Arien's Corner: What Will It Take?
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 4/26/2008 10:16:00 PM
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Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Nicolaitans of Our Age
Martin Luther is reported to have said: "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Wherever the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point." If that is true, then it would seem that it should be the duty of courageous Christians throughout the world to discern where, within their circle of influence, that point is where the battle is being joined.
In the western world, one of the largest of those points is the concept of the post-modern worldview. Many observers have rightly observed that there has been a tremendous culture change in the secular world around us, and that in many ways, the Christian foundations of western society have been abandoned. In their place, an entirely new philosophy has taken hold: post-modernism.
Different segments of the church in the west have done different things in reaction to the post-modern worldview. Large parts of the church have either not recognized it, or chosen to ignore it; others have sought to learn about it in order to learn how to best present the Gospel to those holding that worldview. Yet another part of the church has embraced the post-modern worldview. One example of this is the self-styled Emerging Church.
Let me be totally honest up front: two years ago, I knew next to nothing about the Emerging Church. I knew what I believed, and I knew what was doctrinally sound. My church wasn't part of the Emerging Church movement, so I had no more need (in my mind) to spend time figuring out the Emerging way of thinking than I did Wicca. However, God has a way of overriding our own plans when He sees fit, and I suddenly found myself in a situation where I had to get a crash course in it.
I'm not going to pretend I know everything about the ECM. I know enough about it, and about post-modernism in general (for purposes of this discussion, the ECM is a subset of post-modernism), to be able to say that it is simply wrong-headed.
I have read enough to be conversant with the major figures, especially the farthest-out of its spokesmen: McLaren, Pagitt, Jones, Campolo, McManus, and their ilk. I am not so arrogant as to question their salvation and their standing with God; but I will go on record to say that what they are peddling is not the Christian faith. Oh, they use a lot of the right religious words and themes, but they have long since veered away from the historic Christian faith that was "once for all delivered to the saints." To make use of the words of J. Gresham Machen in Christianity and Liberalism, their religion "is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a distinct category."
I have also engaged numerous post-modern Christians in conversations, some of them publicly in blogs and Internet discussion groups. Dr. Mohler wrote in the article on post-modernism I cited in the previous post "television and mass culture have so shaped the American consciousness that many citizens are now intellectually unable to sustain a serious moral conversation. Those who attempt to engage the American people in a serious moral conversation are met with immediate dismissal or--more worrisome still--blank stares." It is bad enough when that happens talking with secular post-moderns. It is heartbreaking when that happens with post-modern Christians. Do not underestimate how many times this has happened to me, whether talking about abortion, creation, sin, doctrine, even basic points that should be covered in Christianity for Beginners - points that are long since settled.
Post-modern Christianity (such as it is) has a tremendous appeal for people who desire to be able to call themselves Christians, but refuse to let go of their sin and their conformity to the world. The danger in it is that it fails to recognize that the post-modern mindset is in conflict with God. Sadly, far too many of these post-modern Christians start out being like the secular post-moderns in hopes of "being all things to all men," and seeking to attract them to the Gospel by making themselves palatable to them; and in the end, they become like the secular post-moderns. They swear and curse, thinking it will show they are "authentic," because real people curse and swear. In truth, all they are really doing is demonstrating that they have a sin problem and feel no need to deal with it. They drink, party, and behave in so many ways in conformity to the world, when what they should be doing is the opposite, being transformed into a redeemed man who lives differently from the world.
This is not the first time that the church has had to address the issue of those within its ranks who taught that sin was of no consequence and did not have to be dealt with.
In the second chapter of Revelation, we read this: "But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev 2:14-16, ESV). We read in the Pentateuch the story of Balaam, who found he could not turn God against the Israelites, but he could turn the Israelites away from God, by introducing a lifestyle of sin. Fourteen hundred years later, that mentality was embodied in the Nicolaitans.
We know few details about the Nicolaitans beyond what we read here. Most writers tell us the Nicolaitans were early Gnostics of the late first century, who taught that the soul is saved, but not the flesh, and there is a gulf between the redeemed soul and the sinful flesh - and therefore, it doesn't matter what you do with the flesh, because the soul is untouched. Cheap grace covers all sins, and therefore, since we're no longer under the law, we can live however we want without consequence.
There is a word for this kind of thought: antinomianism.
The post-moderns within the church are the Nicolaitans of our age. The post-moderns within the church need to understand that while we are saved by grace and no longer under the judgment of the law, it does not follow that the revealed Word of God no longer speaks to our conduct. Far from it - we are called to holy living and personal sanctification, and do not have the luxury of indulging a life of ongoing rebellion and sin.
We will develop this idea more fully over the coming posts; for now, this introduction should serve as food for thought.
- Keith
In the western world, one of the largest of those points is the concept of the post-modern worldview. Many observers have rightly observed that there has been a tremendous culture change in the secular world around us, and that in many ways, the Christian foundations of western society have been abandoned. In their place, an entirely new philosophy has taken hold: post-modernism.
Different segments of the church in the west have done different things in reaction to the post-modern worldview. Large parts of the church have either not recognized it, or chosen to ignore it; others have sought to learn about it in order to learn how to best present the Gospel to those holding that worldview. Yet another part of the church has embraced the post-modern worldview. One example of this is the self-styled Emerging Church.
Let me be totally honest up front: two years ago, I knew next to nothing about the Emerging Church. I knew what I believed, and I knew what was doctrinally sound. My church wasn't part of the Emerging Church movement, so I had no more need (in my mind) to spend time figuring out the Emerging way of thinking than I did Wicca. However, God has a way of overriding our own plans when He sees fit, and I suddenly found myself in a situation where I had to get a crash course in it.
I'm not going to pretend I know everything about the ECM. I know enough about it, and about post-modernism in general (for purposes of this discussion, the ECM is a subset of post-modernism), to be able to say that it is simply wrong-headed.
I have read enough to be conversant with the major figures, especially the farthest-out of its spokesmen: McLaren, Pagitt, Jones, Campolo, McManus, and their ilk. I am not so arrogant as to question their salvation and their standing with God; but I will go on record to say that what they are peddling is not the Christian faith. Oh, they use a lot of the right religious words and themes, but they have long since veered away from the historic Christian faith that was "once for all delivered to the saints." To make use of the words of J. Gresham Machen in Christianity and Liberalism, their religion "is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a distinct category."
I have also engaged numerous post-modern Christians in conversations, some of them publicly in blogs and Internet discussion groups. Dr. Mohler wrote in the article on post-modernism I cited in the previous post "television and mass culture have so shaped the American consciousness that many citizens are now intellectually unable to sustain a serious moral conversation. Those who attempt to engage the American people in a serious moral conversation are met with immediate dismissal or--more worrisome still--blank stares." It is bad enough when that happens talking with secular post-moderns. It is heartbreaking when that happens with post-modern Christians. Do not underestimate how many times this has happened to me, whether talking about abortion, creation, sin, doctrine, even basic points that should be covered in Christianity for Beginners - points that are long since settled.
Post-modern Christianity (such as it is) has a tremendous appeal for people who desire to be able to call themselves Christians, but refuse to let go of their sin and their conformity to the world. The danger in it is that it fails to recognize that the post-modern mindset is in conflict with God. Sadly, far too many of these post-modern Christians start out being like the secular post-moderns in hopes of "being all things to all men," and seeking to attract them to the Gospel by making themselves palatable to them; and in the end, they become like the secular post-moderns. They swear and curse, thinking it will show they are "authentic," because real people curse and swear. In truth, all they are really doing is demonstrating that they have a sin problem and feel no need to deal with it. They drink, party, and behave in so many ways in conformity to the world, when what they should be doing is the opposite, being transformed into a redeemed man who lives differently from the world.
