Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Are Your "Concerns" Getting You Off Center?

I have wrestled over the years with how I talk about fellow Christians.  We are commanded not to gossip. That’s plain enough.  Yet, I do find myself in conversations where a particular Christian comes up “with a concern about a fellow Christian.” It can be horribly tempting to weigh in on decisions that they have made, or on actions they have taken.

What do we do with it when we are offered such opportunities from others?  What guidance can we find from scripture?  We know we must not gossip, which is, in a technical sense, a command of negation: “Don’t do this.” Yet we tend to find ourselves justifying our speaking against fellow Christians, by saying “I am sharing a concern, and therefore its not really gossip.”  In our mind then, it is not gossip….

Commence eye rolls.  

But are there more things we can see in scripture that can grant us clarity and close what we perceive are loopholes?

1 Thessalonians 5:14 has some good advice.  “Be patient with everyone.”  That’s a good place to start.  We are all at different places on our journey toward Christ likeness.  Give people a chance to grow in their understanding, and let God train them in their life and choices.  You may find yourself wishing at some point where you struggle for others to be patient with you, right?  Let’s hope that we have shown graceful patience toward others as they grow, that they may show grace to us when we need it most!

Here is another from 2 Thessalonians 3: “We hear that some among you are idle.  They are not busy; they are busybodies (NIV).”  Busybodies.  Hmm.  The Greek word is periergazomai.  Literally it means, “to work around the edge.” Another translation for this word is “Meddlers.”  Isn’t that a great picture?  Instead of doing what they are supposed to be doing, they are off to the side taking shots at others! Busybodies and Meddlers.  Instead of being where the work is, their energy is spent “off center.”  When we decide we are going to talk about others, are we being a busybody?  Are we meddling in things that are not our business? Isn’t that really being “off center” and not where Christ wants us to be?

A person said recently, “When something happens that’s really none of my business, and I didn’t get asked about it beforehand, then I need to understand that I won’t be held accountable for that.”  In other words, he was saying first, “Its none of my business,” and second, “I will just leave that alone.”  That keeps you from meddling, for sure!  Do we, as Christians, really have to have an opinion on everything?

In the end, being patient with others, restraining a critical spirit, and avoiding meddling really are simply applying the law of love, which for us has two parts: “Love your neighbor as your love yourself;” “Love one another as I have loved you.”  Doesn't it say some where in scripture that "Love builds up?"  And doesn't it say that "Love keeps no records of wrongs?  Aren't we all called to love our fellow man and to do good to all, ESPECIALLY the household of believers.  Let us all try to lead by example in this area and speak well of each other.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Are You Thin on the Oil?

I took my car in for maintenance today.  I have been putting it off.  Not a good idea with a car with over 100000 miles on it.  I can’t afford a new one, and thanks to some debt restructuring I did a few months ago I owe a fair bit on it!  So its a good idea if I stay on top of those things.  And even if I did not owe on it, what a shabby way to treat what God has given me if I don’t properly maintenance it.  Am I really being grateful?  If He can’t really trust me in this little thing, can He trust me in much?

But I don’t.  I let things go longer than I should on the car.  I don’t take it in for every flashing sensor.  I don’t have it in at 3 months 3 thousand miles.  In fact I went 6000 miles this time.  Its really rather dirty inside too, which produces interior wear.  I don’t wash the bird doo off often enough, which means I am damaging the exterior.  I follow other cars too close sometimes which makes me susceptible to flying rocks.  I can’t remember the last time I had it in for a full service, or a coolant change.  I don’t faithfully check the air in my tires or regularly check the oil level.  

I know some of the guys out there have skins that are just crawling right now.  Hearing stuff like that is like having finger nails dragged across a chalk board.  You know that I am putting not only my car at stake with my dereliction of duty but actually others as well.  An improperly maintenance car may actually put other people’s life and health at risk.  “Shame on you, Pastor!” you may actually be thinking. Many of the effects of poor maintenance result in a slow degrade that is simply not reversible except at great expense.  And that degrade is usually quite invisible!

Just so you know, I DID take it in for an oil change today, and they did the “20 point check” on it.  So that is something right?  Yeah, I know some of you guys are still shaking your heads.

But guess what?  This is the blog of your “Spiritual Doctor.”  So now that I have you roped in real nice, it is time to lower the boom on you.  How are you doing on your “Soul maintenance?”

Regular maintenance on your car deals often time with a lot of “invisible” things that a person won’t notice until perhaps its too late.  Soul maintenance is dealing with things that really are very much invisible, and the effect of poor maintenance is often far from overt.  In fact it will be quite invisible to you, though others will probably notice the erosion first.  And failure to do soul maintenance WILL result in catastrophic damage to yourself and to others around you.  

