Micah’s First Day of School from Nate on Vimeo.

This week Anne Rice wrote on her Facebook page:  “For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

I understand that feeling.  I have felt it and in kind wanted to wash my hands from the “anti” nature of many moralistic teachings in American pulpits.  It seems that many preachers could sum up their messages on Sundays with the phrase, “You suck, try harder.”  Many in the right wing American theocracy are great at pointing to the world around them with the exclamation, “You’re lame; I am better than you.”  This is not the biblical presentation of the gospel.

We start a new series this weekend at New City called Losing My Religion.  Although I don’t plan to leave the Bride of Christ during this series, I do plan to shed my religiosity and leave my self-righteousness behind for the righteousness of Jesus.

The gospel says that I am a sinner in need of grace.  The gospel of the Bible prevents us from thinking too highly of ourselves.  The gospel prevents us from the proclamations of moral superiority, as if our morality could save us.

It hurts to hear the words of Ann Rice.  I hope she meets Christians who live the gospel, and I hope she does not paint the church with too broad a brush.  I hope she does not claim a moral superiority over the church and become merely a liberal Pharisee.   I hope that she does not become religious without Christianity.  It is so easy to be religious.

The only difference between the left and the right is where they draw the lines.  Both Democrats and Republicans divide the world into good and bad.  Biblical Christianity does not divide the world in to those categories, but into the categories of sinners in need of grace or sinners saved by grace.  When we see ourselves in contrast to the righteousness of Jesus and His salvation, we can no longer be intimidated by the boss who powers over us or feel superior to the homeless man on the street.  The gospel is an equalizer.  It humbles us because we are sinners.  It also emboldens us, as we are saved by Jesus.

We can only be  good because God is good.  Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.  Without Jesus we would all be bankrupt morally.

I want to hang out with and do life with gospel people.  Gospel people live for others and for God. This is Christianity.  Why would anyone want to leave that.  Let’s embrace the gospel-centered life and leave our religiosity behind.

Check this recent article on the NewThing website: https://www.newthing.org/

We have benefited a great deal by the NewThing network and we are proud to partner with a network that is passionate about reproducing.

I wrote the following article for my alma mater’s alumni magazine:

My church planting story begins with Florida Christian College. I was a student at the School of Visual Arts in Savannah, Georgia.  It was 1996, the second semester of my freshman year when I started to read a lot.  Camus’ The Stranger was the first in a series of books that plunged me into my very own existential crisis.  I decided to attend Florida Christian College for one semester.  Honestly, that semester I knew I would either embrace Jesus or leave him altogether.  The kind and patient professors at the college wooed me with the gospel.  Jesus called me into ministry through the college, and ultimately called me to plant a new church in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

After graduation I spent 13 years in two South Florida youth ministries.  I witnessed exponential growth in the youth ministries of First Christian Church in Boca Raton and at Community Christian Church in Fort Lauderdale.  These two beautiful seasons of ministry growth created an appetite within me, a hunger to reproduce leaders and believers.

Scott Eynon, senior pastor at Community Christian Church in Fort Lauderdale, told me that he always wants to be in a place where he “can reach the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time.”  That’s what I am hungry for.  That is why I am in New Mexico today.  New Mexico is lost.  Less than 7 percent of New Mexicans attend an evangelical church on Sunday morning.  In my city, the city Albuquerque, there are 800,000 people.  This is a dark city in need of the light of Jesus.  When I was in a dark place, God used Florida Christian College to shine the bright light of the gospel into my heart.  It is that bright light that I hope to reflect in my city.

When my family and I moved to Albuquerque, we did not know one person in the entire city.  We were moved here by particular verse of scripture, Matthew 6:10.  It was clear that we were being called to pray for and create “heaven on earth” for others in Albuquerque.  In January of this year we were able to gather 10 people in our living room for our first small group.  We had 16 by February.  On March 28 we had 40 at our first preview service.  Since then we have been meeting weekly and growing primarily by word of mouth.  We are in our fourth month, and we are now averaging about 60 people weekly.  On Sunday, July 11 we had our first baptism service with two baptisms.  At New City marriages are being mended, lives are being put back on track, souls are being saved, and all of this is the fruit of the gospel was planted in me at Florida Christian College.

