West Cocoa Chat

This post was prompted by something my son said a few days ago and a conversation. At Steven’s game last week he didn’t have one of his better performances. After working his way to the lead-off position on his Stan Musial / Wood-bat League team, of whom most of the players are Junior College / College / out of College players, he went 0 for 2 with a pair of strikeouts last week.

Sidebar- In tonight’s game he went 1 for 3 with a lead-off single, a shot that went to the warning track that was flagged down by the center-fielder, and some nice plays at second. He also got invited to play in a tournament when we come back from the Work Camp.

Any way, on the way home from last week’s game, the first that we had been able to attend, Steven made the following statement about his performance. He said, “Mom, Dad, I’m sorry I let you guys down tonight. I wanted to do better.” Fortunately I had the whereto all to not critique the fact that he watched some good pitches go by but rather I said, “Steven, whether you go 0 for 2 or 4 for 4 doesn’t make a difference when it comes to your mother and me. Our love for you and pride in you is not based on your performance on the field. Rather, it is based on who you are (our son) and how you carry yourself in success and failure.

Nevertheless, he is a product of our society. Ours is a society and even an educational system that asks the question, “What have you done for me today?” Now the question I’m posing here is this, does this “performance based” mentality also permeate those of us who are Christians and does it also influence churches as well?

Recently I had a conversation in which this person told me that our church had become “marked” because of some decisions our leadership had made. Some (but not all) of these churches I’m sure respected and relished help and support from our congregation in the past. It seems however that our performance / agreement with these churches has changed or at least it has in their eyes so now we’re “marked.” Do we in our fellowship really believe in the doctrine of “church autonomy?” It seems at least in my experience even church to church we have this “what have you done for me lately” mentality or moreover, we seem to have a “do you still totally agree with us on every point of doctrine” mentality.

Now, let me state for the record that I am not “blog whining.” In fact, our Brother Pat Pugh pointed out to our teens these verses in Luke 6:

6:22 "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and cast insults at you, and spurn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.6:23 "Be glad in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.

When I think about the source of the persecution Jesus and his followers suffered, his fellow Jews, it seems apparent that it works the same even today and that’s alright. I think I’m starting to understand that if I’m not suffering persecution on a personal level as well as our church from fellow churches, we’re in trouble! Look at what Jesus says causes you to be blessed in verse 22. It isn’t one’s performance but rather if “men” hate you, ostracize you, cast insults (I’ve heard plenty of those through grapevine) at you, and spurn your very name as being evil.

No my blog family, this isn’t a blog of whining but rather a blog of praise as in praise be to God! Our right-standing before God isn’t based on mine or our churches perfect understanding of doctrine. Isn’t that good news!

I’m reminded of the words of Paul in Ephesians 2:

4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.