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Tag: #onebody

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Does God Care Whether You Like Trump?

As I watch the unfolding US elections from the safety of my home in Trinidad & Tobago it seems to me as if American Christians have gone mad. I’m trying really hard to make sense of it (insert emoji of my brain sweating).

So far, I think I’ve figured out that there is one group for whom Mr. Trump is an Elijah-styled hero taking on all that is evil in America. His abrasive personality and speech can be overlooked or even condoned because they believe that’s what is required to fight against the evil forces that is arrayed against him. They even have prophecies to back it up.

Then there seems to be another group who are more focused on the behavior and character of the man. For them, Trump represents an icon of misogyny, bigotry and divisiveness. Any positive policy decisions cannot compensate for the mere force of negativity that pours forth from his speeches and twitter feed on a daily basis.

What’s interesting is that both of these groups are Christian. So, who is right? And does God care which side of the fence we fall on? I would like to propose that God is less concerned about our opinion of Trump and far more concerned about how we navigate this highly divisive issue.

Like it or not, one thing that Martin Luther’s reformation introduced into the church was the propensity to part ways when we disagree on issues. The existence of so many different denominations within the global church and the commensurate features of separation and castigation will not be a feature of the people that reigns after the return of Jesus. There is a unification of the church that must take place as the body matures into the fullness and stature of Christ.

However, many have interpreted this unification to mean that all will come to common agreement on THE TRUTH. This may happen, but I am fully convinced that there first must be a unification of hearts before there can be a unification of minds. The skill that the 21st century church has to learn; the lesson that God is orchestrating world events to allow us the opportunity to learn; is this:  How to strongly disagree with each other while remaining in undiminished and loving covenant relationship.

The heart issue that God is putting His finger on, is how we treat the person that we disagree with on issues we feel very strongly about. Do we treat them with love and respect? Do we pursue deeper understanding and relationship? I believe 2020 has been deliberately designed by God as a year of reckoning. There has been no shortage of opportunities to part ways with our brothers and sisters:

  1. Global pandemic: From God or from the enemy?
  2. Wearing masks: Responsible act or sign of a lack of faith in God’s protection?
  3. Ban on church congregation: Responsible community partnership or infringement on religious freedoms?
  4. Black lives matter movement: An opportunity to show solidarity for victimized brothers or an evil spirit to be opposed?
  5. Trump: Friend or foe?

I believe that this is a critical moment. The stance we choose toward that ‘other’ person is now under God’s microscope more than ever before.

For me, God’s corporate demand echoes the personal demand on my heart in my marriage. There are issues on which my wife and I have different views. We both have strong opinions. We both believe we are ‘right’. So, what do we do? Parting ways is not an option. Forcing the other person to comply with our way is also not an option. So, what are the options?

  1. One of us could compromise. But if we both feel that we are doing what is right in God’s eyes then why should we go against our convictions?
  2. We could avoid the issues that we disagree on entirely. But how do we move forward in true partnership if we never discuss tough issues. How do we move forward in partnership without making any decisions on what’s important or how to tackle problems?

It seems like a puzzle that has no solution, but I believe there is one! The solution for my marriage and for the global church is the same:

  1. Choose to engage rather than to avoid.
  2. Seek to listen and understand the other point of view rather than only to propagate yours.
  3. Choose to discuss and collaborate without disrespecting, dishonouring and slandering.
  4. Seek to mend fences and include those with different views rather than separate and divide.
  5. Choose to live in the tension and unresolved-ness and patiently wait for God to work it out.
  6. Choose to trust God to work His will in and through the other person’s beliefs and methodologies even if they are wrong.
  7. Choose prayer and lovingkindness as your primary means of influencing situations rather than persuasion, lobbying or bullying. (Even when you have the power to get your way)

We, the church, are the ones charged with loving our enemies. We are the ones of whom Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) We are supposed to be the model; the leaders in humility, love and unity. We have been anything but… Our behavior on social media has been deplorable. We have led the way in bullying others to our beliefs.  2020 is our year to flip the script! It’s time to be the church!

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Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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Dear Church Family

This moment in time in America is God-ordained. Not only is the ‘coming to a head’ of race relations God-ordained, but also the fact that it happened when the world is at home and paying attention is God-ordained. The fact that blacks and whites have taken to the streets regardless of the very real danger presented by Covid-19 tells us that for many this issue is so important that it is literally worth dying for…

I sit here in the island of Trinidad where brown people are the majority. While I share not only ancestry with African Americans but also a history stained by slavery, I cannot pretend to fully understand what it means to live in America. Yet… I feel the pain of my blood brothers. I cannot ignore it and I refuse to be silent about it.

I am a Christian. That means something to me. It means that I see myself especially connected to my brothers and sisters in Christ of all races. So, in the flesh I am connected with African Americans through our shared heritage and experience, AND at the same time, in the Spirit, I am one family with my sisters and brothers of faith in America. This means that I have loved ones on both sides of this divide. In the body, in the church, there is hate… there is division and worst of all there is silence… and it hurts. It is not only the pain that one part of the body feels when the other is wounded but also the add-insult-to-injury-pain that comes when one part of the body dismisses and devalues the pain of the other.

