Staying Out of the Ditches

(Note: Today’s blog is a little bit longer than normal. And it could be a little controversial but it’s one that I felt like I needed to post nonetheless. I also realize that most people won’t read this through to the end, but for those who do, hopefully it’ll stimulate your thinking a little bit.)

Where we live is oftentimes in the clouds- literally.

As you probably know, we live in the mountains/jungles of Campina Grande do Sul, Brazil. You have to drive about 4km up the mountain on a long-winding-bumpy-dirt road to get to our house. The road is so bumpy and has so many potholes on it that it actually resembles the surface of the moon! When we get large amounts of rain, parts of the road are impassable due to the water that runs across the road. 

About once a year the Prefeitura (the part of the Brazilian government responsible for the roads) will come in with a big machine and scrape the road for all of us ‘mountain people.’  And, when they do, they form these ditches on either side of the road so that the water will run-off either side, and into the ditches, rather than collecting in the center of the road. The ditches also serve as a buffer between us and the sheer cliffs that run almost the entire way up the mountain. The ditches show us where the boundaries are so that we don’t drive over the side of the mountain and die in a fiery car crash too. So they’re a good thing: )

Here's a tractor trailer that got too close to the ditch and fell down the 40' embankment.
This photo shows the truck already pulled back up the cliff and now
the tow truck is pulling the trailer back up to the top.

If you drive into the ditch on either side of the road, you’re either gonna get stuck or you'll plummet down the side of the mountain. Either way you'll need a tow truck to get you out.

Pica do Parana (the tallest mountain in our state) is on our road and just a little past our house. So, we have a lot of tourists who travel on our road each year trying to reach the state park that’s there. I can’t begin to tell you how many people have run into the ditches and gotten stuck on our road. But it’s been a lot. Most people get stuck because they’re too busy trying to dodge the potholes that they forget about the ditches.

So, the best place to drive on our road is in the middle. Sure, I’ll swerve to the left or to the right in an effort to miss a really big hole now and then- but usually I try to stay right in the middle of the road. That’s where it’s the safest.

Right about now you’re probably wondering, “what does this have to do with me and why is he writing about this?” Well here it is: 

“To me, it's a perfect example of how a lot of us tend to get stuck in ‘spiritual ditches’ while traveling down the road of life, when staying somewhere in the middle of the road is usually the best thing to do.”

Let me give you a couple quick examples.

When it comes to the subject of money, for instance-  we (christians) oftentimes fall into one of two ditches. 

There’s the ditch of “it’s God’s will that all His children are rich” on one side of the road. And on the other side of the road there’s the ditch of “God wants us to be poor for His glory.” 

Here’s the problem. For the first ditch, the Bible says, “that being rich makes it very difficult to enter Heaven” (Jesus said it, not me- Matthew 19:23, ). Then Paul said in I Timothy 6:6-10 “that people that desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” Read it- it’s there. So saying that all God’s children are suppose to be rich is a ditch on one side. (I could give you several more scriptural examples but for the sake of time we’ll move on.)

And the ditch on the other side (that we’re all suppose to be poor)? Well, there’s absolutely no scriptural evidence to show that God wants all His children “poor for His glory.” If we’re all poor then how will we advance the Kingdom? How can we give/sow into other people’s lives if we all have nothing? We can’t. So from what I can tell, “both views are ditches.”

To me, the biblical view of money is simple and it’s in the ‘middle of the road’:

• Work hard and make money (God blesses those who work hard)
• Live open handed (be a giver rather than just spending all your money on yourself)
• Invest wisely (in eternal things that won’t perish)
• Be content with what we have (don’t constantly chase the newest_________ for happiness)

That’s an example of  a ‘spiritual ditch.’ But, to me, one of the most blatant examples of a ‘spiritual ditch’ that I see right now is when it comes to the subject of sin.

