When the Tie That Binds Becomes the Knot That Blinds

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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.  The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too.  For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.  Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?”  So, he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.                    Acts 10:44-48(NLT)

I have wonderful memories of church services that so vividly proclaimed the mystery that is God’s church, when, as one in the bond of love, we joined hands and sang Blest Be the Tie That Binds.  I also have a few nightmares that mark the times when it was more like Cursed Be the Knot That Blinds.    

It’s been a couple of thousand years since Jesus built His church, starting with just two beams of wood.  Over that long a time it’s a little too easy to forget the struggle with which the birth took place.  We forget such things as the passion of Christ during that holy week of Hosannas with palm branches, as well as the Horror of crucifixion.  It’s no wonder Jesus gave that Last Meal image to us and told us never to forget it was His body, and His blood that purchased our freedom.  We also tend to have the memory of power struggles fade out, becoming an indeterminate mist, a shaded spot that we just don’t talk about. 

One of those shaded, easily-discarded misty memories is the reality that the Church of Jesus Christ was originally a sect of Judaism.  Lest we forget, Jesus was a Jew, and those 12 who followed him around were also Jews.  And when that early church of Apostles, persecution, wonder and miracles was faced with accepting the Goyim (Gentiles), into the club, the tie that binds got a little tangled.  The tie of God’s salvation which binds us to Heaven quickly became the knot that blinds human eyes to the dangers of Hell.

In the months and years after Jesus was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to Heaven, the church had to face whether Jesus’ words come unto me…ALL, really meant those not born into a Jewish family too.

Back then it was what family heritage you had; later it was what part of the world; much later it became whether you had enough money to buy the dead church’s indulgence for sin.  In the last few centuries the color of skin, or just how far you’ve wandered into sin has been a sticking point.  Today the church and gender/sexuality issues are the forks in the road.

Standing against all that human division is that one misty, but ultimately rock-solid truth of Jesus’ high priestly prayer that we be united, not un-tied:

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.                           John 17:21(NLT)

As those words hang in the air, they both convict us of the division of our times, and they call us to come out of spiritual blindness; to be united by being untied from our selfishness – and be better.

For You Today

Just like the choice Adam and Eve had to receive and trust God’s way, over what looked like it was a good deal, we also have the choice to be obedient disciples or renegade.  It’s like having an alphabet at your disposal with the letters u-n-i-t-e-d. 

Those letters can spell

UNITED

or

UNTIED;

It all depends on where you put the “I”.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Correction

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Tuesday, January 29, 2019

When we arrived in Macedonia, there was no rest for us.  We faced conflict from every direction, with battles on the outside and fear on the inside.  But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus.  His presence was a joy, but so was the news he brought of the encouragement he received from you.  When he told us how much you long to see me, and how sorry you are for what happened, and how loyal you are to me, I was filled with joy!  I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while.  Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways.  It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way.  For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation.  There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow.  But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.  Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong.  You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.  My purpose, then, was not to write about who did the wrong or who was wronged.  I wrote to you so that in the sight of God you could see for yourselves how loyal you are to us.  2 Corinthians 7:5-12(NLT)

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian believers was written on the fly as he travelled to the Macedonian shores, where he would establish the church at Philippi.  That letter took the church to task for their abominable behavior; they were overrun with sins of all kinds, including making a mockery of the Lord’s Supper.  

When Paul wrote that blistering letter, he had some real second thoughts about dropping it in the mailbox.  It was harsh, designed to wake up a group of very loved, but very disobedient church people.  It was like what a parent says when about to lower the boom on an unruly child – Paul wanted to write on the outside of his envelope to the Corinthians:  This is gonna hurt me more than you!

If you’ve ever heard those words coming out of the mouth of your parent, you know that you didn’t believe it then…but, with time (especially after becoming a parent) you understood the truth.  No parent who disciplines a child enjoys it; it’s hard to see your kid suffer.  But good parents do discipline their kids; if not it is the worst kind of child abuse, because the child grows up with a distorted view of why he or she is on the planet, and how his/her Creator has designed that whole action/reaction, behavior/consequences thing.                                    

I love the end of this passage as Paul points out his purpose for the letter of correction, that they might see clearly in the light of God’s correction.  When you see things as God sees, it makes any kind of correction a blessing – even if you can’t sit down for a week!

