Each new post now seems as though it might be the last in this blog--at least for the time being. Perhaps the church elder who said we have not done a very good job of raising awareness of the religious spirit in the Santa Maria valley was right after all. There are just 16 followers of the blog, although more than that read it from time to time. Our Facebook group, Sunrise Ministries, has 27 members, but several of them have only a curious interest in what we are doing. In any event, we have been faithful to our calling, and we are not quite done.
If memory serves, Colossians 2 has been referred to in these pages, but we did not get as far as verse 21 which reads, "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle." That is one of those verses of scripture that make little sense out of context. Space does not permit us to do the exegetical teaching on the whole chapter which would take us into Chapter 3, so we are simply going to cut to the lesson and give a few examples of how we have seen this worked out in some local churches. We do recommend Colossians as a good read for those of you who might be interested. (Yes, that was written tongue in cheek.)
Over the course of the 23+ years we have lived in this valley on this tour, we have been part of five different churches for varying amounts of time. At the first one we were, not so politely, shown the door. The last one we were more politely asked to not come back. The other three we left on mostly amicable terms. Recently, we have been attending a church outside the valley.
Those of you you know us might guess what churches these are, but do keep in mind you would only be making educated guesses. I have actually had to defend a church after I published an uncharitable comment and a person wrongly guessed which church it was. The intent has never been to detract from any church or ministry--only to point out the workings of the religious spirit in the valley. With that said, we can go on.
We were shown the door at a church because of a conflict over elders. We said variously that women cannot be elders, that elders do not judge prophecies, and that pastors do not choose elders who disagree with them. That last statement seems to be self-evident. The first two are found verbatim in scripture (1 Corinthians 14:29, Titus 1:5-6). The pastor and church council did not see it that way.
We were asked to not return to a church because this blog was "disturbing" to the pastor and elders of the church. This was also where one of the elders is the one mentioned in the first line of this post. That was seriously the primary reason given for their request although we were told the pastor was hurt by another writer's comment that was posted to this blog. In this case he correctly surmised the commenter was referring to him. Even then, it seemed we could have stayed had we agreed to take the whole blog off the internet. I wonder who (what spirit) could possibly have been behind that request? Maybe we actually did raise the awareness of the working of a religious spirit.
I was not told this would be a two-part post when I got up early to write it. I might have lobbied harder for more sleep. So much for this being the last post to the blog. Now I have add to the title and say, To be continued...
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
A Crushing Revelation
I received a crushing revelation this week. I found out I am not perfect. Those of you who know me very well understand that is not an easy thing for me to admit. I have always known it, but I usually do my very best to keep most of the things secret that might give me away. This week, however, a crushing reminder that I have done things in the past I ought not to have done came on stage and I had to work through how I felt about that. I am possibly more than a little embarrassed looking back at some of the things I have thought, said, and acted out in some cases. No, I am not going to confess them here. That has already been done and I do not do them any longer. In case that was not quite clear, the point is not that I have sinned. The point is those sins are in the past. It is kind of like being on the right side of, "Don't ask, don't tell."
One of the things I already knew is that people's memories are much longer than God's. This is especially true of those who would make themselves our enemies. The clear teaching of scripture is that our response to our sin should be to confess it, repent of it, and leave it at the cross of Jesus. Do not ask me about, or wait for me to confess, any of those things. It is an insult to the blood of Jesus and to His completed work in our lives to rehearse our forgiven sins.
There are those who think it a noble endeavor to discuss their past sins as a way of giving glory to God for what He has done. I think the theological word for that is translated "baloney." We give God glory by living a life that is pleasing to Him. That is what grace is all about. God gives us the ability, in spite of ourselves, to live the life He wants us to live, free from the sins of our past.
I once made the mistake of telling my daughter about what a great work God had done in the life of a man I was introducing to her. I mentioned, without detail, that he had been anything but a Christian when I had first met him years before. He took me aside and told me, not so politely, that he did not need to have me remind anyone of his past. That was a decade ago and writing this, I now understand the truth of what he was telling me.
