Why We Resist Change

One of my Twitter friends tweeted a question and it goes like this: why do we resist change so much? And who conditioned us to believe that we must remain constant, stagnant or risk the loyalty of one's community?

I told her that I would respond to it via a blog and she so graciously waited till now for me to type this up.

Why do we resist change? They say it’s harder to do what’s right versus what’s easy. Change is very uncomfortable. Think about this for a minute (this is an excerpt from my blogpost Complacency & Hebrew Slaves posted April 2011): In Exodus 1, Jacob & Joseph had died and there was a new Pharaoh in town (who disregarded God's chosen people). God's people were slaves in Egypt and were treated horribly. They were treated so bad that the Egyptians wanted the Hebrew women to kill the baby boys but let the girls live.

Now fast forward a few chapters into Exodus, after Moses gets the children of Israel over the Red Sea, the children of Israel do one thing that's interesting: complain and want to go back to Egypt and be Hebrew Slaves. They said that they got food to eat, notice they neglected to say they got beaten and cruel treatment. God was trying to test their faith and rely on Him but they failed horribly.

Of course the moral to that story is that because they didn’t walk by faith as God wanted them to, they would die in the wilderness.

Luke 14:28 talks about counting the cost before you build a tower. Sadly, not everybody is willing to pay the price. So this is why many resist change.

Who conditioned us to believe that we must remain constant, stagnant or risk the loyalty of one’s community? It’s the devil, hands down! He thrives on our complacency. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 days, all they did the whole time was complain. And after Joshua got them over into the Promised Land and he died, the children of Israel went back to their ritual of complacency and worshiping whom they chose. The devil didn’t have to do too much because they voluntary chose to do this. Same holds true today. After MLK got us over to the Promised Land and was killed, we remained complacent.

I’m going to close this blog with an excerpt from What Breaks The Heart of God (Part 3 – The Partial Commission). This was posted in March 2013. I want to close it like this because our resistance to change and taking action is no different in the church walls.

Jesus (when speaking to His disciples) said in Matthew 28:19-20: Go, then to all peoples EVERYWHERE and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.

To me, everywhere includes going to people in your backyard as well as different cities, states, regions, and countries! I remember when I was a young Christian; some of us men went door to door in the city we lived in. It wasn’t to ask them to come to church; the focus was sharing the gospel, and also asking them if we could pray for them for whatever they needed. You don’t hear much about that anymore.

What created this blog was a sermon a heard a few weeks ago about this, and I thought about a conversation I had with a very good friend of mine. My friend was sharing about how churches in the area where she lives think. She said that the churches have a fire for God and sharing the gospel of Christ, but it’s in other countries. What breaks my friend’s heart (and it broke mine when she told me) is that there is a huge mission field in her area (in fact, more than 55% deny the deity of Christ and are worshiping a dead prophet). It’s been said that the churches in that region burn out in their mission work to those who deny the deity of Christ in that area; however, I have to pose a question that must be answered by us Bible-believing Christians: are we sharing the gospel on our own strength? If we are sold out for Christ and we are constantly in prayer, constantly fasting, constantly interceding for anyone who is outside the body of Christ, there’s no limit to what God can do if we would simply be obedient to the Great Commission.

The AMCC (Part 3: The Ostrich Syndrome)

I sat on this blogpost since the end of 2012. We had a guest preacher come to our church, and I was so glad that I was sitting in the back of the church. He delivered a message that left me no choice but to stand (and snoopy dance in a pre-dominant Caucasian church that’s about as quiet as a Presbyterian church) because it moved me to the core. Note I was near the exit in the back so no one could really see me (smile). Another brother (Caucasian) was also on his feet and we were both surprised that the church wasn’t moved to the core. In fact, 95% of the church felt as if he was either speaking Greek or he offended them because they were comfortable in their little seat in the church. Now mind you, my church (with both services combined) is about 1000 people. So, what was the sermon about? Getting off of your behind and fulfilling the Great Commission. To see the 95% respond as if they were appalled just showed me that some people (and not just in my church, but probably other churches in the world) are living in the ostrich syndrome. A person living with this syndrome doesn’t want to face reality, hear the truth, and hopes everything goes away by sticking his head in the sand. Many people who name the name of Christ are doing the same thing. The mentality of the ostrich syndrome in the AMCC is this: As long as it doesn’t bother me and my family (to include those in our Christian circle), I’ll stick my head in the sand. Tragically, it’s prevalent in the AMCC – I beg you, if you’re trapped either in this syndrome or in the church, please escape.

