Christianity – Page 45 – LOVE | ACCEPT

Wesley on Wednesday

Words on love that set the soul in the right direction.

O let your heart be whole with God! Seek your happiness in him and him alone. Beward that you cleave not to the dust! “This earth is not your place.” See that you use this world as not abusing it; use the world, and enjoy God. Sit as loose to all things here below, as if you were a poor beggar. Be a good steward of the manifold gifts of God; that when you are called to give an account of your stewardship, he may say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!”

Gideon’s Call

Reading through the Bible, we can often find it difficult to transition from the dynamic history of Joshua to the short cycles of the Book of Judges. If we are asked to outline it, we generally do well in identifying some of the better known judges like Samson or Deborah because their accounts have illustrated many truths through years but what of Tola or Ehud, the left-handed man?

Judges can challenge us because of the number of different vignettes and Hebrew heroes that we encounter and the repeated cycles of obedience/blessing and disobedience/curse. Why can Israel not see that their preservation relies on obedience to the covenant between themselves and God? Do we have a perspective that the immediacy of history did not offer the Israelites? The inclusion of this compendium of stories in the Hebrew scriptures serves the purpose of allowing God’s people to view the stories in light of historical revelation. Perhaps there is more to be derived from this section of the scriptures than an initial reading might reveal.

The accounts of the Judges describe a humankind that has failed in its imagehood. They show a people who repeatedly decide that they want to be god rather than reflect Him in accordance with their calling. Because of their failure to uphold their end of the covenant, the Israelites find themselves subjects of invading forces. Before Gideon is called, the people of Yahweh had been given by their God into the hands of the invading Midianites. So deep was their fear that they sought shelter wherever they could, including burrowing into caves and mountain valleys. The invaders swept through the land destroying crops and livestock in their wake.

It may have been this reality that cause the Israelites to reconsider their status before God and to cry out to Him.

Politics and the Christian

Politics are not the task of a Christian. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Should we as Christians take this as a definitive statement? Is there no place in the political arena for a follower of Christ or is the whole of politics so fraught with temptation and corruption that even the Holy Spirit might hesitate to tread? Unlike Luther who insisted on a separation of the world into two kingdoms, the sacred and the worldly with a barrier between, I see the whole of the world as God’s dominion. As his servants, we are to surrender nothing and if called, participation in politics is no exception.

It is important, as the calendar turns toward fall and the upcoming election, that we begin to examine the positions of the candidates in light of Christian values and the Word of God. We can debate the positions but the Word, traditional values, and the historical church will provide us with the final word.

The Hidden Blessing of Bill Ayers

As talk heats up about Bill Ayers in this campaign season, it is unknowingly bringing a measure of blessing to Christ’s church. How so? It is bringing the word ‘unrepentant’ into the consciousness and delivering it without nuance. Unrepentant is simply understood in the context; one who does not repent of their past sins.

Perhaps, as the word sinks in, we might also ask ourselves if the label belongs to us?

Prayer When God is Distant

When the struggles and disappointments of life pile one upon another our minds can wander easily into the territory of “where is God?” Not being naive, we all know that He has not promised a life of ease, with all of the bumps and dips smoothed out before use. Rather, a life of trouble lies before us, sometimes growing greater the closer we draw to God and away from the world. How we react as we face the travails is indicative of how our maturity is proceeding and perhaps, how much further it needs to go.

David offers a valuable scriptural lesson in this arena. Faced with unprovoked attacks he pleads with the Lord for a greater understanding in Psalm 22. He begins with this lamenting cry to the heavens:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, and am not silent.

Does David truly believe God has forsaken him after all that he had seen and experienced? He recalls the Patriarchal and nation history that both precedes and includes his own:

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the praise of Israel.

In you our fathers put their trust;

they trusted and you delivered them.

They cried to you and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

Especially mindful of the fact that that trust in the Lord was always properly placed, David appropriately praises God despite his immediate troubles, knowing that God so willed it, he too could be saved. This pattern continues as David openly pours out his troubled heart while never blaming God for his condition or situation. Each struggle in David’s mind is countered by an infinitely superior trust in the goodness of God and faith, that good or bad, the events and challenges in our lives deserve nothing but praise to the God who oversees it all. Even if his personal situation were not to improve, David knows that the overarching good of all the world will be seen to be the Lord, and for this He is to praised through the groans and tears.

Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness

to a people yet unborn—

for he has done it.

Amen.

Reading the Skies

An odd event occurred last night as enjoyed a family meal together; out of nowhere, we heard the long building wail of the surrounding emergency warning sirens. Unlike the jarring, ever shifting emergency tones used by the police and fire department which immediately grab your attention and move you to some rapid response, the public warning doesn’t move us quite as quickly. How many people even notice the sound every Tuesday at 11:00 AM?