We will officially launch New City Christian Church (www.newcityabq.org) on October 10, 2010.  You can join the nation wide 10-10-10 initiative and mobilize your church, small group, or friends to support our work through using the tools provided at www.101010initiative.org/.  On this site you can find a free sermon series, small group materials, and other resources to help you and your friends make a difference in Albuquerque, NM.  We are planting New City Christian Church through partnerships with NewThing Network (www.newthing.org), Stadia (www.stadia.cc), Nexus (www.nexus.us), and Christian Church Starters (www.ccsnm.net).  With your support we will be able to reach more people more quickly.  Please consider becoming a monthly supporter of New City or taking up a special collection with your church or friends.  Donations can be made online at www.newcityabq.org, or you can contact me at nate@newcityabq.org for more information. Thank you to Florida Christian College and her alumni for your support!

We started public services with around 50 people on Easter Sunday.  This first month of church for me as been truly wonderful.  Vanessa and I absolutely love New City.  This past weekend we had over 60 with 25 in Kids’ City.  Our church is so full of life.

We started the six:ten challenge this weekend.  We gave everyone in service a gift card with the challenge to give it away to a need in our community.  The responses have already been incredible.  God is working at New City and we are so thankful we get to serve in the ministry through New City.

Matthew 5:33-37.  When Micah gets caught he says, “Just kidding.”  He wasn’t “just kidding,” he was lying.  I have seen many contracts with “just kidding” written eloquently in the fine print.  It seems we never grow out of the “just kidding” phase.  This is exactly what Jesus confronting in these verses.

Jesus summarizes a number of OT texts on lying and oaths (Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2; Deuteronomy 23:21-24).  The Pharisees used oaths as a means of getting out of a contract.  According to the Pharisees, swearing by heaven or earth, God’s throne, or Jerusalem (Matthew 5:34-37; Matthew 23:16-22) was not as binding as swearing by God himself.  Jesus instructs them to stop this silly Tom Foolery.  Just make your yes a YES and your no a NO.

Some have taken Jesus’ words too literally and refused to take oaths at all, even in the court of Law.  But in the both the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 10:20) and in the New Testament (Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:18, 23; Galatians 1:20; 1 Thessalonians 2:5, 10) there are proper examples of oaths.  Even Jesus testified under oath at his own trial (Matthew 26:63-64).

Jesus is advocating honesty.  He is abolishing the “just kidding” clause.  We are not permitted to break a promise, even if our legal promises have cleverly designed loop holes (otherwise known as “Just Kidding,” “Psych,” “Gotcha!”).  We need to mean what we say (James 5:12).

As a parent this can be hard.  If I extend a contract to my child (i.e. if you do this, than I will do that), I am obligated to follow through.  If I don’t, than I am instructing my child to look for the “Just Kidding” clause.  I don’t want my kids to look for a reason to not commit to their end of an agreement; thus I must keep my end.

How does this truth apply to your life?  How do you struggle with this at home, work, with friends?

Father, help me to tell the truth!

(To see all the entries on the Sermon on the Mount click here) Matthew 5:31-32. It is clear that God hates divorce (Malachi 2:14-16).  Young couples should know that God takes marriage very seriously.  Marriage is a metaphor God gives for His relationship to us (Ephesians 5:22-23), and as two become one, a marriage contributes to the Imago Dei of humanity (Genesis 1:27).  God’s view of marriage is wonderfully sacred and mystical (Malachi 2:14-16).  God hates divorce for what it does to His glorious image in humanity and the pain it causes people as the mystical union of two becoming one is broken.  Divorce is a sin like every other sin; it needs the forgiveness that Christ has died for (Matthew 26:28; 1 John 1:9).  Forgiveness and healing awaits the believer who has suffered from the hurt caused by divorce.

