LIVING IN THE LAST HOUR

It’s just that for so many people that I know, Christianity’s this matter of… it has everything to do with morals. Christianity is a religion about morals. And they will even talk about Jesus. And they will say kids need to know about Jesus so they won’t smoke, drink, or dance, or go with girls that do, and all that kind of thing. And I kinda go, ‘That’s not why people need to know about Jesus. The only reason – The only possible excuse for talking about Jesus is because we need a Savior.’

Rich Mullins

The hardest part of being a Christian is surrendering and that is where the real struggle happens. Once we have overcome our own desire to be elevated, our own desire to be recognized, our own desire to be independent and all those things that we value very much because we are Americans and we are part of this American culture. Once we have overcome that struggle then God can use us as a part of His body to accomplish what the body of Christ was left here to accomplish.

Rich Mullins

I think I would rather live on the verge of falling and let my security be in the all-sufficiency of the grace of God than to live in some pietistic illusion of moral excellence. Not that I don’t want to be morally excellent but my faith isn’t in the idea that I’m more moral than anybody else. My faith is in the idea that God and His love are greater than whatever sins any of us commit.

Rich Mullins

We were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.

Rich Mullins

The Pharisees went after Jesus because He spoke the things His Father had told Him to speak. Jesus did not attempt to take down the Roman government because it was evil. He criticized the leaders and elders for turning the house of God into a den of thieves. He sat with sinners and tax collectors. He did not judge anyone who did not believe in Him, because He had not come to judge but to save.

John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble.

Rich Mullins had a brutal boldness for sharing the things of God. He had insight like none of his contempories. I would love to have been a fly in the wall during his conversations with the Lord. Today, sharing opinions, perspectives or even insight into the things of God has become a dangerous thing. I am not talking about sharing with unbelievers but with fellow believers. Forget about sharing political opinions. Lately, differing opinions are taken for fighting words. Tolerance has become a dirty word. Yet, no one considers how tolerant God is with the lot of us. God is longsuffering. I recall a pastor say that evil has always been present. That’s true. But then he said the reason we are here today (moral decay-I assumed) is because good men do nothing. I happen to disagree with his assesment. I believe good men do what is right in their own eyes. And it is usually wrong, has been wrong and that’s why we are here today. None seek after God. Romans 3:11

This following story is a repost from Blogger from 2017. It is about an encounter Rich Mullins had along the Appalachian trail. The publishing information is at the bottom.

The concepts of biblical parables come to life in everyday conversations. The following dialogue is often recounted in concert by Rich Mullins, who befriended a man at a steak house while hiking along the Appalachian Trial. As it was getting dark, the man, who we’ll call John, offered Rich a ride back to his campsite. As the truck pulled out of town, Rich’s new friend spoke up.

John: I probably oughta tell you that I’m gay.

Rich: I probably oughta tell that I’m a Christian.

John: Well do you want to get out of the truck?

Rich: No. It’s still getting dark, and (my camp) is still four miles up the road.

John: But I thought Christians hated gays.

Rich: That’s really weird. My understanding of what Christ told us was that Christians were to love. I didn’t know there were a lot of parameters set on that.

John: I thought God hated gays.

Rich: That’s funny, because I thought God is love, and He has no choice but to love because that is what He is.

John: Do you believe AIDS is God’s punishment on gays?

Rich: Well possibly, in the same sense that presidents are God’s punishment on voters. I mean there are consequences. We make choices, and there are natural consequences for those choices.

John: Will I go to hell for being gay?

Rich: (I was ready to go, “Well, yes, of course, you’ll go to hell for being gay.” But that was one of those moments when the Good News really impressed me. What I heard myself say was …) No, of course you won’t go to hell for being gay anymore than I would go to hell for being dishonest. The only reason anybody ever went to hell was because they rejected the grace that God so longed to give them.

John: I grew up in the church, and I’ve never heard anybody say that God loved me.

Rich: I think that of all the diseases in the world, the disease that all humankind suffers from, the disease that is most devastating to us is not AIDS, it’s not gluttony, it’s not cancer, it’s not any of those things. It is the disease that comes about because we live in the ignorance of the wealth of love that God has for us. What a great message we in the church have. It’s relevant to people with AIDS and people without AIDS. It’s relevant to homosexuals and homophobes. It’s relevant to Republicans and Democrats, to abortionists and anti-abortionists. It’s relevant across the board.

Buzz Note: This conversation was published in the June 1997 edition of CCM as part of a special edition on AIDS, Christian artists and the church. As it happens, Rich Mullins told this story during a concert I attended in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is reprinted with permission.

Posted 19th September 2017 by Buzz Trexler

Labels: CCM colum homosexuality Rich Mullins

And here we go. Stay tuned for more.