Why the slow reaction to the warning tones? Much of the passivity comes from two factors that creep into our lives and cultures. First, we become deaf to the sound, like a rattle in our cars that we have heard so often that we have tuned it out. Surrounded by constant noise and other distractions, the odd siren blends into the cacophony of life and doesn’t grab our immediate attention. The second reason that the siren has such little effect is that it tells us nothing without interpretation. Last night, as the siren reached its second crescendo, we followed the people on the surrounding streets out into the backyard. We looked at the thunderheads that had built through the day, scanning in all directions for anything unusual. No hail, no rain, no lightning – nothing but dark clouds and temperatures that had dipped into the pleasant 70s. We turned on the television to a local channel to see if there were any crawls and the talk radio stations continued the lead up to the baseball game. False alarm, who knows, maybe stars were going to fall from the sky.

So, why this observation? Our spiritual lives can become some cluttered by busyness or lack of attention that we can miss the warnings the Spirit springs within us. More importantly, when we do notice the sirens we need to be prepared to interpret the message rather than looking blankly about. Our time in the Bible and in prayer, and the wisdom that we attain by ingesting the teaching of others all contributes to the growth in our interpretive abilities. Our goal is to get the point where the leading edge of the wail causes us to move into action immediately, searching our thoughts and actions to determine exactly why the warning has come at this exact moment. Instead of running blindly outside only find mammoth hailstones falling from the sky, we can make life corrections without suffering the pain that comes from being soul-blind.

Uzziah “Censered”

How easy it is to start well but finish in disgrace because we take our eyes off of the ultimate objective. Such is the story of Uzziah, one of the kings of Judah. He became king at the age of sixteen and in humility, did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The Chronicler tells us of Uzziah’s early devotion to seeking the word and ways of the Lord for which he was duly blessed. Successful in conquest, construction, and provision for his people, Uzziah gained fame and power.

Ultimately, it proved too much…

But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted him and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the Lord God.” (2 Ch 26:16-18)

It is so easy for our hearts to turn inward and see ourselves as the source of our own blessings, looking away from the true source in the Lord. The depraved core of our souls tells us to “look at what we did!” and begins the subtle musings of our own greatness. Gradually, our initial dependence on the Lord is replaced by thoughts of our own greatness; look at the church I built, the book I wrote, the number of speaking engagements I’ve had – the list is endless. As our hearts go, so go our eyes and soon we have lost sight of the purpose in the successes we are allowed, that is, the greater glory of our God.

When we peer into this vignette of Uzziah’s life we see that his prideful heart has placed his own desires above the glory of God. The desecration of the standards for temple worship are clear to us and spelled out in the passage. Only the priests were to handle the sacred objects and conduct this aspect of worship. Uzziah, his pride on full display, felt that his blessings had moved him into a far more rarified strata in God’s eyes, allowing him to assume the unction necessary to parallel the priesthood. From a distance, we might see him swinging the censer in an act of worship but God, who searches all hearts and knows our true motives, saw it differently. He saw Uzziah’s usurping of his Law as a challenge to His Glory.

And God shares His glory with no one…

How’s Your Zeal

There’s a telling vignette in 2 Kings that should cause many of us to pause and reflect:

“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” (2 Ki 13:17-19)

How easy it is to lose our enthusiasm for the hard work that God blesses us with. When have we served enough or loved enough or prayed enough?

Copeland$ Trouble$

Kenneth Copeland was captured on a congregant’s cell phone camera as he opened an actual Bible today, only to discover that it did not say anything about God blessing you with untold riches and a private plane. He quickly recovered, reportedly wiping his brow with a silk handkerchief and saying “God has told me that each of is to give $1,000 today! He said that I am to devote these gifts, glory, to the new Kenneth Copeland Bible Translation center, praise, where I’m going to, glory, glory, where we will produce a new, CORRECT translation.” Copeland’s head swiveled back and forth for a bit while he received a new word and, after taking a couple of deep breaths, he excitedly reported “It’s gonna be called the NRIDT … the New Rollin’ In Dough Translation!”

“And, for a gift to the ministry of just $29.95 you can get your own, gilt-edged, printed-with-actual-ink copy. For a gift of $100 or more to the ministry, Gloria and I promise to continue to prey on you…I mean, pray for you as well.”

Stop the Madness. This morning, as millions fire up their browsers, people are going to see the latest headlines about the Church. Not that a worldwide outreach has ended poverty or cared for every AIDS patient in Africa and America but instead, that Copeland ministries is under investigation for financial impropriety. Yet another ‘minister’ brings shame and question on the true gospel with little concern for the consequences. I’d be more impressed with the so-called prosperity gospel if the Copelands and their other buddies gave everything away and then had it all given back by God. That shouldn’t be risky at all, should it?

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (2 Ti 4:3-5)

Friday is for Rawk! Guest Contributor

Christians and (Christian) Music by Ken Hicks of newgenevaopc.org

Before we start I want to make some points so that people don’t immediately get their dander up. If you keep these points in mind as you read this it should help you understand where I am coming from.