Marriage was created and ordained by God and is to be between a man and a woman for life (Genesis 2:23-24).  The Bible says that a believer and unbeliever should not marry (1 Corinthians 7:39; 2 Corinthians 6:14-15).  When a spouse dies, the bond is broken, and remarriage is permissible without sin for a believing widow or widower so long as the marriage is with another believer (Romans 7:2-3; 1 Corinthians 7:39).  Though there is controversy at this point, I believe divorce may be permitted when a spouse deserts the relationship, commits adultery, or is dangerously abusive (1 Corinthians 7:15; Matthew 19:9; 1 Corinthians 7:11).

Although there are times when the Bible permits separation, remarriage can be a contentious issue.  It is my opinion that remarriage of the aggrieving, divorced spouse may be viewed as severing the former marriage so that the unmarried spouse, whose behavior did not biblically justify being divorced, may be free to remarry a believer (Matthew 19:9).

Many dads are jacked up and that’s why some people rarely spend time to think about God as a Father.  Jesus introduces the Father and child relationship to us.  It is Jesus’ relationship to His father that should be our focus.  In Luke 15:11-32 Jesus tells a story about a father and his two sons.  Two things stand out about the father in the story:  he is an approachable and forgiving father, and he is a strong and leading father.

This mixture (found most obviously in a good parent) of friendship and lordship is exactly the point of knowing God as a father.  Without this mixture, people misunderstand who God is.

God is a friend (John 15:13), but not merely a friend.  If you see God as merely a friend, you will have a weak and irrelevant faith.  If God is only a friend, He can only give you advice and not commands.  He cannot lead you.  Many people reject Christianity because many Christians have this false view of God.  They are frequently called hypocrites.

God is a lord (Deuteronomy 6:4), but not merely a lord.  If you see God as merely a lord you will never know God personally, and your attention will only focus on the details of the law.  You will either be crushed by the pressure of measuring up because you never feel welcomed into the forgiving presence of God, or you will be led into a self-righteousness.  If your acceptance by God rests solely in your obedience, you will become self-righteous and intolerant.  Many people reject Christianity because they see self-righteous Christians who stand in constant judgment of others with very little appetite for forgiveness and acceptance.

My hope is that you will know God has a father, a good father.  One who has the authority to tell you how to live and to direct your paths and one who is forgiving and accepting of you even when you fail.  A father whom you can always approach and who always has something good and authoritative to say to you.

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Matthew 5:27-30. Does Jesus intend for us to be one-eyed lusters?  Does He want a man to be an emasculated coveter of another man’s spouse?  I don’t think so.  To read this text in this way is to miss the point.  Jesus is clearly speaking hyperbolically.  However, there is a piece of you that must be cut out and replaced, but it is a surgery that you cannot perform.

On day 14 of Ed Dobson’s The Year of Living Like Jesus, he writes, “Years ago, at Liberty University, I was teaching about Jesus’ Sermon on the mount, where Jesus says, ‘If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away’ (Matthew 5:29).  After class a young male student came up to see me.  He was missing his right eye.  He said, ‘that verse- I tried it!  I have a problem with lust, so I literally gouged out my right eye.  And I’m here to tell you, I’m a left-eyed luster.’”  If you think this verse means that you can control an internal desire with an external punishment, the point that Jesus is making has slipped by you.

Death is the only way to conquer sin.  Origen is famous for having emasculated himself to guard against sexual temptation.  Origen experienced that external change, but more rule making does little to change the affections of the heart.  Paul says, in Colossians 2:20-23, that religious activities have “no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”  The only way to have victory over sin is death.  Paul says, “with Christ you died” (Colossians 2:20).  What happens when someone dies with Christ?

There are two pictures that Paul uses to help us visualize dying with Christ in Colossians 2:11-15.  One is of the Old Testament circumcision and the other of baptism.  In both something is cut away from someone.  Circumcision was never about an external cutting away, but an internal one.  Paul makes this clear in Romans 2:29.  He says, “circumcision is a matter of the heart.”  In Colossians 2:11-15 Paul says that the circumcision of Christ is Christian baptism.  It is cutting away of the self, a death of heart, mind, and body to the things of this world.  It is also a confession of life, a life lived for Jesus.

