The Argument

 ^[1]

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing.  So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people.  And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.  John 3:25-27^(NLT)

Reading arguments is a Facebook™ staple!  The warnings from years ago have proven true; the anonymity of social media – at least the lack of face-to-face (and isn’t THAT ironic on Facebook) – has provided a medium which dehumanizes humans, and allows much more boldness (read that:  crude, cruel and no-consequences interaction). Opinions – both considered, as well as flagrantly hip-fired – volley back and forth in the posts and comments.  

And great is the carnage of friendships and character!

And there is no such thing as a “winner” or even an end to these debates arguments; the comments roll-on into the internet stratosphere, multiplying until Jesus returns.

Irony persists – certainly on this page; a blog, this Rocky Road Devotional is little more than an extended comment for the social media pot.  (Thought I’d go ahead and admit that before anyone has a chance to comment).

The debate between John’s disciples and others was Facebook for the first century; ego and vitriol are not new.

The Baptist’s ministry was winding-down and Jesus was the new face to follow in the crowd.  His Facebook account had more hits than Madonna, and Twitter was blowing up with Jesus sightings.  Pinterest couldn’t get enough of the new preacher.

John’s disciples couldn’t handle it.

But John could; he simply let his followers know that the salvation they were proclaiming was walking in front of them now.  The Kingdom of God was here.  The advertising season was over, the debate closed, and their campaign victorious!  Now it was time to step aside and let Jesus be seen.

And that is our set of marching orders…let Jesus be seen.

The biggest set of irony here is the debate over which is greatest, the sign pointing to the Kingdom, or the Kingdom itself.  From our perspective twenty centuries later, it seems ludicrous that the Baptist’s disciples would confuse that point.  But we’re not much different, arguing over contemporary music or traditional, King James or Revised Standard, or (my favorite) Wesley over Calvin.

We are good at straining-out gnats and swallowing camels!

For You Today

What useless arguments have you allowed yourself to be drawn into lately?  Did anyone see Jesus in any of it?

If the answer is “yes” then God be praised.

If the answer is (as most often it is) “no” – what did you learn about your response the next time the bait of an argumentative post looks just too delicious to pass up?

---

[1] Title Image:  By Klaus with K (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Putting the Gospel in Prison

 ^[1]

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The Apostles are Arrested for Preaching Jesus

Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them.  “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said.  “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”  But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. Acts 5:27-29 ^(NLT)

Gamaliel’s Warning to the Judges of the Council

“So my advice is, leave these men alone.  Let them go.  If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them.  You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”    Acts 5:38-39^(NLT)

The apostles preached Jesus everywhere they went, and the crowds were growing.  The 70 men who formed the Jewish council of rulers (Sanhedrin) were getting nervous; they couldn’t have this kind of insubordination.  They had warned Peter and the others to keep their public speech respectful (which, to the rulers meant…be quiet about Jesus!)

Warned repeatedly, Peter and the others kept on obeying God’s call to tell everyone the Good News about Jesus, the Christ.  So, back in handcuffs, they stand before the judges, who are trying to figure out what to do with them.

Gamaliel is a member of the council, and the respected teacher who taught Paul in his pre-Christian days.  He has the apostles put out of earshot and gives the council his advice, in which he describes previous uprisings, and then tells them to let this thing run its course.  In his closing argument Gamaliel utters the warning we all need to hear:  if this thing is from God there’s nothing you can do to stop it; and if you try, you might find yourself opposing God!  Is THAT what you really want?[2]

In some ways throughout the last 20 centuries, the cause of Christ has been harmed more by “rulers” than any enemy from “the outside”.  Movements come and go; the Kingdom of God is forever, and is well-able to defend itself. 

Recently (and I really mean the last couple of decades) my Methodist family has been embroiled in a controversy where Gamaliel’s wise counsel can use some dusting-off and applying to some attitudes.

I am referring specifically to the push from the LGBTQ[3] or “progressive” coalition to “normalize” that lifestyle considered sin by many in the conservative/historic position. This “push” is to have stricken from all Methodist doctrines any reference to homosexuality being incompatible with Christian teaching. 

The merits of any such push aside, the vitriol and just plain meanness emanating from both sides of this tiresome argument is nauseatingly less than Christian.  Name calling and demonizing are hardly what Christ wanted for His bride, the church.

So, let me play Gamaliel, and speak to the rulers of today’s organizations:  Let it go! 

If God is really behind what those of the Reconciling push are pushing, you don’t want to be found a stumbling block!  If the pushers are wrong, you don’t have to defend the kingdom with clever political machinations.  The Father is well-able to speak for Himself…and He will!  The only thing at stake here is money and buildings; do you really think that matters to God?   If you do, you’re making the same mistake as the Sanhedrin.

