Against The Current

a blog by matthew lock pridgen

Kingdom Resources

Economics is the study of how human beings utilize a scarcity of resources. In this world, if my piece of the pie gets bigger, yours naturally gets smaller. That’s why human beings since our inception have been clamoring over stuff.

In God’s economy, the opposite is true. Because God’s Kingdom resources are unlimited, when my piece gets bigger, it doesn’t in any way take away from yours. In fact, it can actually pave the way for yours to get bigger – like drafting in auto racing. I can capitalize on your forward momentum and access more of GOD because of your progress.

Today, let’s not focus on the limitations we see with our naked eyes, but the unlimited resources of our Father God and the full access we have to him through the cross of Jesus Christ.

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Slapping Band-Aids

George Santayana once said
that “those who refuse to learn
from history are condemned to repeat it.”
And here we are yet again, doing just that.

No one can seem to understand this new generation,
so rather than looking back to learn
the lessons taught by ages past,
we look forward and theorize
and consult all of the experts
trying out the next new quick fix
in the hopes that things will get better,
yet all the while they only continue to grow worse.

we chase our kids around in an attempt to curb their erratic behavior,
but when we take away the guns, they just pick up knives.
When we take away the drugs, they take their own lives.

What we need is not behavior modification.
What we need is internal transformation.

Because it’s not good enough
to keep slapping Band-Aids
over the gaping hole in the human heart.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart,
yet so that he cannot find out what God
has done from the beginning to the end.
- Ecclesiastes 3:11

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Bible in Eleven Video

In American culture today, the Christian religion is one of great familiarity. There is a church on every street corner (in the south at least) and all you have to do to hear someone shout the name of Jesus is to visit your local municipal golf course. Yet truth is, a large portion of the population has been veiled by this familiarity to the central message that Jesus came to the earth to proclaim. This video developed by my good friend Julian Batchelor explains the gospel in a very simple and concise way. Take a look!

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Super Bowl Tickets

Watching the Super Bowl yesterday reminded me of an illustration that the Lord once gave me regarding faith. People today often use the word faith unaided, without any qualifiers whatsoever. Yet faith by itself does not mean anything, apart from the object of that faith. I can have all the faith in the world in something that does not exist, and in the end, it won’t do me any good.

Imagine for a moment that you bought a ticket to the Super Bowl from a scalper outside of the stadium on game day. You take your ticket to the gate and find to your horror that it is a counterfeit. Up to this point, you were convinced that this ticket was the real deal. It looked real, it felt real – it even smelled real. But all along, it was a fake. Although you believed with all of your heart that it would get you into the game, ultimately you were turned away.

There are many people in this world who promote many different paths to God, even inside of the Christian faith. The Bible on the other hand is very explicit that there is only one ticket into Heaven. If we show up at the pearly gates trusting in Jesus Christ as our savior, the doors will open before us. But if we attempt to enter by any other way, no matter how genuine it may seem, the doors will remain closed, and we will be unable to enter God’s paradise. Jesus is and will always be the object of the Christian faith – he alone is the rock of salvation.

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Politeness vs Love

In our world today, we have mistaken politeness for love. We think that in order to love someone, we must always say nice things and speak with a soft voice. This is politeness, not love. Picture this. Your best friend in the whole world is on a train. This train is barreling full speed ahead toward a cliff. In one minute’s time, the train will fall off the cliff, killing everyone on board. You are standing by the tracks. As the train approaches, you wave to my friend and call out politely, “Have a nice train ride!”

Love looks a little more like this. You am standing by the tracks. As the train approaches, you begin running alongside the train and yelling at the top of your lungs, “GET OFF THE TRAIN! THERE’S A CLIFF AHEAD, AND YOU’RE HEADED STRAIGHT FOR IT! IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL JUMP NOW!!!” That’s love.

Because we are so afraid of offending people, we make the mistake of engaging in politeness over love. Rather than calling it as it is, we tip-toe around the truth in order to be politically correct. So rather than proclaiming the real message of Christianity, we water it down because we are afraid to offend anyone. Jesus himself said that he is the only way to the Father God, not me. I am simply the messenger.