This is not the first time that the church has had to address the issue of those within its ranks who taught that sin was of no consequence and did not have to be dealt with.
In the second chapter of Revelation, we read this: "But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev 2:14-16, ESV). We read in the Pentateuch the story of Balaam, who found he could not turn God against the Israelites, but he could turn the Israelites away from God, by introducing a lifestyle of sin. Fourteen hundred years later, that mentality was embodied in the Nicolaitans.
We know few details about the Nicolaitans beyond what we read here. Most writers tell us the Nicolaitans were early Gnostics of the late first century, who taught that the soul is saved, but not the flesh, and there is a gulf between the redeemed soul and the sinful flesh - and therefore, it doesn't matter what you do with the flesh, because the soul is untouched. Cheap grace covers all sins, and therefore, since we're no longer under the law, we can live however we want without consequence.
There is a word for this kind of thought: antinomianism.
The post-moderns within the church are the Nicolaitans of our age. The post-moderns within the church need to understand that while we are saved by grace and no longer under the judgment of the law, it does not follow that the revealed Word of God no longer speaks to our conduct. Far from it - we are called to holy living and personal sanctification, and do not have the luxury of indulging a life of ongoing rebellion and sin.
We will develop this idea more fully over the coming posts; for now, this introduction should serve as food for thought.
- Keith
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 3/11/2008 02:16:00 PM
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Does the Church Have Answers?
Very recently, the inimitable Albert Mohler posted this article, entitled "Transforming Culture: Christian Truth Confronts Post-Christian America," at his blog. This may be one of the most insightful briefings on the state of our culture in years, and within its paragraphs is a clear message to churches on dealing with the surrounding culture.
Dr. Mohler's appraisal of the surrounding secular culture is dead-on: historically, the dominant secular culture was governed by a Christian framework. Not that every person in that culture was a Christian, far from it; but the culture itself was built on foundations that themselves were a by-product of Christian principles. That is no longer the case; the foundation of Christian principles is now largely gone. The present symptoms of the now-dominant culture: the prevalence of moral relativism; the lack of belief in truth or absolutes; the elevation of self and feelings as the ultimate arbiter of standards, conduct, judgment and worldview. The church in America needs to understand this if it has any intention of having an impact on the surrounding secular culture.
For the observant watcher of culture, this is nothing new; numerous voices have been crying in the culture wilderness since the 1960s about growing moral relativity, and honestly, long predating even that period. We could have a tremendous discussion on the causes and the historical timely of this cultural shift - some other time. My greater concern at this time is: how is the church in America going to deal with this?
Dr. Mohler observes that much of the church is in a precarious position. He writes: "On the Protestant left, leaders have simply capitulated to the revisionist ideologies and surrended revealed morality. On the evangelical wing, however, the greater temptation is to affirm biblical morality in principle, and wink at infractions as matters of merely individual interest." Sadly, increasingly large segments of the church in America are not just ill-equipped, but unequipped, for the task. Theological liberals have no basis to confront the culture any longer; on the other hand, there are large parts of the theological conservative wing that are doctrinally sound on paper, in their sermons, and in their confessions of faith, but have been reticent to put it into practice. Make no mistake: both of these deficiencies render their respective churches incapable of credibly addressing the lostness of the surrounding culture.
When theological liberals abdicate the historic positions of the church and no longer accept the authority of God's revealed morality on the Bible, they have no grounds to confront the lostness of the world. They have no answers. Only the unchanging, absolute reference point of God's Word is sufficient to tell the world it is wrong. Honestly, there is no indication the theological left even believes the world is wrong at all.
The theological conservatives are in the same position, but for a different reason. A church may talk the talk - in its statement of faith, in doctrinally sound sermons - and still, by failure to address sin in its membership, lose the ability to address the lostness of the world. This is not limited to scandals of pastors and church leaders living double lives and getting caught.
On what basis can a church tell the world that it has answers for the lostness of the world, if the same problems that plague the world so on within the church undealt-with? Within nominally sound churches professing even solid doctrine, we increasingly find divorce, adultery, addiction to substances, addiction to pornography, and other sins, publicly known and unconfronted. When that happens, that church loses the right to profess to have an answer to the brokenness and the lostness of the world. Especially within many churches' youth, where we find not merely worldliness, but a lack of understanding that there is something wrong with worldliness. It is not merely that they drink, curse, and otherwise act no differently than the world; it is also that the adults of those churches never communicate to these youth that they are called to live differently than the world.
And we must live differently than the world. This is not an option, it is a command. For those who distinguish between the thou-shalts of the Old Testament and the free grace and freedom from works of the New Testament, understand that the New Testament has plenty to say about how we are to live, and requiring us to no longer continue in sin and worldliness.
This is precisely where some within the church in America have failed. The church was not wrong to recognize this influence of post-modern thought, both in the world around us and in the church, and to desire to address it. However, the church was wrong to the extent that it accommodated post-modern thought rather than confront it. The church was dead wrong to the extent that it sought to reach post-moderns by imitating them, becoming like them, especially in those areas of the self-styled Emerging Church movement.
We have never been commanded to attract the world by living like the world. In fact, our calling is, by living differently from them and in accordance with the revealed command of God, to show the world an alternative. Consider Peter's very first sermon. Peter in no way candy-coated the Gospel; he did nothing to accommodate it to his hearers in order to make it more palatable. No, after his message has its intended effect on his hearers and struck them in their consciences, they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” What did he tell them? Repent. Be baptized in the name of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Receive the Holy Spirit. Save yourself from this perverse generation.
A Gospel that does not deal with sin is no Gospel at all. And it has no answers to give to the post-moderns.
The truth of the matter is that we need to stop being ashamed of the Gospel and stop trying to make it attractive to the world. In our personal lives and within our churches, we need to take seriously that if we have repented and submitted to the Lordship of Christ, we can no longer be satisfied with sin and worldliness. We must live it. We must preach the real Gospel and live it, and when we do, those whom God has chosen will respond - lift up the real Christ, so He may draw men to Himself.
No other Gospel will do.
Dr. Mohler's appraisal of the surrounding secular culture is dead-on: historically, the dominant secular culture was governed by a Christian framework. Not that every person in that culture was a Christian, far from it; but the culture itself was built on foundations that themselves were a by-product of Christian principles. That is no longer the case; the foundation of Christian principles is now largely gone. The present symptoms of the now-dominant culture: the prevalence of moral relativism; the lack of belief in truth or absolutes; the elevation of self and feelings as the ultimate arbiter of standards, conduct, judgment and worldview. The church in America needs to understand this if it has any intention of having an impact on the surrounding secular culture.
For the observant watcher of culture, this is nothing new; numerous voices have been crying in the culture wilderness since the 1960s about growing moral relativity, and honestly, long predating even that period. We could have a tremendous discussion on the causes and the historical timely of this cultural shift - some other time. My greater concern at this time is: how is the church in America going to deal with this?
