hen men in Shinar arrogantly proposed to build a city with a PROUD TOWER crowned with a summit-temple that would keep them together, God “came down” to see. While Sodom and Gomorrah had for long years practiced sexual perversion and social injustice, Ezekiel 16:49-50, Genesis 18:20-33—assuring themselves that homosexuality and allied sins of promiscuous sex had become the “new normal” in sexual relationships, Genesis 19:4-5, Judges 19:22, God said, “I will go down and see”.
In both cases, “came down” and “go down” meant that God’s response depended on his will, not the opinion of people. On how the behavior offended his righteousness, not merely someone’s sense of morality. God determines the beliefs and behaviors he accepts. He honors both that build life and behavior on his word. He condemns any that deviate from his word. And calls any deviation a SIN that brings punishment. The men scattered where they wanted instead to congregate; Sodom and Gomorrah and their surrounding towns, Jude 7, buried under fire and brimstone where they wanted to be the acceptable alternative in sexuality. The protest could have come from the very soil being polluted by Abel’s innocent blood Genesis 4:10. (The next time we wonder why tornadoes twist their deadly swirl or hurricane blow their furious winds or earthquakes heave their behemoth fractures in the earth’s crust, consider that creation is taking its revenge on our sins for condemning it to frustration Romans 8:20-21.) Since scripture doesn’t identify the source of the protest against the cities on the Plain, we won’t. However, the point of the blog is relevant. That protests had been made means that judgments had been rendered against the sins. That judgment had been rendered means that God has at least a creation sensitive to him, his purpose and his nature, Luke 19:39-40, that will protest abuse by sinners. And God likely had even then unnamed people, I Kings 19:18, who knew his standards of belief and behavior and judged when they had been offended. And who knew that the deviation from God’s word was called sin or wickedness, not sickness. Christians, of all people, educated in God’s word, are expected to know the behavior God accepts; and expected to defend his demands and criticize any departure from them. If we refuse, no one else will. Then, the very stones of earth will cry out against our failure and in honor of the Creator it loves and obeys. Therefore, Christians, remember that having enough active, vocal witnesses in a city, a state, a nation brings a “herd immunity” against wickedness that protects all from its baleful presence. When not enough Christians verbally protest the wrongs that wrong has committed, everybody, even Christians, lose the protection of “herd immunity”. That is the present condition of America. So what should Christians do? Become a vocal advocate of Biblical values and behaviors. Express a lifestyle of obedience that surfaces questions why and gives an opportunity for a witness. Be bold enough to declare as a SIN the behavior that others call simply “alternative thinking”. King Josiah, learning that God’s punishment on Judah couldn’t be rescinded, began a personal commitment that led to a national reformation. He did all he could, despite the punishment coming II Kings 22-23. Let us be as committed to Christ; though punishment comes on America. Amen.
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Scripture profiles the lives of two great persons who served God in crisis: Joseph, son of Israel, and Esther, cousin of Mordecai. The difference between them was one of AWARENESS. Esther had to be reminded that her position as Queen may have been God’s gift JUST SO she could serve God Esther 4:14. Though only a slave in Potiphar’s house Joseph refused the offer of Potiphar’s wife Genesis 39:6d-10.
God called Esther to a HIGH discipleship, but Joseph to a HIGHER one. She served in a role fraught with possible danger. But Mordecai had to remind her that her rise to prominence demanded responsibility to God as well as luxury for her. Joseph had no high position to hazard when tempted to engage in a secret sin. Nevertheless, he resisted it by a desire to live a righteous discipleship, whatever his earthly station. He models what we see in other Biblical personalities. For example, neither aged Elizabeth nor young Mary knew the high honor God would give them as mother of John the Baptist and Jesus. But each lived in a daily relationship with God that Prepared them to serve when called. Sometimes we aren’t ready when called by ignoring opportunities to GROW in Christ-likeness. Peter, Andrew, James and John didn’t know God’s plans for them when they traveled from Galilee to Judea to hear the preaching of John the Baptist. But they were WHERE Jesus could find them when beginning the recruitment of his disciples. Sometimes we aren’t where the Holy Spirit CAN reach and teach us. We many never be in Esther’s situation. We often find ourselves in Joseph’s. Either way we have a privilege but, NOT KNOWING that GOD may call us to serve, but KNOWING he deserves a royal discipleship every day, involves us in a higher discipleship. Most of us spend our lives as unknown, unheralded disciples. And, in that awareness, may consider ourselves as less important. But if we produce a Christ-like life JUST BECAUSE he deserves it, we have grown as a persevering believer. To be IN a POSITION to serve God in a crisis offers a rare privilege. To have no such opportunity, to consider every day just as another day to serve Jesus, and to do it AS IF it were a crisis situation, and we stood in “the breech” for God, is the higher discipleship we can all achieve. Amen. Stewart Adams began work as a 16-year-old Apprentice in Great Britain’s Boots Pharmacy chain. He eventually received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and continued as a Boots scientist. He spent 67 years studying, searching and experimenting to find a cure for rheumatoid arthritis without steroid after-effects. He and his associates failed. But when he died in 2019, after 67 years of trying without success for that cure, they had identified ibuprofen as an inflammation fighter.
