When the Church Gets It Right

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!

For You Today

Stand tall, believer…you’ve a calling and Master to serve today.  And you’ll encounter a lot of people who don’t know you’re out to help, not injure. 

So, go show them otherwise.

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

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Title Image:  via Wikimedia  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Ephesians 5 see Cleaning Up Our Act  or  A Life of Sacrifice

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[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

Sometimes It's Better for the Ship to Sink

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Friday, July 26, 2019

“The leaders of Judah have become like thieves.  So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall.  The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols.  I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool.  I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.  “When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria—to the great king there—but he could neither help nor cure them.  I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah.  I will tear them to pieces!  I will carry them off, and no one will be left to rescue them.  Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me.  For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me.”  Hosea 5:10-15[2]

Hosea’s prophecy is not gentle bedtime reading.  As a native of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8^th Century B.C. this man of God was familiar with the corrupt ways of God’s leaders, the priests.  He also had a front row seat to how the people had bought-into the priests’ leading, and how close to the edge this ship was to sinking into the East…namely giving allegiance to Assyria (modern day Iraq).  Hosea’s message was a severe warning of an event that colors today’s tension in the Middle East, and the ancient struggle between Isaac and Ishmael.  The prophecy came to fulfillment at the start of the 7^th Century; Israel was devastated.  Those who survived the siege were scattered and most of the young, bright men and women brought into captivity.  This was a national ship destroyed by its own rotted wood.  They had worshipped idols and it cost them everything!

At the risk of sounding like a “broken record” it’s hard to hear the familiar strains of this tune humming in the background, of ancient Israel’s having God’s blessing, then turning apostate, leaving the God they once loved, as being what is now playing out in the New Israel, God’s church falling apart with rotting timbers.

Scholars debate whether it’s just figurative imagery that Hosea really did marry a prostitute to dramatically illustrate how serious it was that a righteous God, Jehovah, would have an illegitimate bride, Israel.  It may have been that Hosea did just that; there are stranger things in God’s Word.

But, whether we have a metaphorical illustration, or a flesh and blood harlot, the message cannot be missed – Israel’s prostitution of her Godly, spiritual heritage had put them squarely in God’s crosshairs.  They were in for it!

And the point is…so are we. 

Israel turned away from the God they couldn’t see to the native culture of worshipping idols they could carve with their own hands.  That sounds alarmingly like today’s church vesting a whole lot more trust in balance sheets, demographic preferences, technology, and slick presentations…all which we can see, touch (and manipulate for greater impact), trying to get the world’s attention with the world’s methodologies…rather than a plain stepping out in faith in-between the walls of water through the Red Sea.  We have come to trust more in ourselves (leaning on our own understanding), rather than rest in the arms of Jehovah. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6

With a mild apology for co-opting a campaign slogan, the church has chosen to buy-into Making America Great Again rather than worshipping at the feet of the  One who was never anything but Magnificent!  Are we making the same mistake Hosea’s hometown made nearly 3000 years ago?  I cannot help imagining I hear the roaring young lions about ready to rip into the rotting wood of Zion’s ship.

For You Today

God is the Master Builder; the church is His ship; it belongs to no one else!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] For another devotion on Hosea 5:15 see HERE

An Apostate Comes Home

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Monday, May 10, 2019

Again a message came to me from the Lord:  “Son of man, take a piece of wood and carve on it these words: ‘This represents Judah and its allied tribes.’ Then take another piece and carve these words on it:  ‘This represents Ephraim and the northern tribes of Israel.’  Now hold them together in your hand as if they were one piece of wood.  When your people ask you what your actions mean, say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take Ephraim and the northern tribes and join them to Judah.  I will make them one piece of wood in my hand.’  “Then hold out the pieces of wood you have inscribed, so the people can see them.  And give them this message from the Sovereign Lord:  I will gather the people of Israel from among the nations.  I will bring them home to their own land from the places where they have been scattered.  I will unify them into one nation on the mountains of Israel.  One king will rule them all; no longer will they be divided into two nations or into two kingdoms.  They will never again pollute themselves with their idols and vile images and rebellion, for I will save them from their sinful apostasy.  I will cleanse them.  Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.  Ezekiel 37:15-23

I learned a long time ago that interpreting Scripture is to resist reading-into a passage what you want to see.  But there are immutable principles contained in Old Testament promises (to Israel, for instance) that apply across all experience.

