Have Faith even when we lose
July, 26th 2019 Christianity loses a Soldier. Joshua Harris, A former pastor of Covenant life church in Gaithersburg Maryland, resigned as pastor and renounced his faith in Christ Jesus. The prevailing question from this is, obviously, why? was it a church organization issue? was it a personal issue? Why would an established author, lead pastor of thousands of people, talented public speaker, turn away from this calling? Further searching brought out an article where Harris showed up at a LGBTQ pride parade. In this article I came across the Instagram post where MR. Harris made his declaration. Reading through the Post It makes me wonder why he left the faith of Christ. I understand leaving the pastoral position, but why walk away from Faith in Christ? I would love to speak with him directly and learn what is going on inside him. I would love to learn from him, not in Judgement of his choice, but in love for him a human. I believe, as Christians, our calling Is first to love. Above anything else we are to love. I believe Love requires a choice and to take away one’s choice is to take away your love for them. In his TED talks speech, strong enough to be wrong, Mr. Harris tells of a time when he knelt down and prayed for God to let him write a book that would change the world. He then refers to a book he has previously written. A book called “I kissed Dating goodbye”, almost to say this book had changed the world. Now, I have not read this book in completion but, in hearing the Author speak about the book and some of the concepts in the book, I bring the question, what if this book didn’t change the world but, instead reinforced an already widely held idea of dating. This brings me back to His prayer, “God, let me write a book that will change the world”. In watching him speak and reading his post, over and over again, I would say this, He is a powerful man on a powerful Journey, and the journey he is on now could change the world.
Doing some research on the church he pastored and reading a few articles on it leaves a common premise that I struggle with in watching churches even local to me. I will make it quite clear, I am not part of his church, neither have I done a full exhaustive study on the foundation of that church, but I see a trend in several churches that seems to leave me with a negative outlook about approaching churches. A social mindset of separation. An idea that I do not belong in this place. I wonder how much of that mindset “us against the world” was pressed upon him; possibly growing up in a culture that said We are right and they are wrong. How much of an impression did that have on his teaching, his thought process, his Theology? The question here is, did the society he grew up in create the thought process that led him to, he put it, “fall away” from Christ as Lord and savior. If you get caught up in the legalistic do’s and don’ts that are in the Bible, I believe you get a false doctrine. Deuteronomy 29 is an example of this. it lists the rewards for doing good, and gives the punishments for doing wrong. A legalistic view. But Ephesians chapter 6 teaches us that “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV). Christianity is not a list of rights and wrongs to get to heaven. it is a Journey of faith and belief in the trinity. The fight is not for the physical but for the Spiritual which came before the physical and will remain after the physical. Was Mr. Harris’s community leaders teaching this? I simply do not know. Are those around us influencing our pursuit and Journey? Absolutely.
How much authority are we giving to those around us? I watched a video on YouTube about HipHop culture. in this video people were idolizing hip hop stars. they mentioned at one point about woman’s role the video showed music video after music video showcasing these women as objects to be owned instead of human beings. The narrator made a connection to a block party where men to cameras and video taped every woman they passed. grabbing, hollering at them, treating them as inferior beings that do not have the right to privacy while walking down the street. there was one Girl wearing a dress, and guys kept trying to take a video under her dress. she was so uncomfortable she called a taxy and jumped around in circles until it got there so no one could film her. How disrespectful is that? where is this thought process coming from? According to the video, the narrator linked this behavior to the view of the hip hop music scene. A scene where women are depicted as objects to be owned, not people to be loved. The influence that this music may have had on these people is very real. We are all influenced by the world around us whether we know it or not.
Joshua Harris Wrote a book based on ideals that were ingrained in him during his youth. The book (I kissed dating goodbye) displayed a way of dating that encouraged young people and even older people to abstain from romance and pursue a friendship rather than a romantic relationship. according to one article by premier Christianity, the book proclaimed, friendship before romance, parental permission within the guidance of relationships and strict boundaries that included no kissing, holding hands, or being alone together before marriage. All of these quite reasonable for a teenager dating limits but, quite extreme for an adult. This again shows that we are influenced by the events that happen around us.
I believe it is extremely important to show that there is an outside influence on our lives and we need to pay attention to it. A choice is given to each of us to allow the external influences of this world to manipulate, coerce, our minds and point our attention to what other people believe. Before you look externally, we need to build our identity from the inside out. Jesus says, “nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them” (mark 7:15 NIV), before we try to change the outside world around us, we need to change the inside world in us. This requires strength, self-reflection, the knowing of your identity, and more. For me this is a filtering of everything through scripture and learning who God says I am and what it means for him to say these things about me. It is only at this time, a time of self-reflection and understanding that we build internal strength to look at the world objectively and decipher what is truly right and wrong, good and evil, legalistic or spirit filled.
It is these questions that bring us into closer relationship with God and each other. The golden rule, treat others as you would have them treat you (Matthew 7:12). the new law given by Jesus, “love the lord God, and love your neighbor as you love yourself” (mark 12:30–31), If you do not have a confident view of who you are, how do you know how to treat others? If you do not love yourself, how can you love others? If all you know is the legalistic approach to Christianity (the do this and don’t do that approach) then you are missing the point. Christianity is not a us against the world view point. it is a Love the world so much they learn who they are and want to change view point. Christianity is not about segregating ourselves away from the world, it is about having a relationship so close to God that we can go into the world and, by example, pull people into relationship with each other and with God.
So have faith that we serve the almighty God and he is in control of all situations.