This writer testifies that IBU works in reducing the terrible pain of sciatica. For a period of time, after exercising with a particular machine, I could walk only a few steps before finding somewhere to sit—at Walmart, at Judy’s work, when teaching my Bible Study class at Southwest Christian Church. In desperation I saw my Primary Care doctor. He told me he would get rid of the pain. He did. I went home, took two IBU pills totaling 1600 milligrams and a morphine tablet, then went to sleep in my Lazy-Boy. When I awoke, Glory be! No pain. For the first time in weeks. I also noticed a numbness above my left ankle across most of my foot. After years of exercise, I still have a numbness in that ankle—but never again PAIN! Dr. Adams used himself as a guinea pig when seeking the cure he sought. As Dr. Walter Reed and his associates regularly did when seeking an antidote to Yellow Fever. Reminisce, January 2021, p. 45. Like them, Jesus modeled what he demanded of his believers. Unlike them, he didn’t have to search for the right model, since he embodied it! Consider but a few examples of how he consistently referred to God’s Word when questioned or criticized. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” Matthew 4:3. In turn, “Jesus answered…‘It is written’’’ Matthew 4:4. While walking through grainfields on a Sabbath Christ’s disciples offended human tradition by picking, husking and eating heads of grain. “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath” Matthew 12:2. In reply Jesus said, referring to King-apparent David in I Samuel 21:6, “He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread….” Matthew 12:4. When an expert in the law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law?...How do you read it”? Luke 10:25-26 The challenge for Christians: rather than debate with critics, KNOW scripture well enough to answer with appropriate passages. That demands more knowledge than many disciples now possess. Nevertheless, since Jesus could refer to Old Testament writings because he wrote them, it isn’t an excessive expectation that Christians would well enough know New Testament passages they can use when questioned WHAT we believe and WHY. Remember Luke 12:1. “When a crowd of many thousands had gathered…Jesus began to speak first to his disciples….” Evangelism always begins with the Christian. For once we listen to Jesus, ponder his teaching and incorporate it into our life, we’ll qualify as witnesses of Christ’s didache. Using scripture will not only put the person under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage. It will also inform the person WHAT JESUS DID and WHAT JESUS MEANT, not what we think JESUS WOULD DO! That’s important since…if the Spirit can’t convict and convince the person, our opinions won’t. Johnny Manziel—the self-destructive youth who went from the first college freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, to the 22nd player drafted by the Cleveland Browns—too bad they didn’t choose Derek Carr, who instead went to Oakland—to a failure as a NFL quarterback—is finished with football as a career at age 28. Just when NFL quarterbacks reach their prime. His arrogance, undisciplined lifestyle and immaturity rivaled Ryan Leaf’s fall from pinnacle to pavement.