God did not want a divided Israel any more than He would want a divided church.  However, God would not approve of a polluted, but united church either.  In God’s message to Ezekiel, the wooden pieces represented the divided kingdoms, put back together to be one united Israel.  The caveat for God’s covenant people is that re-uniting isn’t the whole deal; sin, pollution and apostasy cannot remain.  If Israel would continue to enjoy the blessing of God’s promised covenant they must put away their rebellious ways.  Apostasy (being fallen) must go!

In keeping with ascribing the nature of Israel’s relationship with God to the contemporary church, I see a parallel in the struggle of my own Methodist tribe.  There has been a decades-long struggle for unity in a dilemma over the acceptance of LGBTQ+ persons as normative and co-equally acceptable with heterosexuality.  This conundrum cannot be resolved absent from the apostate coming home.  The question then is, which side is apostate?

That IS the bottom line.  Either the LGBTQ+ are willful sinners and must repent of their behavior, or the Traditionalists are being Pharisaical, again-nailing Christ to the cross, and persecuting true believers; in which case, those are the ones who must come to the altar and repent.  Without humble repentance this impasse will continue like the two wood pieces of Israel, arms folded, unwilling to face each other, and refusing to come together; we remain the divided apostate church.

In this state I am so reminded of two children, fighting, angry, churlish, truculent, and so very far from their parents’ heart-hope to see maturity develop.  These children are fighting each other and cannot see how their real enemy is within, each thinking the other is the problem, when their own attitude is the real issue.

To quote Forrest Gump’s mama, stupid is as stupid does.

It would seem to me we are defining ourselves by our behavior, and Father God isn’t at all pleased with His offspring.  Perhaps it would be a good thing to divide the wood pieces and go to our neutral corners, face the wall and return to the table when we can be civil.

For You Today

I would invite you to join me in not worrying too much about the tremendous stress we see in today’s culture over the sexuality war and how it is dividing the church into fragments.  End time portions of Scripture predict the apostate church, and we are inexorably moving towards that day.  Keep your head clear to see the fields white for harvest and keep your heart open to love everyone!

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

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[1] Title Image: Christian Rohlfs [Public domain] via  Wikimedia Commons  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Boiling Point

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Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Then the Lord spoke to me again and asked, “What do you see now?”  And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water, spilling from the north.”  “Yes,” the Lord said, “for terror from the north will boil out on the people of this land.  Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem.  I, the Lord, have spoken!  “They will set their thrones at the gates of the city.  They will attack its walls and all the other towns of Judah.  I will pronounce judgment on my people for all their evil—for deserting me and burning incense to other gods.  Yes, they worship idols made with their own hands!  “Get up and prepare for action.  Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say.  Do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish in front of them.  For see, today I have made you strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured, like an iron pillar or a bronze wall.  You will stand against the whole land—the kings, officials, priests, and people of Judah.  They will fight you, but they will fail.  For I am with you, and I will take care of you.  I, the Lord, have spoken!”  

Jeremiah 1:13-19(NLT)

Samaria and Judah, the two kingdoms of Israel in the 8^th century (B.C.) were an “America kind of place”.  I characterize Israel that way because theirs was an affluent and powerful dynasty, rich in gold and possessions, with a reputation of being God’s people, respected and feared by their enemies.  It was an era where the Hebrew children of Yahweh knew they had the world by the tail!

Enter Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and all the other iah’s, and in 724BC the northern kingdom was conquered and taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  Roughly one hundred years later Jeremiah pointed back to the North and said:  Do you remember your northern neighbors?  Do you not realize the same thing will come down on your heads…for the same reason…you’ve ignored God, and He will judge you for that?  Get ready; the pot is about to boil!

It didn’t happen that same day Jeremiah preached his sermon…but 40 years later the next generation (in 587BC) experienced Babylonian fury, and the fall of the southern kingdom.  The pot boiled over…just like Jeremiah warned it would!