Before we leave this subject, it is also an insult--on multiple levels--to rehearse the sins of anyone else. Our primary commandment as New Testament believers is to love God. (Matthew 22:37) The second commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39) Love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8) All have sinned.(Romans 3:23) There are no sins that are worse than any others. Once we have confessed (told God we understand) our sins and repented (turned away from them) God forgets them (Hebrews 8:12)
Yes, I am crushed, just as all the other grapes in the Master's vineyard--crushed that the fragrance and the flavor of new wine might flow forth to a world that so desperately needs it. I am not perfect, but I am doing my best. I trust you are too. God bless!
One of the things I already knew is that people's memories are much longer than God's. This is especially true of those who would make themselves our enemies. The clear teaching of scripture is that our response to our sin should be to confess it, repent of it, and leave it at the cross of Jesus. Do not ask me about, or wait for me to confess, any of those things. It is an insult to the blood of Jesus and to His completed work in our lives to rehearse our forgiven sins.
There are those who think it a noble endeavor to discuss their past sins as a way of giving glory to God for what He has done. I think the theological word for that is translated "baloney." We give God glory by living a life that is pleasing to Him. That is what grace is all about. God gives us the ability, in spite of ourselves, to live the life He wants us to live, free from the sins of our past.
I once made the mistake of telling my daughter about what a great work God had done in the life of a man I was introducing to her. I mentioned, without detail, that he had been anything but a Christian when I had first met him years before. He took me aside and told me, not so politely, that he did not need to have me remind anyone of his past. That was a decade ago and writing this, I now understand the truth of what he was telling me.
Before we leave this subject, it is also an insult--on multiple levels--to rehearse the sins of anyone else. Our primary commandment as New Testament believers is to love God. (Matthew 22:37) The second commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39) Love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8) All have sinned.(Romans 3:23) There are no sins that are worse than any others. Once we have confessed (told God we understand) our sins and repented (turned away from them) God forgets them (Hebrews 8:12)
Yes, I am crushed, just as all the other grapes in the Master's vineyard--crushed that the fragrance and the flavor of new wine might flow forth to a world that so desperately needs it. I am not perfect, but I am doing my best. I trust you are too. God bless!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
His Part--Our Part
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
As regular readers know, these verses were brought to our attention by Mr. or Ms. Anonymous in a comment a few posts back. Although we do not often comment on comments, we did on that one. It is always a welcomed experience when we hear something from the Holy Spirit and it is almost immediately confirmed by someone else who heard the same thing. What follows is an expanded version of what we believe God is trying to tell us with these verses.
These verses from Ephesians 2 are so familiar to most Christians that any further expansion of them could be tiring or redundant. Most of us heard them beginning at our own born-again experience and have repeated them to people we were witnessing to since that time.
There is one point in these verses that is usually missed. We tend to think the word "saved" refers exclusively to being born-again. If you did not think that, you can still be part of "we." This can be an act of patience for you as the rest of us catch up. One of the things this author enjoys most about writing is he learns so much during the process--and from the comments that are made later.
As we began to say, being saved only starts when we are born-again. A quick study of the Greek grammar here shows us that the word "saved" in these verses is from a verb that literally means, to be delivered from any and all suffering and judgement. (The dictionary definition would take more room than we have here.) Furthermore, the tense shows us this action was completed at some point in the past. Putting that all together, we see that sometime ago, all suffering and judgement were eliminated from us. Where there is no judgement, the grace of God has free reign to accomplish His works. Although it was the death of Jesus on the cross that made it possible, this happened for each of us individually when we activated grace by an act of faith. That act, of course, was making Jesus Lord of our lives. I can see you are not all as excited about this as I am. Wait, you get more.
"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
The grace that drew us to God and compelled us to make Jesus our Lord, began to work salvation in our lives at that very moment. It is the same grace we activate every time we believe what God is telling us to do, and act on it. We cannot simply verbalize that we believe a thing and not do something in response to that belief. (James 2:18) When we really believe anything, we act on it. That is the way human beings are wired, if you will.
