Friday, March 20, 2020
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Ephesians 5:1-9
In the realm of science vs. religion, the flat earth
characterization of Jesus followers as somehow mentally unable to perceive
reality isn’t close to truth, even if you travel back to the Dark Ages. Scholars David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers[1]
inform us: There was scarcely a
Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's]
sphericity and even know its approximate circumference.[57] In the Fake News department,
the Church of Jesus Christ gets a lot of ink.
By that I mean there’s a lot of false information about what Christians
believe, and how the church is responsible for a culture of “hating”, an
undercurrent of bias against Christianity, based upon ignorance of reliable
history.
To apply Paul’s instructions to the Ephesian church in modern-day
Western culture, it’s time to stop living a Dark Ages mentality. I say (unashamedly so) Western so-called enlightened
culture must begin to get over itself as anything close to
healthy.
Marriage, for instance, has always been held in high regard by
Christ followers. The behavior of those
who entered marriage “lightly” and frittered away the holy standards with loose
living, low regard for fidelity within marriage, and abstinence outside of
marriage, doesn’t negate two-thousand years of the church holding the standard
high, so as to preserve the health of family – which preserves the health of
communities – which not only honors God, but elevates (and venerates, nobly so)
the status and security of all, women, men, and children. Without that elevation, social, economic,
governmental, and institutional breakdown is imminent…always hanging by a
thread.
Let’s face it, the church, not a denomination or fringe cult group
ready to drink the cool-aid, but the historical, orthodox (if you will) body of
Christ, Scriptural, Reasoning, Traditional, and Experiential church of Jesus
Christ, which, being full of human beings, sometimes messes it up so bad
because they are still living in a fallen world…yes, THAT church does
get it right. We get it right, knowing
the truth…we sometimes mess it up doing the truth.
At times, in our human frailty, we are much more the fabled
emperor wearing his birthday suit to the parade, rather
than the Bride of Christ adorned in splendor!
May I suggest we cut the church a little slack? Jesus did that with all of us, and also
encourages us to go, and sin no more!
So, go show
them otherwise.
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Go to VIDEO
[1] ^ Lindberg,
David C.; Numbers,
Ronald L. (1986). "Beyond War and Peace: A Reappraisal of the
Encounter between Christianity and Science". Church History. Cambridge
University
No comments:
Post a Comment