My bride, Elizabeth, recently had cataracts removed from both eyes.  Her vision has improved, both in the crispness of what she looks at, and the haze being lifted so she can see colors much better.  If you ask her about the difference, the answer you receive will be enthusiastic, detailed, and joyful.  And if you connect it to the reality that she was really nervous about somebody playing darts on her eyeballs with a laser…a tool that can split stuff…but she embraced the procedure…TWICE…you would have to deduce that Mrs. Brownworth either:

1.     enjoys not eating the night before and getting up in the wee hours to be at the surgical center before dawn (in the rain), letting a whole team of people, who, because of the masks, you wouldn’t be able to describe to the police sketch artist, pin-back your eyelids and poke around there for two hours…. or

2.     she has found the corrective procedure’s results to be a joy!

Hint – it’s #2.  No “procedure” (as they call it) can be called “fun” by any sane person, but the results are magnificent.

This is the truth with God’s correction, which God’s Word prescribes for our willful ways…it hurts, isn’t easy, and, frankly, we’d just rather not, thank you!  But, in the long run, what joy!

For You Today

Think less of the woodshed and more of the clear vision you’re going to have.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

God's Eternally Unchanging Word

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Monday, January 28, 2019

Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven.  Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created.  Your regulations remain true to this day, for everything serves your plans. Psalm 119:89-91(NLT)

One of the things pastors do is attend meetings.  Truth be told, I could do without most of them.  The meeting I attended last week reminded me why I go to meetings; sometimes I get to hear something that helps recharge my batteries.  This meeting, as others I’ve endured in the past few years, intended to keep discussion going, information flowing, and tempers cooler, did not keep my stomach from churning…but it did get me thinking.

The author, an historian, focusing on cultural mores, presented a paper on human sexuality, and how the new morality brought to the spotlight in the 1960’s is a springboard for something of a new Great Awakening[2] that allows us to grapple with our current culture’s context.  In short, this professional historian/religious seminary professor, was attempting to convince a room full of United Methodist pastors that contextual interpretation of Scripture requires, as a normal derivative of Wesleyan tradition, that we speak-up for the marginalized and oppressed; that being the whole point:  we should accept, and even normalize homosexuality and abortion.  Pardon me; did I miss something here?

It is a long (and closely held) hermeneutic that the church proclaims the Gospel and interprets Scripture TO the culture; it does not react to the culture’s desires by baptizing sin and calling it a sanctified alternative lifestyle.  The Apostle Paul warned us to run from that kind of thinking:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Romans 12:2a(NLT)

Let’s look at it from a simplified perspective, without the buzz-language or big words.  Suppose tomorrow the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 7-2 that murder, stealing, cruelty to animals, and beating your spouse are simply normal expressions of human behavior, brought on by stress.  It’s now legal to do whatever you want to do.  Should the church go back and erase commandments #6-8 and just call it a good day’s contextualization of the Scripture? 

One thing I agree with this author about, is that genuine Wesleyan people speak up for the oppressed, and against injustice.  But to label those who wish to distort God’s eternal and unchanging Word as oppressed in the name of academic redefining what God has said plainly about human sexuality is more than a stretch; it is sin.

Just to be clear, I did not say we ought to be haters, ready to stone the sinners.  If that were the case, I’d have to stone me too.  All persons are the object of God’s love, and that makes everyone someone of intrinsic value, never to be judged by me, or disparaged.  But the Word of God is our charge, our marching orders.  It would be sin to not proclaim its’ truth.

Methodology approaches to proclaiming Gospel truth may change with the shifting landscape of human cultural norms and mores, and I could be taken to task for being a cultural heretic, a dinosaur of a Bible-thumping old man, out of touch with the way people think today, but cheapening the Gospel by attempting to knock the sharp points off the Sword of the Spirit is one pill I’m not willing to swallow.

For You Today

I trust you’ll join me in praying for our world and it’s darkness.  Pray that the Morning Star will dawn on the landscape; humanity needs to see our way.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

[2] My phrase, not the author’s

"I" Problem

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Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else:  “Two men went to the Temple to pray.  One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer:  ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers.  I’m certainly not like that tax collector!  I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’  “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed.  Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’  I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God.  For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  Luke 18:9-14(NLT)

Two men went to worship; one was accepted, and one rejected.  The one was a Pharisee, a very religious person, pillar of the community; the other was a Publican, the town tax collector, certainly not the most popular guy on the block. 

Publicans were Jews, but they were unacceptable to their own people, because they worked for the Roman government taking an exorbitant tax (and even more) from their Jewish brothers.  The Publican was a despised "Benedict Arnold!"  The Pharisees were the respected religious stars of the day.

The story’s conclusion should have been a slam-dunk for the listeners – the religious guy wins, hands down!  But Jesus’ punch-line pulled a switch…the tax collector is the one who winds-up right with God, and the church elder becomes the bad guy.  What gives here?