Having been born-again, we find things are different than they were before. We think differently. We act differently. We begin to understand our lives are not the same anymore. No matter what comes against us, the grace of God helps us through it. That is salvation at work in our lives. Whatever we need is included in our salvation and provided by His grace. Our part is to simply believe--then act on what He tells us to do.
Perhaps the Lord is speaking something to you right now. Demonstrate your faith by acting on it, whatever it is. Just as salvation came to your house when you made Jesus Lord of your life, salvation will come to your house to meet your every need. God bless you as you do!
As regular readers know, these verses were brought to our attention by Mr. or Ms. Anonymous in a comment a few posts back. Although we do not often comment on comments, we did on that one. It is always a welcomed experience when we hear something from the Holy Spirit and it is almost immediately confirmed by someone else who heard the same thing. What follows is an expanded version of what we believe God is trying to tell us with these verses.
These verses from Ephesians 2 are so familiar to most Christians that any further expansion of them could be tiring or redundant. Most of us heard them beginning at our own born-again experience and have repeated them to people we were witnessing to since that time.
There is one point in these verses that is usually missed. We tend to think the word "saved" refers exclusively to being born-again. If you did not think that, you can still be part of "we." This can be an act of patience for you as the rest of us catch up. One of the things this author enjoys most about writing is he learns so much during the process--and from the comments that are made later.
As we began to say, being saved only starts when we are born-again. A quick study of the Greek grammar here shows us that the word "saved" in these verses is from a verb that literally means, to be delivered from any and all suffering and judgement. (The dictionary definition would take more room than we have here.) Furthermore, the tense shows us this action was completed at some point in the past. Putting that all together, we see that sometime ago, all suffering and judgement were eliminated from us. Where there is no judgement, the grace of God has free reign to accomplish His works. Although it was the death of Jesus on the cross that made it possible, this happened for each of us individually when we activated grace by an act of faith. That act, of course, was making Jesus Lord of our lives. I can see you are not all as excited about this as I am. Wait, you get more.
"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
The grace that drew us to God and compelled us to make Jesus our Lord, began to work salvation in our lives at that very moment. It is the same grace we activate every time we believe what God is telling us to do, and act on it. We cannot simply verbalize that we believe a thing and not do something in response to that belief. (James 2:18) When we really believe anything, we act on it. That is the way human beings are wired, if you will.
Having been born-again, we find things are different than they were before. We think differently. We act differently. We begin to understand our lives are not the same anymore. No matter what comes against us, the grace of God helps us through it. That is salvation at work in our lives. Whatever we need is included in our salvation and provided by His grace. Our part is to simply believe--then act on what He tells us to do.
Perhaps the Lord is speaking something to you right now. Demonstrate your faith by acting on it, whatever it is. Just as salvation came to your house when you made Jesus Lord of your life, salvation will come to your house to meet your every need. God bless you as you do!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Change Your Mind
I have a friend I do not play chess with anymore. Truth be told we only played one time, over two decades ago. That was enough for me. I thought the game was going well. I knew he was smarter than I am, but I was holding my own. Tom moved a piece and announced, "Check Mate." As I said we do not play anymore. It is not so much that I mind losing (God knows I have done enough of it to accept that it happens.), it was just crushing to think I could play with someone smarter and technically better than I was at the game and then have reality come crashing down on me.
My mother-in-law gave me a word from the Lord around the same time I had played that game of chess. As I recall, her exact words were, "David, the devil is setting a trap for your soul." Okay, thanks Carolyn. That was about it--until the devil blind-sided me within the next month and knocked my life sideways. Bad news for him though: I'm baaaaaaack. I am not playing with him anymore either. (Starting today I hope.)
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I saw a couple friends who go back to high school days or thereabouts, visited with a more recent friend over Starbucks, and talked an online friend out of committing suicide. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. In case you're wondering, there were a couple minor setbacks, but we are not talking about them. Life happens.
Life happens whether we are paying attention or not. Life happens while we are doing the things we think we have to do, the things we want to do, and the things we do when we are not even thinking. The friends I met with yesterday were all between 55 and 60 years of age. Where did those years go? My children are mostly over 30 now. My babies are having babies. When did that happen?