Manziel admits that he beat himself up for the wrongs he committed, the failures marking his pro career, the bungling in showing off in personal affairs, instead of showing up to play. Then he made two revealing statements. One, “It clouded my judgment of who I was as a person.” Two, “I almost resented myself a little bit.”—though he’s at peace with himself now. San Diego U-T, 2/14/21 In replying to the first statement, consider that his decisions revealed him as a person, not clouded who he was. They demonstrated his brat nature, whose skill in football got him through Texas A & M in style, but couldn’t prevent his fall to shame in pro football. Replying to the second statement, consider that he completely misunderstood Christ’s statement in Matthew 5:3-4, and therefore isn’t a candidate for discipleship. For Jesus didn’t say we should “almost resent” ourselves “a little bit.” In fact, he said nothing of the kind. He did say there, and repeated it elsewhere, Matthew 16:24-26 a prime example, that we should MOURN…over our sins. Mourn, as in being terribly sorry for them, as in hating them, as in repenting of them to the point that we didn’t ever want to commit them again. But he never said, “resent” yourself. Or resent yourself a little “bit”. Indeed, as God’s child, made in his image and likeness, humans are to LOVE others as we LOVE ourselves Mark 12:31. And…loving who we are by being created by God, for God, we hate only the sin that separates us, not the person who made us or the one he created. Self-loathing is neither practical nor Biblical. Sin-loathing is both. And practicing the latter will initially and continually inspire repentance and reinforce the denial of self-will that proves young Johnny Manziel is simply an unreconstructed spiritual rebel still in love with his fallen nature—which will never lead him to mourn for and repent of his sins against God. Contrary to usual procedure, I happened to glance at one of the legal notices in the San Diego
U-T, 2/13/21. It came under the Cause for Change of Name. A number of petitions filled the page. The one I noticed had three names being changed. I chuckled when seeing the original name of 24 letters being changed to the new one of 27 letters. A strange inversion, I thought. That reminds me: I’ll have to tell you sometime the story of The Night Lincoln Kissed a Reporter. I’ll tell you now the one-word telegram a man sent his mother on being rescued from the HMS Titanic: SAVED! Which is an introduction to the all-encompassing name CHRISTIAN. The word Christian can be a noun, an adjective or a verb. A noun as a proper name, an adjective as a descriptive name, a verb as an action name. As one belonging to Jesus; as one being like Jesus; as one being salt, light, evangelistic and fruitful for Jesus. Consider it as the Divine Name, the God-Given Name for the disciples who were called Christians first at Antioch Acts 11:26d. While activated there, it had been prophesied 700 years before in Isaiah 62:2. “…you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.” Think of the meaning the word CHRISTIAN has. It means one belonging to Jesus; one distancing himself from the world system to follow Jesus; one who believes, obeys and defends whatever position Jesus took on any subject; one who, saved by Christ’s sacrifice, gladly sees himself as the slave of his message and cause—Romans 1:1, I Corinthians 7:22, 9:19, James 1:1, II Peter 1:1, Jude 1:1, Revelation 1:1. That means we love him first in life; we want to be incrementally more like him in daily life; we trust him to save us by his sovereign rule over all powers and authorities on earth and in heavenly places Galatians 6:12, Colossians 2:15. Each person in Heaven will be a Christian. For the simple reason that only he, and no one else, offered a sacrifice for the express purpose of saving from sin ALL in history, even those under Moses Hebrews 9:15. That retroactive power-to-save substantially explains why Jesus Alone will determine the eternal fate of every single human ever to live John 14:6. And why, in Heaven, his Name (Person) will guarantee harmony among all those privileged to enter the New Jerusalem. Then the Master’s Prayer in John 17 will be answered: all of God’s children will be ONE with the Father and his Son. Matthew 15:13 and I Corinthians 3:10-15 are two texts that explain why. The writer has a message on the last two passages he will send to any who want to read it. Fini Preachers often find that the spiritual inspiration they receive preparing a message doesn’t usually translate into the same inspiration listeners receive when hearing it. This writer has been in this ministry for nine years in April, 2021. He has often criticized himself for failing to communicate in preaching the formidable spiritual charge he received preparing for worship.
Until this past week when he suddenly had an epiphany. He realized that the difference is neither mysterious nor unexpected. For a simple reason: it’s the difference in SOURCES. The preacher has the ORIGINAL and listeners the SECONDARY source. Getting the message directly from God in his Word, preachers have the privilege of the Holy Spirit’s First-hand teaching. But any message derived, once filtered through the human vessel, necessarily sounds inferior to what Almighty God gave the preacher through the Holy Spirit. (This writer remembers in Graduate School reading selections from second century church fathers. While not as well acquainted then with New Testament teaching as he is now, the reduction in spiritual power in second century leaders astonished him.) What to do then with the frustration of feeling one’s self an inadequate messenger? First, it’s TRUE. Accept it. It’s natural. It’s inevitable. Do not fear the diminution experienced. Second, do not fear the dilution of God’s Word in its passage through vessels of clay. God knows that HE must protect his Word from our humanity as well as from Satan’s attacks. Isaiah 55:10-11 assures us that any message sent from God will achieve whatever success he determines. The Holy Spirit may depend on us to teach mortals, but he retains for Himself the authority needed to instruct, educate, convince, convict and convert sinners and edify saints. Another promise is included. Each believer shall one day experience all the power God’s Word possesses by being taught First-hand by God’s Son through God’s Spirit. And then…and forever after…each perfected mortal will be far more spiritually charged than any preacher now preparing messages from God’s Word. Amen. A writer experiences the problem of finality in using words once public. He may wish he could add or subtract words. Too bad; nothing can be changed.
