Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Food Stamps Don’t Get You To Heaven

food stampsBack in March, Mr. Nicholas Jackson made the news for all the wrong reasons. On Sunday March 20, he tried to use his food stamp card (which looked a lot like a credit card) to buy a brand new BMW. Quite naturally, the dealership rejected his offer. But Jackson was not to be denied. Later that night, he broke back into the dealership grabbed the car keys and took off with his new ride. He would have had a clean get away but he forgot one little thing, gas money. It turns out he didn’t have enough money to fill up his new ride. And so, sheriffs’ deputies quickly caught up with the car thief and tossed into jail.

Mr. Jackson’s attempt to get a BMW failed because he did not have the funds to buy and operate the car. Food stamps can buy a few bags of groceries. They are worthless when it comes to buying luxury cars. And its not that shocking because food stamps were never designed to deliver big ticket items.

In much the same way, the law was not designed to save people from their sins. The law can show us our sin (it is our tutor). But, is was never designed to buy us eternal life. And if we are trusting in our own righteous works to earn our way heaven, we will miss the kingdom of God. We will wind up being tossed into hell.

Jesus makes this point in Mark 2:18-22. Fasting does not save. Avoiding certain movies, wearing the right length skirt, listening to the right music does not make us right with God. And if we trust in our works to get us to heaven, if we trust in our systems to impress God, if we trust in our traditions to make ourselves righteous we will miss heaven. Just like a food stamp card can’t by a BMW, our works can’t by salvation. Sure, they may run for a time. People may be impressed. But eventually, we will run out of gas. We will get caught.

If we are going to be like Jesus, if we are going to teach the gospel faithfully, we must never return to the law for salvation. We must never give kids the impression that obeying a bunch of commands will save them. We must never teach that salvation consists of the cross and memorizing verses, or donating to mission, or whatever else may be swirling around. Salvation exists outside of manmade systems. Fresh wineskins have arrived. Jesus prohibits us from sticking works back into the gospel.  Righteousness comes through the blood of Christ.

When little Sussie leaves our Sunday school room, we need to make sure we clearly offer Jesus and only Jesus. Yes, those who love Jesus will obey his commands. But obedience apart from love does not honor God. It’s like trying to buy a BMW with food stamps. It doesn’t work. Every time we teach our kids, we need to make sure that they know that salvation consists of only two things, repentance and belief. We just ask, and God gives us eternal life. He buys the BMW and gives us the gas money that we could never get on our own. If we add anything to the gospel, we malign God’s free gift by adding a price to it. We attempt to by a BMW with food stamps.

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why They Leave Jesus

There is perhaps nothing as discouraging as watching men and women walk away from the faith they once claimed. Jesus was betrayed by Judas. Paul was wounded by Demus. And, we are hurt by those whom we once consider our spiritual sisters and brothers.

Why Do People Leave The Church?

walking -freeAs a preschool and children’s pastor, I have read countless studies examining why people leave church. A host of reasons are offered to explain the exit of once faithful kids, youth, and adults, ranging from poor teaching to lack of organizational vision. I have even weighed into the discussion with several blogs:  Sunday School is Broken?, Successful Failures, and Don’t Be Kid Focused.   And while it’s good and healthy for us and for our churches to constantly evaluate what we are doing and what we are saying, we don’t have to employ a church strategist to figure our why people walk away from the gospel. The scriptures clearly tell us that men and women walk away from the people of God because they are unredeemed. Ultimately, the leave not because of our failure. They leave because of their failure to embrace the gospel.

In I John 2:19-20, we read

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

The scriptures are very clear. People are known by their actions. While actions do not save, they reveal the loves and desires of the heart. Those who do not love God will be greedy, will be overly focused on money, will lack self-control (esp. sexually,) will constantly stir up drama, and will be prideful, boasting in their goodness (2 Timothy 3:1-5). They may appear godly, showing up to church, serving on mission teams, and occasionally tithing, but their day-to-day actions reveal that they serve a master other than Jesus.  As I John 2:4,6 says, “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walled.” And when people leave the faith, they are have not taken a new path. They have simply revealed what path they have been on all along. Walking away from the faith is simply the most demonstrative step they can take. And now, they’ve taken it.