Jackie can tell if I have not had a quiet time recently.  I will get nasty (she might say, “Nastier”) and testy (the kids say “testier”).  If I go a couple of days without soul maintenance, watch out!  Usually by then, as obtuse as I am, I even begin to notice it.  That usually happens at the end of the day as I am sitting haunted by the things which I have said and done.  


An oil change is easy to forget because it happens once every few months.  The disciplines of Bible reading, prayer and confession, service and worship are things that ought to be a part of our regular rhythm of life.  Guys, you were unhappy with me “sinning against my car” by not maintenancing it. But are you daily reading the word and checking your life against it?  Are you asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, daily, and confessing your sins to God?  Are you being God’s hands to others that desperately need His love?  Are you making personal worship a daily habit and corporate worship a weekly practice?  If not, watch out!  Your soul might be running a little thin on the oil!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

New Sermon!

I have uploaded a new sermon to my Youtube channel.  Please click on my profile link to the right, or this link:
https://plus.google.com/110007335221174571830/videos/p/pub

 Follow me on Youtube so that you can get more sermons in the future.

The Purpose of the Christian Life: Christ

To live is Christ and to die is gain.

I have had the privilege of reading this for a few folks who are in the hospital.  Some of you may find this an odd text.  Normally you would expect a psalm or a passage that gives some kind of bigger picture for your suffering.  You want a passage that is going to give you hope or promise you healing. Usually I will read such a passage.  But for some I do not.
Where I am convinced that a person has a saving faith, and there is great doubt about the outcome, I read Philippians 1:21.  Where I believe the person has a solid understanding about God’s real plan for life, and is soaked in the word I read: "To live- Christ; to die- gain."   

You see, Paul was on trial for his life.  He knew that outcome, as far as human understanding goes was in doubt.  He did believe he would probably be saved from death, because he could see and believe that he still had a role to fulfill.  To remain alive, he knew, was Christ.  “To live- Christ” means that he understands the real goal of life is to become like Jesus.  Becoming like Jesus means that you begin to reflect his character.  You show his love, grace and mercy.  You are patient with people, and walk humbly with your God.  Life, if we live with the right attitude can make you better or it can make you bitter.  The difference is your perception of the purpose of life. 

Most of us live life like this:  "To live is gain, and to die, Christ."  

Do you see the reversal? That’s backwards from the real verse.  Yes its good to go and be with the Lord.  But what we seem to  really want (for all practical purposes) in our prayers and theology is gain.  It comes out in the frustrations I hear people express:  “I thought God wants me to be healthy wealthy and happy.”  No, thats the bad theology that the false teachers are giving on the TV set.  Its a lie.  They have never even read their Bibles.  

Peter did not spend his life healthy, wealthy and happy.  He died upside down on the cross.  If the "Name it and claim it" crowd is right, I guess he must have been sinning when before he died, because that’s the way lapsed believers die.  God wants us healthy, wealthy and happy.

Paul didn’t spend his life healthy, wealthy and happy.  He spent it on the run, getting beaten, stoned to death, and ship wrecked.  He apparently had some type of eye conditioned that remained with him throughout his ministry years.  He ended his life poor cold, sick and wretched, then ushered to an executioners block.  I guess he forgot to name and claim a better life for himself.  Or he didn’t really believe when he tried to speak it into existence.

I guess Peter got his theology messed up in 1Peter.  He keeps talking about suffering in that book.  That’s not really God’s plan if we are to be healthy wealthy and happy.  Peter was just in error I guess.

John was on the “Rock” of Patmos.  He forgot to name and claim his way to wealth out there I guess.  He must have been a lapsed Christian.

Of course all this is just baloney.  Peter, Paul and John weren’t lapsed.  These false teachers don’t read their Bibles and then hope that you don’t either.  They hope you send them “seed money” so they can buy fancy cars, theme parks, and dodge taxes.  They promise that if you do, you’ll be rich too….if you have enough faith.

Gain.

We have bought into a lie of the world that says, “if you take on a Patron, whether a god or a corporation, it should be ‘I’ll scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine.’” That’s what we have come to believe God is for.  We are here for gain.  We are here for God to please us and serve us and do right by us.  We will scratch your back God, if you will scratch ours. And that means gain.   "That’s your job God!"

“God is good” if he stops a few bullets with a pocket bible.  “God is good” when I get a deal on a car repair.  “God is good” if he keeps the secular bullies off my back.  “God is good” when he keeps some cash in my wallet.   We’ve sure got it backwards.

Life is suffering.  That’s what Peter taught in 1 Peter 4:12: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”  In other words, it should be “normal” for us to experience trials, and not a surprise.  Paul taught this world was the domain of Satan, and that those who “live godly in Christ will suffer persecution” (2Tim 3:12).  Jesus taught that to love the world is to be at enmity with the father and that wealth rusts, and clothes rot.