The truth is that all roads do not lead to the same end. In fact, none of them claim to. If you were to tell a devout Buddhist that the eightfold path will take you to Christian heaven, he would refute your claim. Not only are the roads totally different, the destinations of Nirvana and heaven are polar opposites. This concept that everyone can be right at the same time makes no sense. The majority of world religions are mutually exclusive, just as communism is to capitalism or Hegelianism is to Marxism.

Jesus himself claimed to be the only road to heaven. We must either take him at his word or leave him altogether. We do ourselves and others a great disservice when we water down his message. The Christian faith is built on the belief that the only way to be reconciled to God is through perfect righteousness and that the only way to attain perfect righteous is through Jesus Christ. No other religion in the world can bring us to this same end. And again, nor do any of them claim to.
The gospel of eternal salvation through grace is a distinctly Christian concept. Christians believe that God made the world good; man sinned and opened the door for death; Jesus paid the penalty for man’s sin; and he offers to give us his perfect righteousness. In order to access this gift of grace, we must give up on trying to save ourselves through our own merit and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We must surrender our lives to his plans and purposes, which is a small price to pay for an eternity with the God who is the author of all things.

This is the good news message, that salvation comes by no other name under heaven than Jesus Christ. Either take it or leave it – but do not try to mix and match. Jesus said that he came to bring the sword and not peace. He brings us to a point of decision, and we must choose one way or the other. I urge you to choose life in Christ. Come to the foot of the cross and find your eternal salvation.

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Sin-Sick Souls

Jesus Christ came to heal the sin-sick, not the well – and we all qualify. Jesus told the Pharisees that he could not help them because they thought they could see. In reality, they were just as blind as any other person on the street. They possessed great knowledge and wisdom, but none of their scholarly expertise could deliver them from the grave. Only Jesus can do that, which is why he came – to save sinners. We must first come to terms with our sin-sickness, and then we will be positioned perfectly to receive the cure.

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Man’s Hole-i-ness

Since the fall of man in the Garden, every human being on the planet has lived with a deep-rooted dissatisfaction buried inside of them. Simply put, we were designed to be in close relationship with God, yet due to our disobedience, we have been cut off from our lifeline. Like a suckling child without his mother, we long to be held in the loving arms of God Almighty. Some call this emptiness the God-shaped hole or the Jesus-sized vacuum, but either way, it is the source of human discontent. We feel empty because we are empty. And although the human race is constantly striving to run from this void, it is that very feeling which points us to our need for a savior. The God-shaped hole is one of the Lord’s many subtle mercies, and it is a great opportunity to explain the insatiable longing that plagues all of those who are outside of Christ.

Remember, today is the day of salvation. It’s time to make the move away from man’s hole-i-ness…and into God’s holiness.

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The Sanctity of Heaven

Imagine for a moment the parents of a young child who are getting ready to attend a wedding. They provide their son with a tuxedo that fits him perfectly and ask him to put it on. All day long, he ignores their request with the wedding rapidly approaching. The parents do everything in their power to get the tuxedo on their boy, but still he resists. Finally, the time to leave comes, and the parents are forced to make a decision. They realize that one naked child would be enough to distract from the ceremony and ruin the entire event, so they ultimately decide that he will be unable to attend the wedding.

GOD’s invitation to his perfect heaven operates in much the same way. Through Jesus Christ, God the Father has given each one of us the proper attire to wear to what the Bible calls the marriage supper of the lamb. Every day we have the opportunity to put on Christ so that we will be able to attend his glorious and eternal celebration. But if we refuse to put on Christ’s perfect righteousness, then GOD will be forced to exclude us from this perfect heaven. Because as it would only take one naked boy to disrupt and ruin the wedding, it would only take one sinner to destroy the sanctity of heaven.

