The Horrible Result of Christian Hypocrisy

This morning I was stricken by Romans 2:24, which reads: 

For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. 

This passage is at the conclusion of a long rant from Paul about a lack of godliness in the Jewish people. The Jewish people were calling for the Gentiles (those outside the people of God) to live up to the values of the Old Testament Scriptures, yet they themselves were not living up to them, either. It's hypocrisy, plain and simple.

The Lord makes it clear in this verse that the hypocrisy of His people is not just reflecting poorly upon their own holiness, but it is ultimately a reason that the world is blaspheming and rejecting the Lord as their God! Can you imagine--the behavior of God's people, and lack of godliness in it, is turning people away from the Lord!

This has always been a struggle for God's people. In the Old Testament, this verse is actually stated in its original context in the prophetic books of Isaiah (who tried to get the Jews to repent of their hypocrisy before judgment came through the Babylonians) and Ezekiel (who tried to get the Jews to repent of their hypocrisy amidst their trials with the Babylonians). Then, in the New Testament, we have Peter clearly applying this principle to the church (and specifically the false converts and teachers that we fail to root out of the church), saying that our hypocrisy will lead the lost to follow our shameful ways and bring The Way, the path of Jesus Christ, into disrepute. We must not allow for this. 

To put it simply, our hypocrisy as believers leads to the world's rejection of Jesus as Lord and Savior.

There are almost an infinite number of ways that I fail to live up to what I preach and claim to believe as a follower of Jesus, but a lack of love for the Lord is the root of all of it. Because I do not love the Lord my God with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, and all of my strength as I ought, I end up failing to live according to the commands He said I would follow if I love Him. I allow other gods before Him. I make little idols out of any number of possessions, hobbies, or worldly ideals. I use His name in vain every time I refer to Him in a flippant or irreverent way (which includes half-hearted worship through singing or prayer). I fail to keep the Sabbath whenever I choose not to rest in His works and truly worship with His bride on a Sunday morning, allowing worries and distractions keep me from Him. I fail to love my neighbor or even myself as I should, all because my love for God is imperfect. 

The good news, however, is that these shortcomings in my own walk with Jesus upon The Way are what the gospel is all about! As I reflect daily on the salvation I have through Christ, which began when He knew me before I was born and will be completed throughout eternity as I walk with Him in the new earth, I become more ensnared by the beauty of His grace. As I reflect on the work of Jesus in my heart, on the cross, and on His throne today, praise and worship naturally blossoms in my being! I must daily, hourly even, remind myself of the beauty of the gospel!

Are you doing the same? Are you reflecting on the good news of Jesus to help you prevent hypocrisy among a lost world, Christian? Are you a non-Christian, and want to know more about what Jesus has done in my life? Drop in the comments below, and I'll be happy to talk with you more. 

How Do You Pray?

FINALLY a day has come that I'm not too busy to write a blog post. Today's post is all about prayer. This a topic that is very dear to my heart, and one that I continue to pursue knowledge in.

Prayer can be tricky. In theory, it's a brilliant thought. Who doesn't want to talk to God? The problem arises for many, myself included, arises when God doesn't talk back. We pray and pray and pray and we receive a dial tone on the other end. This can be frustrating, and lead people to have difficulty in finding a purpose for prayer.

I personally found prayer particularly difficult and troublesome for many years, and still struggle to pray as I should. If everyone as an Achilles heel on the Christian journey, prayer may likely be one of mine. And that is a problem, because prayer is vitally important, and truthfully, indispensable.

I was recently asked by someone "how do you pray?" This question seems simple enough, but it really is a legitimately difficult question. How does one pray? Does it need to be aloud, or internally? Big words or not? Long or short? Must you gather together with others and hold hands, or do you have to kneel beside your bed? The four-letter question I was asked is really a massive, loaded question!

To start, let's look at what Christ says about prayer when He says "you should pray like this."

"9 "Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.]"

-Matthew 6:9-13

OK, that's loaded. There's a lot of information in that prayer. Let's break it down a bit, because really this prayer can be cut into a few sections that are easily applicable to our lives.

V. 9: This prayer starts out by honoring God, coming humbly before Him. We are to acknowledge that God is holy, and because of His holiness, we should worship Him.

