Being "good"

Find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:10 NIV



One of my dad’s ancestors was Hywel Dda (“the Good”), a tenth-century Welsh king who lived in the era of Charlemagne and Alfred the Great. Hywel’s “good” appellation did not come from his holiness, although he was a Christian, because statesmen of the era had to be ruthless; rather, he compiled and combined the Celtic brehon law with Christian laws and customs. Hywel’s laws, which stood for 600 years, were noted for their fairness, and especially for the emphasis placed on restoration over punishment.



Growing up in a Christian home and enrolled in Christian school from first grade through university, I had many advantages. I became a church pianist and organist at age 10. I knew my Bible proof texts and obeyed my parents, pastors, and teachers.



One might conclude that I was “good” because I didn’t do “bad” things. The danger was that I might be convinced that whatever decision I made must be good because I’m good. Not so! The very thought that I’m “good” is corrupt! If we refrain from immoral, unethical, unlawful things, and we support the downtrodden or work for the church, we must by default be good people, right?



I received a forwarded email from a friend in my music group at church. It fits this article well!

HOLY EMAIL



One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time. When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.'



God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'



So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time. When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'



God was not pleased. So He decided to email the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.



Do you know what the email said?



Okay, I was just wondering. I didn't get one, either.

The Bible says that no one is good or without sin (Romans 3:10). We can only claim the goodness and righteousness of Jesus shining through us. Without Christ’s nature, we are the people who say, “Lord, we did these things in Your name,” but Jesus answers, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” Matthew 7:21-23 NIV



How do we enter an intimate relationship with God? First, let’s get rid of our pride in being “good” -- or even in being well-behaved. As a member of a church fellowship or particular denomination, you have no "advantage." You're a fourth-generation member of a church? You're a professional pastor or leader? John the Baptist was not impressed that the Jews of pure descent from Abraham claimed salvation through their heritage, and said that they had to repent (turn away) from sinfulness (a state of rebellion) and be immersed in the belief that God cleanses from all unrighteousness. God is powerful enough to both forgive and forget your sins. (That is deep!) How can you become intimate with God? Lay your heart bare to Him and ask Him to dwell in you. Jesus came to save the individual, not the group.



Earnestly ask God to show where He wants you to fit into His will. Ask Him to forgive: to empty you of sin and its penalties, and fill you with His righteousness, to declare you acceptable because of His sacrifice. The same God who looked at the newly-created world and declared it "good" will look at the re-created heart in you, and declare it "good."



And in that humble, healed attitude, we take baby steps and then lengthen our stride as we run after His leading. Every experience, positive and negative, can build our faith and trust if Jesus is always in view!



Like Hywel Dda's compilation of laws, God's laws, written not on tablets of stone but on the conscience of the believer, are about restoration and the abundant life, not about punishment.



For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-10 NIV

God in the ungodly

Richard and Ingrid are across-the-street neighbors. Richard’s mission in life is to rescue, help, feed, and protect the helpless. They captured feral cats from a junkyard, then neutered and released them. After work every evening, they took dry cat food to the junkyard and set it out for the wild cats. When the derelict fence was chained shut after the property sold, they recaptured five of the most-likely-to-succeed cats and brought them home to their other two pet cats. The frightened, feral cats are now sleek, groomed, friendly, playful, well-adjusted pets.

Puccini, a tuxedo cat, had feline urinary syndrome, and required several thousand dollars’ worth of microsurgery (50 miles away) and special handling for weeks afterward. But there was no question that Richard and Ingrid would do whatever necessary for their fur-child. Another neighbor works long hours, so Richard and Ingrid go every afternoon to let her poodle out for a walk around the block, followed by face time with them and their cats. Ingrid takes her ladder to a friend to help pick hundreds of peaches in 95F July heat.

My family always treated the autumn Thanksgiving holiday as a special “sabbath” celebration of gratefulness for God’s mercy and providence. But last year, we were not able to be together. So who invited me to share the feast with them? The neighborhood agnostics, Richard and Ingrid. Richard is a non-religious Jew from New York, and Ingrid was born and raised in Austria, so neither think of American Thanksgiving as anything other than “Turkey Day,” a time to share a meal with family, but not a time to think of God.

God is just a “good feeling” to some people. There’s the whole secular humanist, New Age, eastern philosophy touted on talk shows, bandying phrases like “the Universe will tell you what you need to know,” and “pay it forward.”

