lamb led to slaughter.  He said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see His Father do first and that apart from Him, we could do “nothing”.  That is a picture of absolute dependence, which isn’t a portrait that most Americans would want to hang on their wall.  

3.    Market Based / Consumer Driven:  Misguided ideas about evangelism have caused much of the western church to become market based and consumer driven.  This causes ministers and ministries to fashion themselves after the whims of popular demand, instead of the unchanging character of God and His Spirit.  It keeps them focused on cultural trends and marketing data, instead of on the Author and Finisher of our faith; and it transforms the church into more of a network than a family.  Watering down the gospel certainly doesn’t make it any more palatable and it absolutely diminishes its potency.

4.    Vanity / Insecurity:  To some, vanity and insecurity might seem to be almost opposites, but in truth, they go hand-in-hand.  Vanity is the exaggerated portrait that we try to paint when we fear that people would be disappointed if they could see us as we really are.  Unless a person genuinely invests their sense of identity in what God says about them, they are bound to battle the very common fear that “if you really knew me, you wouldn’t love me”.  Such deeply rooted insecurity breeds competition, jealousy, offense and results in a continual struggle for recognition, position and power.  Sadly these things are commonplace in churches across America.

5.    Comfort:  Many would say that money is the god of western culture, but I would contend that at its root, the love of money is generally motivated by a deeper love of comfort.  Though many Americans are willing to part with some amount of their money for charitable causes, I would suggest that few give to the point that it might affect their own level of comfort.  For the follower of Christ, a love of comfort turns out to be a serious spiritual handicap; as the scripture tells us that what is pleasing to the flesh is not pleasing to the spirit; and that what is pleasing to the spirit is not pleasing to the flesh.  Jesus told His followers that they would be hated for His sake and that anyone who was unwilling to take up their cross, was unfit for His kingdom.  Though we like to think of ourselves as the “Army of God”, heaven help us if the battlefield isn’t air conditioned.

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In the years that I’ve endeavored to walk with the Lord, I have encountered an amazing number of people, who identify themselves as “Christians” and yet possess few (if any) of the characteristics that the Bible would use to describe a follower of Jesus Christ.  Most statistics seem to indicate that this phenomena is quite common in the United States, where the vast majority of Americans still describe themselves as “Christian” and yet adhere to a belief system that would seem to have little in common with the tenets of scripture.  As I’ve pondered this disparity, I’ve come up with a few ideas about what might motivate such people.

1.      Heritage / Tradition:  Despite popular revisionist history, a Judeo-Christian belief system was an inherent thread within the original fabric of our country and as such, it has become a part of our national heritage.  Similarly, there are many people who were raised in the “Christian tradition” (e.g. a reverence for God, trying to live by the Golden Rule, celebrating Christian holidays…), which has made it a part of their family heritage as well.  For such people, their sense of connectedness may not be as much with the person of Jesus, as it is with their family and its history.

2.      Being Good / Morals:  Most of us were raised with the idea that we should at least try to be a good/moral person; and many of us were also raised with the idea that ‘good people’ are ‘God fearing’ people.  For much of America’s history, a popular way to demonstrate such a reverence for God has been through church attendance.  For some, going to church is just what ‘good people’ do on Sundays and it lets their friends and neighbors know that they belong in that category.

3.      Being Blessed and/or Empowered:  One of the major themes of the Bible is God’s love for mankind and His abundant provision for those who belong to Him.  Undoubtedly, it is His desire for His children to live blessed and empowered lives, but our human nature has little trouble with trying to exploit that arrangement.  One can easily develop a taste for the blessings of heaven, without developing a corresponding love for the dispenser of those blessings.  In such a case, God’s role is reduced to little more than that of a divine vending machine.

4.      Being Right:  While becoming an heir to Christ’s righteousness is certainly a part of our relationship with Him, that differs dramatically from the very natural desire we have for others to view us as being ‘right’.  For those endeavoring to come out on top of every argument, having a scripture reference to back up every point can be a handy tool.  But this latter form of righteous is rooted in self-serving pride, which actually repulses God.

5.      Avoiding Hell:  No one who truly understood the implications of eternal separation from God would desire such a fate; but simply wanting to avoid hell is a far cry from knowing and loving God.  Though there are many religious practices that we can adhere to, unless they lead us into some sort of genuine relationship with the person of God, they may amount to little more than faulty fire insurance.  As it is with a bad insurance policy, by the time we figure out that we’re not covered, it’s probably already too late.

This is important because the scripture so clearly warns us that their will be people who refer to Jesus as Lord and rightfully claim to have done things in His name, who will be denied access to heaven because He never “knew” them (i.e. had a relationship with them).  The word “knew” in that passage is the same word used in Genesis, when “Adam ‘knew’ Eve” and she conceived a son.  Throughout the New Testament, there are warnings for people who profess to believe one way, but who live in a way that denies those beliefs.  Though the Western church often promotes a doctrine of inclusion, the scripture still says that “narrow is the way that leads to life” and “few find it”.