V. 10: Now we see Christ praying that God's kingdom would come and that His will would be done. God's kingdom has already come; He runs the universe. Everything from galaxies to atoms are in His kingdom. Instead, we are to pray that His kingdom to come more and more complete as we near the end times, when everything in His kingdom will be made perfect and untarnished again. Praying that His will would be done shows that we are following into His plan for His kingdom, and causes us to humbly follow Him.

V. 11: By asking for our daily bread, Christ means that we ask God for our needs. God will provide for us. Every day we should feel comfortable asking Him to sustain us and provide our needs for us.

V. 12: We ask for forgiveness. We sin constantly, like we are producing sin on an assembly line. We need to confess that sin to God and ask for Him to forgive us. The verse goes on to say that we ask for forgiveness, just like we forgive others. If we expect God to forgive us, it is only logical that we forgive others in the same way.

V. 13: We pray for God to keep us safe from temptation. We sin constantly, like I said above. We need to lean heavily on God to avoid falling deeper and deeper into sin and sinning more and more. Only God can help us overcome Satan and his temptations; we must rely on God to protect us from him.

Tell God He is awesome. Be excited about His plan for the world. Ask for what we need. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for protection. Those are some pretty straight-forward prayers to go after. But is that all?

-Matthew 6:5-7 says not to pray like a show-off. Long, lengthy, "babbling" prayers are not biblical and not what God wants. He wants gut-level honest prayers. Keep that long-winded, hypocritical, show-offy stuff outta here. God isn't impressed when you use big words (unless you naturally talk with big words. Then use them all over your prayers). Instead, we should just pray with whatever is on our hearts, alone if possible.

-The books of Job and Habakkuk have some prayers that are borderline crazy. These two guys got upset with God, and went off on Him. Guess what: you can too. If you feel like God has abandoned you, left you, and forgotten about you, tell Him that. Tell Him you're mad. He can handle it.

-1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 says to pray constantly. Pray all the time. In the bed, in the shower, in the bathroom, in the car, and in your football game. Pray at work, school, and home. Think of it as texting God. You don't usually send long texts, do you? Just quick little prayers like "thank you God," "help me God," or "you're awesome God" are fair game. Short and sweet works.

These are all things that have helped me in my prayer life, and I hope they help you, as well. Let's all try to follow these tips from God on how to talk to God. He wants to hear from us; don't leave Him waiting by the phone.

unChristian, Part Six: Judgmental

Luke have several friends who are, well, colorful. Luke has met these people at various places: work, college, high school. They may have multi-colored hair, tattoos, facial piercings, or other "different" physical features. They may be a bit rough around the edges, with some less desirable habits and less desirable language. They may not be interested in "cool" things or dress how "everyone else" does. Yet, they are his friends. He cares about them. They talk, hang out, whatever. Yet, Luke is not super stoked about inviting them to a church with him, be it his own or another one.

This lack of interest isn't that Luke thinks they would turn him down; they might, but that isn't holding him back. Instead, it is the attitude of people in churches that scares him. If he were to bring his friend with blue, streaky hair or his friend with a nose ring or that plays computer games eighteen hours a day or his friend with tats all over their arms, would the church members accept them? Would the church welcome them with open arms, or be appalled at their miserable fashion sense? Would the mohawked kid be a new friend, or a freak to gossip about? Sadly, this is a legitimate set of questions. Church, we have a problem.

Luke is not real, as in I am not sharing a direct story. Instead, Luke represents many young Christians in the United States, and around the world, who are concerned about the attitudes of the Church. Not that young people are perfect; in fact, youth groups can be the most intense shark tanks of vicious judgmentalism in the churches. Churches in general, though, are seen as places full of judgmental people, and I can't say that I disagree.


Think about it: if a person different from you came to your church, would you welcome them? What about all of Luke's friends I listed earlier? What about a person who is wealthier than you? Poorer? A different race than you? An individual with different political views? What about the girl that is pregnant out of wedlock, or the gangsta drug dealer? Are these people going to be met from you at the door, or will you turn your back?

These are hard questions. We do not naturally gravitate to people who are vastly different than us. There's a reason we have the friends that we have; we have things in common with them. Yet, we have a lot more in common with those different than us than we may think. We are all sinners. We all live in a fallen world full of temptations. We all have regrets. We all have no ability to save ourselves. We all need the grace and love of Christ to survive the punishment we deserve for our rebellion against the Father.

"23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -Romans 3:23, HCSB


Observe: Paul said "all." He did not say anything about "only some" have fallen short. We all did.

