Gut Check #4
July 31, 2006
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Boldness, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Dying to Self, Godly Character, Judgmentalism, Maturity Feedback : 28 comments
Let's start the week with a bang. I think the number of American Christians who struggle with this gut check question is in the millions. Sadly, the answer for many people is yes.
Will you lose your standing at church
or the support of Christian family and friends
if you finally, publicly confess
the sin you've kept secret for years?
Protestantism broke from a corrupt Roman Catholic Church that turned Jesus into "Jesus and…." I don't support the idea that we need to add anything to Christ's finished work, so I don't support the RCC. However, if there's one area that the RCC has dealt with far better than any Protestant sect, it's in the area of confessing sins.
Imagine always having a flesh and blood human being available to hear our confession! Although the usual advice to repeat some pointless "Hail Mary's" isn't the recipe for repentance, what do the Protestants offer? The Bible has this to say:
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
—James 5:16 ESV
Too few Christians are willing to hear another's confession, and even fewer are willing to confess. Yet what power, healing, and freedom resides in that confession!
I've known Christians who literally wound up institutionalized because they kept secret sin secret. 
Or they worried that whatever they'd done was somehow treading on "unforgivable sin" territory.
In a way, who can blame them? We talk a lot about our sinfulness, but when someone sins in a way unfamiliar to our own experience, our first reaction is usually judgment.
Many years ago, a much younger Dan was part of a men's group. One day, we studied passages on confession and decided that we would confess our sins to each other. By the time it was all done, self-righteous me had been traumatized by the utter depravity of the guys around me. They shared things I couldn't even imagine, making my sins seem small.
However, as I grew older, I better realized the depths of my own depravity and saw that while my sins were indeed different than theirs, mine still deserved hell. The same Christ who cleansed me had cleansed those men, no matter how awful their confession might have been. In time I learned that none of us is pristine, even the most devout. There's not much difference between my 100 percent sin and their 100 percent sin, no matter what gradations we assign to a certain moral failure.
Too many of us learn the hard way on this one, though. We need to be more ready with grace and less with our high and mightyness, because that superiority we wield like a club is the reason so many are in bondage to secret sin.
The bulimic pastor's wife. The lauded Christian businessman who lies to clients. The self-help expert who hates herself. The porn addict. The judgmental. All need a grace-filled environment that encourages confession and remembers the Golden Rule.
Frankly, I think a private confession booth is a good thing. Our self-righteous attitude imprisons too many others in their jail of sin. Those folks need us to listen and offer grace first, not judgment.
I'm listening. The comment section is open—and during this series, anonymous.
{Image: a Gaboon viper in its typical surroundings}
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Tags: Boldness, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Confession, Dying to Self, Godly Character, Judgmentalism, Maturity, Sin
Gut Check #3
July 28, 2006
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Boldness, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Counterculture, Discernment, Faith, Godly Character, Maturity, Persecution, Spiritual Warfare Feedback : 23 comments
Have you ever wondered if you've naturally (through cultural osmosis) fallen into a lifestyle that is antithetical to real, vibrant Christianity?
And worse, you're not sure how to change or you don't grasp what a more godly lifestyle looks like in America 2006?
Right now, this is a big struggle for me. I think the lifestyle most Christian Americans lead is contrary to the Gospel, no matter how much we plead that this is "a Christian nation." We look too much like the world, have been seduced by systems that destroy us spiritually, and are unwilling to fight against that tyranny, instead making peace by Christianizing things that harm our souls.
Yet breaking out of that Darwin-inspired nightmare will prove costly. Smashing systems always is. We might lose everything but Christ. Yet isn't that what He says must occur if we are to truly find the narrow path that leads to glory?
Something's gotta change. Christians once were iconoclasts. What are we now?
{Image: Still from Apple Computer's "1984" ad}
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Tags: Boldness, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Counterculture, Discernment, Faith, Godly Character, Maturity, Persecution, Spiritual Warfare
Gut Check #2
July 27, 2006
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Community, Faith, Godly Character, Joy, Maturity, Revival Feedback : 32 comments
This one's not a convicting question, but I believe it's one that bothers many Christians nonetheless. It used to be the question I asked in the purpose statement for Cerulean Sanctum. Now I open it up for you all:
Do you ever sit in church on Sunday and wonder,
Is this the best it will ever be?
Some people would say that it's wrong to think such a thing, but I surmise a lot of people have a nagging sensation that they're missing something in their walk with Christ. They look around and wonder if anyone else feels the same way, and when they stop wondering whether other people are struggling like they are, they chalk it up to their own deficiencies.
This side of heaven, it won't be the best it will ever be. However, I believe it can be more than it is. What I haven't exactly come to understand is whether that question is a good or a bad signal. Is it wrong to feel like something's missing and to desire that something, or is it a sign of spiritual immaturity—or even a complete lack of faith?
Whatever the answer is, I wonder how many people get back in their cars after their church meeting and grapple with the fact that the last hour or so they spent in the company of other believers was lacking in a way they can't put their finger on.
Or is it selfish to even entertain that thought?
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Tags: Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Community, Faith, Godly Character, Joy, Maturity, Revival
Gut Check #1
July 26, 2006
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Boldness, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Evangelism, Faith, Maturity Feedback : 34 comments
In the course of your lifetime, how many people have you led to Christ?
This is not a question most Christians in this country suffer well. In fact, I would predict that on first reading, an immediate objection of some kind or other crops up and the reader begins splitting hairs.
- "Define led to Christ…."
"Well, people don't actually lead others to Christ, the Holy Spirit does all the leading."
"God doesn't judge us on our ability to 'win' souls."
We want to make a doctrinal statement, but we don't want to answer the question.
I'll answer the question: perhaps a dozen that I can be certain of. There could be as many as ten times that, but only a dozen or so come to mind. I have no doubt that I've been an influential sower, but as a reaper, not so much. 
Pretty sad when you think about it. Right now, the only person I'm actively pursuing in that regard is my own child. And since he'll probably be our only child, that doesn't make me much of an evangelist right now.
My lame excuse is that I tend to focus on discipleship. Give me the new believer and let me show them how to walk out their new faith. But when it comes to real evangelism that leads to conversions, I'm a stiff.
Sadly, I've got plenty of company. The church used to place more of a responsibility for Christians to be actively sowing and reaping. Nowadays, sowing gets all the buzz, and it's a minute buzz at that. We think of evangelism as bringing someone to church to have someone else tell them about the Gospel. Us actually explain what we believe? No way. That's why our church went seeker-sensitive, wasn't it?
Twenty years ago, I routinely encountered people who tried to evangelize me. Today, it never happens. It's been at least ten years since anyone's come up to me and started into an evangelistic message.
There can be only one outcome from a Christians not sharing their faith. Those new folks in church this morning? Cannibalized from another church.
Gut Check #1: In the course of your lifetime, how many people have you led to Christ?
Comments are open and anonymous posting enabled…
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Tags: Boldness, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Evangelism, Faith, Gut-Check, Maturity
“Gut Check” Series
July 25, 2006
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Announcements, Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues Feedback : 4 comments
Announcing a new, limited series featuring questions Christians are loathe to confront.
This is not a series dealing with the standard milieu of "Did God create evil?" or "Well, what about the guy on the desert island who never got to hear the Gospel?" stumpers. No, these are more gut check questions.
Because the nature of these questions is deeply personal, feel free to respond anonymously. I will setup Cerulean Sanctum to allow for anonymous comments during the duration of the series. (After the series is over, you'll have to supply an e-mail address again.)
Stay tuned…
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Tags: Announcements, Cerulean Sanctum Series, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Gut-Check
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