Dr. Mohler observes that much of the church is in a precarious position. He writes: "On the Protestant left, leaders have simply capitulated to the revisionist ideologies and surrended revealed morality. On the evangelical wing, however, the greater temptation is to affirm biblical morality in principle, and wink at infractions as matters of merely individual interest." Sadly, increasingly large segments of the church in America are not just ill-equipped, but unequipped, for the task. Theological liberals have no basis to confront the culture any longer; on the other hand, there are large parts of the theological conservative wing that are doctrinally sound on paper, in their sermons, and in their confessions of faith, but have been reticent to put it into practice. Make no mistake: both of these deficiencies render their respective churches incapable of credibly addressing the lostness of the surrounding culture.
When theological liberals abdicate the historic positions of the church and no longer accept the authority of God's revealed morality on the Bible, they have no grounds to confront the lostness of the world. They have no answers. Only the unchanging, absolute reference point of God's Word is sufficient to tell the world it is wrong. Honestly, there is no indication the theological left even believes the world is wrong at all.
The theological conservatives are in the same position, but for a different reason. A church may talk the talk - in its statement of faith, in doctrinally sound sermons - and still, by failure to address sin in its membership, lose the ability to address the lostness of the world. This is not limited to scandals of pastors and church leaders living double lives and getting caught.
On what basis can a church tell the world that it has answers for the lostness of the world, if the same problems that plague the world so on within the church undealt-with? Within nominally sound churches professing even solid doctrine, we increasingly find divorce, adultery, addiction to substances, addiction to pornography, and other sins, publicly known and unconfronted. When that happens, that church loses the right to profess to have an answer to the brokenness and the lostness of the world. Especially within many churches' youth, where we find not merely worldliness, but a lack of understanding that there is something wrong with worldliness. It is not merely that they drink, curse, and otherwise act no differently than the world; it is also that the adults of those churches never communicate to these youth that they are called to live differently than the world.
And we must live differently than the world. This is not an option, it is a command. For those who distinguish between the thou-shalts of the Old Testament and the free grace and freedom from works of the New Testament, understand that the New Testament has plenty to say about how we are to live, and requiring us to no longer continue in sin and worldliness.
This is precisely where some within the church in America have failed. The church was not wrong to recognize this influence of post-modern thought, both in the world around us and in the church, and to desire to address it. However, the church was wrong to the extent that it accommodated post-modern thought rather than confront it. The church was dead wrong to the extent that it sought to reach post-moderns by imitating them, becoming like them, especially in those areas of the self-styled Emerging Church movement.
We have never been commanded to attract the world by living like the world. In fact, our calling is, by living differently from them and in accordance with the revealed command of God, to show the world an alternative. Consider Peter's very first sermon. Peter in no way candy-coated the Gospel; he did nothing to accommodate it to his hearers in order to make it more palatable. No, after his message has its intended effect on his hearers and struck them in their consciences, they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” What did he tell them? Repent. Be baptized in the name of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Receive the Holy Spirit. Save yourself from this perverse generation.
A Gospel that does not deal with sin is no Gospel at all. And it has no answers to give to the post-moderns.
The truth of the matter is that we need to stop being ashamed of the Gospel and stop trying to make it attractive to the world. In our personal lives and within our churches, we need to take seriously that if we have repented and submitted to the Lordship of Christ, we can no longer be satisfied with sin and worldliness. We must live it. We must preach the real Gospel and live it, and when we do, those whom God has chosen will respond - lift up the real Christ, so He may draw men to Himself.
No other Gospel will do.
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 3/04/2008 04:31:00 PM
2 comments
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Not Of This World
There's this really cool looking sticker that I've seen on cars lately. It's black and white and has "NOTW" emblazoned in an edgy, catchy design right across the middle. Much like the "WWJD" stickers of the '70's this bumper sticker, mostly found on large SUV's, along with those darned fish emblems (in their various incarnations), have become the hip, trendy, proclamation of the moment of a believer's faith in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I find it ironic that such emblems, announcing our exclusion from the world and by default our inclusion in the kingdom of heaven, are pasted on the rear end of the worldliest of our earthly possessions. Talk about a contradiction in terms.
On one hand, in this day and age where sound-bytes and snippets convey more than actual drawn-out ideas and hypothesis, these stickers and emblems are wonderful, and quick, ways to tell the world of where you stand in the grand scheme of right and wrong. That is until you get pulled over for speeding or you accidentally cut someone off or God-forbid, loose self-control and become a slave to inappropriate hand gestures and there goes that most precious of commodities - the credibility of one's Christian witness.
Over and over again, scripture makes it clear that we are to live in this world but not be of this world. We are commanded ". . . to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James 1:27). We are reminded to ". . . not love the world nor the things in the world for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15). And yet, many of us can't seem to divest ourselves of worldly thought and worldly possessions.
Lately, I've ventured into one of the most popular sites on the internet - MySpace. If I have to describe "MySpace" to you, then you may be one of two things: (1) living under a rock the last few years or (2) living in the stone age the last few years. MySpace has now become an indispensable icon in today's culture. It scares me to think that MySpace has now become the defining institution of today's youth. For the most part MySpace is crass, unruly and rampant with worldly behavior and though there may be the occasional oasis of common sense and good taste, it is few and far between.
I say this because I've browsed through MySpace and I've looked at website after website to get a feel for things and the direction that our youth is headed. One site in particular caught my attention. Much like the "NOTW" stickers and their placements on these grand, exotic vehicles, this website had "I LOVE JESUS" repeatedly scrolling vertically on the page. Nothing to worry about right? But wait there's more. I browsed through the pictures and was completely flabbergasted to see a series of photos depicting the owner of the site and a few other scantily clad individuals in two-piece bikinis and speedos in provocative poses under some pier somewhere. Presumably, these photos were earmarked for a modelling portfolio that the owner of the site was putting together to launch a modelling career.
I didn't know what to think. I felt ashamed that this person dared to claim a love for Jesus and yet, without the slightest hesitation, display such carnal behavior for the world to see. I was angry because how dare they mock my Lord and Savior in this manner and above all, I took offense on behalf of my Lord and my not-so-delicate sensibilities because the world - those who don't know any better - will look upon this display and draw their impressions of what my faith is like.
The point I'm trying to make is my faith and belief in and love for the true living God demands that I obey the rules set forth by God as written in the Bible. Not in a Pharisaical manner or in any way legalistic, elitist, and exclusive but in love and joy and complete obedience to everything that He wrote from "In the beginning ..." to the very last "Amen". As my husband repeatedy says, our Christian witness can't be based on the slogan of a famous steak restaurant - "no rules, just right" - or in this case "I love Jesus". Our Christian witness demands a follow through in the manner in which we conduct our daily lives, in our decision making thought process and in our carrying on with our brothers and sisters.
Christian witness by virtue of "tell and tell" (as opposed to show and tell) is not Christian witness at all. It is hypocrisy at its finest.
On one hand, in this day and age where sound-bytes and snippets convey more than actual drawn-out ideas and hypothesis, these stickers and emblems are wonderful, and quick, ways to tell the world of where you stand in the grand scheme of right and wrong. That is until you get pulled over for speeding or you accidentally cut someone off or God-forbid, loose self-control and become a slave to inappropriate hand gestures and there goes that most precious of commodities - the credibility of one's Christian witness.
Over and over again, scripture makes it clear that we are to live in this world but not be of this world. We are commanded ". . . to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James 1:27). We are reminded to ". . . not love the world nor the things in the world for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15). And yet, many of us can't seem to divest ourselves of worldly thought and worldly possessions.