Or, as some people say on occasion, religion is just fairy stories or myths to teach great themes of human history. But the people who say that are the same people who make large donations of money and goods to charity, and willingly pay 50 percent taxes to finance social-welfare programs so that the elderly, mentally ill, and helpless can be taken care of. They often volunteer service and risk their lives to do compassionate care in refugee camps, orphanages, and AIDS clinics. They devote everything to working for peace.

This is not meant to be a political or social commentary. It’s a devotional article. So here’s the question to ponder: Can these people, who do not claim Jesus as Savior but have tender hearts, become citizens of the kingdom of God? They seem to be godless people to us, but they often exhibit the traits of one gracious God, who described His glory to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Exodus 34:6,7 NIV.

God's priorities are clear: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 NIV.

Although they don’t consciously choose Jesus as Savior, those tender hearts beat with love for animals, children, the needy, the sick, the forgotten. They invite singles into their family circles. They participate in marathons for charity and sacrifice precious resources to help strangers. We should hesitate to call them godless, because we can actually recognize a spark of God-sourced, God-given, unconditional love in them.

Jesus surprised those who asked Him who would inherit eternal life. They were pretty sure that working for the church in God’s Name was sufficient payment for the chariot fare. Instead, He disappointed them by saying that some people they’d thought were surely goats, would actually be declared sheep!

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:37-40 NIV.

Do you know agnostics? Atheists? Your own grown children who have left the church? Everyone has a passion. Everyone loves someone or something. Maybe it’s a liking for nature, expressed in hiking or camping or gardening. Perhaps it’s a love of animals or children. Or the compulsion from “the Universe” to help the homeless, the addicted, or abused. Those passions are signs that the Divine spirit is working on their hearts.

Use the entrée to build relationships. Let your witnessing and invitations to Christianity be your actions, long before your words. Be comrades with them. Be the cat-sitter, the dog-walker, the sharer of garden flowers or fruit. When their kids sell trinkets for a school fundraiser, buy something. Secretly pray for them, rescue their newspaper from the rain, and take them a plate of cookies. In doing so, you will fulfill Jesus’ commandment to love, and further bear witness that Christians aren’t fairytale kooks!

You’ve heard this statement, “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” It’s a modern construction of St. Francis of Assisi’s actual words, “Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.”

You know a Richard or Ingrid, who say they don’t believe in God, but have merciful, generous hearts, the kind God “requires” of us. That’s the heart of flesh that the Lord can write His law and will upon. (Hebrews 8:10-12)

Recently, when I mentioned that I believed my life's course is in God's hands, Richard said he respected my statement because he's observed that I live my faith, unlike people who only "preach." Hmm, it's like he knew St. Francis's writings. And the Lord has a toe-hold on Richard!

We don’t know how God will judge them, or if He’ll lovingly reveal His grace to them in a special way before their time is up. But we’ll have made friends, grown happy relationships, and gently enhanced Jesus’ reputation among the unbelievers. That is evangelism.

You can do it without how-to books or traveling halfway around the world. And you’ll get back all the benefits you give. God is good!

Of Cheetos and Salvation

He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:24 MSG

I accepted the gift of salvation at age 27. I was raised in a Christian home and in Christian schools, where salvation by faith was taught, but we were simultaneously told in 16th-century English to “be perfect as God is perfect.” (We didn’t understand that the definition of perfection is completeness and maturity, not “without fault.”) Perfection for humans is unattainable, so salvation must also be unattainable: what was the point in trying, shrugged much of my generation.

I can perfectly observe my prescribed diet and exercise for 50 minutes daily, but not lose a pound in three weeks. After all the hard work and no visible reward, there is severe temptation to binge on high-carb, high-fat, high-sodium Cheetos! (Eating Cheetos isn’t sinful, but play along…)

Righteousness might be explained in this way: God declares us to be in right relationship to Himself. He just speaks it, as at creation, when He spoke everything into existence. He sees only His beloved and perfect (in behavior and attitude, as well as full and complete) Son Jesus, whose greatest desire is to save me. Me! Caught orange-handed with Cheetos dust, with the evidence of sin all over me! God sees my Substitute, who stands protectively between me and the glory and perfection that could vaporize me. And, as at creation, God speaks the word, “Good.” And because Creator God says it is so—it can only be so!

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners…and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23, 24 MSG.

The concept of salvation is profound and complex. And it’s so simple that a little child gets it. Let’s just ask God to say the Word: “Jesus.” He wants to! He loves you and is yearning to walk with you. Let Him dust off the crumbs and look past your outward appearance, to see only the perfect creation that He intends you to be.