In my personal opinion, at this point in my life, the most difficult thing the Lord ever asks anyone to do is "Take no thought for tomorrow."(Matthew 6:34) Some of you are ahead of me in this so please be patient. This is one area in which I have not gained the rest of God. (Hebrews 4)
There is a video of a sermon streaming into my ear-buds as this is being written. It is a fairly long sermon. The point is that when we carry our own cares we have made ourselves the source of our supply. The speaker claims that is the essence of pride. I donno, it sounds pretty American, self-sufficient to me.
I got my first job when I was sixteen because there was not enough money in the household to stretch as far as it needed to. Well, not as far as I wanted it to anyway. One of the things I did with my first paycheck was to go have my hair cut by a professional. Mom really tried, but she never did get very good at it. I think the artistic bent in the family, such as it is, comes from the other side.
I paid my way through college. The Lord had to make me quit two jobs while I was there. (You all know I am a slow learner.) Then He gave me the perfect job--at exactly the right time--so I did not run out of money before I ran out of school bills.
I used to be a world-class worrier; not so much anymore. Now I only worry when an occasion arises and only on days that end in "y." One last thought. I am going to claim this one is from the Holy Spirit. It came so naturally to my mind it almost seemed like I might have made it up. Here it is. It is ridiculous to believe God will suddenly stop providing for all our needs.
Apparently the point here is to get us thinking about these things because this is the end. God bless!
My mother-in-law gave me a word from the Lord around the same time I had played that game of chess. As I recall, her exact words were, "David, the devil is setting a trap for your soul." Okay, thanks Carolyn. That was about it--until the devil blind-sided me within the next month and knocked my life sideways. Bad news for him though: I'm baaaaaaack. I am not playing with him anymore either. (Starting today I hope.)
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I saw a couple friends who go back to high school days or thereabouts, visited with a more recent friend over Starbucks, and talked an online friend out of committing suicide. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. In case you're wondering, there were a couple minor setbacks, but we are not talking about them. Life happens.
Life happens whether we are paying attention or not. Life happens while we are doing the things we think we have to do, the things we want to do, and the things we do when we are not even thinking. The friends I met with yesterday were all between 55 and 60 years of age. Where did those years go? My children are mostly over 30 now. My babies are having babies. When did that happen?
In my personal opinion, at this point in my life, the most difficult thing the Lord ever asks anyone to do is "Take no thought for tomorrow."(Matthew 6:34) Some of you are ahead of me in this so please be patient. This is one area in which I have not gained the rest of God. (Hebrews 4)
There is a video of a sermon streaming into my ear-buds as this is being written. It is a fairly long sermon. The point is that when we carry our own cares we have made ourselves the source of our supply. The speaker claims that is the essence of pride. I donno, it sounds pretty American, self-sufficient to me.
I got my first job when I was sixteen because there was not enough money in the household to stretch as far as it needed to. Well, not as far as I wanted it to anyway. One of the things I did with my first paycheck was to go have my hair cut by a professional. Mom really tried, but she never did get very good at it. I think the artistic bent in the family, such as it is, comes from the other side.
I paid my way through college. The Lord had to make me quit two jobs while I was there. (You all know I am a slow learner.) Then He gave me the perfect job--at exactly the right time--so I did not run out of money before I ran out of school bills.
I used to be a world-class worrier; not so much anymore. Now I only worry when an occasion arises and only on days that end in "y." One last thought. I am going to claim this one is from the Holy Spirit. It came so naturally to my mind it almost seemed like I might have made it up. Here it is. It is ridiculous to believe God will suddenly stop providing for all our needs.
Apparently the point here is to get us thinking about these things because this is the end. God bless!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
God Uses the Stupid Things
Perhaps the most stupid bumper sticker I ever saw, with the possible exception of the one that reads, "Bumper Sticker" is the one that reads, "Everywhere I Go, There I Am." Well duh. At least that is what I used to think.