Lately, I've ventured into one of the most popular sites on the internet - MySpace. If I have to describe "MySpace" to you, then you may be one of two things: (1) living under a rock the last few years or (2) living in the stone age the last few years. MySpace has now become an indispensable icon in today's culture. It scares me to think that MySpace has now become the defining institution of today's youth. For the most part MySpace is crass, unruly and rampant with worldly behavior and though there may be the occasional oasis of common sense and good taste, it is few and far between.
I say this because I've browsed through MySpace and I've looked at website after website to get a feel for things and the direction that our youth is headed. One site in particular caught my attention. Much like the "NOTW" stickers and their placements on these grand, exotic vehicles, this website had "I LOVE JESUS" repeatedly scrolling vertically on the page. Nothing to worry about right? But wait there's more. I browsed through the pictures and was completely flabbergasted to see a series of photos depicting the owner of the site and a few other scantily clad individuals in two-piece bikinis and speedos in provocative poses under some pier somewhere. Presumably, these photos were earmarked for a modelling portfolio that the owner of the site was putting together to launch a modelling career.
I didn't know what to think. I felt ashamed that this person dared to claim a love for Jesus and yet, without the slightest hesitation, display such carnal behavior for the world to see. I was angry because how dare they mock my Lord and Savior in this manner and above all, I took offense on behalf of my Lord and my not-so-delicate sensibilities because the world - those who don't know any better - will look upon this display and draw their impressions of what my faith is like.
The point I'm trying to make is my faith and belief in and love for the true living God demands that I obey the rules set forth by God as written in the Bible. Not in a Pharisaical manner or in any way legalistic, elitist, and exclusive but in love and joy and complete obedience to everything that He wrote from "In the beginning ..." to the very last "Amen". As my husband repeatedy says, our Christian witness can't be based on the slogan of a famous steak restaurant - "no rules, just right" - or in this case "I love Jesus". Our Christian witness demands a follow through in the manner in which we conduct our daily lives, in our decision making thought process and in our carrying on with our brothers and sisters.
Christian witness by virtue of "tell and tell" (as opposed to show and tell) is not Christian witness at all. It is hypocrisy at its finest.
posted by Arien @ 9/11/2007 09:57:00 PM
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Sunday, December 24, 2006
In Praise of Pastors - Part One: A Hands-On Profession
I wonder how many of you have ever been on a sheep ranch.
At this time of year, when we sing about shepherds watching their flocks by night, I find myself reminded of the whole business of tending sheep. If you have any picture in your imagination of idyllic pastures with complacent young men lolling around in gentle scenes of sunshine, lazily leaning on their crooks, you've probably spent too much time stuck in freeway traffic, staring at government highway workers leaning on their shovels. The truth is, working a sheep ranch is miserable work. The hours are long - you start before the sun rises, and you don't get in until after the dinner stove is cold. After about your first three days, you smell like sheep, and will for the rest of your life, because treating cuts on a sheep means getting up close and personal with sheep, and shearing sheep means running your fingers through a lot of wool while it's still on the animal, and tending them in the pasture, it's not possible to watch for everything you might step your boots into.
Furthermore, sheep are probably the most ignorant domesticated animals on earth. Horses, by comparison, are trainable, and big enough to either defend themselves if they get into trouble or are smart enough and fast enough to run from it, and cattle are complacent enough to pretty much stay where you put them. But if there's a way for a sheep to get into trouble, it will, either by wandering over the hill while you're not looking, or by presenting itself as a four-course meal to the local coyotes, or by eating poisonous weeds or loose fencing nails. To top things off, the shepherd who comes to the rescue is likely to himself bitten or butted by his wayward charge.
Hey, wait a minute... this is starting to sound like one of your metaphors, Arnold...
Yeah, you caught me. I'm giving you an object lesson.
My Bible is chock-full of shepherd metaphors. In the four Gospels, you pretty much can't swing a dead sheep by the tail without running into a passage about sheep or shepherds - either Jesus is calling Himself the good one, or He's saying His sheep know His voice, or Peter is being told to feed them and tend them, or the shepherd is being struck and the flock scattered, or He's as silent before His accusers as a sheep before its shearers, or... well, I'll just say that there's enough material here to make up five or six good run-on sentences. There are plenty outside the Gospels, too.
I've never been a pastor; I don't have what it takes to be one. God gave me the gifts of knowledge and teaching. I can teach, or deliver a sermon, but pastoring is much more than just teaching; in fact, preaching sermons often is not the biggest part of a pastor's job. I don't have the skill set for attending to the spiritual and emotional needs of a group of Christians with compassion and caring the way a pastor must.
If you think of a pastor as someone who works one day a week, on Sunday mornings, and whips up a weekly sermon in an hour or two some evening in his Barcalounger, then one of three things is happening. Either (1) you're part of a church that just hums along like a well-oiled machine and everything is always going right; or (2) you have a pastor who isn't earning his keep; or (3) you have no clue what your pastor does with his week. I hope a lot of pastors read this and comment on it, because in my experience, it's the third one that's true in over 95% of the time. You have no idea how much I wish it were the first, but welcome to real life.
A pastor has responsibility for the overall spiritual health and growth of the members of his church. Most pastors I've known have spent hours every week agonizing in prayer for people in their churches whose hurts and needs go unknown by the rest of the church. Most pastors carry burdens made up of the secrets given to them by church members. And a pastor's hours are never his own. Pastors have to be there when a spouse suddenly leaves without warning, or a child comes home drunk, or someone is arrested, or worse.
Have you ever seen the movie 8MM? The movie is painful to watch, but true to life. After having spent the course of the movie investigating a crime in the hardcore pornography industry, Nicholas Cage's character reunites with his family. He has seen the worst of humanity. The enigmatic ending leaves the thoughtful viewer with a question: can a man who has seen what he has seen return to his domestic life, unstained by what he has seen and will never be able to forget? Can he keep it from harming his own life, and that of his family? A pastor faces that question every week of his life. Pastors see the very worst of us - they see us and deal with the aftereffects of every temptation that we should never have given in to, every sin habit we haven't dealt with ourselves, every bad decision we have no excuse for having made. Like shepherding, pastoring is a hands-on profession; and as I mentioned at the beginning, as with shepherding, that means you're going to get some of it on you.
Pastors also are often spread too thin by having to take on too many tasks. In too many churches, the pastor is not only the spiritual leader and the person constantly visiting every person in need, but also having to manage the day-to-day business of running a church as well. Fortunately, at least most churches have been wise enough to separate the church finances. Think of this: if the role of a pastor is to develop and grow the rest of us to spiritual maturity, how does that ever happen if we're doing nothing but sitting in the pews and letting the "professional Christian" do it all? One of the keys of effective pastoring is finding the gifts of each of his members and putting them to use, as the Bible clearly teaches should be happening.
I've served under a number of good pastors, and sadly, a few poor ones, though it has been a long time since I've had one of those; in the next several posts, I'm going to share with you concerning two excellent ones: Steve Walker of Gateway Community Church in Alhambra (not to take away from the two other fine pastors there, Jose Ruiz and Pablo Tovar; I'm just singling Steve out as an example. I hope to also share about Jose and Pablo as time and space permit...), and John Bruce of Creekside Community Church in San Leandro.
Steve is the founding pastor at Gateway, and a gifted teacher, and a man with a missionary heart. I knew John before he was a pastor of a church, when he was campus director of the Campus Crusade ministry at Cal. Both of these men of God have had a significant impact on my life and the lives of others. In the next post, I'll tell you a little of what they've done and how they did it. Until then, think about these things:
(1) Pray regularly for your pastor.
