Want to rock the world? Offer God’s choices. Not shame.

In America, shame is as common as Ford F150s and cheeseburgers. Shaming serves as weird leverage to drive people to change. Shame is heaped on teen moms, former inmates, and folks who live in rich or poor neighborhoods. Shame whispers about the person with the risqué Easter dress or the church visitor who doesn’t know “the house rules” about seating. Shame flows through our heated and public exchanges on social media, through our public policy, economy, and politics.

Alex Jones on unsplash.com

Shaming others, when you think about it, is politically correct bullying. But what was the model Jesus demonstrated when dealing with sin, poverty, illness, or injustice? Could it be that shame short-circuits transformation – transformation in relationships, communities or systems – and implies a loathsome superiority? Who in the world wants to receive help or guidance or truth from someone who demeans people to the core?


One of the essential nuances of ministering to people – especially when they’re entangled in circumstances far different than our own – is never to shame them. Scriptures such as Romans 2:4 – “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” – offer an opportunity to sacrifice more than three seconds of reflection about how God deals with the twistedness of the world.

Skip Moen offers a compelling perspective. He says that the Hebraic view confronts choices, not a person’s inner dignity. He suggests this is the intention of Zephaniah 3:11, which uses one of the Hebrew words for shame, bosh. Moen writes on his blog:

Western shame attacks your identity, not your reputation. It is a lie! Hebrew shame, bosh, is about your outward stature, your public image. Of course, in Hebrew thought this is never far removed from what’s happening in your heart, but bosh is never about your essential unworthiness. It is about your destructive choices, and those can find atonement and forgiveness. The psychology of Western shame will keep you a prisoner forever. You cannot fix what can’t be fixed. But the Hebrew worldview doesn’t make this terrible mistake. It begins in the Garden. It knows you made terrible choices that damaged you and those around you. But a choice can be undone. Just wait.

Moen’s words are reminiscent of the Lord’s words to a sinful Israel in Isaiah 1:18:

“Come now, let's settle this," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”

One of the moving words in that passage is the word though. God saw Israel’s sin, He described its ugliness, and He offered an opportunity to put that sin behind them and watch Him transform their spiritual condition. He also beckoned them to a new path. Look at verses 19 and 20 of Isaiah 1:

“If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

At another time in Israel’s history, when the people were on the brink of a major transformation as a nation, God made another invitation through His leader Moses:

“If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth” (Deut. 28:1).

Wow. God didn’t demean. He offered choices. Options. Israel was free to choose Him. Israel was free to reject His ways (read the rest of Deuteronomy 28). He offered great benefits for decisions that followed His lead and declared the consequences for those that don’t. What would happen if we were invited – or if we invited others – into a world of transformation like that? Surely, it
would rock the world.

This is one of a series of articles Dallas Leadership Foundation will post as we prepare for Transform Dallas on April 16, 2016. To participate or donate to Transform Dallas, please visit http://www.dlftx.org/transform-dallas. 

Transform communities through God's spiritual authority

Maybe you have had times where people just don’t connect the dots like you do. Let’s say you go to the doctor. You link a certain food to a specific ailment, but you were ignored. The list can go on and on, but the point is, you may see how things match up, but others may not.

Spiral Jetty, United States by Greg Rakozy on unsplash.com

The spiritual authority delegated to followers of Jesus is a lot like that. God sees how everything connects once we come to Christ. Belief in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus changes everything. Incredible fellowship with Father God is available. Everlasting life is promised. Wisdom and prosperity of body, mind and soul become a part of life. And power – God living within – is given.

If we don’t connect all of the dots with our salvation, we miss out. Jesus suffered, died and rose so that we can live and walk in freedom. With that freedom comes responsibility. We're ambassadors for Christ who are expected to share the freedom of Christ with heavenly power. He expects us to exercise His delegated authority here on the earth. In our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, communities and nations.

The authority Jesus delegated to us, but not for authoritarian purposes. We are to push away darkness without ceremony, but with the heaven-driven intention to transform as many lives as possible. Learn how spiritual authority changes neighborhoods in this latest video from Dallas Leadership Foundation.

This is one of a a series of articles Dallas Leadership will post as we prepare for Transform Dallas 2016. To participate or donate to Transform Dallas, please visit http://www.dlftx.org/transform-dallas.

God transforms communities from the inside out

Everyone craves change.  As ubiquitous as a campaign stump speech, a business article or a pitch for a weight-loss program, everyone chases change.