Baptism is not merely an event.  It is a confession of a new life lived for Jesus by the power His Spirit.  Religion relies upon the power of a human being to follow rules.  But Jesus was not out to create a religion.  Jesus uses the power of the spirit to change a person’s life (Romans 8:9-11), to change their desire (Galatians 5:16).

In Colossians 3 Paul gives us a strategy to allow God in.  He says to seek Christ, set your mind on things above, put to death what is earthly in you, put on the Christ, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and do whatever you do for Jesus.  The key here is simple.  Focus on Jesus.  The answer to lust in the heart is Christ in the heart.  The answer to sin is death.  Die with Christ and live for Him.  Jesus always gets the motive.  The right motive is to live for Jesus and Him alone.

How do you focus on Jesus when you are tempted?  How do you practice living for Jesus?

For me it is a moment by moment death, burial, and resurrection of the soul.

Before we soft launch in April we are gathering at my house.  We such a great group of friends her in ABQ.  We can’t wait to open up our doors to the greater community of ABQ.  We start gathering on Feb. 14 at 6:00PM.  We will meet in our home the months of February and March as we prepare to soft Launch in April.

Please feel free to email info@newcityabq,org or call Pastor Nate Bush at 505.514.0222 for more information.  The gathering will end promptly at 7:15 PM.

Seriously, no perfect people allowed.

Click below for directions.

Join us for some fun football time this Sunday, 2/7 at 4pm.  Kick-off for the Superbowl is at 4:30.  We’ll let the kiddos play while we cheer on our favorite team or watch commercials.  Bring a snack to share.

Nate and Vanessa’s place

7731 Snowy Egret Ct NW    Albuquerque, NM 87114

Matthew 5:21-26.  He stomps up the stairs when he is mad.  I hate it.  Stomping is something that I cannot tolerate.  We make Micah, our 5 year old, start over every time.   When he gets in trouble, he is not allowed to stomp off.  It is a heart issue.  If he has done wrong, he needs to accept his punishment and move on.  Punishment is not about getting the right behavior out of Micah.  It is about getting him to want the right thing, changing his heart.  Micah, like me and you, has a sinful nature that doesn’t merely affect his behavior; it affects his heart.  It affects his desires.  It affects his longings.  I want for him to long for noble and right things.  That’s why we punish stomping.  The heart is the center of what Jesus is communicating to us in His sermon.

I get what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:21-26.  He says the sixth commandment is not merely about murder.  Murder is not merely a bad behavior.  It is a symptom of a bad heart.  It starts with dehumanizing a person in your mind.  Jesus says, if you say Racca (which means empty minded) or you fool, you are already guilty murder.  You are guilty of a heart that leads to murder.  You may not have killed the person physically, but in your mind you killed their humanity.  You have said: “I am better than you.  I decide your worth.  I am a lord over you.  I judge you not worthy.”  Calling someone a fool is not a small action of ego.

Chris was a kid who needed to be humanized.  We played basketball every

Tuesday night.  This was how I did ministry in the early days of student ministry.  I was a student pastor for 13 years.  I picked kids up from school.  We ate chimichangas and played basketball.  Occasionally I would challenge the boys to the 64 ounce challenge.  I payed for their drink if they could finish before I got them all home.  Chris was the last stop that night.  He was far from God.  That night in the cab of my truck we had a great conversation that led to his conversion.  Later I would discover the 64 ounce big gulp played a role in his life change.  A week or so prior Chris spilled his Coke in my Dodge Dakota.  I didn’t get angry.  It was an accident.  I was insane about keeping my truck looking good, but I knew he didn’t mean to do it.  My reaction was kindness toward him.  I did not know the impact that this would have on him.  He needed to feel fully human.