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1.    When you lack self respect, people will tend to follow your lead. It seems as though people who struggle with self-respect routinely put themselves in a position to get walked on (i.e. taken advantage of, neglected, abused).  Though many folks may be willing to step over them for a while, eventually they begin to blend in with the carpet.

2.    Most arguments aren’t worth having.  It is truly rare that two people come to a conversation, with differing viewpoints and a genuine openness to consider a contrasting perspective.  Generally, we enter such discourses with our minds made up, listening only well enough to develop our next counterpoint.

3.    Often times the drive-thru isn’t the quickest path to the food.  We have become so focused on convenience in America that we’ll often take twenty minutes to go through the drive-thru, just to avoid a five minute walk to the counter.  While that might seem to be a trivial matter, it appears to be having a profound impact on generations of kids, who are being raised with the idea that everything should be quick, easy and accessible from a sitting position.

4.    It’s doubtful that anyone is really “out to get you”.  Generally, a person (and/or their circumstance) has to be of consequence before someone is willing to invest the time and energy it takes to conspire against them.  I would suggest that we are more often damaged because people aren’t considerate of our position than we are because people have made a conscious effort to hurt us.  Though this knowledge doesn’t necessarily dampen the pain, it should aid with forgiveness.

5.    Life and relationships pretty much deliver in proportion to your investment in them.  While little is generally expected of a child, the demands of life increase dramatically with age.  Those who are unwilling to work in school will undoubtedly struggle to get a good education; those who are unwilling to work at their vocation, will surely struggle to make a living; and those who are unwilling to invest themselves in relationships will most certainly struggle to be a meaningful member of a family, a community or even a team.

6.    Not everyone who agrees with you is for you and not everyone who disagrees with you is against you.  In this era of political correctness, openly disagreeing with someone is often viewed as being “intolerant” of their beliefs; but there are times when caring for a person dictates that we confront and contradict them.  Conversely, there are those who are perfectly willing to allow you to drive headlong into disaster, as long as it serves their own selfish agenda.

7.    When you keep your own score, you always feel as though you’re losing.  The problem with keeping score is that we naturally tend to under-appreciate our blessings and to have an exaggerated sense of our hardships.  Because of that, people who keep score in life generally feel as though they’re never quite being given their due.  Ultimately, it’s better to simply give our best in any given situation and to let someone else keep the scorecard.

8.    It’s worth the time to read the instructions first.  This is hard fought wisdom for most of us, especially those of the male persuasion.  But after living through a few botched projects, you begin to understand that reading through the instructions, before you begin, is generally a much more reasonable price to pay.

9.   Self pity is the first step toward self destruction.  While self pity can begin as a fairly innocuous emotion, it tends to quickly build momentum over time.  As we become focused on ourselves and our troubles, the balance in our perspective is lost; often causing a rapidly descending spiral.  While most of us would admit to throwing the occasional “pity party”, self pity is an emotion that few of us can afford to indulge for very long.

10.The best things in life cannot be held in our hands or necessarily even be seen.  A young person’s dreams are often rooted in tangible gains, like a mate, income, a career, a family, a home…  But as a person attains those kinds of things, values seem to shift from the tangible to the transcendent.  At the end of a long life, it is things like friendship, faith, love and hope that are ultimately treasured.

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Here are ten pieces of New Testament scripture that ought to make us take a hard look at where we’re at in our relationship with the Lord and His people.  These scriptures would seem to challenge many of today’s most popular doctrines, which seem to be aimed at making us feel comfortable about our eternity.