A little bit more information about the ostrich syndrome in the AMCC. Peter tells us the Jews to live among the Gentiles, but those in the ostrich syndrome are focused on separating from the world in totality. Of course, this is contrary to the “in the world, but not of it” mentality. It’s interesting that when we came out of the world, we were ecstatic. Now when we see others stuck in the world, we stick our heads in the sand and try to avoid them. That’s not fair to them (and we then sit and wonder why they won’t come to church).

OK, this was the gist of the lesson (and you will see when this is over, why this would offend someone in the AMCC) – focus scripture is 1 Samuel 14:1-23:

1. No political party will is going to ever bring reconciliation to Southeast Asia or this nation, it’s only Jesus.
2. God calls us to not be comfortable but to be courageous!
3. Tutoring for kids where schools have to clean dung off of cafeteria tables so the kids could have a free breakfast. Again, not a political issue, but a church issue.
4. We must die to self so that Christ can be glorified.
5. The church needs to step up and defend the poor and needy!
6. The church has been chillin’ too much! What do we do, be comfortable.
7. We base church success on buns (how many buns are in the seats), buildings (how big is the building) and budgets (how big is the budget).
8. The world doesn’t see who Christ really is because the church is so isolated and insulated.
9. God is calling us to get out of our comfort place
10. In the American church, we say if we don’t have it in the budget, we don’t do it.
11. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God (it doesn’t say “without it being in the budget”)
12. In the church, we live with the mindset that we have to have everything mapped out and there’s no room for God to work (thinking perhaps the Lord will be with us)!
13. If you just work out of compassion, you’re going to die! If you work out of a calling, God will fill you up and take care of you!
14. Too often in the church, we’re looking for the Red Sea experience when God is saying, “Would you just do something? Would you just put your foot in? Would you know that I am with you? Be bold and be strong and be courageous for I am with you wherever you go!”
15. The church sits back while the world goes to hell! We sit back while our neighbor is battling through everything when we’re more worried about the leaves that blow in our yard than their salvation!
16. If you’re chillin’ in your house, at your job, in your church, at your school, God cannot and will not use you! Stop waiting for God to give you a “Yes.” He’s told us to go and spread His kingdom, make disciples! We don’t have to wait for a YES!
17. Summary: we must go when we don’t have the dough; we must go when we don’t know and we must go until God says no!

What Breaks The Heart of God (Part 3: The Partial Commission)

This post is dear to my heart because I know so many people want to know the Lord Jesus Christ, but they have scales over their eyes. These people are like Saul and are searching for an Ananias like us to lay hands over them and share the gospel. Here’s what’s interesting, they’re in our state, our city and in our backyard.

Now, I don’t want to bash any mission ministry in churches. I applaud missions, and I have a heart for missions. I think the focus of missions has been misguided in some churches today (where we’re fulfilling the Partial Commission and not the Great Commission). What am I talking about? Either one of two things are the focal points when missions are talked about:

1. Talk to your next door neighbor to bring them to church
2. We’re going to share the gospel of Jesus, but it’s going to be in different countries

Jesus (when speaking to His disciples) said in Matthew 28:19-20: Go, then to all peoples EVERYWHERE and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.

To me, everywhere includes going to people in your backyard as well as different cities, states, regions, and countries! I remember when I was a young Christian; some of us men went door to door in the city we lived in. It wasn’t to ask them to come to church; the focus was sharing the gospel, and also asking them if we could pray for them for whatever they needed. You don’t hear much about that anymore.

What created this blog was a sermon a heard a few weeks ago about this, and I thought about a conversation I had with a very good friend of mine. My friend was sharing about how churches in the area where she lives think. She said that the churches have a fire for God and sharing the gospel of Christ, but it’s in other countries. What breaks my friend’s heart (and it broke mine when she told me) is that there is a huge mission field in her area (in fact, more than 55% deny the deity of Christ and are worshiping a dead prophet). It’s been said that the churches in that region burn out in their mission work to those who deny the deity of Christ in that area; however, I have to pose a question that must be answered by us Bible-believing Christians: are we sharing the gospel on our own strength? If we are sold out for Christ and we are constantly in prayer, constantly fasting, constantly interceding for anyone who is outside the body of Christ, there’s no limit to what God can do if we would simply be obedient to the Great Commission.

So, if we have a heart for lost people, share the love of Christ to someone around you. As we continue to hang with our typical group of people enjoying our salvation and point fingers at those who are lost, dying and on their way to hell, we’re seriously breaking the heart of God when He loves those who are lost and wants them to know Him for who He really is.