Peter learned[4] to put away his sword; and those who fancy themselves as protectors of the Methodist Church and conservative values, ought to do likewise, putting-away the mean-spirited demonizing of those who think differently.  When we do that we only sling mud on the wedding dress of the Bride of Christ and handcuff the real Gospel.

For You Today

Loving others means proclaiming God’s Good News; you can do that…and you can leave what others do about it to them…keep on preaching, saints!

---

[1] Title Image:  By Klaus with K (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Acts 5:39 Paraphrase mine

[3] Acronym for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer

[4] John 18:11

When Your God Falls Apart

[1]

Monday, June 22, 2015

After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod.  They carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside an idol of Dagon.  But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord! So they took Dagon and put him in his place again.  But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again.  This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway.  Only the trunk of his body was left intact.   1 Samuel 5:1-4^(NLT)

It was a common thought in Samuel’s day that if you could possess the god (idol) of your enemy, you held the power to control your enemy.  The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant and they put it at the foot of their fish god, Dagon, in the temple of Nimrod – the same ancient king who had tried to build a tower to heaven; they called it the tower of Babel.  God wouldn’t have any of that, and He scrambled their languages.

The newer generation of Israel’s enemies didn’t have any better luck with the stolen Ark.  This time God scrambled the parts of their idol-god, Dagon, dismembering and tumbling the fish god night after night. 

On top of it all the people developed tumors, causing the enemies of Israel to realize their sin, and pass the Ark of the Covenant around like a hot potato in their hands; it was trouble everywhere, and nobody wanted it.  Finally, they just gave it back.

Fast forward to the current century –

Somewhere along the line, the church of Jesus Christ has adopted the mindset of Nimrod’s offspring.  I’m not suggesting we have set up “fish gods” in our temples (although the way some people choose the bass boat over the Sunday School, it would stretching the truth in some cases).

Rather I want to point to an analogy of having your god fall apart.  With the Philistines it was a stone idol that could not stand or hold together in the presence of the power of Jehovah, the one true God.  For us in the 21^st century the church seems to be tripping all over itself as we attempt to hold the gods of Nimrod close.

And the potato is just as hot now as it was for the Philistines.

I had a front row seat this past week as the annual conference of United Methodists (in which I serve) wrangled and politicized to send delegates to next year’s quadrennial worldwide gathering of Methodists.  Of course, the big issue (as it is every four years) is if we will rewrite our bylaws (and, in my opinion Scripture) so as to allow practicing homosexuals to serve as clergy.

The analogy to Nimrod’s temple is that we have largely become like the Philistines, wanting the power of holding our enemies captive, and not knowing what it will do to our souls as we fail to reverence the Lord God.  The god we think we serve with this power-grab mentality is masked; we are really serving our own self-determination, self-rule and self-satisfaction.  Somehow we believe we can have it all – “serving” god and serving self.

And in such misguided thought our god will crumble and fall apart every night.  And in the morning we pick up our shattered pieces of theology and start all over again.

Who are we kidding?  A church like that has no power, only an illusion of power.

We (this church which invites every ungodly attitude and practice of our godless society to become parts of lives), are headed, runaway-train-style toward a collision with the Rock of Ages.  It will not be a pretty picture for the morning tabloids!

If the church stands for anything it ought to stand for repentance – naked open confession of our sin and willfulness, and our need for utter dependence on the Christ of Calvary.  

It’s time to get back to that, leaving the powers that be to fumble with Dagon’s pieces.

For You Today

Do you ever see yourself as “pretty good” and hardly in need of forgiveness?

Fish gods don’t, you know.

---

[1] By Vignette by Loutherbourg for the Macklin Bible 12 of 134. Bowyer Bible Old Testament  Headpiece to 1 Samuel: Phillip Medhurst derivative work: St Anselm, via Wikimedia Commons

Happy Father's Day part 3

Friday, June 19, 2015

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense.  Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.  Proverbs 24:3-4 ^(NLT)

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.  For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom.  Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.  For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.   James 3:13-17^(NLT)

We’ve been considering the wisdom of building Christian homes.  Yesterday we looked at hearing wisdom; today we want to hold it and heed it:

Holding Wisdom – Invest In Christian Values

True wisdom does things to strengthen the ability to live within Christian values.  

How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!            Proverbs 16.16 (NIV). 