Notice, please, the similarities and differences in worship between a religious man, and a renegade; the renegade had humility, the religious man had an “I” Problem.

They Both Stood

Both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector "stood."  The difference is in the meaning of the word.  In the case of the Pharisee (v.11), the word carries a connotation of confidence.  It is the picture of a man standing erect, without any fear.  

The Tax Collector also stood; his word meaning, "just barely there."  The Tax man was slumped over, hardly daring to lift his eyes heavenward.

So, the main difference in how a man stands, when he stands before God, is whether or not he stands with humility or arrogance.  Multiple times Scripture reminds us that  God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.^[2]

They Both Prayed

Once again the difference between two men was attitude.  The Publican asked for mercy, while the Pharisee was there to inform all within earshot (including God) just how good he really was. 

Both men told God who and what they are – and they were both right!  The Publican told the Lord he was a sinner; he asked for mercy.  In the language of the New Testament, the man actually said he was the sinner. 

This was the attitude of Paul:

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 1 Timothy 1:15(NLT)

The Pharisee, on the other hand, simply told God that he was good and didn't need mercy.  He listed all the wonderful things he did, and thanked God he wasn't like ordinary men, especially the tax collector.  His prayer was an infomercial for God to watch; God was supposed to be impressed with this good man’s goodness.

They Both Received

Jesus said that the tax collector went away from the experience having received the forgiveness of God.  The Pharisee also received something – that warm fuzzy feeling inside, that he had once again done his duty.  He'd been to church, prayed, given, fasted, lived an honest life all week, and been faithful to his wife. 

In all, he was a fine example of a Godly man.  (And didn't they all know it down there at the church house!!)  The only problem was that he'd had no real meeting with God.  Herbert Lockyer said about this religious praying man, "He asked for nothing, confessed nothing, and therefore received nothing."^[3]

Applications

   If you want to understand Pharisees, don't look outside the church.  Just look for the people who tend to judge others and stay angry. You can recognize the narrow mind.  Some say a Pharisee's mind is so narrow he could eat corn on the cob through a picket fence.  However, in looking at the motives of others in order to compare ourselves to them, we become Pharisees ourselves.  That was the religious guy’s problem, comparing his goodness to the renegade.

   If you become like the Pharisee you will remain as lost as he.  The Publican recognized he was a sinner, and asked for mercy.  The Pharisee was just completely satisfied with his own brand of religion. 

   Pharisees destroy genuine evangelism, which is telling others about the love of God.  Pharisees are more interested in how well they follow the rules.  If you really want to do God's will, don't tell God how good you are; tell others how good God is! 

The Case for Humility

A teenager once asked his mother what she got out of church.  The teen knew his mother thought the sermons were often dull and the music uninspiring.  And each time he asked her, she responded, "I don't know.  I just feel better all week when I've been to church on Sunday."  

Why did the mother feel better for having been to church?  When she was in church, she did not have to be the caring mother, the dutiful wife, the responsible neighbor - she could just be.  She did not have to do anything.  Somebody else was in charge.  Somebody else was taking care of her.^[4] 

Understand that despising the resident Pharisees won’t make you any better than they; that was the “I” problem – the Pharisee despised the tax collector for his lifestyle.  Instead, pray for yourself.  A person with genuine humility doesn’t compare himself to the best or worst of humanity.  A person of genuine humility doesn’t compare himself to others at all.

Genuine humility rests in the care of God; it understands that we are inadequate to save ourselves, or to make ourselves fit company for being in the presence of God.  Persons with genuine humility come into worship with that understanding, and they find genuine acceptance at the hand of God.  When they leave, of course they feel better – they feel, and know forgiveness.

So, if you have a tendency to be a Pharisee,  and you’ve been a good boy, or a good girl all your life, this would be a good time to have an “I” check. 

   How do you feel about the “bad” people?

   Have you asked for mercy recently?

If you don’t like the answers you heard in your own heart, you can change positions…you can leave the confident stand of the Pharisee and take up the humble stance of the Publican. 

   You stand in humility before God.

   You pray in humility, asking for mercy for your sins.

   You receive His love and welcoming embrace.

THAT’s how to put an end to the “I” problem!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

[2] James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5

[3]Herbert Lockyer, All the Prayers Of the Bible, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishers, 1959)

[4] Franklin Ishida  

Things That Make Perfect Sense

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Friday, January 25, 2019

The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.  The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  Psalm 19:7(NLT)

Some days, more than others, I need to be made wise, revived, and awake!  Maybe the Psalmist understood this because he also had a toaster in the refrigerator.