He can post an addendum to clarify. Which is the purpose of this post. In the above blog, I suggested that Christians need not, and should not, seek to vacate relationships where one party has caused needless, perhaps repeated, offence. I should have added that the rule applies where shared values exist in both parties. Such as the harmony between God the Father and God the Son. Such unanimity existed between God and Christ that Jesus considered no harm or pain excessive in obeying the Father. The principle applies in family’s of shared values: in homes between husband and wife, parents and children and among siblings; in churches between members of Christ’s church—though we often, and far too quickly, dissolve those ties. Another rule applies where no shared spiritual values exist, even in families and in churches. And certainly true where Christians relate to non-Christians, hoping to influence a decision for Christ. In those relationships, should Christians ever start to feel neutral towards the non-Christian’s lifestyle, they should immediately distance themselves from the relationship. Our faith in Christ has to be so strong, and our commitment to his teaching so inflexible, that even the strongest shared human relationship means nothing. We stand with him against anyone who doesn’t submit to him. The principle in this case is: if our Christian faith encourages the unsaved to draw nearer Jesus, retain it. If the unsaved draws us farther from Jesus, or even if it weakens our relationship with Jesus, severely reduce or eliminate the contact. No need exists to lose a saved soul while trying to save a lost soul who doesn’t want to be found. Fini Consider God’s response to Adam and Eve when they failed by sinning against him. He made a garment of skin and clothed their nakedness Genesis 3:21. In other words, his immediate response was to forgive their sin by sacrificing an animal, then to cover them in long-wearing clothing.
Consider that every person in every generation since, once reaching the age of accountability, continues to offend God by SINNING against him. And what is his response once we repent and ask forgiveness? He forgives. As Jesus said in Matthew 18:21-22, he forgives repeatedly since we repeatedly sin and ask forgiveness. When a child of the family rejects parental teaching to practice gratuitous pre-marital sex, the offended parents still consider him their child. When a friend offends, and apologizes, we still welcome him as a friend. And only after repeated offenses do we distance ourselves from the offender. When we fail even our own expectations and pledges, and sin against God’s, do we not still accept ourselves as his children? Pop theology would say, forgive but don’t let yourself be hurt again. (I confess to once thinking that way. More mature spiritual growth has corrected that assumption.) Consider: we won’t know the kind of Christian we are until we’re hurt/offended/failed by another, the hurt as deep as the love we had for and the trust we placed in that person. More importantly, we won’t know how strong a Christian we are until we put ourselves in a position to be hurt/failed/offended again. Remember Jesus. He repeatedly put himself in a position to be offended: by his disciples, by his enemies, by God’s will for his life, by everyone of us who repeatedly sin and as repeatedly ask his forgiveness. There are two ways a relationship can be a burden. One, by the decisions of a person we know. Two, and only Jesus experienced this, by letting God HURT him for the good of all humanity, as Isaiah 53:4-12 so eloquently predicted. Since Jesus knew that God willed his sacrifice on Calvary, John 12:20-33, Jesus accepted it. It pleased God to burden Christ. It pleased Jesus to be burdened by God so his will could be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus never said, “Enough, I can’t take it anymore. Lighten the load to the level of my strength.” He allowed himself to be crucified as a criminal because God saw him as the Overcomer, the Conqueror, the Majestic Glory! Since Jesus alone could forgive sin, he stayed on the Cross those terrifying hours, including the last three of separation from God, when mockers challenged him to come down Matthew 27:41-44. To live in a fallen world is to expect disappointment, failure and broken promises. To live as a forgiven sinner in a fallen world is to experience being disappointed, aggrieved, offended and betrayed, sometimes most egregiously by OUR OWN SELF! Remember that our personal relationships are bigger and more important than the offences against them. And…a challenge to all Christians…surely, when having the chance to PROVE the greatness of Christ’s love in us, we don’t want instead to choose grudges, vengeance and alienation. We hear it all the time: Christians are told not to judge when we critically appraise anti-God belief or behavior. That fits well with the mantra of the present age: “there’s good in the worst of us and bad in the best of us.” It agrees with Hollywood’s refusal to have black and white behavior in its characters, but a mixture of both so no one condemns anyone. Even Christians misquote the above text.