Yesterday, I took the day off. I left on a personal road trip early in the morning and returned a little before bedtime. I was feeling as though my life had run into a dead end. As I shared that with my loving wife, she suggested I get out of Santa Maria for a road trip (three times). She knows I usually return from those times in a better frame of mind.
I had one mission the Lord wanted me to accomplish in Santa Barbara so I headed south. Having accomplished that, I continued south. My mind was running over a few of the people I knew in Ventura. The name of a pastor came to mind. As I thought about it, it has been almost exactly 34 years since we had seen each other. He lost his wife of 40+ years to cancer this year. I ended up stopping by his house and we talked and prayed together for half an hour or so.
Since I had no agenda and no timetable, I could head any direction from there. Well, I would not have gone very far west since Ventura is a beach city (for those of you in other parts of the world). State Highway 33 heads north from Ventura, through Ojai and down to connect with Highway 166 between Cuyama and Maricopa. From Ojai it is a lonely, winding, desertish road that heads up to Pine Mountain pass just over 5,000 feet above sea level before heading down to the thriving metropolis of Ventucopa, population 92--according to the sign on the highway.
Somewhere between the mountain pass and Ventucopa, it dawned on me that it did not really matter where I went, I would still be there. I did not even have time to get the "Well duh" out when the following thought rushed in. Nothing is ever going to be right until I am right.
The reason I even needed the road trip is because I had been a little self-absorbed. I felt as though my life had hit a dead end. What I had long wanted to do is not working at this point. Without that working, I did not see how God is going to accomplish any greater good through my life. It mostly seems like I am just spinning my wheels. My real problem at the time was, I could not even find anyone else to blame.
Sometime I might yet write the book, "The 8 Faces of Pride." The Holy Spirit gave me that title over twenty years ago. I still do not even know what all eight of them are. One of them, however, is what Charles Shoemake at LIFE Bible College taught me many years ago as, "the pride of the worm." That is the one represented in the previous paragraph. We might sum it up as, "It is all about poor me." I have no doubt some of you had already counted the "I, me, and mys" in that paragraph and figured it out so that is for the rest of us.
To wrap this up, as I was whining to the Lord about the dead end that was all I could see, He reminded me of Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." I was still meditating on that when I arrived home. I opened my email to see a message with a sermon attached entitled, "God Has a Plan for You." The first person to mount the platform after worship at church this morning started what she had to say by quoting Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Does anyone else see a pattern here? It only takes me two or three times hearing the same thing in different ways to get a message. Well, that is usually all it takes. I will let you know when this all resolves. God bless.
Yesterday, I took the day off. I left on a personal road trip early in the morning and returned a little before bedtime. I was feeling as though my life had run into a dead end. As I shared that with my loving wife, she suggested I get out of Santa Maria for a road trip (three times). She knows I usually return from those times in a better frame of mind.
I had one mission the Lord wanted me to accomplish in Santa Barbara so I headed south. Having accomplished that, I continued south. My mind was running over a few of the people I knew in Ventura. The name of a pastor came to mind. As I thought about it, it has been almost exactly 34 years since we had seen each other. He lost his wife of 40+ years to cancer this year. I ended up stopping by his house and we talked and prayed together for half an hour or so.
Since I had no agenda and no timetable, I could head any direction from there. Well, I would not have gone very far west since Ventura is a beach city (for those of you in other parts of the world). State Highway 33 heads north from Ventura, through Ojai and down to connect with Highway 166 between Cuyama and Maricopa. From Ojai it is a lonely, winding, desertish road that heads up to Pine Mountain pass just over 5,000 feet above sea level before heading down to the thriving metropolis of Ventucopa, population 92--according to the sign on the highway.
Somewhere between the mountain pass and Ventucopa, it dawned on me that it did not really matter where I went, I would still be there. I did not even have time to get the "Well duh" out when the following thought rushed in. Nothing is ever going to be right until I am right.
The reason I even needed the road trip is because I had been a little self-absorbed. I felt as though my life had hit a dead end. What I had long wanted to do is not working at this point. Without that working, I did not see how God is going to accomplish any greater good through my life. It mostly seems like I am just spinning my wheels. My real problem at the time was, I could not even find anyone else to blame.