Elizabeth and I are getting to that age…well, rather we are firmly entrenched in that age…where mundane tasks can turn out anything but mundane.  I couldn’t NOT take a picture of my toaster in the fridge.  I’m the breakfast guy around this house…cook it, serve it, and clean up after it’s over.  One morning last week I was in a hurry to do the cleanup, and in all the dishwashing, trash-emptying, counter-cleaning, and putting-awaying, I grabbed the toaster and the butter dish.  The butter went in the pantry cabinet and the toaster…well…you can see.

I’m not the only one!  Elizabeth was making the bed one morning several weeks ago.  It was one of those mornings she was changing the sheets.  Out with the old, slept-on for three nights, and in with the clean and fresh that’s so inviting at the end of a day.  Our bed has a big foot board, so making the bed is no small task for one person.  You have to make many trips around the bed, pulling, tucking, and straightening sheets and covers.  One bedding change equals four walking trips to Raleigh and back.  As my bride was finishing-up this monumental chore, just smoothing-out the last few wrinkles on the quilt and precisely adjusting the 62 pillows to complete the perfect bedroom effect, Elizabeth’s eyes saw the one thing out of place on the chair over in the corner – somehow the sheet, the one that should have been underneath all those sheets, blankets, quilt and 62 pillows, was not on the bed; it was neatly folded on my chair, grinning at her from the corner of the room like a toaster peeking out from a refrigerator!  Some days it hardly seems wise to get out of bed; you’d just have to make the thing anyway.

For You Today

For human beings there are times, days, even months, and perhaps years like that (I’ll let you know if our toaster and bed misbehave more frequently than usual). 

Nobody is exempt from the wandering mind syndrome; we all occasionally (or even regularly) do the absent-minded things that can end up with the phrase:  what was I thinking? 

If that’s been your lot lately, learn to smile, and thank God it wasn’t an alligator you stuffed in the fridge, or the peanut butter you spread on your bedsheets. 

It could be worse!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Russell Brownworth, own image

Legal Limit

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Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?  For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive.  But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.  So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man.  But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.  So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point:  You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ.  And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead.  As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.  When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.  But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power.  Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.  Romans 7:1-6(NLT)

Laws are systems (typically) of what you may not do.  The Ten Commandments in Exodus are mostly negative statements (i.e. thou shalt not), and legal, negative statements can only take you so far.  For instance, if the law says thou shalt not kill, does that mean I can beat my annoying little brother half to death and, as long as he’s still breathing, I’m still within the legal limit?  Many people think so; this is why we have so many laws on the books; people find a way to get around the law’s purpose, and you have to make a new one to clarify the old one. 

In ancient times the Pharisees, teachers of the law, took the basic ten commands, and in time had developed them into more than 600 commandments, proving there’s very little simplicity in legalism.  If one word will suffice, the legal mind will find a way to confuse it with a whole dictionary.  (Same thing for preachers!)

But the law of God was never intended to restrict; the law was intended to set a minimum standard to teach us what the wrong direction looks-like, so our human proclivity to go higher than minimums, would propel us in a better direction.  That direction being that I not only wouldn’t harm my brother, but begin to care for the little nuisance.

Paul points us to marriage, and how it is until death us do part.  Once the death occurs, the marriage is still remembered with fondness, but there is release so the still-living spouse can grieve, but move-on with living.  The Apostle uses this in an analogy of our marriage relationship with the laws of God.  Rather than bind us to an endless chain of legal decisions, properly understood, the commands of God were designed to show us where life and death part ways.  Once we find that sweet spot between legalism and license (to do what we want, rather than what we ought), there is a freedom to live which legalism can’t begin to conceive.

So…how does this shake-out where the rubber meets the road?  Consider this example.  As a husband, the law tells me I have certain responsibilities towards my wife.  Until she dies I have a responsibility to treat her fairly, by not beating her, not stealing what’s hers, and supporting the children of our union financially, as well as keeping the laws of not endangering their health.  Sounds like the romance of the ages, eh?  What kind of life is there in that kind of arrangement if I just stick to the minimums, the legal limits?

On the other hand, if I set the minimum legal limits aside as too low a standard, and consider myself dead to that kind of worthless husbandry, I will be free to place my wife at the top of my interest list.  In place of a business transaction, there is joy, laughter, and a bond of soul-friendship that will last a lifetime.  The world’s view of pre-nuptial agreements can’t compare with going beyond the letter of the law all the way to the Spirit of the Law!

For You Today

When you’ve met all the legal requirements to your parents, spouse, and children, are you satisfied?  If not, it’s because you get it, that there’s life in going beyond serving self…all the way to love, which will make you do strange and wonderful things!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com