So, I have a few things to get off my chest today.

To my white church family:

DO NOT TURN AWAY. STOP AND LISTEN. As I said, this time is God-ordained. Today, there is an opportunity presented to you. Do not miss it. The parable of the good Samaritan was Jesus’ response to a question. The question was, “Who is my neighbour?” It was asked by a Jewish lawyer who wanted to argue himself out of the requirement to love your neighbour as yourself. I see the same attitude in my white church family today.

The history of the church and race relations in America is riddled with an attempt to define black people as some ‘thing’ other than our neighbour. First, they were sub-human. Then they were 3/5 human. Now they are criminals. That is one argument I hear in the church to deflect the commandment to love: “George Floyd was high.” “George Floyd was less than an upstanding citizen.” The other argument is that our outcry is rooted in a demonic or non-Christ agenda. “Have you seen the BLM agenda?” they say. So, we are either criminals or demonic. Neither worthy of compassion it seems.

Jesus gave no such qualifications to the definition of neighbour. In fact, the focus of the parable was not the worthiness of the wounded man to receive help (that was taken as fact). The focus was on who was ACTING like a neighbour to the wounded man. We too have to choose whether to keep walking like the priest and the Levite, or to stop and tend to the wounds of our black brothers and sisters like the Samaritan. Choose. Silence is not an option that Jesus gave. The church has been silent far too long. The reason Jesus scripted the Samaritan as the ‘hero’ in this parable was an indictment to the religious leaders. It was an indictment to the ones who should have taken care of their brother but didn’t. Let’s be different.

Listen, I get it. I have visited the USA on more than 10 occasions, and I have never felt victimized. Policemen have been helpful, and for the most part I have felt safe. For many years my personal experience caused me to be ambivalent to the cries of my black brothers and sisters. Over the years, I have had to have several conversations with my family and friends who either live in the USA or studied there, to truly understand their experience. It changed me. This is not about statistics. There is no answer in statistics. Talk to people on the other side. Listen to them. This is about listening to a family member that is suffering. Uncle John may be a wonderful man to me but if my daughter said that he was abusing her you better believe that I would take her seriously (even if the statistics said that most uncles do not abuse their nieces). My experience does not give me the right to ignore and invalidate someone else’s experience. And the love of Jesus compels me to stop and tend to the wounds of my family; to show compassion.

To my black church family:

DO NOT LOSE FOCUS. STAY THE COURSE. I know you are hurting. I know you are tired. I want to remind you that we (and I say we because of the trans-Atlantic slave journey that we share) are the people who believed in the Jesus that our slave masters told us about despite the fact that they did not act like Jesus. In fact, we believed it more than them and still do! https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/07/5-facts-about-the-religious-lives-of-african-americans/

Our faith has been integral to our survival. We have only made it this far because of Jesus. Do not forget that! Speak out. Protest if you feel led too. Take action where you are led to. Engage the issues vigorously. But do not for a second think that your victory will be by your power, not His. I repeat, this is a God-ordained moment. What I mean by that is this: God has brought this issue into world view and by so doing issued a demand on the church to change. God did that. In typical God style He did it through a plague and an oppressor who refused to take his knee off the neck of his victim.

We only come out of this better as a church if we refuse to hate. If we refuse to shame. If we remain committed to relationship with our white brothers and sisters, many of whom have good intentions. Celebrate those who are willing to take a stand, and there are many (this too is from God.) There are many making safe space for black church members to be vulnerable about their experience and we in turn have to make it safe for white church members to be vulnerable about their perceptions. This cannot be done without the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need Him now more than ever! But I know we can do it… because we have done it… Listen to the prayer of a slave woman in 1816 quoted in the book ‘Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans’.

“Oh Lord, bless my master. When he calls upon Thee to damn his soul, do not hear him. Do not hear him but hear me. Save him. Make him know he is wicked and he will pray to Thee. I am afraid, O Lord. I have wished him bad wishes in my heart. Keep me from wishing him bad though he whips me and beats me sore. Tell me of my own sins instead and make me pray more to Thee. Make me more glad for what Thou has done for me a poor slave.”

Only God can so work in the heart of a human to truly live Jesus’ call to bless our enemies. I believe that few have lived this to the degree that African Americans and women have, and that is more precious than freedom. If African Americans were to gain equality and lose this love in our hearts we would have lost all. I say this not to manipulate into submission but to exhort you as a brother in flesh and Spirit to treasure and guard the love of God that lives so richly in your heart.

Finally, to all my church family. Let us come together to heal and be the Body of Christ like we never have before.

Here are three videos that demonstrate those safe spaces that I spoke about:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1P6AXjXnXc
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL83Wqlmffc
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYku4vlwnTQ

Be blessed,

Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Led By Christ Or Ruled By Fear?