"19 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 20 Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." -Matthew 28:19-20, The Message Bible

Observe: Jesus said "everyone you meet." Other versions say "all nations." He doesn't say anything about "the people you meet who have things in common with you" or "the nations that are like you." He said to tell everyone about Jesus.

"6 God opposes arrogant people, but he is kind to humble people.” -James 4:6, God's Word Translation

Observe: you ain't too cool to befriend anyone. James is quoting a passage from Proverbs, saying that God doesn't like arrogant people. Fact is, you aren't too cool for anything.


This is the final unChristian post, and it is really a wrap-up of sorts. We are supposed to love everyone, and not judge them. It's God's job to judge the world, not ours. The fact is that Christ came to Earth in order to save us from our screw-ups. We are rebellious people. We go against God, but out of His love we have been offered the chance to fulfill our purpose in life: to worship and praise God through everything we do. One of the best ways we can do that is by loving the people He made, and welcoming them into His Church. This love of others, if done to it's full potential, will allow us to overcome all of these unChristian attitudes.

Hypocritical? No more. Conversion-obsessed? Gone. Antihomosexual? Not here. Sheltered? No way Jose. Too political? Nah. Judgmental? Least of all.

Who are we, Christians, to be any of these things? It's by grace that we got to come to Christ; who are we to act like we're special because of it?! I say let's open the doors to all those people that no one else accepts. Let's be the refuge for the weak, the poor, the outcast. Let's be the ones that, when all else fails, will love anyone. Will you join me in this passion to love every human on earth?

We often get caught up in correcting their sins, and not loving them. Yes, we need to tell them where they are headed the wrong way, but that should be done out of our love, not out of our superiority. There's a way to help people with their sins and still not be unChristian. It's called love.

I leave you with the last verse of Todd Agnew's song, My Jesus. If this doesn't make you think, nothing will.

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

unChristian, Part One: Hypocritical

I will never forget the time I learned this perspective on Christians, because it broke my heart. I don't remember how it got brought up, I just remember the response. Something was said about Christians, and my co-worker responded with "they are hypocrites." When I asked him to expand, he did. If it hadn't been a good thing to know his feelings truly, I may have wished I didn't ask. And of course, he had a valid point.

Christians are hypocrites, as no one can perfectly "practice what they preach." Some people use this as an excuse to dismiss a non-Christian's or outsider to the faith's opinion about our hypocrisy. However, unChristian reveals something: their opinions matter, largely because they aren't all wrong.

Victoria, a 24-year-old single mom, was one of the literally thousands of people that were interviewed or surveyed to write unChristian. She told them of her story, about how she went to the people at her former church for help. She says,

"Everyone in my church gave me advice about how to raise my son, but a lot of the time they seemed to be reminding me that I have no husband- and besides, most of them were not following their on advice. I made it hard to care what they said." Ouch.

This kind of thing happens all the time. Maybe not on the level of Victoria's, but think about it: how often has someone that is "living in sin" been a visitor at your church or appeared in some other part of your life, and you or someone you know gave them advice? I've done it before. When we are asked to advise people, it's human nature to jump at the opportunity. We enjoy the feeling that we are helping, and we love to share our opinion at any opportunity. I know I do. Unfortunately, we don't always live up the high moral pedestal that we put ourselves on by being Christian advice-givers (I prefer advice-giver to advisor, FYI).

Think about the people Christ had the most issue with when He was here: the religious leaders of the day. His biggest beef with them? They were hypocritical. They liked to make themselves look like big hot-shots, all religious and what not. Yet when it came to their attitudes and actions, they were no different from the rest of the world's population. Christ has called all of His followers to a higher standard. We are to be different from the world (not "better"; We will cover that in Part Six: Judgmental).

"1b Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees [religious leaders], which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing covered that won't be uncovered, nothing hidden that won't be made known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in an ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops." -Luke 12:1b-3, HCSB

As unChristian's research showed, though, that the root of our hypocrisy isn't how we go about life, however. It's coming from how we portray what being a Christian is all about. The general perception is that Christianity is a religion of rules and regulations, and that we do not live up to our "holy" rule set. Looking at Christianity like that, it's no surprise that we give off a hypocritical vibe! Anyone who ends up seeming as a "holy" person, be it intentional or not, will inevitably fail at some point.