The main thing to remember when considering my stance is that Paul tells us that “…everything that does not come from faith is sin” Rom 14:23. So in this article the mention of sin will be in this context not in an accusatory “You are in sin” sort of matter. Also remember that though we are “justified” sinners we are sinners none the less and we still possess the propensity for sin that we inherited from Adam and the fall. Everything we do has the stain of sin on it and it is only Christ in us that pleases God. As we live out our daily lives we fall short in many respects without even actively engaging in things that we know to be sin. Our thoughts wander, we are complacent, we are judgmental, we don’t make the most of our opportunities to share the Gospel, etc. Everything we do is a sort of “yes and no” in regards to sin. Glory to God that it is Christ’s righteousness imputed to us that makes us right with God and that He is gracious and merciful towards our shortcomings.

Having said that, let’s talk about Christians and music or more specifically modern western Christians and music. Do I think Christians that listen to secular music are in sin? Well, “yes and no”. Yes in that we still maintain the flesh and so all we do is tainted by sin. No in that all things are permissible (but not necessarily profitable 1Cor 10”23). Are you a youth that has parents that don’t want you to listen to secular music but you do anyway? Then you are in sin and need to repent and honor your parents. Are you a new Christian that still clings to the world and the music you listen to keeps reminding you/drawing you back to your old ways? Then you should probably give it up for awhile. Are you a mature Christian that can listen without being sucked in by the World’s agenda to corrupt? Then go ahead. Go ahead as long as you are not causing a weaker brother to stumble. But to those that would adamantly oppose secular music I would ask them if we should stop reading secular books or enjoying secular art too? In reality it comes down to one’s convictions and for others to judge is not their place.

But now let’s get into some meat and talk about some biblical concepts. Mainly “types and shadows”. Types and shadows are a concept that everything that goes on in the earthly, temporal realm is a type or shadow of things in the heavenly realm. The classic four year old’s question “Why is the sky blue?” can be met one of two ways (three if you count abdicating and shrugging your shoulders). The first could be the scientific explanation that the visible spectrum of light from the sun passing through the various elements within our atmosphere cause the sky to appear blue. But if one believes that it is our God that has created all the elements, set up all the laws of physics, created the human eye to perceive the above mentioned interactions in the way it does then the first answer hasn’t really explained WHY. God could have very easily set things up so that the sky appeared green. The why is the “type and shadow”. Ex 24:10 …and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. Anthropomorphically speaking, we consider the heavens as being above us. Our blue sky is a “type and shadow” of the sapphire “floor” that separates God and the heavens above from the earth below. The concept can also be seen in the notion of the City of God as opposed to the City of Man. Is it a coincidence that the areas that are fulfilling God’s mandate to subdue the earth, i.e. farms and rural areas, are relatively free of the corruption and crime that goes on in the cities of men with their towers being built to reach the heavens (that God knocks down every once in awhile but that’s another topic of discussion)? This type and shadow concept plays out in the fall too. Lucifer was cast down because he desired the praise and glory that was due God alone. He desired to be like God and he enticed Adam and Eve with the same thing. “You can become like God.” So how does this relate to (modern) Christians and (Christian) music? Well I see the same thing going on in Christian bands. A type and shadow of the fall and the impulses that have resulted from it. Praise and adoration heaped upon the members of the band. Does the atmosphere of a concert differ that much from the descriptions we have of what is going on in the heavenly realm other than the object of that praise and glory? We are wired to worship/praise and the fall distorts/distracts so that we spend our time heaping our praise and adoration on “idols” and our “idols” seek it out.

Now I’m not saying that if you are in a band you are in sin (so to speak) I just see the fall playing out in our lives daily. Our sin nature drives us to seek to become like God. To make a name for oneself (you should look into the concept of name theology). Remember how consumed with making a name for himself and being remembered by history Brad Pitt’s character in Troy was? We as Christians should desire to claim the name of Christ but the flesh wants to make a name for itself apart from God. Having one’s name means you belongs to them and the autonomous flesh will have none of that but it does want the praise and adoration due to God. So now we’re back to the “yes and no”. I think, as modern Christians, we spend most of our time worrying about our wants and desires and give little thought to what is really going on around us. “But God has called me to be in this band.” Did He really? How? I think, as with most things, we just do things because we want to. We usually only scratch the surface in seeking God’s will in things. Personally I think that all the reasons given for the existence of modern Christian music are excuses. God doesn’t need us to be relevant to get His Gospel proclaimed. He needs us to be lights to a fallen world. To do that we need to set ourselves apart from the world not copy it and act like it. So in the above sense yes you are in sin because you have been complacent (at least and rebellious at worst) in examining your motives for listening to the music you do or the reason you are in a band. No in that all things are permissible. You want to listen to Slayer? Have at it. You want to be a band? More power to you. I would just encourage you to engage in more self-examination. Holding your wants, desires, motives, etc. up to the light of God’s Word and let it illuminate the reality of what is going on. If your convictions allow for you to listen to whatever, to tear it up on stage, to drink (but not unto drunkenness) who am I to judge?