(2) Tell your pastor what he's doing right - most pastors don't get enough encouragement.
(3) Find your gift. Everyone has at least one, and it defines your role in the church. If you're not using yours, that means someone else in the church is picking up your slack (more likely than not, it's the pastor), or something isn't getting done that God wants done.
More on all this next time around -
- Keith
At this time of year, when we sing about shepherds watching their flocks by night, I find myself reminded of the whole business of tending sheep. If you have any picture in your imagination of idyllic pastures with complacent young men lolling around in gentle scenes of sunshine, lazily leaning on their crooks, you've probably spent too much time stuck in freeway traffic, staring at government highway workers leaning on their shovels. The truth is, working a sheep ranch is miserable work. The hours are long - you start before the sun rises, and you don't get in until after the dinner stove is cold. After about your first three days, you smell like sheep, and will for the rest of your life, because treating cuts on a sheep means getting up close and personal with sheep, and shearing sheep means running your fingers through a lot of wool while it's still on the animal, and tending them in the pasture, it's not possible to watch for everything you might step your boots into.
Furthermore, sheep are probably the most ignorant domesticated animals on earth. Horses, by comparison, are trainable, and big enough to either defend themselves if they get into trouble or are smart enough and fast enough to run from it, and cattle are complacent enough to pretty much stay where you put them. But if there's a way for a sheep to get into trouble, it will, either by wandering over the hill while you're not looking, or by presenting itself as a four-course meal to the local coyotes, or by eating poisonous weeds or loose fencing nails. To top things off, the shepherd who comes to the rescue is likely to himself bitten or butted by his wayward charge.
Hey, wait a minute... this is starting to sound like one of your metaphors, Arnold...
Yeah, you caught me. I'm giving you an object lesson.
My Bible is chock-full of shepherd metaphors. In the four Gospels, you pretty much can't swing a dead sheep by the tail without running into a passage about sheep or shepherds - either Jesus is calling Himself the good one, or He's saying His sheep know His voice, or Peter is being told to feed them and tend them, or the shepherd is being struck and the flock scattered, or He's as silent before His accusers as a sheep before its shearers, or... well, I'll just say that there's enough material here to make up five or six good run-on sentences. There are plenty outside the Gospels, too.
I've never been a pastor; I don't have what it takes to be one. God gave me the gifts of knowledge and teaching. I can teach, or deliver a sermon, but pastoring is much more than just teaching; in fact, preaching sermons often is not the biggest part of a pastor's job. I don't have the skill set for attending to the spiritual and emotional needs of a group of Christians with compassion and caring the way a pastor must.
If you think of a pastor as someone who works one day a week, on Sunday mornings, and whips up a weekly sermon in an hour or two some evening in his Barcalounger, then one of three things is happening. Either (1) you're part of a church that just hums along like a well-oiled machine and everything is always going right; or (2) you have a pastor who isn't earning his keep; or (3) you have no clue what your pastor does with his week. I hope a lot of pastors read this and comment on it, because in my experience, it's the third one that's true in over 95% of the time. You have no idea how much I wish it were the first, but welcome to real life.
A pastor has responsibility for the overall spiritual health and growth of the members of his church. Most pastors I've known have spent hours every week agonizing in prayer for people in their churches whose hurts and needs go unknown by the rest of the church. Most pastors carry burdens made up of the secrets given to them by church members. And a pastor's hours are never his own. Pastors have to be there when a spouse suddenly leaves without warning, or a child comes home drunk, or someone is arrested, or worse.
Have you ever seen the movie 8MM? The movie is painful to watch, but true to life. After having spent the course of the movie investigating a crime in the hardcore pornography industry, Nicholas Cage's character reunites with his family. He has seen the worst of humanity. The enigmatic ending leaves the thoughtful viewer with a question: can a man who has seen what he has seen return to his domestic life, unstained by what he has seen and will never be able to forget? Can he keep it from harming his own life, and that of his family? A pastor faces that question every week of his life. Pastors see the very worst of us - they see us and deal with the aftereffects of every temptation that we should never have given in to, every sin habit we haven't dealt with ourselves, every bad decision we have no excuse for having made. Like shepherding, pastoring is a hands-on profession; and as I mentioned at the beginning, as with shepherding, that means you're going to get some of it on you.
Pastors also are often spread too thin by having to take on too many tasks. In too many churches, the pastor is not only the spiritual leader and the person constantly visiting every person in need, but also having to manage the day-to-day business of running a church as well. Fortunately, at least most churches have been wise enough to separate the church finances. Think of this: if the role of a pastor is to develop and grow the rest of us to spiritual maturity, how does that ever happen if we're doing nothing but sitting in the pews and letting the "professional Christian" do it all? One of the keys of effective pastoring is finding the gifts of each of his members and putting them to use, as the Bible clearly teaches should be happening.
I've served under a number of good pastors, and sadly, a few poor ones, though it has been a long time since I've had one of those; in the next several posts, I'm going to share with you concerning two excellent ones: Steve Walker of Gateway Community Church in Alhambra (not to take away from the two other fine pastors there, Jose Ruiz and Pablo Tovar; I'm just singling Steve out as an example. I hope to also share about Jose and Pablo as time and space permit...), and John Bruce of Creekside Community Church in San Leandro.
Steve is the founding pastor at Gateway, and a gifted teacher, and a man with a missionary heart. I knew John before he was a pastor of a church, when he was campus director of the Campus Crusade ministry at Cal. Both of these men of God have had a significant impact on my life and the lives of others. In the next post, I'll tell you a little of what they've done and how they did it. Until then, think about these things:
(1) Pray regularly for your pastor.
(2) Tell your pastor what he's doing right - most pastors don't get enough encouragement.
(3) Find your gift. Everyone has at least one, and it defines your role in the church. If you're not using yours, that means someone else in the church is picking up your slack (more likely than not, it's the pastor), or something isn't getting done that God wants done.
More on all this next time around -
- Keith
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 12/24/2006 08:21:00 AM
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Thursday, December 07, 2006
Traditions of Christmas
All told, I love Christmas and its traditions.
Faithful readers, before you assault me with the onslaught of protests that we don't know Jesus' birthday, that it has its sources in pagan worship, that it's unbiblical, just stop. I know all that. Christmas, as the celebration of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, has nothing to do with trees and strung lights, a fat man from the North Pole magically distributing toys, or anything else like it.
Big deal.
While I keep Christmas as a remembrance of the unknown date of Christ's birth, and a celebration that no matter when He came into this world as a baby, thank God He came! For without an Incarnation - without taking on mortal human flesh and bones, and walking through thirty-some-odd years of a life with us, just like us - then a crucifixion would not have been complete. Jesus was God become one of us.
But the cultural phenomenon of Christmas, as a product of the great flow of history running through the Bible, through its development in Europe, and across the Atlantic to us, no matter how far removed from that tradition of faith it may ever become, finds its roots there, and Christmas, with everything good about it and everything disappointing, is a facet of Western Civilization. More than that, Christmas is in an odd way a gift of the common grace of God that He created us to be fully human, with compassion, kindness and charity.
For example, consider the 1914 Christmas Truce that erupted between German and British trench lines at Ypres. It's an amazing story, and if your teachers somehow neglected this, just ask, because I love to tell the story. Consider the surge in charity by people of good will when the bellringers of the Salvation Army come out with their red kettles. It's part of the common grace.