Many people shake their heads thinking how unfortunate, bad luck for Israel.  Friends, look closely at the words which GOD had spoken about how this was going to happen:

Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem. I, the Lord, have spoken!  Jeremiah 1:15(NLT)

This was not bad luck or misfortune…this was God making good on His promise.  And when the Babylonians and Assyrians swept over the lands God had given to His people, the devastation was overwhelming; just ask the Psalmist:

Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem.       We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.  

Psalm 137:1-2(NLT)

There were no goose bumps for the national anthem singing in Israel, no parades for the victorious warriors returning home.  The good life in the fast lane was history, along with fortunes, power, and world-class prestige.  Israel, born out of slavery to a land of milk and honey, was back where they started, slaves to the Arab world once again.  The state of the union address in those days was written with a black pen, on black paper, under a black cloud, picturing a bleak future.  God had spoken; then God acted, and those who refused to serve God, those who had rejected God, were rejected by God.

And I’m not certain our nation, born out of the struggle for freedom from religious persecution and the heavy hand of oppressors of a ruthless British Empire, has learned that lesson any more than those who received that lesson from Moses, the one who heard it directly from a burning bush.

For You Today

If there is any truth to the Scripture, and the fact that history repeats, and that God should be obeyed, not ignored, and if we love our children, and our children’s children, it is time for all people, especially America, to return to obeying and honoring God with our lives, not just our lips.

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

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[i] Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons

Glory

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Thursday, June 7, 2018

The end of the world is coming soon.  Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.  Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.  Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.  God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking?  Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.  Do you have the gift of helping others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.  1 Peter 4:7-11^(NLT)

Did Peter miss it?  He wrote that the end of the world was coming soon; did he misspeak himself?  Was he wrong?  Is Scripture somehow untrustworthy because the head of the Apostle’s group failed to prophesy accurately?  After all, in the days of ancient Israel the penalty for a prophet, one who spoke the Word of God, but didn’t have a 100% accuracy record…was stoning to death.  So, do we pick up a stone and bring Peter to the edge of town? 

Or is there an explanation we haven’t considered?

Well, for one thing, literally every person that was alive when Peter wrote those words is dead now – that happens in the course of 2,000 years.  For each of them, their world didn’t last more than several decades past the ink drying on Peter’s letter.  So, for each of the believers to whom Peter wrote, the world did end rather quickly; quickly in the sense that when they breathed their last (for some, perhaps that same day…others within a normal lifespan), it was over too quickly.  And it’s always too quickly, isn’t it?  Just ask anyone over 60 how quickly life seems to have slipped away.

But for all those to whom Peter wrote in the first century, the difference between the last breath, and the next moment is an instant, quickly, the twinkling of an eye.  One moment the body is alive, pulsating, experiencing – the next moment the spirit is gone!

The whole point with Peter’s prophecy about the world coming to an end IS a reality for every human being; we will all die someday.  But, lest I evade the point altogether, someday the world’s end will be a cataclysmic reality for everyone.  At some point of God’s choosing this world will pass away, and there will be, according to Revelation ^(21:1) a new heaven and a new earth.  And, for those who trust in Christ, there will also be new bodies, and an indescribable new life with God forever.

While this is the fondest, grandest theme of our Christian hope, there is also that part of our Christian experience that must be lived-out in the here and now.  Peter does not ignore that.  He reminds us to pray and love deeply, and to be hospitable, using our gifts to serve each other.  And to do all of it with every bit of strength we possess.  In the doing, our lives bring glory to the One we love and serve.

In sum, the Apostle is bidding all believers to leave behind a ho-hum, lackadaisical approach to our Christian faith, in favor of a vibrant, energetic, all-in embrace of the Spirit of Christ.  He is calling for our heart and soul, not just a body occupying a pew.

For You Today

With the dawning of each new day there is an opportunity to bring glory to God or contribute to the stagnant pool of unbelief; your choice…always.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

When Darkness Takes Over

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Friday, September 8, 2017

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Lift your hand toward heaven, and the land of Egypt will be covered with a darkness so thick you can feel it.”  Exodus 10:21^(NLT)

And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, “I was found by people who were not looking for me.  I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.”  But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”  Romans 10:20-21^(NLT)    

North America was in the path of totality last month.  On August 21^st the moon got in the way of sunlight, and during the course of the day darkness ruled the land.  I slept through the whole two minutes!  Ok…OK…I know I’m a bit of a curmudgeon; you might even call me a party pooper, but I was not going to spend $17.95 plus shipping and handling on Amazon for glasses to see something I’ve seen before.  And by the way, there will be another one passing over North Carolina on May 11, 2078[2] - so what’s all the fuss about missing two minutes of darkness?