Let’s face it. Talking about the subject of sin can be very uncomfortable, right? As a matter of fact I think we’d rather avoid the subject all together. But we can’t. The main purpose that Jesus came was to “take away sins” (I John 3:5,8). And if it’s the main thing that he came to do we can’t just avoid it and we’ve got to fight against going into ‘the ditches’ when it comes to the subject.

Here, I’ll explain. When it comes to the subject of sin; one ditch I see is when someone is out in public with a sign just yelling at everyone telling them that judgement is coming and that they’re going to Hell. You’ve probably seen them before, haven’t you? You’ll see some ‘so-called’ christian standing around with his friends (with big signs) yelling hellfire/brimstone stuff at people. I could be wrong but I don’t think that anyone has ever given their lives to Christ just because somebody yelled at them from a street corner telling them that they’re going to Hell. 

This is an actual 'christian' with a sign. It's not made up. It really makes you want to give your life to Jesus, huh? Not!

Now I can hear somebody saying, “but John the Baptist was in the wilderness telling people to repent and be baptized.” Yes, he was. But first of all you’re not John the Baptist. Secondly, he was there as a fulfillment to prophecy (Is. 40:3) telling people to get ready for the Savior of the world by repenting and being baptized. We also see that multitudes of people actually responded and were coming to him to be baptized (Matt. 3:5). He wasn't in the middle of town just shouting at everyone (and bearing no results) and only giving them one side of the story (i.e., you’re going to Hell).

So just standing on the side of the road, shouting, protesting, holding a sign- well, to me it’s a ditch on one side of the road.

If this really was Jesus (it's not, haha) I definitely think this is what his sign would say: )

Then there’s the ditch on the other side of the road. And that’s the ditch of never talking about sin and only telling people stuff like "God loves them.” This is probably the ditch that most christians (especially high profile ones on TV) tend to get into. It’s where the subject of sin is seen as taboo and it’s never brought up at all. 

The people in this ditch usually think something like this… "if we talk about how God hates sin and we’re all sinners in need of a savior- well, that could offend someone. It’s better to just tell people that Jesus loves them and that He died for them and leave out the whole ‘you're dead in your sins thing,’ right?”

And (just like in the video) when you bring this up to the people in this particular ditch they’ll usually say something like, “but the bible says that it’s the goodness of God that leads people to repentance” or something like that. Well, they’re right. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. But if you read that particular passage of scripture that they’re referring to (Romans 2:4) in context you’d see that Paul is writing to the church in Rome and warning them about judging others who live in sin while they’re living the same sins. And he’s warning them about the coming judgment and God’s wrath and to not forget about God’s goodness/kindness that was extended to them (Romans 2:1-8).

We can’t ‘soft serve’ it when it comes to the subject of sin but we also can’t just tell everyone that they’re sinners going to Hell. Both sides are ditches.

So how do we stay out of the ditches when it comes to the subject of sin? If just telling someone they’re a sinner is a ditch and if just telling someone that God loves them is the other ditch- what do we do? It’s simple. It’s both and it's in the middle of the road. 

Here’s the way I see it:

• We’re all sinners in need of a savior. I mean, seriously, look around. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
• Hell is a literal place where all sinners will go for eternity (i.e. forever). 
• Our sin has to be paid for- it has to.
• God loves us so much that He gave His all for us (His Son) and paid our debt in full.
• Life (real life) is freely available to everyone who believes and trusts in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
• Those who trust in Jesus will escape Hell and will live forever with Him in Eternity.

It’s that simple and it’s in the middle of the road. We can’t just tell people they’re going to Hell. And we can’t just tell people that Jesus loves them. Both are true but left alone they’re a ditch. We've got to proclaim both. We’ve got to tell people both sides. We can’t be ashamed. It’s His Gospel not ours. And only presenting one side is a ditch that if someone gets stuck in it- it could quite possibly cost them for an eternity.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

                                                  -Jesus (John 3:16-18)

Love Ya,

Jim

PS- There's a lot of other ditches out there too. We can't just listen to what's popular. Our theology has to be rooted and grounded in scripture and not in how we feel about certain subjects. Just something to think about.