Chris said a key text in his conversion was James 1:19.  He had had very few opportunities to see someone who was slow to anger.  Chris’s home life was filled with anger.  There was an atmosphere of judgment.  We laugh now about times when Chris’s brother came after him with a butcher knife or when Chris ripped a door off the hinges to attack his brother.  In not being angry at Chris, I made him feel human. He felt equally human and an equal with me.  Being slow to anger begins with humanizing and valuing people even beyond the love of yourself (Philippians 2:3).  In Matthew 5 Jesus says you must even love your enemy (Matthew 5:43-48). Even your enemy is equally human.

The Holocaust was fueled by two forces: the dehumanization of people in the minds of the Nazis and an anger and rage against them.  Every murder is fueled by those two forces.  The beginning of every murder is making yourself greater than someone else essentially saying, “I am more human than you are.”

We all struggle with this.  It happens in small moments throughout the day.  It happens when you have the incompetent clerk behind the desk, you’re behind the texting driver, you have a boss who is disconnected, or you have a family member who does that thing that drives you crazy.  You say it in your mind.  It is just a moment, but it happens and you say, “You fool!”  In that moment you are ripping away that person’s humanity in your mind.  You are killing them.

What circumstance causes you to say, “you fool”?  When do you struggle with this most?

Read Phillippians 2:1-30.  Meditate on the heart of Jesus.  You can change your heart with His help.  Seek His help through this text.

Father help me to see the humanity that you died for.  The humanity that you loved.  Help me to say, “Father forgive them” to my enemies, like your son Jesus did for the cross.  Help me love those who hate me.  Help me to find ways to see your nature in the people that you created.

Matthew 5:19-20. “Put me in coach!” I never had the courage to say it aloud.  It was not a lack of confidence in my abilities.  I believed I could perform.  I was a “4” man.  The small forward.  I had crazy “ups” (that’s what we used to call jumping ability).  I sat on the bench saying the words in my mind over and over again.  “Put me in coach!”  I was not afraid I would not do well; I was afraid that I would not be validated.  I was afraid that the coach wouldn’t believe in me.  I was afraid of his reaction if I said it aloud.  That has always been my temptation.  I am a fairly confident guy though I am desperate for others to think so.  I know I am competent, but if someone doubts that, it has the potential to crush me.

So I would try harder.  Every night I would do calf raises beside my bed.  I wouldn’t stop until I fell into my bed in pain.  I was determined to have ups that the coach would recognize.  I am not sure the coach ever recognized my ups, but the cheerleaders did.  I was entered into a fundraiser called “King Legs.”  It was great ego boost.  I won “King Legs” my senior year of High School.  I wore shorts every day after that.

I feel like this with God sometimes.  I work hard and look for blessings.  It would crush me if I sensed God was not pleased with me.  Whenever I sit and listen to a sermon, I say in my mind, “Put me in coach.”  Whenever I overhear someone who has a question about faith, I say, “Put me in coach.”  I want to be used by God.  I want my coach to put me in.  Maybe you feel that way about your profession.  Maybe you feel that way about whatever your heart longs for.  I think, “God, if you are happy with me, bless me with opportunity to do good.”

The key to Matthew 5:19:20 is simple: “It’s not about you, it is always and only about Jesus.”  I am no different from the Pharisees when I seek recognition for what I have done, above what Jesus has done.  When Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” He is not saying no one will be able to got to Heaven.  He is saying no one is good enough.

If I try to work hard in order to be blessed, what I am trying to do is to earn salvation.  I am trying make God indebted to me.  I want to be so good that God feels obligated to do good for me.  This is a heart issue.  Romans 10:3 says that the Pharisees, “being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”  I am in debt to God.  I will always be in debt to God.  God will never owe me anything.  This is the beauty of Grace.  God loves and blesses me anyway.  It is at his discretion and not mine.  Anything that I receive is a gift undeserved.