My domestic side comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and what innocence I still possess bubbles out this time of year. I have my traditions:
If I don't get to cook a full holiday meal with the trimmins on both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I just feel deprived.
The Saturday between December 4 and December 10, the lights go up and the tree gets done up. Before that is too early, and after that, you've already wasted half the season.
I will listen to Handel's "Messiah," in its entirety, at least once and preferably twice during the season. Do NOT interrupt while the music is playing. Telemarketers who call me during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl aren't living as dangerously as someone who interrupts this.
I will watch the movies, and if you don't get all choked up when little Natalie Wood shouts out "Stop the car, stop the car!" near the end of "Miracle on 34th Street," or when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes, or when Linus says "that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown," or when James Stewart realizes he wants to live, then there's something wrong with you, and you should seek out professional help. Seriously. Because I cry, and there's not a thing in the world wrong with that.
Wish me "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" if you must, but be prepared to get "Merry Christmas" back. My office is having a "Holiday Party" next week and I'm staying at the office. I don't go to Holiday Parties. I go to Christmas Parties, and if you're ashamed of the word "Christmas," then I'd be ashamed to be seen with you at it. It's my little rebellion. Deal with it.
I'm interested in your traditions. What are the things that you have to do that make it Christmas for you? I've shared mine. If it's just not Christmas until you've read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" or seen "Nutcracker" or made homemade gingerbread cookies, I'd like to know.
- Keith
Faithful readers, before you assault me with the onslaught of protests that we don't know Jesus' birthday, that it has its sources in pagan worship, that it's unbiblical, just stop. I know all that. Christmas, as the celebration of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, has nothing to do with trees and strung lights, a fat man from the North Pole magically distributing toys, or anything else like it.
Big deal.
While I keep Christmas as a remembrance of the unknown date of Christ's birth, and a celebration that no matter when He came into this world as a baby, thank God He came! For without an Incarnation - without taking on mortal human flesh and bones, and walking through thirty-some-odd years of a life with us, just like us - then a crucifixion would not have been complete. Jesus was God become one of us.
But the cultural phenomenon of Christmas, as a product of the great flow of history running through the Bible, through its development in Europe, and across the Atlantic to us, no matter how far removed from that tradition of faith it may ever become, finds its roots there, and Christmas, with everything good about it and everything disappointing, is a facet of Western Civilization. More than that, Christmas is in an odd way a gift of the common grace of God that He created us to be fully human, with compassion, kindness and charity.
For example, consider the 1914 Christmas Truce that erupted between German and British trench lines at Ypres. It's an amazing story, and if your teachers somehow neglected this, just ask, because I love to tell the story. Consider the surge in charity by people of good will when the bellringers of the Salvation Army come out with their red kettles. It's part of the common grace.
My domestic side comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and what innocence I still possess bubbles out this time of year. I have my traditions:
If I don't get to cook a full holiday meal with the trimmins on both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I just feel deprived.
The Saturday between December 4 and December 10, the lights go up and the tree gets done up. Before that is too early, and after that, you've already wasted half the season.
I will listen to Handel's "Messiah," in its entirety, at least once and preferably twice during the season. Do NOT interrupt while the music is playing. Telemarketers who call me during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl aren't living as dangerously as someone who interrupts this.
I will watch the movies, and if you don't get all choked up when little Natalie Wood shouts out "Stop the car, stop the car!" near the end of "Miracle on 34th Street," or when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes, or when Linus says "that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown," or when James Stewart realizes he wants to live, then there's something wrong with you, and you should seek out professional help. Seriously. Because I cry, and there's not a thing in the world wrong with that.
Wish me "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" if you must, but be prepared to get "Merry Christmas" back. My office is having a "Holiday Party" next week and I'm staying at the office. I don't go to Holiday Parties. I go to Christmas Parties, and if you're ashamed of the word "Christmas," then I'd be ashamed to be seen with you at it. It's my little rebellion. Deal with it.
I'm interested in your traditions. What are the things that you have to do that make it Christmas for you? I've shared mine. If it's just not Christmas until you've read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" or seen "Nutcracker" or made homemade gingerbread cookies, I'd like to know.
- Keith
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 12/07/2006 06:58:00 PM
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Friday, November 24, 2006
Up from the Water
Is it possible to watch a baptism and not remember your own?
I had the joyous privilege this last week of baptizing three believers - a woman in the small group Bible study I teach and her two sons. Maria is an example of the joy of the Christian life and is well acquainted of the hardships that go with a life in this world; Anthony and Michael are bright and inquisitive, and full of life. To share the act of baptism with them was a delight. I know these three are genuine believers, with real, saving faith, and the questions I asked them, I already knew their answers; their statements that they knew Christ's death had paid the full price of their sins, and were coming to be baptized as a public act, and were committed to following Christ for their whole lives, was a public statement of what I already knew was true in their lives.
As the church applauded each baptism - with sincere, genuine celebration - I knew that most of them were remembering and reliving their own baptisms, just like I was. I've been here before, I've been in this water; I've gone through this public picture of Christ's death and resurrection, seventy miles and thirty years away. There's no magic in the physical act of baptism, and yet that act forms a bond with every other believer who's been under the water. You're in the club now. And you'll remember this moment for the rest of your life.
By contrast, Cecile and I have also been asked to stand as godparents for the baby of a friend of hers at a Catholic baptism. Cecile's friend doesn't regularly attend church, and for her, this act is mostly a cultural rite of passage rather than a religious one. She understands Cecile and I aren't Catholics, and she's comfortable with that. She may be biting off more than she can chew, as by making us godparents, we're committing to being examples and mentors in the faith to her baby daughter. And wouldn't it be a wonderful, ironic fulfillment of that commitment if I were baptize her a decade or so from now!
The baby will have no recollection in her future years of her infant baptism. She's making no commitment, no decision, no choice. To the extent that her parents and her community are being called upon to dedicate themselves to her welfare and her upbringing, and to instill faith in her, it's certainly commendable, and all Christians should welcome that.
But it's certainly a contrast -
- Keith
I had the joyous privilege this last week of baptizing three believers - a woman in the small group Bible study I teach and her two sons. Maria is an example of the joy of the Christian life and is well acquainted of the hardships that go with a life in this world; Anthony and Michael are bright and inquisitive, and full of life. To share the act of baptism with them was a delight. I know these three are genuine believers, with real, saving faith, and the questions I asked them, I already knew their answers; their statements that they knew Christ's death had paid the full price of their sins, and were coming to be baptized as a public act, and were committed to following Christ for their whole lives, was a public statement of what I already knew was true in their lives.
As the church applauded each baptism - with sincere, genuine celebration - I knew that most of them were remembering and reliving their own baptisms, just like I was. I've been here before, I've been in this water; I've gone through this public picture of Christ's death and resurrection, seventy miles and thirty years away. There's no magic in the physical act of baptism, and yet that act forms a bond with every other believer who's been under the water. You're in the club now. And you'll remember this moment for the rest of your life.
By contrast, Cecile and I have also been asked to stand as godparents for the baby of a friend of hers at a Catholic baptism. Cecile's friend doesn't regularly attend church, and for her, this act is mostly a cultural rite of passage rather than a religious one. She understands Cecile and I aren't Catholics, and she's comfortable with that. She may be biting off more than she can chew, as by making us godparents, we're committing to being examples and mentors in the faith to her baby daughter. And wouldn't it be a wonderful, ironic fulfillment of that commitment if I were baptize her a decade or so from now!