1. The man who says, “I know Him (i.e. Jesus)”, but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him (1John 2:4).  Later in this epistle John says, “This is love for God, to obey His commands” (1John 5:3).  While a large majority of Americans describe themselves as “Christians”, how many could claim a working knowledge of what God commands and/or that they are endeavoring to live by those tenets?  James epistle tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says” (James 1:22).  How many of us who are familiar with what God commands would classify ourselves as “Doers” of His word?
2. If anyone says, “I love God”, yet hates his brother, he is a liar (1John 4:20).  In today’s culture we seem to have bought into the notion that families are supposed to be dysfunctional and we’ve largely carried that mindset into the family of God (i.e. the Church).  Based on the scripture, it doesn’t appear as though God accepts that premise.
3. Men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken (Matthew 12:36).  No explanation needed.
4. In the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:1-2).  To fully appreciate the impact of this scripture, we must consider how we’ve responded to people who’ve let us down or even hurt us.  While we may feel justified in our feelings, do we want that measure to be applied to us for our trespasses?
5. If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:15).  If our sins are not forgiven, where are we?
6. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4).  This scripture puts the church in America in serious jeopardy.  Many of our efforts to be relevant to, and to reach, “the world” have resulted in the church becoming worldly.   While we may rationalize that the end justifies the means, from Gods perspective I believe that it is simply looks like compromise.  Statistics for things like divorce and addiction to pornography seem to indicate that the church is becoming largely indistinguishable from the world.  Based on what the scripture says about what our relationship with the world should be, this ought to make us tremble.
7. Faith without works is useless (James 2:20).  I don’t believe that James meant “good works” but instead works of faith.  We can do many “good” things that don’t require any faith at all.  From what this scripture says, it doesn’t appear as though those works will be accounted as righteousness.  The Hebrew writer tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) and Paul goes a step further when he says that, “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).  These scriptures challenge me to question how often I really act in faith and the value of the things that I’m doing that don’t require it.
8. He (i.e. the Father) cuts off every branch in me (i.e. Jesus) that bears no fruit (John 15:2)… such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned (John 15:6).  While many of us claim to be Christian, how many of us would be anxious to present our fruitfulness as the evidence of that?
9. Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?  Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoers!”  (Matthew 7:21-23).  This scripture is speaking directly to “Believers”, because someone who doesn’t believe wouldn’t be doing things in His name.  This indicates that “many” who believe that their eternity is secure are mistaken.
10. Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14).  In today’s atmosphere of tolerance and inclusion, it may be perceived as offensive to point this scripture out, but based on what it says; maybe making everyone feel good about their eternity was never meant to be the mission.

While gathering these scriptures in one place could be viewed as a negative thing, I think that it brings some much needed balance.  Though we are saved by His grace, the scripture reminds us that our access to that grace is “through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).  God was fully aware of the provision of His grace when He inspired the above scriptures.  I believe that we have often tried to use His grace like a stolen credit card, but His grace does not nullify His word.  While God does not require perfection, He does expect sincerity.  We know that He rewards those who “diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6); these scriptures can help us to remain diligent.   God bless.

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In recent years I’ve heard a lot of talk about the “Kingdom of God” and of the need to be “Kingdom Minded”.  As I’ve prayed and meditated on these things, I’ve sensed the Lord speaking.  I’ve included some of those thoughts below:

1.      If we are truly becoming more “Kingdom Minded”, our hearts will be increasingly focused on “The King”.

2.      If our priority is truly the “Eternal Kingdom”, our focus will be shifting from what is seen to what is unseen.

3.      The Lord will continue to grant the peoples wish for an earthly king, but “His Kingdom” will come through those who yearn for “His Lordship”.

4.      Revival is birthed in the hearts of God’s people.  It is the rekindling of the “Brides” passion for the “Bridegroom”.  The outward manifestations that we’ve come to associate with revival only follow this inner stirring.  The church’s inability to sustain these outward manifestations is rooted in the absence of this internal work.

5.      The work that God has called us to is to believe in the One who He sent (John 6:29).  While this belief will ultimately compel us to further action, all of our “work” for the Kingdom must be rooted in this.

6.      We are not Kingdom Builders.  There is a big difference between building a house and moving a house.  When we build a house, we choose a site, make our plans and build to suit our desires; but when the house already exists, we must go to where it is and study its design, if it is to arrive intact at it’s new location.  The Kingdom of God already exists and God Himself was the Architect and Builder (Heb. 11:10).  God is not interested in some earthly replica of His Kingdom, He means for His Kingdom to come to earth as it already exists in the heavenly realm.

7.      We must discern the difference between imagination, inspiration and revelation.  Though there is a place for all of these things, the distinction between them is critical.

8.      It’s all about relationship.  We must understand the difference between associates and friends, business partners and brothers, networks and families, collaboration and covenant, and ultimately between ambition (i.e. personal) and passion (i.e. for the Lord).  If we have not love, we have “nothing”.

9.      Don’t be impressed by anyone’s resume, because God isn’t.  Few could boast an earthly resume as impressive as King Solomon’s; his reign is viewed by many as a pinnacle in Jewish History and yet he was ultimately deemed a failure by God’s standard.  His life stands as an example of the dramatic contrast between what the world considers success and what is valuable to God.

10.   Beware of those who call themselves Shepherds and yet view sheep as the obstacle to their destiny.  Beware of those who claim to be a covering and yet accept no responsibility in the day of trouble.  Beware of those who invoke the name of Jesus, but bear no resemblance to Him.  The Bible contains numerous warnings pertaining to false teachers (e.g. 2 Peter 2:1), false prophets (e.g. Matt. 24:11), false apostles (Rev. 2:2); and it speaks of our need to discern between those who are serving the Lord and those who are not (Mal. 3:18).

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