God told Moses to bring about an eclipse in Egypt…darkness so thick you can feel it.  And for those who have never been in the path of totality, there really isn’t anything as surreal as a complete absence of light in the middle of the day.  I experienced that as a boy in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave.  Mom and Dad took us to that national park in the late 1950’s.  It’s a 60 year-old memory, but you don’t forget being 379 feet underground in a 500 mile long cave[3] and having the tour guide switch off the lights!  That, I imagine, was what it was like for the Egyptians when Moses lifted his hand; thick darkness!

Now, all that being said, the absence of physical light hasn’t scared me much since I was an 11 year-old in that cave.  Rather it is the darkness of the soul lacking spiritual light that evokes an alarm in me beyond description.

God spoke through Isaiah to Israel, pointing-out that the Gentiles – people who were not even seeking the true God – were going to be overwhelmed with the gift of Heaven’s light, while Israel, the chosen family of Yahweh stumbled around in darkness.  Of course this scenario of Abraham’s offspring making a mockery of God’s covenant begs a spiritual parallel with the 21^st century Christian church.  In this modern age we claim to be enlightened people, civilized, advanced and caring; we claim to be good.

What have we to lay weight to that kind of claim?  Well, the list is impressive.

·       Aborting children

·       Promiscuity among heterosexuals and blatant denial of truth about homosexuality

·       Unparalleled violence in the land

·       Greed and corruption in business and government

·       War unending

In short, we are people who claim the goodness of light, yet stumble around in the darkness, bumping into walls of sin and apostasy like the days of Noah.  The darkness has taken over.

Main conclusion:  God has promised to never destroy the earth by flood again…but He never excluded the judgment of fire from above!

And…we are ripe for it!

For You Today

It’s difficult to hear a message of gloom and doom. 

But it’s madness to ignore such a message!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/future/

[3] Kentucky Geological Survey

Faith-Wreck

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Monday, September 12, 2016

Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear.  For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.  1 Timothy 1:19^(NLT)

More than thirty five years ago I met evangelist Vance Havner.  Born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina, this Southern Baptist legend oozed wisdom couched in down-home sayings and sermonic gems.  He spoke on this passage that day, about faith that gets shipwrecked.  The gem that stuck in my mind all these years was:

Faith that Fizzles at the Finish 

was Fickle at the First

What makes for fickle-ness at the first?  According to the advice Paul gave Timothy it is tied to a failure to consistently filter your actions, words and even intentions through a conscience that is governed by the constraints of Jesus.

A number of years ago the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) movement tried to highlight this important aspect of Christian discipleship; keeping our conscience clear has to do with measuring everything we think, say and do against the life and example of Jesus.  While that “movement” devolved into cult status, the seminal thought stands well in passing the Biblical test.  Imagining Jesus doing what we are about to do is not a bad way to check our motive, and what it might reflect on the Kingdom of God.

A shipwreck of faith can happen quickly; and picking up the pieces can be like trying to gather the feathers of a pillow torn open in the wind!

The most worrisome part of Paul’s warning to the young preacher, Timothy, is that part about those who deliberately violate their conscience.  In the ancient language of the Bible, the word used means to push away, like intentionally giving a shove to something you no longer wish to have close to you. 

There are many possibilities to offer as to how people wind up in this condition, where they find a way to silence their inner voice of reason and conscience just so they can do what they want.  But one thing is certain; that condition is always born of a failure to cling to faith in Christ.  When, out of carelessness, or calculation we choose to leave off daily communing with Jesus, we are cutting the anchor line that holds our ship of faith to Christ’s kingdom.  And when you cut a ship loose to drift, it will not be long before it is in deep trouble!

For You Today

Before you hit the road today, check the anchor lines of your devotional life.  And when you find what you find, ask the question:  What would Jesus do? 

Then ask another:  Am I really satisfied with Faulty Faith that will Fizzle at the Finish?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title Image: By United States Coast Guard, Richard C. Kelsey, via Wikimedia Commons