What we find out during the chase is that change is hard when we do it. To make things worse, we may not fully experience the change or the changes don’t last.

It’s an essential to remember that as churches around Dallas prepare for Transform Dallas 2016. While God uses men and women, He is the One Who drives change. He initiates it from what appears to be the cocoon of impossibility, empowers it, and sustains its beauty and effectiveness. As the ministry lead for Transform Dallas 2016, those of us at Dallas Leadership Foundation don’t want to forget that.

Domink QN, unsplash.com

In God alone is the power to both unite believers and hover over our communities and ignite transformation. Think about Genesis 1:2. God viewed the world before Him that was formless and void -- tohu vavho -- and initiated sacred change. Only He had the ability to do so.

After the fall of Adam and Eve, and through the ages since then, God’s focus has been constant, forward-leading change. The patriarchs and their descendants looked to God for change. They submitted to what He identified as authentic change. They called on the attributes He revealed to them and experienced deliverance. For example, Abraham saw Him as El Shaddai, the All Sufficient God, and when God answered Hagar during her distress, she called Him El-Roi, the God Who Sees Me.

For those of us who look back to the cross and the freedom from sin Jesus secured for all those who believe in Him, we’re led to do the same as believers during the ages before the cross. We may shudder at the chaos in our world, but we must seek Him to right it as He pleases, through whom He pleases, and in the manner He pleases. We must elevate God as the Transcendent One Who overcomes the rebellious flesh within us and the rioting world around us. As Paul wrote:  

I exhort you, therefore, brothers, in view of God's mercies, to offer yourselves as a sacrifice, living and set apart for God. This will please him; it is the logical "Temple worship" for you. 

In other words, do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the 'olam hazeh [world]. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what he wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed. (Romans 12:1, 2, Complete Jewish Bible)

God renews His sons and daughters from within. He peels off self-reliance and self-absorption. He teaches us to discern the real battles and experience the victories heaven seeks. It’s interesting that the Greek word Paul uses for transform in Romans 12:2 is the same word he uses for believers being changed into His glory in 2 Cor. 3:18:

So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by ADONAI the Spirit.  (Complete Jewish Bible)

Change in us should be obvious. Lasting. Glorious, even. When it is, the transformation in our communities will rock the world.

This is the first in a series of articles Dallas Leadership Foundation will post as we prepare for Transform Dallas 2016. To participate or donate to Transform Dallas, please visit http://www.dlftx.org/transform-dallas.

Changing lives -- one Bible at a time

Every month, MaryJane Mathew receives a list of names from Pastor James Reed or a Church Prison Collaborative team member. Each name represents someone in Dallas Leadership Foundation’s faith-based dormitory who wants to grow deeper with God.

And every time, Mathew transforms the list into a forever-special gift list. How does she do it? She buys each person a personalized, quality Bible.
 

“People pass in and out of your life – what’s called fingerprints on them – and sometimes you see the immediate results of your efforts, and sometimes you don’t see them for many, many years,” said Mathew, who attends Prestonwood Baptist Church.

“My hope is that the Bible will stay with them through all their travels through life and that they will always use it as a source of power.”

She began contributing to the faith-based dorm at Hutchins State Jail after her son described his experience there.

“He was actually excited about being where he was, and I was like, well, tell me more, tell me more. And in his telling me more, he was like, ‘Mom, we don’t have a lot of current Christian music. It’s a lot of old-school music. ‘And I was like, oh, OK. I said, ‘what else do you need?’ He said, ‘well, not all of us have Bibles.’ ”

The 44-year-old Carrollton mom and 11-year realtor was all in. “I have the means, and I wanted to be able to help them out,” she said.

At first she donated G-rated movies and cases of paperback tract Bibles. Then her son asked for a study Bible. She ordered one online, but he wanted a particular version he’d seen another person at the dorm using – because he wanted to dive deeper into the Word, she said.

The gift to her son inspired an idea. She asked Pastor Reed if he was interested in giving the men Bibles published with high quality. Most people may not buy a more costly Bible for themselves, but what if they received one as a gift? 

“I thought that would be really special for somebody who’s trying to make a difference in their life. They want it, but they have to take the baby steps,” Mathew said. “And I thought how meaningful would that be to somebody who maybe doesn’t get thought of that much to have something personalized – with their own name on it – with God’s Word?”