It is kind of punkish of me to want more than the cross.  All of my debt due to sin has been cleared.  I am righteous before God because of what Jesus has done.  How can I expect more than what Jesus has already done for me (Philippians 3:9).  It is only when I am not satisfied in Jesus that I seek to find satisfaction in the world (or His blessings).

We should NOT obey to be accepted or to be loved by God; we SHOULD obey because we have been accepted and loved by God. The Pharisees behaved for the approval and love of God and man.  I most often behave for the same reasons.  Jesus is pushing us to consider our hearts.  When you obey because you have been forgiven and not so that you will be forgiven, you will discover the essence of the Kingdom of God.  You will discover a peace, joy, hope, and motivation that exceeds earthly comprehension.  A deep sense of purpose and freedom.  This is the law of the gospel (Romans 8:2).

Father, help me to live for you.  Thank you for what you have done.  Thank you for loving and accepting me in Jesus.  Thank you for eternity with you.  I live because you live in me (Galatians 2:20).  It is not about me.  It is all about you Jesus.  Put me in the game if you want to.  I am privileged to play for you, Coach.

Matthew 5:17-18.  What do 24 and the Bible have in common?  I am into 24.  The TV show tells the same story every week.  I like knowing the Jack Bauer will come through.  Whenever the story pushes me to edge of my seat, I don’t fall off because I know the outcome.  Every 24 TV series follows the same pattern: fall, redemption, restoration.

There is always a bad guy and an evil intention.  The evil is always confronted and overcome, and life is restored to a new normal.  I want this to happen every season.  The predictability does not prevent me from being interested.  In reverse, it is the predictability that keeps me watching.

The story told in every 24 TV show is told in ever great film, book, or story that has ever been told.  It is the story that every great life lives.  When life gets bad and evil happens, humanity drifts immediately to this story line.  Haiti is destroyed by an earthquake, and the human response is palpable.  Within seconds of the tragedy people began confronting the evil.  Staring the evil down, they work courageously and tirelessly working out a redemption what has been lost.  The language quickly turns to restoration.  It’s natural.  It is RIGHT.  The conversations that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama are now having about how to restore Haiti to a new and better normal is righteous talk.  We are wired for this kind of talk.

It is written in the DNA of Humanity.  We long for a fall, redemption, restoration story.  This is the meta-narrative of life.  This is the narrative told in the Bible, the story that all other stories bow down into submission to.

Jesus confronts a fallen world through his life and death on the cross.  At the cross a fallen world is redeemed by Jesus.  When Jesus resurrects from the dead, He accomplished the restoration of all things.  The world began that day, the day of His resurrection, to be restored.  The end of the restorative age will come with a new creation.  Christians at the point of their salvation receive the gift of God’s Spirit.  At that point they become a new creation. A new normal begins for them.  Ultimately there will be a completely different normal at the re-creation of all things (Rev. 21:1-3).

The story of Jesus is the story of the Bible.  In the beginning God created (Genesis 1:1).    Then man fell away from God (Exodus 3:1-7).  God responds to man’s fall by seeking him out (Exodus 3:8-10).  The rest of the Bible explains what God is up to; ultimately has he deals with man in the present.  The Bible story is outlined consistently by fall, redemption, and restoration.  Exodus tells the story of the fall of the Israelites and God’s redemption and restoration of His people.  The book of Judges tells the story continually as a rhythm.  The feasts of the Jews tell the same story.  For example, Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) begins with the confession of sin (fall), the sacrifice for sin (redemption), and the forgiveness of sin (restoration).  Without fail this narrative shows up consistently throughout the Bible and throughout human existence.

When Jesus says in Matthew 5:17-18 that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law, He was saying I am the STORY.*  I am the subject of everything in the Bible.  When you study the scripture, you are studying ME.  In Luke 24:44-49, after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, He explains that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  In other words Jesus is the subject of the entire Old Testament.  Everything in the Bible is about Him.

We long for the fall, redemption, restoration story because we were made for that story.  It is the story about us.  It is story about God.  It is the story about life.  It is the story that we are meant to submit to.