Sometime I might yet write the book, "The 8 Faces of Pride." The Holy Spirit gave me that title over twenty years ago. I still do not even know what all eight of them are. One of them, however, is what Charles Shoemake at LIFE Bible College taught me many years ago as, "the pride of the worm." That is the one represented in the previous paragraph. We might sum it up as, "It is all about poor me." I have no doubt some of you had already counted the "I, me, and mys" in that paragraph and figured it out so that is for the rest of us.
To wrap this up, as I was whining to the Lord about the dead end that was all I could see, He reminded me of Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." I was still meditating on that when I arrived home. I opened my email to see a message with a sermon attached entitled, "God Has a Plan for You." The first person to mount the platform after worship at church this morning started what she had to say by quoting Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Does anyone else see a pattern here? It only takes me two or three times hearing the same thing in different ways to get a message. Well, that is usually all it takes. I will let you know when this all resolves. God bless.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
I Might Be Onto Something Here
I am not quite prepared to say, "Eureka" or claim to have had an epiphany yet. I am still scratching at it, praying about it, meditating on it. As always you can let me know what you think via comments to this post. They always get published, unedited, in their entirety. Drumroll please.
The reason the grace of God often is not at work in our lives is that we do not let it work. That is it. Simple really. In order for grace to work in our lives we must yield to it, allow it the chance to work. To the contrary, the human condition, the sin nature, the needing to have things be happening all the time, compels us to circumvent the working of grace by getting involved in and aborting the process.
A good friend of mine has been heard to refer to Christians' desire for things to happen as "microwave Christianity." That goes right along with, "God give me patience, and give it to me now." That is not the way it works. Gaining patience is a process. First there is the tribulation, then the patience. (Romans 5:1-5)
There was a television commercial when I was a child (that is long enough ago that most of you will not remember it) that asserted, "Paul Masson will sell no wine before its time." Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, "To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven." Just as wine takes time to ferment and attain its full body and flavor, grace works little by little in accomplishing God's purposes in and through His people.
Just as Jesus performed His first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee when He changed water into wine, (John 2:1-11) God is able to cause His grace to work instantaneously. In fact, many times it looks to the observer as though grace came upon someone quickly. That is because the observer does not know when the process began or how long it actually took. Someone remarked to Kenneth Copeland that his ministry had taken off overnight. His response was that if that were true, it was the longest night in recorded history.
One does not have to read far into new reports or watch very much television news to know there are a lot of people experiencing greater tribulation than they ever have. We consider that a bad thing for the most part, but ponder this: if tribulation does indeed work patience, with the ultimate result being a greater hope in God, is not tribulation a good thing? That is not to say we should enjoy tribulation (sorry James).
Tribulation comes because we are not who God wants us to be. The proper attitude would be to embrace the tribulation that we are involved in to discover what the lessons are. That is no small task. We do have the Word of God and the fellowship of the saints to assist with that. Often when we cannot see what God is doing in our lives, others can. We typically pray the wrong prayers. We ask God to shorten the tribulation rather than asking Him to give us the grace to see the situation as it is and to make the necessary course corrections. When we have done that, the tribulation has worked correctly. We want to cut the process, but cutting the process also means we do not learn the lesson.
Please be encouraged to, "...let patience have its perfect work..." (James 1:4) God bless!
The reason the grace of God often is not at work in our lives is that we do not let it work. That is it. Simple really. In order for grace to work in our lives we must yield to it, allow it the chance to work. To the contrary, the human condition, the sin nature, the needing to have things be happening all the time, compels us to circumvent the working of grace by getting involved in and aborting the process.
A good friend of mine has been heard to refer to Christians' desire for things to happen as "microwave Christianity." That goes right along with, "God give me patience, and give it to me now." That is not the way it works. Gaining patience is a process. First there is the tribulation, then the patience. (Romans 5:1-5)
There was a television commercial when I was a child (that is long enough ago that most of you will not remember it) that asserted, "Paul Masson will sell no wine before its time." Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, "To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven." Just as wine takes time to ferment and attain its full body and flavor, grace works little by little in accomplishing God's purposes in and through His people.