The important part of the story is not what happens to the disobedient little boy. The important part of the story is that the wedding goes on without a hitch. The reality of the matter is that GOD is more interested in protecting the holiness of his perfect heaven than He is in any one person’s salvation. If heaven is not fully protected, then it doesn’t matter who gets in…because it wouldn’t be heaven at all.

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An Apology for the Faith

In writing an apologetic for the Christian faith, I feel it only appropriate to begin with an apology. I apologize for all of the ways that I don’t live up to my calling in Christ. I apologize for my failings and shortcomings that misrepresent the one person I have set my heart on representing. I am sorry for the times that my actions have turned people away from Christ because they are inconsistent with his life.

I apologize for the Christians who have perpetrated such great acts of corporate violence as the Holocaust, the Salem Witch Trials, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Crusades. These events were very real and unbelievably horrific. They are a severe misrepresentation of the one who taught us to turn the other cheek and to bless our enemies.

I apologize for the giant Cathedrals in New York and Rome. I do not apologize that great resources were expended to create something beautiful for the glory of GOD, because in GOD’s economy, there is always enough. I apologize for the way that they were built. I apologize for the abuse and neglect of the poor during and after their construction.

I apologize for the Christians who have come before me who are guilty of the same offense. I apologize for those involved in the big corporate debacles that to this day hinder people from coming to GOD, not the church, but to GOD because of their misrepresentation of Jesus Christ. I apologize for Catholic grade school. I’ve never been, but a lot of people seem to have hardened hearts as a result. Fear is a motivation that man uses to persuade people to follow GOD, or far less nobly, themselves. This is a selfish perversion of the Gospel. I apologize that so many young children were scarred by this tactic and have been driven away from GOD because they believe him to be cruel and unjust, which is so far from the case.

I apologize for the lifeless Christianity that so many in my generation have grown up with. I apologize that we have sat Sunday after Sunday in church hearing about the wonders that GOD did in ages past without ever seeing so much as a trace of them firsthand…

Lord, may your Kingdom come on this earth as it is in heaven.

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Jesus’ Subtle Redirection

When Jesus finally came on the scene in full ministry blossom, he went straight to the most marginalized members of society. From that day forward, his plan was to work from the outside in, ministering first to the weak and last of all to the powerful. When he finally did make it to the Pharisees, he always seemed to be standing next to a blind man or an adulteress or a guy with a lame hand. He would then proceed to minister to the needy in the presence of the religious elite in hopes of demonstrating opportunity. Jesus spoke through his actions that the best opportunities for ministry are not actually found in the temple, where the needy were often officially barred or at least discouraged to show their faces. No, the best opportunities for ministry are among the hurting and broken and needy.

The problem with the Pharisees was their intense suspicion of Jesus. As a result, they were completely unable to see what he was constantly trying to highlight for them. The Pharisees were intelligent, powerful and respected, which afforded them a real opportunity to help some real people with real needs. Yet the Pharisees were so obsessed with their status and reputation that they were unable to look upon anyone else outside of this capacity. From their point of view, Jesus was only interested in what they were interested in – climbing the Jewish power ladder. He was therefore seen as a threat, and they were determined not to be duped by his sleight of hand healings or distracted by his tricky demonstrations of power. Ironically though, because they refused to let him out of their crosshairs for a minute, they missed absolutely everything he desired to show them.

So rather than sitting in our favorite pew at church and waiting for something magical to pop out of the alter; rather than joining another Bible study, analyzing the original Greek and scrutinizing the text for the hundredth time; maybe rather than looking at Jesus from the outside in with our natural eyes, we should start looking at the world from inside Jesus’ mind, with his set of eyes. We are, after all, the body of Christ. And we are of one mind with Christ. Therefore we must shift our focus to see the world from Jesus’ perspective. To see what Jesus saw.

First and foremost, Jesus saw hurting and broken people – and he saw an opportunity to help. Even hanging on the cross, he saw opportunity. Today, let’s make the shift and look with Jesus’ eyes. Where are our opportunities today?

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