Investing in your Christian values takes two postures:

A. Avoid the harmful stuff like the plague.  

If something tempts you, stay away from it.  Change your lifestyle.  If the lake house calls too often, keeping your family out of church, sell the lake house.  If pornography is your lure, stay away from the bookstore, or the Jiffy Mart.  Whatever it takes, short-circuit the temptation.

B. Be pro-active with helpful stuff.  

Feed whatever nourishes the strength of your Christian values. 

If you make a mistake, confess it and begin again right away.   God isn't interested in keeping score over your fallen condition.  He already knows you are a sinner.  What he really wants is for you to re-establish contact and fellowship. 

If you find yourself falling into sins, enlist some help.  You have a pastor.  You have brothers in the Lord.  Become accountable to someone else you can trust.  In the family it is no different.  Whatever measures you need to employ to invest in your Christian values, I suggest you take them early, and review them often.  Remember, if you plan to build strong Christian values in your family, you must set them up as your family's targets. 

Many people want wisdom.  Fewer are willing to do the hard work of identifying and investing in the Christian values that form wisdom.  The third part is critical....

Heed Wisdom – Be Inflexible in Christian Values

Inflexibility is a bad word in our pluralistic, everybody-does-his-own-thing society.  We are supposed to be very flexible, very accommodating to other peoples' ideas and ways.  The problem is, God didn't make the "Ten Suggestions" -- rather He gave us commandments!

The Bible clearly says that it is only a fool (moron) who says 'in his heart that there is no God.  Fools build their houses on the sands of opinion, self-indulgent pleasure and greed.  Those who say God does not exist are not only fools – they're not even honest; for everyone knows in his heart that God is real. 

What they are really saying is, "I don't want to live that way."  They know that building the house of their life on God's rock will require living for God, and in His ways.  Refusing is their choice, not their conviction.

For You Today

Would you have a house built on the rock of wisdom?  Then hear, hold and heed this:

     The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  Proverbs 9:10

Happy Father’s Day to all

Happy Father's Day part 2

Thursday, June 18, 2015

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense.  Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.  Proverbs 24:3-4 ^(NLT)

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.  For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom.  Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.  For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.   James 3:13-17^(NLT)

An Investigation of How We Can Build Our Homes with Wisdom

Building a home with wisdom can be organized into three disciplines, hearing, holding, and heeding...we will look at “hearing” today…the other two tomorrow.

Hearing Wisdom; Identify Christian Values for your home

In the Bible to hear means more than auditory ability.  It means to listen closely, evaluate and understand.  The Proverb writer put it this way: 

I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw."  Proverbs 24.32 (NIV). 

Hearing, or learning our lessons has to do with investigating what life has to offer, and then identifying Christian values within that which we see. 

It has been said that if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.  Identifying Christian values means you are determining from God's Word what your targets are in life. 

Some of the more obvious Christian values are:  the sanctity of life, honesty, and fidelity.  In short, the Ten Commandments! 

To "hear" wisdom is to study, understand, and accept God's way. 

Today is my Dad’s birthday.  One of the things I remember every Father’s Day is the lesson I learned about honesty and fidelity – doing truth faithfully, no matter who’s watching.

Dad had told us boys to stay close to the house one hot Sunday afternoon.  We couldn’t stand not being able to go to the swimming pond, so we took off when nobody was looking.

I will never forget the look in Dad’s eyes when we were dragging back to the house late that afternoon.  (I will also remember till my dying day the meeting of the rod of correction with my seat of knowledge)!

My Dad understood hearing the wisdom of being honest and faithful; he taught us!

And, for the lifetime of that wisdom impressed literally (on my backside), and more importantly on my soul and spirit – thanks Dad.

For You Today

Take some time to go over in your mind the bits of “hearing” the ones who raised you must have done as they tried to impart the wisdom of values into your life.

Thank God for those who gave you that wisdom.

Happy Father's Day - Part 1

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense.  Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.  Proverbs 24:3-4 ^(NLT)

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.  For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom.  Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.  For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.   James 3:13-17^(NLT)

An elderly grandmother's view of her family's reunion, which boasted 40 aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and cousins by the dozens was:                             

"Imagine it!  All these relatives -- and not a single friend."[1]

This Sunday is Father’s Day, a day to recognize a very important cog in the wheel of God’s plan for the Christian home.  We will take the next three days to look at what it means to be a Christian father on mission – building-up his wife, children and the Kingdom of God.

The writer of Proverbs knew what it takes to make a house a home.

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.  Prov 24.3,4. 