The person far from God must confess, “I am fallen. I am a sinner in need of redemption.”  They must ask, “Jesus, please redeem me of my sin through your death and restore me through your Spirit.”

Christians who want to live like Jesus must live this story.  They must ask, “What is fallen?  How can I confront what is fallen?  How can this be restored?”  This must be the aim of the Christian.

Father, help me to live your story.

*There is more to be said than this, but this is the central and key theme.

Matthew 5:14-16. Haiti has been a light to to me.  Choupa was a young man who translated for me in Haiti.  After a week of fun, bible teaching, and soccer with our American students Choupa asked me a question.  The question displayed his innocence, an innocence from an evil present in the states, but remarkable absent in many communities in Haiti.  He asked, “How do your American kids cope with their abundance?”  Choupa continued, “I have food to eat, but I find it difficult to eat at night knowing that my neighbors go to bed and wake up hungry.”

I looked at him with a guilty heart.  His question was judging my soul.  His innocence revealed the darkness of my idol worship at the altar of consumerism.   I said, “Choupa, they don’t cope . . . the poverty of others is rarely noticed by most American minds.” If your are a typical American reading this post, you can finish my next sentence.  Most Americans want _________.

I have spent a few private moments this past week weeping for Haiti.  I have also spent some moments weeping over my slavery to the things of this world.  The news of Haitians rioting and acting out violently will soon cloud the airwaves.  News watchers will stop feeling empathy for the people of Haiti and they will start feeling sorry for them.  I hope that the reporters on the ground will fall in love with people of Haiti the way that I have.  I hope that they will meet the Choupas of Haiti.  Choupa has a strong family who loves God and serves others.  They live in poverty, but they have a richness of life that many wealthy westerners do not have.

Choupa’s question illuminated my soul.  It was a light in the dark place of my heart.  It revealed my own idol worship.  It showed just how selfish I really am.

His words made me feel guilty, but not like the preachers of my youth did. (When I was young, preachers made you feel guilty. They were always mad at the world. I think that is why they yelled a lot.) Choupa made me feel guilty because of his goodness because I had been exposed to an evil that he had not.  I had not been exposed to evil of poverty like he had.  Choupa had not been exposed to the evil of materialism that I had.  We live in totally different worlds.  I left our conversation wanting to be more like him–even in his poverty.  I think poverty a is better evil than abundance.

After having time to think about it, I have decided what motivated the question from Choupa was his love for the Americans. He was concerned for them, truly concerned that coping with their abundance might be too much for them.  The purity of his motive is what brought punch to his question.  He really cared for others.

Matthew 5:14-16  teaches Christians to be light to the world by doing good deeds.  A deed is good when its motive and form are right.  You can do good things for all of the wrong reasons.  Much of human morality is just jerry-rigged selfishness.  Why are people good parents, good employees, and philanthropists? Often because they want others to notice their good kids, good work, and giving.  Our motivation is often so that people will notice what good we have done (i.e. to notice us).  To be light to the world a person must do good for God.  The motivation has always got to be God and others (Luke 10:25-37) and not self.

Poverty is evil.  I have not learned from poverty.  I have learned from someone who emerged from poverty without a resentment for the wealth of others, but a love and compassion for others.  This love was unique and like one I had not seen before.  Abundance is not evil.  Loving it is.  I have learned to pray for more, so that I can give more.  I have learned that Christians should live like they are from a totally different world, Christians who store up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-24).  We should treasure what God treasures.  God loves his glory and people.  When our treasure becomes loving God and others, then we will be freed from the bondage of things in this present world.

Lord help the people of Haiti.  They live in the evil of poverty and death.  Help the world to know how to do good for the sake of Haitians.  Help us to do good for you.  I ask that you make a better place in Haiti–a safer place with more abundance.  I pray that you will convict the west of her addiction to things.  I ask that you would help me to be a giver and that you would give me the ability to give more.

Today was a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed sharing the news about NewCity Christian Church with New Mexico on KKIM. We hope to do more of this kind of thing soon.