The baby will have no recollection in her future years of her infant baptism. She's making no commitment, no decision, no choice. To the extent that her parents and her community are being called upon to dedicate themselves to her welfare and her upbringing, and to instill faith in her, it's certainly commendable, and all Christians should welcome that.
But it's certainly a contrast -
- Keith
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 11/24/2006 10:43:00 AM
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Thursday, November 16, 2006
What This Is All About
Francis A. Schaeffer wrote about a very simple concept - living with the lordship of Christ in the totality of the life of man. At least, simple to write; it's a great slogan, almost small enough to fit on a bumper sticker. Simple to live? No, not simple at all - in fact, you can spend a whole lifetime at it with all the diligence you can muster and still come to the end finding corners of your life where you haven't yet let Christ be Lord in them.
This is all about the discovery of the Christian life. This is all about a lifetime of making every effort to submit the many facets of our lives to His will, and the surrendering of our own.
Here's a thought to contemplate: "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Ro. 12:1, NASB). In other words, to take every aspect of our lives, every minute of life, every action we take, every decision, every thought, and make them God's - not the offering of sacrifices, or good deeds, or money, but every single detail of our lives, to the God who we claim to worship, on the basis of the belief that because He created us, and because He saved us, that by rights our lives are His property. Paul writes that this is our "spiritual service of worship;" that is, it is appropriate that we should make our lives an act of worship.
Make my life a prayer to You,
I want to do what You want me to;
No empty words and no white lies,
no token prayers, no compromise...
Is that what you seek? Or are you content to be a pewsitter - someone whose idea of the Christian life is an hour a week plugged in by the umbilical to a professional holy man, and thinking about God when it's convenient.
My Bible says we are commanded to go into the world and make disciples - not believers, and certainly not mere pewsitters. A disciple is someone who lets go of everything in the world that would hold them back, take on His teaching and follow. We're called to put our hands to the plow and never look back.
"For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace" (Lk 14:28-32, NASB).
Count the costs before you decide; be sure you're willing to see it through to the end. I assure you, God gives everything you need to finish your tower, as long as you're willing to stay with it; He will see to it you win against the enemy, as long as you don't surrender.
- Keith
This is all about the discovery of the Christian life. This is all about a lifetime of making every effort to submit the many facets of our lives to His will, and the surrendering of our own.
Here's a thought to contemplate: "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Ro. 12:1, NASB). In other words, to take every aspect of our lives, every minute of life, every action we take, every decision, every thought, and make them God's - not the offering of sacrifices, or good deeds, or money, but every single detail of our lives, to the God who we claim to worship, on the basis of the belief that because He created us, and because He saved us, that by rights our lives are His property. Paul writes that this is our "spiritual service of worship;" that is, it is appropriate that we should make our lives an act of worship.
Make my life a prayer to You,
I want to do what You want me to;
No empty words and no white lies,
no token prayers, no compromise...
Is that what you seek? Or are you content to be a pewsitter - someone whose idea of the Christian life is an hour a week plugged in by the umbilical to a professional holy man, and thinking about God when it's convenient.
My Bible says we are commanded to go into the world and make disciples - not believers, and certainly not mere pewsitters. A disciple is someone who lets go of everything in the world that would hold them back, take on His teaching and follow. We're called to put our hands to the plow and never look back.
"For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace" (Lk 14:28-32, NASB).
Count the costs before you decide; be sure you're willing to see it through to the end. I assure you, God gives everything you need to finish your tower, as long as you're willing to stay with it; He will see to it you win against the enemy, as long as you don't surrender.
- Keith
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 11/16/2006 09:17:00 PM
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Love Beyond Doubt And Forgive Without Hesitation
I've used this phrase many times now in connection with my husband Keith and how he manifest God's love towards me. As I read and follow the trials and tribulations of Ted and Gayle Haggard, this phrase has once again taken center stage in my heart.
In case you haven't heard yet Mr. Ted Haggard, the former President of the National Evangelical Association and Senior Pastor of a mega church in Colorado, was recently accused of many things, most especially sexual immorality. And though, by his own admission in a letter he wrote to his congregation before stepping down as Senior Pastor, [these allegations] "are not all true but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry".
I'm going to venture and say that what happened to the Haggards is, although not an everyday occurence, common among men, and yes women. Even among those who profess to love the Lord and their neighbors. And a fall from grace especiially of this magnitude tends to bring an unfavorable spotlight to all of us who are supposed to be sinless, guiltless and perfect because of our faith in the one true God.
As Christ's followers, we have the obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We have a responsibility to show ourselves above reproach in the entirety of our lives. Losing credibility in the face of such notoriety hinders our ability to "go and make disciples of all men".
Let's face it, us Christians, will always be under the proverbial microscope. Our enemies, the devil's minions, will always look for our next fall and not only will they point it out and blow it out of proportion, but they will "spin" our fall from grace and throw it back in God's face as His failure. Not ours. And though we can always count on God's forgiveness, we also owe it to our Lord and Savior to, if nothing else, be obedient to His words in ALL aspects of our life.
Mr. Haggard's admitted actions are shameful and hypocritical, especially when you consider his role in the church body. Without giving him a way out, may I say though that he, along with myself and everybody else, are sinners! We are not perfect! We are, until the day we come into God's kingdom, in the constant pursuit of God's perfection. God's love and God's grace alone cleanses us, washes away our sins and places us back onto the path of restoration on a day by day basis.
It is because of our constant pursuit of perfection that we need to live out the teachings of our Lord and Savior. And it is in times like these that we need to set aside our disappointment, anger, frustration, feelings of betrayal, consternation, disbelief and whatever other ill feelings we have toward Mr. Haggard and his actions and come to the cross to learn acceptance and forgiveness.
In another letter, this time written by Mrs. Haggard, we are allowed a glimpse of the pain and sorrow his actions have caused Mrs. Haggard, their family and the congregation. At the same time, we are also given an inside look at the depth of Mrs. Haggard's love for God and her errant husband.
Following is an excerpt from Mrs. Haggard's letter to her congregation:
"I am so sorry for the circumstances that have led me to write this letter to you today. I know your hearts are broken; mine is as well. Yet my hope rests steadfastly in the Lord who is forever faithful.
What I want you to know is that I love my husband, Ted Haggard, with all my heart. I am committed to him until death "do us part". We started this journey together and with the grace of God, we will finish together."
Mrs. Haggard further writes in reference to her alleged "perfect marriage", "My test has begun; watch me. I will try to prove myself faithful."
I admire her determination and her committment towards her husband. But I also admire her unwritten acknowledgement that she is human and the times ahead are not going to be easy. And beyond all of the pain and the heartbreak, she understands that her only way to peace and acceptance is her faithfulness to our Lord.
Let me say that my heart goes out in sympathy to all those affected, especially Mrs. Haggard, their family and the congregation at New Life Church. Let me also say that Mr. Haggard's admission of guilt and the manner for which he took responsibility for his actions are all commendable. It does not excuse his behavior or his initial cover-up, but he's taking the first steps towards restoration.
And to the congregation and the manner by which they handled this situation, praise God for the accountability by which you held this man to once his predilections were revealed. The rebuke by which you showed this man the error of his ways and the love and integrity by which you set him towards the path of restoration, is truly in keeping with God's teachings. Thank you for the example you have given all of us.