As believers, we are taught to be careful of what we let into our minds, and rightly so. What we ponder has the power to influence our lives for better or for worse. However, while an attitude of vigilance or attentiveness is necessary, often what we are motivated by is just plain fear. We are afraid of being led into error by false teachers and false prophets and false doctrine… you get the idea. Our fear of the false sometimes seems to be greater than our hunger for the truth. 

Fear is from the enemy. It is the tactic he uses to keep us from reaching our full potential in Christ. God has so designed His church that each part supplies something that the others need for their growth and maturity. The church when functioning properly is like a delicately balanced ecosystem where each part supplies a need and each person/assembly is in some way connected and dependant on the others. The big challenge is that for this to work, we need to be open to receiving from people that are different. 

I’m talking about people from different churches or different denominations or just someone who sees God differently than we do. Most of us are possessed with a peculiar type of arrogance that leads us to believe that we have THE truth or that our church is THE best or that our denomination’s doctrinal stance is THE right one or that our interpretation of scripture is THE right interpretation. Viewed through those lenses, anything different is dangerous, false, and possibly even heretic. 

This is the enemy’s playground. He has us right where he wants us; steeped in self-righteousness, viewing all ‘others’ with suspicion and judgment. “Don’t listen to him, he’s not from our church!” “Don’t read that, it’s from another denomination!” “They are new age!” “She is a liberal Christian!” Religious leaders feed this nonsense as they sling mud at each other either in a mistaken belief that they are protecting the flock or in a perverted desire to keep their congregational numbers. 

I propose that no person or church has perfect theology (a highly probable proposition since no person is perfect). I further propose that every Christian and every denomination has something that we need in order to be complete in Christ. To access this treasure that God has put in earthly vessels it is prerequisite that we are open to being influenced by others who think differently to us.  

I am not saying that we believe and receive anything that anyone feeds us, but I am saying that we need to be willing to listen, willing to be wrong and willing to change. Guarding ourselves from error is not accomplished by isolating ourselves from different views or placing our trust blindly in our pastor or priest to keep us on the right track. This is actually the formula for deception and cultic tendencies! At some point in every believer’s life, something erroneous is going to come from the pulpit and if the believer has not been training his/her discernment muscle, he/she will be deceived. Avoiding deception has less to do with only receiving from one human source and more to do with receiving personal guidance from the Heavenly Source. 

Counterintuitively, we are kept on the path of truth by exercising our mind and spirit regularly through being led by the Spirit as we walk through life, discerning from the buffet of offerings that are displayed along our path. You will encounter pathways that lead away from Christ but you will also encounter pathways that lead to a deeper dimension of God. It could be in the form of a book, a podcast or a visit to a friend’s church. Only the Holy Spirit, the One entrusted to lead you into all truth, knows the path you ought to take. 

Don’t let fear trap us in a life of stagnant immaturity where we are turned inward, protecting the little flame clutched in our hands. Instead, let Christ lead us into a life lived expansively, openly, shining our light and receiving from others until our compounded conflagration sets this world ablaze with the glory of God! 

Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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The Fire Series: Hand, I Need You!

One of the most profound analogies for the church of Jesus Christ is the human body. 1 Corinthians 12:21 states:

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

This is commonly interpreted as the fact that we need each other as individuals, which is completely true. However, I believe that we can also apply this verse at a local congregation or denomination level. Every single assembly, movement and denomination that follows Christ is needed; has something valuable to offer, something without which the rest of us will never experience the fullness of Christ Himself.

It seems that the standard membership package for many churches includes a deep drink of ‘We Alone Have The Truth’ flavoured Kool-Aid. I once belonged to a church like that. We were told that we were on the ‘cutting edge’ of what God was doing in the earth and I believed it too… until. Until, I left and began to read and listen to ‘other’ stuff. Until I began to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit confirming deep truths through the mouths and pages of women and men outside of what was familiar territory up to that point.

I believe that this kind of arrogant thinking is fast becoming extinct. I see the signs in every denomination. There is arising a people who are not afraid to cross the divide and tap into the variety that is needed for the Body to grow. I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Body of Christ will not mature into the fullness of Christ unless we come to the revelation that every Christian group has something to offer that we need. It’s not a nice to have but a necessity; like a balanced diet is necessary to keep the physical body healthy.

I experience this daily with my girlfriend. She is Roman Catholic and I attend an Evangelical church (although I do not identify with any one denomination). As our relationship has grown our faith has widened and deepened. As we have shared perspectives, which are sometimes oppositional, we have come to appreciate God from different perspectives and it has enriched our walk with God immensely.

We have to be aware of the possibility that our religious leaders could be manipulating us with lies for fear of losing their flock. We have to be aware that people are afraid of anything they don’t understand. Don’t take what is said from the pulpit as the gospel (pun intended). Go visit another church one Sunday and see for yourself. Listen to the messages for yourself even if ‘they’ say that person is a heretic. More and more I have found that when people (especially very religious people) say that so-and-so church or person is teaching heresy that there is a good chance that God is in the midst. Study the bible and test every doctrine for yourself.

Like the beautiful stained glass windows often seen in churches, every person and every group may shine a different colour but together when the Son-light shines through we become a beautiful work of art crafted by the Master.

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.