Take another look at the Lord’s teaching. First, Jesus forbids a habit of censure in his people, not instances of evaluating behavior in self or others. We’re forbidden to possess and express cynical dispositions that object to all habits we don’t have or all ways we don’t think. Jesus had more reasons than anyone to accuse everyone of ungodly behavior, but the only people he condemned were orthodox believers who pretended a virtue they didn’t have, not admitted sinners who sought forgiveness. He definitely directed the forgiven to NEW LIVES, but based on forgiveness John 8:10-11. The parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14 also illustrates. Jesus accepted the sinfulness of both men, but only one admitted it. And by the way, he was the one who didn’t condemn the other. That perspective helps us understand the practice Jesus forbids in Matthew 7:3-5. He won’t have his people condemning in others ideas, beliefs and behaviors to which we continue to be a willing host. That he calls hypocritical self-righteousness. It’s the spirit of the lady who censured a friend for not seeking marriage counseling when her husband wanted a divorce for her indiscretion. YET, when faced with possible indiscretions by her own husband immediately filed for divorce. No Christian will be without sin. But when we correct another Christian’s, we need to be free from THAT ONE. Or, at the very least, be struggling to overcome THAT ONE. Both conditions qualify us as teachers. Second, judgment as condemnation is prohibited, not judgment as distinguishing right from wrong behavior. Again, with God’s word as our standard, Christians must be faithful to Jesus, not to others. What we objectively see as sin in strangers we cannot subjectively view as mistakes in family and friends. We can freely condemn homosexuality without damning homosexuals. God reserves for himself the right to acquit or damn. But he gives Christians a mandate to protest works of the flesh and to confirm fruit of the Spirit. Who will be God’s monitors of acceptable belief and behavior if NOT WE, whom Jesus appointed Light and Salt in the world Matthew 5:13-16? If NOT WE, whom the apostle said will one day judge angels and the world I Corinthians 6:2-3? Third, in 7:6 he ordered Christians to discern the spiritual capacity of listeners, for the express purpose of not wasting time with spiritual dogs and pigs. Jesus never unfairly judged people when he declared them spiritual dogs and pigs. They’re simply the kind of people Jesus described in Matthew 13:4—wayside soil people; godless people Paul described in Romans 8:5-8, those who have no interest in God. Christ warns us never to let our association with sinners make their hostility to God harmless just so they will continue to love us. In that case, it’s a “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….” Joshua 24:15. In summary, Jesus demands in Christians insightful spiritual discernment of behavior. He allows us to determine what’s acceptable and what Isn’t. He empowers his people to: KNOW right from wrong; to DISCERN the difference in ourselves and others; and to STAND with him against all others, even when it’s in judgment of our family and friends; even when it’s against ourselves! Amen. In the conclusion of this lengthy series, consider a way we can diminish or eliminate distracting voices, appeals, or alternatives to being the deep-loam spiritual soil of discipleship.
First a question: what caused Elijah, a man powerfully endowed to confront kings, to flee an incorrigibly wrong-headed woman? Instead of recruiting deference by fearless proclamation, to dishonorably silence his message by flight? How could a man so thoroughly devoted to God suddenly be found derelict in duty, forsaking accountability, ignoring his conscience? A shirker, not a stalwart; an escapist, not a confrontationalist? A suggestion: what but being so devoted to his mission that he forgot the content of his message: that God preferred to acquit than convict, to save than to damn sinners. On Elijah’s behalf we understand how difficult it would be to continue preaching repentance, and see only rebellion in return. Habakkuk had the same issue with Judah Habakkuk 1:1-4. For that very reason Elijah should have comforted himself in God’s mercies. God’s very compassion for him would have kept him personally at peace while warring as prophet against faithless Israel The very fact that he hid in fear from God’s still, small voice indicates he had allowed too much noisy judgment against sinners to occupy his thinking, perhaps by not experiencing enough of God’s grace in his own life. After all this coverage of Elijah’s flight following his success at Mt. Carmel, a suggestion to all Christ’s disciples: take time to read God’s word and pray. No other spiritual grace will be as strong in our Christian life. Always start with Bible study--study, not mere reading. Ask the Spirit to make the passage’s meaning clear. The reason we have Bible study first is to ground our knowledge of Christ in God’s Truth, not our feelings. Christians cannot afford to have faith in OUR faith in God as the basis of our witness. Only Bible study keeps us on firm scriptural ground instead of flying in the air unhinged, with our belief in particular emotional feelings. However, while in prayer after solid Bible study, we should take time to be still before God, saying nothing, our mind quiet so we can hear his whisper. Don’t stuff prayer time with multiple requests that have us always talking; of visions we welcome or fear; of activities that inspire or frighten us. There’s a time for that, and God understands that need. But he does, after all, know our needs and aspirations before we state them. God may, in those holy interstices, offer a breakthrough insight. Maybe through a sudden illumination of scripture we’ve read multiple times, but understood more clearly than ever before. Maybe just a sense that he wants, or doesn’t want, something that has burdened us with increasing concern from lacking his guidance. If nothing else, being still before God, while thinking about GOD, can fill us with an awareness of His Presence that can make ALL else unimportant since we have the GOD of all comfort, knowledge, forgiveness, supply, etc. NOT JUST those gifts! Fini |
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