And through all of this let us not forget that God is still and will always be in control. Through the Haggards' trial and tribulation and those going on in our daily lives, God is the constant anchor we can always cling to. It is His love, His undeserved forgiveness and His grace that allows us to continue with our lives. It is because we are His children that enable us to pick up the pieces of our destroyed lives and put it back together. It is with these principles that we go out into the world and love beyond doubt and forgive without hesitation those who have wronged us as much as we would like to be loved and forgiven in the same manner.
In case you haven't heard yet Mr. Ted Haggard, the former President of the National Evangelical Association and Senior Pastor of a mega church in Colorado, was recently accused of many things, most especially sexual immorality. And though, by his own admission in a letter he wrote to his congregation before stepping down as Senior Pastor, [these allegations] "are not all true but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry".
I'm going to venture and say that what happened to the Haggards is, although not an everyday occurence, common among men, and yes women. Even among those who profess to love the Lord and their neighbors. And a fall from grace especiially of this magnitude tends to bring an unfavorable spotlight to all of us who are supposed to be sinless, guiltless and perfect because of our faith in the one true God.
As Christ's followers, we have the obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We have a responsibility to show ourselves above reproach in the entirety of our lives. Losing credibility in the face of such notoriety hinders our ability to "go and make disciples of all men".
Let's face it, us Christians, will always be under the proverbial microscope. Our enemies, the devil's minions, will always look for our next fall and not only will they point it out and blow it out of proportion, but they will "spin" our fall from grace and throw it back in God's face as His failure. Not ours. And though we can always count on God's forgiveness, we also owe it to our Lord and Savior to, if nothing else, be obedient to His words in ALL aspects of our life.
Mr. Haggard's admitted actions are shameful and hypocritical, especially when you consider his role in the church body. Without giving him a way out, may I say though that he, along with myself and everybody else, are sinners! We are not perfect! We are, until the day we come into God's kingdom, in the constant pursuit of God's perfection. God's love and God's grace alone cleanses us, washes away our sins and places us back onto the path of restoration on a day by day basis.
It is because of our constant pursuit of perfection that we need to live out the teachings of our Lord and Savior. And it is in times like these that we need to set aside our disappointment, anger, frustration, feelings of betrayal, consternation, disbelief and whatever other ill feelings we have toward Mr. Haggard and his actions and come to the cross to learn acceptance and forgiveness.
In another letter, this time written by Mrs. Haggard, we are allowed a glimpse of the pain and sorrow his actions have caused Mrs. Haggard, their family and the congregation. At the same time, we are also given an inside look at the depth of Mrs. Haggard's love for God and her errant husband.
Following is an excerpt from Mrs. Haggard's letter to her congregation:
"I am so sorry for the circumstances that have led me to write this letter to you today. I know your hearts are broken; mine is as well. Yet my hope rests steadfastly in the Lord who is forever faithful.
What I want you to know is that I love my husband, Ted Haggard, with all my heart. I am committed to him until death "do us part". We started this journey together and with the grace of God, we will finish together."
Mrs. Haggard further writes in reference to her alleged "perfect marriage", "My test has begun; watch me. I will try to prove myself faithful."
I admire her determination and her committment towards her husband. But I also admire her unwritten acknowledgement that she is human and the times ahead are not going to be easy. And beyond all of the pain and the heartbreak, she understands that her only way to peace and acceptance is her faithfulness to our Lord.
Let me say that my heart goes out in sympathy to all those affected, especially Mrs. Haggard, their family and the congregation at New Life Church. Let me also say that Mr. Haggard's admission of guilt and the manner for which he took responsibility for his actions are all commendable. It does not excuse his behavior or his initial cover-up, but he's taking the first steps towards restoration.
And to the congregation and the manner by which they handled this situation, praise God for the accountability by which you held this man to once his predilections were revealed. The rebuke by which you showed this man the error of his ways and the love and integrity by which you set him towards the path of restoration, is truly in keeping with God's teachings. Thank you for the example you have given all of us.
And through all of this let us not forget that God is still and will always be in control. Through the Haggards' trial and tribulation and those going on in our daily lives, God is the constant anchor we can always cling to. It is His love, His undeserved forgiveness and His grace that allows us to continue with our lives. It is because we are His children that enable us to pick up the pieces of our destroyed lives and put it back together. It is with these principles that we go out into the world and love beyond doubt and forgive without hesitation those who have wronged us as much as we would like to be loved and forgiven in the same manner.
posted by Arien @ 11/07/2006 05:38:00 PM
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Monday, October 30, 2006
A New Adventure Begins
Hello, and welcome to the second half of STAND. You may already be familiar with STAND at Townhall, a blog devoted in large part to culture and politics. With the launching of this new blog, I'm now imitating the mighty angel of Revelation 10; he has one foot on the land and one on the sea, and I have one on the world and the other on the church.
What is this new STAND about, and what will you find here? This STAND is all about the state of the Christian faith - contending for the truth, strengthening churches and believers, teaching doctrine, and commenting about our interactions within the church and with the world around us.
Here you'll find comentary, lessons, the occasional sermon; answers to your tough questions - everything about living a full and rich Christian life.
As STAND at Townhall is dedicated to a number of people, STAND at Blogspot also has dedications - this one to Christ first and foremost, and then to the members of Gateway Community Church in Alhambra. Most especially, STAND at Blogspot is dedicated to all the members of the Sunday night Small Group, and especially all the regulars: my wonderful wife Cecile: Sylvia, who hosts the group and opens her home to all of us; Maria and Adrianna, Horace and Lupe, Amanda and Alex. Every one of these people is a pure joy to serve with and grow with.
If you want to grow in your faith - if you're not afraid to take on the issues - then you are most welcome here. Take part in the conversations you'll find here. My prayer is that each person who comes here will find eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to apply what we come to learn, and that as iron sharpens iron, all of us taking part will sharpen one another - but be warned, the sparks will fly when we start this!
The same ground rules from Townhall STAND will apply here, so don't hesitate to wander over there. In addition to a link to the first STAND, you'll also find links to other valuable resources, so explore the links.
I'm looking forward to sharing the adventure with you...
- Keith
What is this new STAND about, and what will you find here? This STAND is all about the state of the Christian faith - contending for the truth, strengthening churches and believers, teaching doctrine, and commenting about our interactions within the church and with the world around us.
Here you'll find comentary, lessons, the occasional sermon; answers to your tough questions - everything about living a full and rich Christian life.
As STAND at Townhall is dedicated to a number of people, STAND at Blogspot also has dedications - this one to Christ first and foremost, and then to the members of Gateway Community Church in Alhambra. Most especially, STAND at Blogspot is dedicated to all the members of the Sunday night Small Group, and especially all the regulars: my wonderful wife Cecile: Sylvia, who hosts the group and opens her home to all of us; Maria and Adrianna, Horace and Lupe, Amanda and Alex. Every one of these people is a pure joy to serve with and grow with.
If you want to grow in your faith - if you're not afraid to take on the issues - then you are most welcome here. Take part in the conversations you'll find here. My prayer is that each person who comes here will find eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to apply what we come to learn, and that as iron sharpens iron, all of us taking part will sharpen one another - but be warned, the sparks will fly when we start this!
The same ground rules from Townhall STAND will apply here, so don't hesitate to wander over there. In addition to a link to the first STAND, you'll also find links to other valuable resources, so explore the links.
I'm looking forward to sharing the adventure with you...
- Keith
posted by Keith (Qoheleth) @ 10/30/2006 12:08:00 PM
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