The margin between healthy and sickly homes is the dividing line of wisdom and foolishness.  A home is strong when it is built with wisdom.  A home will falter when foolishness reigns.  The Bible word for "fool" is moros.  It is the word from which we derive our words moral and moron.  A moral moron (fool) is one who is devoid of Godliness.  The fool says in his heart, there is no God. ^{Psalm 14.1 (NIV)}.  We sing the children's song that says "The wise man built his house upon the rock."  That same song declares that the foolish (moros, moronic) man built his house upon the sand.

Now, if each of us were asked, "Upon which would you prefer to build your house?" the answer would invariably be "wisdom".  In order to do that we must understand and apply wisdom, rejecting foolishness. 

The Difference Between Wisdom and Foolishness

Foolishness exhibits itself in many ways.  In the interest of brevity, note the Apostle James' insight: 

Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.      James   3.13-16. ^(NIV)

A quick or sharp tongue, anger and maliciousness towards anyone is the essence of foolishness.  It has destruction as its destiny, and Satan for its source.

Wisdom also exhibits itself in many ways.  It is more than knowledge; rather it is knowing how to apply knowledge.  It is always the opposite of foolishness.  An old saying fits here:  Knowledge is knowing how to pull the trigger of a gun.  Wisdom is knowing which way to point the gun." 

Wisdom has much less to do with knowing, than being.  Remembering that foolishness has to do with a lack of Godliness (being a moral moron), wisdom exhibited is what we call "Christ-likeness".

Tomorrow and Friday we will look at building our homes with wisdom. 

For You Today

The Dads you know…some are good, some may have a lot of rough edges God is working on.  But all of them are human and in need of prayer.  That’s YOUR job!

---

[1]Nan Smith, The Reader's Digest

Figuring It Out

 ^[1]   

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.  Ephesians 6:14 ^(NLT)

“Caitlyn” (formerly Bruce) Jenner has come out of more than one closet recently.  The newest revelation is that Ms. Jenner is a Christian…and a Republican.

Hmmmm.

Considering the cultural climate of American political correctness these days, it’s a little difficult to say anything without a backwash of complaints that you’re a biggoted, mean and ignorant right-wing (read that “typically-uninformed and so-last-century”) christian.

Okay. 

In the June 12^th edition of The Week magazine, Damon Linker makes a strong case that American Christianity is the perfect seedbed for the widespread, open-armed kind of theological ingathering of anything goes; in short, where else could Caitlyn go?

S/he couldn’t go to Judaism; neither could the Sharia-bound, sharp edge of Islam be her new home.  American, individualistic Christianity is the catch-all basin for the cast-offs.

What to say?

I believe Mr. Linker may have tapped-into the mother load of understanding about why Americanized Christian organizations are drying-up and shriveling on the vine of God’s Kingdom. 

Can we say Protestant? 

The word itself defines what may be a bitter pill for many conservative evangelicals.  And yet, this is our history.  To “protest” means to object strongly and show it by your speech and actions.  This is what Christianity’s face has been throughout the course of the last two thousand years; a group within a group objects, protests, and separates to form a new group under the title of “Christian”; it’s what we do.

And American Christians do it better and more often than anywhere, or anyone else.

And so, it’s natural that the somewhat unnatural approach of Bruce-Caitlyn should find identity with those of us who reject the status-quo and change everything.

Could this be more confusing?

Perhaps not more so than Christianity itself; Christ was hard on a lot of attitudes – hatred, judging, etc – but then he said to love those who did such^{(Matthew 5)} – and then he said to reject some ^{(Matthew 18)} who wouldn’t reconcile, but he came to die for everyone. ^{(Matthew 26:28)}

Figuring it out, navigating the orthodox amid the chaotic, is what Christians are called to do.  We are called to be the theological lens for social scientists, making sense of the intertwine of our times and God’s call, proclaiming a timeless message within a linear framework; the ethereal mixed in the mud of our messy lives. 

It aint easy!

But neither was the cross.

Perhaps it is best to look at our times, the headlines, the Jenner disclosures and Keeping up with Jenner’s Kardashian kids, as what it is – simply the chaos of human life that is searching for something to which you can hold onto…but not too tighly, for fear that you’ll get tied down to it, and then you won’t be free to change it all again next week.

And in light of all that confusion, chaos, changing and questioning, I will take the stability of the cross any day.

For You Today

What’s the greatest need of your life?  (Besides a good nap this afternoon?)

When you “figure it out” don’t be too quick to jump without checking to see if that change is anchored to the cross.

Like Caitlyn, you might have to buy a whole new wardrobe.

---

[1] Title images: By Duncan Rawlinson/ @thelastminute/ Duncan.co, via Wikimedia Commons and Illustrated Frazer Harrison/Getty Images in THE WEEK magazine, June 12, 2015