The challenge is for Christians to shed this "holy" and "rule-bound" perception we give off, and there is only one way to really do that: be real with people. We, of course, must try to live our lives with integrity and purity. Those things are of much importance, and I do not mean to belittle them. The fact is, though, that we will screw up at them sometimes. But when we do, a new opportunity will arise. We may be given the opportunity to show one of the biggest beauties of the Christian faith: forgiveness of sin.

When we mess up, we can use that as a time to show that while we still mess up, w can be forgiven of our mistakes. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, not to make us sinless. We are still going to sin, and when are transparent and honest about that fact, people will look at us in a much better light. Think about it: don't you prefer when someone is open and honest with you instead of when someone is fake and two-sided? It's logical, and its easy. No longer do we worry about a facade that we must maintain; instead, just admit to your mistakes. I guarantee that you will receive more respect.

Of course, there's times to use caution. If your transparency causes someone to stumble or be tempted, that's not good. Too much transparency can also lead to glorifying sin, too, which is completely opposite to what our goal should be. Glorifying in Jesus's conquer of sin is far better. Finally, one must remember to try to live their life as closely to Christ's as we can; our mission is to be like Christ, and he was perfectly pure and sinless. We must aspire to be the same, but be willing to admit when we fall short.

This week, I challenge you to give this a try. Take your "holy mask" off. Just be straight and honest with people, and see if they take you in a separate light. When they are discussing a problem in their life, don't be afraid to admit that you mess up, too. It's a tragic human flaw, and it is one that we all have. Don't be fake and try to hide it.

As always, I am dying to read your comments and emails- so hit me up. Comment below or email me at thefreedbug@aol.com. Thanks for reading, and remember: love God, love people. Not a whole lot else matters.

Fish are Friends, Not Food

I recently watched the movie The Fisher King. The movie is about a radio talk show host named Jack, played by Jeff Bridges. Jack is a jerk, as he makes fun of people that call in to his show and looks down on people with less money than him. After a series of unfortunate events, Jack finds himself living with his girlfriend, helping her run her dinky movie store and off the radio. Jack eventually ends up meeting a homeless man named Perry (Robin Williams), and finds that he is part of the reason that Perry is homeless.

At first, Jack helps Perry in order to help his guilty feelings. After a few half-hearted attempts, Jack winds up helping Perry for real. He doesn't help Perry to make himself feel better; he helps Perry because he truly cares about Perry. This is precisely how Christians are supposed to help people- because we care about the person we are helping.

Yet, we often come across differently. In the past week or two, I have had two completely unrelated people have messaged me simply with the phrase "fish are friends, not food." This quote from Finding Nemo has been told to me randomly and in jest, yet I cannot help but compare it to reading I have been doing lately.

My latest book is unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. It is, unlike some other books that I have read recently, more a research project's results than an in-depth analysis of one topic (such as love in Francis Chan's Crazy Love). Yet, this book has held some amazing insight into the minds of people my age, particularly those outside of the church. The book's focus is on young adults (ages 18-35) feel about Christianity, and what some common, negative, viewpoints are. Trust me: the kids do not feel good about Christianity.

You see, we are seen as the sharks to their fish. We hunt around for non-Christians, helping them only to trap them and lead them into our religion. We have little concern for their problems or viewpoints or political stance; ours is the only one that matters. Instead of being helpful because we care, we are helpful to help ourselves. We forget that sharks are fish, too.

I will be looking into each of the top six negative views of Christianity that a non-Christian feels toward the religion, and discussing how we can help turn this around. I will share my shortcomings, and any stories that I may have to add to the topic. Here's the schedule of when each post will be released by (some my arrive sooner, but never later):

March 04: Hypocritical
March 11: Conversion-Obsessed
March 15: Antihomosexual
March 18: Sheltered
March 25: Too Political
April 01: Judgmental

My hope for covering these topics in-depth, diving into what both the world and the Bible says about Christianity, will open eyes. I hope Christians will read these six posts and think about whether they are being perceived as one of these things, and if there is something in their life that needs to change. I hope someone who isn't connected to the Christian faith reads these posts and finds out that the negative thoughts in their head do not necessarily reflect the truth of God's good news. All in all, I just hope these posts get people thinking and talking about a real Christian faith, not a fake, unChristian one.

Feel free to tell everyone about these, and if you have any comments about the series or anything else you want to discuss with me, my contact info is on the sidebar. :)