The Hypocrisy of Virtue

I'll never forget the conversation I had with my little girl about a week after she started kindergarten.

Stephanie seemed upset as I was tucking her into bed that evening, so I asked her if anything was wrong. She looked at me sadly and said, "Daddy, it's so hard to be good, and it's so easy to get into trouble."

Oh, little girl, truer words were never spoken!

I hated to have to tell her that she was right, and that it was pretty much the way life is. We are never more than one step away from stepping in it, and the road we travel in this life is fraught with peril.

If you are a Christian, you have a big advantage in dealing with the issues of life, since you are acquainted with, and hopefully striving to live for, the Creator of the universe. Knowing God, and living as a recipient of His grace, mercy and guidance, certainly gives you a leg up on anyone in the world who is struggling to make sense of it all without any divine revelation.

The problem is, even though we know God, and have received the salvation that Jesus died to secure for us, we are still sinful human beings. We are simply sinful human beings who have been redeemed by His grace.

I love to talk to people about the Lord, because He has been so good to me. He reached down and rescued me at the lowest point of my life. In my hour of greatest need, when I was convinced that God had rejected me, He graciously wrapped His arms around me and lifted my soul up into the glory of His presence.

I can never forget what He did for me. I could spend the rest of eternity recounting the multitudes of ways that He has blessed me, guided me, and loved on me in these ensuing years. God is good, and truly His mercies are new every morning. I can never thank Him enough.

However, like the little girl said, it is so hard to be good, and so easy to get into trouble.

As Christians, we are called to be witnesses for God before an unbelieving world. The Bible says that we are ambassadors for Christ, and that we serve as priests with a ministry of reconciliation. We are supposed to let our light shine before men so that they will praise our Father in heaven. Jesus told his disciples at the last supper that the world would know that we were His followers by the love that we showed for one another.

Needless to say, we generally don't do a very good job at any of these noble pursuits.

Now some of you reading this may be so sanctified that you don't understand what I am talking about. If so, congratulations to you. You must be on the A-list.

But I am willing to wager that most people, unfortunately, are more like me. Most of us fail repeatedly at righteous living. Temptations hide around every corner, stumbling blocks litter the sidewalks, and our own sinful natures war against us without ceasing.

Every morning when your feet hit the floor, a new day of spiritual warfare begins. You live in a battle zone, and it is important that you realize it. Otherwise, you can be ensnared and caught unaware by an enemy who wants to destroy your life and your soul. We live in a fallen world, and living right will never come naturally to us.

So it is hard to go out into the world, and share the good news of the gospel with people we know, because all they have to do is look at us to see that we aren't doing all that great a job of living for God ourselves.

I call this conundrum the Hypocrisy of Virtue.

The people closest to you know what you are like. They know how you just cut off the guy in the red minivan at the intersection, or how you went off on your spouse at dinner last night because you were in a bad mood, or how you called in sick at work because you stayed up too late the night before and really just wanted to sleep in. They know when you are selfish, or spiteful, or harsh with someone else. The list could go on and on.

Unrepentant sinners like to use our failings to excuse themselves from getting serious with God. If their hearts are hard, they can look at us and tell themselves, "I'm not so bad. That hypocrite Dave is trying to talk to me about God, and look what a schmuck he is."

Thankfully, Jesus looks upon us with more compassion. Yes, Dave is a schmuck, but by God's grace, he is doing better now than he did then. He is not yet where he is supposed to be, but he is not stuck way back where he used to be, either.

I keep a little magnet on my refrigerator that always encourages me. It is shaped like a caterpillar, and the caption below it says, "Be patient, God isn't finished with me yet."

Whatever my failings may be, you are still responsible before God for your own sinfulness. Until you can humble yourself before God, admit that you need His grace, and ask Jesus to take control of your life and forgive your sins, you are lost forever.

Unless you surrender your heart to Jesus, you are doomed for eternity. As Jesus declared to Nicodemus in John 3:3 -- "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

So I'll choose to take the risk of being labeled a hypocrite. At the end of my days, I would rather stand before God as a failed saint than a successful sinner.

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From D-Day to Judgment Day?

On June 6, 1944, 66 years ago, allied troops crossed the English channel and began the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe.

Many of the young men who served in the military during WWII have passed away since then. Those who remain are in their 80s and 90s, and still carry vivid memories of the drama of those perilous times.

President Roosevelt addressed the nation, via radio, on D-Day in 1944, and led the nation in a prayer for our armed forces. You can listen to his address here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-weBUzQleo

Could a president in the secular America of 2010 lead us in prayer today? How would we respond to that? Surely there would be protests from the ACLU. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, and a host of other atheist and leftist organizations would screech like smashed cats at such an affront to their tender sensibilities by our commander-in-chief.

This is a sad commentary on how far this country has fallen away from God. Though founded by a predominantly Christian people, with a political system based on a Judeo-Christian worldview, America in 2010 is a hollow spiritual shell of it's former self.

For over 200 years we have prospered thanks to the blessings of our Creator. There was a time when this country could truly have been called a Christian nation. To be sure, America has had many failings, and there were terrible injustices committed over the years. Yet despite our mistakes, we were a beacon to the world, a light before men, and the last great bastion of liberty during so many dark years of tyranny in the world.

Unfortunately for this generation, we as a people have largely turned away from the God who created and sustained us. In the hardness of our hearts, we seem ignorant of the fact that the blessings of God on a nation are conditional. I pray that we will not be forced to discover what happens to a nation when God withdraws his blessings from it.

I hope and pray that we come to our senses ASAP and turn our hearts back towards God.

The 10th chapter of the book of Ezekiel tells a tragic story. The Lord was preparing to execute judgment against His rebellious, unrepentant people, and in anticipation of this, He took His glory away from temple in Jerusalem.

In the 22nd chapter of Ezekiel, God gives the prophet a list of the offenses that Jerusalem had committed against Him. Because of these transgressions, God's judgment was at hand. Terror and violence would soon be unleashed against the people of Jerusalem.

It is a sobering exercise to read the following verses, and then reflect on the conditions in America today.

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols, you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil.

"See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood. In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. In you are slanderous men bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. In you are those who dishonor their fathers' bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father's daughter. In you men accept bribes to shed blood; you take usury and excessive interest and make unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD." - Ezekiel 22: 1-12

Again the word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, say to the land, 'You are a land that has had no rain or showers in the day of wrath.' There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says'-when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice." - Ezekiel 22: 23-29