So what do we do? How do we respond to those who walk away?

What Do We Do?

We grieve, we rejoice, we love, and we pray.

First, we grieve. We mourn the fact that a soul is lost an under judgement. Sin is death. We should desire for all to be free from its damming power.

Next, we rejoice. Christ came to save sinners. Only those who realize that they are not saved and can realize that they need a savior. I would rather have a man leave the church, knowing he does not love Jesus than sit in the pew everyday thinking himself saved while he was speeding off to hell. Jesus came to save the sick and the hurting. The man who knows he is not saved is closer to this category, than the religious Pharisees who think their Sunday school pin impresses God.

Third, we loving present the gospel. If Mathew 18 makes anything clear, it is this: we are to patiently love those in sin. We are to go to them, we are to care for them, we are to tell them the gospel over and over again, hoping that they will believe.

And lastly, we  pray. When people walk away from the gospel, things are gloomy. But while it is impossible for us to change people and impossible for us to reason them back to Jesus, nothing is impossible with God. He can and does often save the most unsavable persons. Pray.

While it is not surprising, it is distressing to watch people walk away from Jesus. But it is never hopeless.

Have you seen a friend leave the faith? How did you and/or your church handle it?

Peter Witkowski Evangelism

Our Churches Need Troubled Kids

troubled kids blogWe’ve all been there. We hear the toilet flush. And then, the bathroom door swing opens, and we are face to face with an extended and unwashed hand. Quite naturally, most people like me find the whole situation unnerving because we do not want to touch someone who is unclean. Ugh…that’s gross. And so we find some polite around the situation such as a fist or elbow bump. Anything but a full hand embrace!

Sadly, we tend to treat people who spiritual unclean the same way. When we come across someone who has unwashed hands, we tend to walk away. We prefer the clean people. We prefer the people who dress like us, who talk like us, and who respect us. Let someone else work with the kids and adults who smell bad, steal, and take advantage of good Christians. Of course we don’t say it this way. We hide our disdain in much more religious terms. We say things like, “We want to get deep and serious about the gospel, and those unclean, sickly kids will distract from our program. We don’t want unclean people messing up our building and drinking our coffee. After all, God called us to be good stewards.”

The problem with all of this thinking is that it never justified by the scriptures.  Jesus loved unclean sinners. Jesus reached out to the spiritually sick. In Matthew 2:13-17, we read that Jesus called Levi, a tax collector. Jesus saved a man who made his living cheating his neighbors. Jesus saved the unclean man who was excluded from good church society. And not only did Jesus save Levi, he fellowshipped with him and a bunch of other bad dudes and gals. Jesus ate with them. He cared about them. He went beyond gospel proclamation. He directly invested in them.

If we are going to be like Jesus, if we are going to have ministries the reflect Jesus, if we are going to have churches that embrace Jesus, we have to witness and fellowship with the unclean. We have to care about the spiritually sick, the divorced single moms, the drug addicts, and the kids who get expelled. We have to care about them enough to share the gospel. We have to care about them enough to welcome them into our homes and churches. We have to be willing to make meals and spend late nights talking about the truths of the gospel. Sure we might lose a phone or two, wonder why there is a hole in the wall, and deal with the fact the middle schoolers are drinking coffee. But such is the Christian life. There is no other way. Why?

Jesus came to heal the sick. He came to heal those who need a physician. Friends if any of us are saved and if any of us are respectable, it is purely by the grace of God. We are nothing special. We all were just as sick and unclean as those who ruffle our good church sensibilities. If we are truly those who follow Jesus, then we have love the spiritual sick. We have to be willing to hang out with the unclean. We have to be stop seeing church only as a nice place for concerts. We have to start acting like it’s a hospital for the wounded and weary.

At the end of the day there are two groups of people. Both are sick. But only the first knows it. The second ignores their symptoms and pretends they are better than everyone else. Jesus went to those who knew they were unclean. He went to those who needed the great physician. Which group do we belong to?