Stranded Hippies

My lovely bride made me run out late last night to try to find some food service gloves for a Girl Scout project she has in the works. I'm always happy to help her in these ideas she comes up for the Brownies. (Even when these ideas come up Thursday at 9PM and she starts fixating on them despite the meeting not happening till Monday afternoon. But, hey, you know I love you, gorgeous.)

On the way back, I noticed that my truck's tank was low, so I went to the gas station to fill up. As I entered the station, I noticed a small RV parked to the side with four or five people milling about. They were wearing baggy woven clothes, most of them had unkempt hair in dreadlocks. Some were skateboarding and smoking. Others were shuttling back and forth between some of the pumps with portable gas canisters in hand. They reminded me of some stoner kids on my floor back in my dorm in college.

After I paid for my gas and topped off my tank, I went over to chat with them. They were a group of modern-day hippies coming down from Wyoming and headed to Pueblo to engage in some Native American sweatlodge spirituality. They were asking people for a few gallons to fill up and get on their way. When I busted out some million dollar bill tracts to share, they all came out, nine in total. I was amazed how many of them were in there, because I know how cramped my RV can get with even four or five people in it.

As I started talking about matters of faith with them in a jovial, lighthearted way, it was clear that they did not like Jesus or Christians in general. They were mocking ideas like Heaven and Hell, repentance and faith, and using the Lord's name in vain. They instead were big on things like consciousness, spirituality, vibrations, energy, and feeling good. When one of them said that he didn't understand how someone could simply be forgiven for their sins, I started talking about justice with them and sharing the Gospel.

The moment they could tell I was a Christian and started getting serious with asking them about their souls, most of them scattered, retreating to inside the RV. While I continued talking with a few of them who were interested in the subject of faith, I could hear the others laughing and could smell marijuana coming from inside. They kept peeking out the back blinds to see what was going on, while others would ride around the nearby parking lot on their boards.

After trying to explain why they, like me, were not good people, in light of the Ten Commandments, one woman came out from the RV with a bunch of sage in her hand and a lit fireworks punk in the other. She proceeded to clumsily dance around me and the group, bumping into a few of her friends who were laughing, lighting the sage on fire. She started doing circles around me, while the smoke of the sage went everywhere, in some sort of pseudo-pagan dance to cleanse the air and spirits. Aside from making sure my hair didn't catch on fire when she came a little too close for comfort, I didn't budge. It soon became clear to her that I wasn't going anywhere, and she went back inside.

I continued talking with two of the men for a few more minutes, trying to explain who Jesus Christ was and why they needed to be made right with God. They kept trying to turn the subject left and right, from discussing quantum physics to why one man's Catholic upbringing that taught about Purgatory was wrong. I did my best to stay on topic and explain to them the difference between right and wrong, since their postmodern views were not compatible with absolutes.

But when both work and my bride called, needing my help and wondering where I was, respectively, I thanked the group for taking the time to listen to me, and gave them a few bucks for fuel for listening to me and to show that I cared about their needs, too. And I hope and pray that some of them will read those tracts and get saved.

The Gospel is Not The Great Commandment

Jesus said unto him, 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.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
(Matthew 22:37)

One of the greatest mistakes being made in evangelicalism today is the belief that the Great Commandment is the essence of the Gospel itself. Countless preachers today teach their audiences that they must love God and love others, and consider this to be the core focus of the Christian faith. Just searching for the words, church "mission statement" "great commandment" on Google reveals tons of churches who use this as their charge for what they should be doing in the world. But this is not the Gospel.

Simply put, the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, the God-Man, came down to earth to die for mankind as the perfect sacrifice for sin, died and shed His blood on the cross, taking the wrath of God on His shoulders, was raised from the grave three days later, and ascended into Heaven in front of 500 eyewitnesses. And if one repents of his sin and trusts Christ as savior in response to this act of God, receiving forgiveness, then that person will be saved from sin and from Hell, and enjoy eternity with God in Heaven. (Paul summarized the Gospel in the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, for reference.)

But when preachers say that the Gospel is the Great Commandment, what they have done is re-instituted the Law and hold people to an unreachable standard, giving them false faith. No one can love God on their own in the way Jesus described things as Matthew recorded them. And no one can love their neighbor so perfectly either. So when a preacher uses the Great Commandment as their explanation of the Gospel, they make a gospel of works, not the true Gospel.

When a man is saved through hearing the true Gospel and repents and puts his trust in Christ, he then loves God and loves neighbors as a result of the saving faith that he has. This is not the qualification for the forgiveness of his sins; it demonstrates how his inner being has been changed by the Lord and how he responds to the forgiveness of his sins. (And, remember that this love will still not yet be perfect.)

When a man hears a gospel that says that he must love God and his neighbor, he will spend the rest of his life believing that he is doing well enough in his efforts to do charity and kindness. He will never understand the magnitude of his sins, why a savior was necessary, or why he will stand before the Great White Throne only to be cast into Hell after he dies.

The Worst Thing A Preacher Can Hear

The worst thing a preacher can hear is not from someone who says, "I disagree with you and despise you for what you are saying." The worst thing a preacher can hear is from someone who says, "Preacher, thank you for what you are doing and how you are trying to make a difference in the lives of your listeners. Your message has truth and I cannot argue against it. Yet I will choose to continue in my own way and go to Hell."