Just as Jesus performed His first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee when He changed water into wine, (John 2:1-11) God is able to cause His grace to work instantaneously. In fact, many times it looks to the observer as though grace came upon someone quickly. That is because the observer does not know when the process began or how long it actually took. Someone remarked to Kenneth Copeland that his ministry had taken off overnight. His response was that if that were true, it was the longest night in recorded history.
One does not have to read far into new reports or watch very much television news to know there are a lot of people experiencing greater tribulation than they ever have. We consider that a bad thing for the most part, but ponder this: if tribulation does indeed work patience, with the ultimate result being a greater hope in God, is not tribulation a good thing? That is not to say we should enjoy tribulation (sorry James).
Tribulation comes because we are not who God wants us to be. The proper attitude would be to embrace the tribulation that we are involved in to discover what the lessons are. That is no small task. We do have the Word of God and the fellowship of the saints to assist with that. Often when we cannot see what God is doing in our lives, others can. We typically pray the wrong prayers. We ask God to shorten the tribulation rather than asking Him to give us the grace to see the situation as it is and to make the necessary course corrections. When we have done that, the tribulation has worked correctly. We want to cut the process, but cutting the process also means we do not learn the lesson.
Please be encouraged to, "...let patience have its perfect work..." (James 1:4) God bless!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
What Ever Happened to Expository Preaching
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Granted it was a long time ago when we attended Bible college. At that time, we were told in homiletics class, approximately 80% of preaching should be expository. Expository preaching broadly means to expound or explain the meaning of Bible verses. We were taught and encouraged to study the Bible in such a way as to be able to understand and teach the meanings of the verses under consideration according to their original intent. To that end we took basic Hebrew and Greek classes and studied the scriptures diligently. Expository preaching was, we were told, to be preferred to either textual or topical sermons.
We are at a loss to remember the last expository sermon we heard. This is not an indictment against any particular church as we have been to many different churches recently. Expository preaching seems to have been lost in the race to be relevant somewhere in the past few decades. In the church's haste to be relevant in society, we seem to have lost sight of the concept that the Bible has been and is always relevant. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16) Speaking of Timothy, he was told to, "Preach the word..." (2 Timothy 4:2), not "Tell the people what you think."
The mode du jour for preaching seems to be the topical sermon. The preacher chooses a topic, from daily life or from the Bible, and searches out other Bible verses to validate his or her opinion on the topic at hand. Interestingly, we have had weeks when the Holy Spirit has put things together in such a way, that we have heard a recurring theme several times in the same week. These occurrences have come via Sunday sermons, Bible studies, morning devotionals, and materials that have been given to us personally. That kind of thing cannot be all bad. So what is the big deal about expository preaching if the Holy Spirit is weaving together topics that Christians should know? Were our college professors wrong? Perhaps expository preaching has simply run it's course and is no longer relevant?
Review the scripture verses in italics above. Now let us look at what they do NOT say. Neither of them says anything remotely resembling "The word of the Sunday morning speaker, small group leader or Bible study teacher." Nor do they include writers of devotionals, books about the Bible, etc. God is the sole author of truth. Any truth that is spoken, written or taught is simply a reiteration of His truth.
It probably would not be so bad that we have done away with expository preaching, but most churches have also done away with Sunday School and have replaced Bible studies with "fellowship groups" under whatever name they have chosen for them. Not having either of those times of teaching the Bible has created a generation of Christians that is largely ignorant of basic, Bible doctrines (teachings) and their application to daily life. As a result, there is little sound, consistent doctrine throughout the church. Many Christians believe anything they hear from a pulpit on Sunday morning because they to not have the understanding and discernment to know whether the preacher is telling them the truth.
Most all preachers endeavor to tell the truth, and even go to the Bible to validate their version of it. A large percentage of the time they are correct, but the times they are not could mean the difference between spirit and soul, truth and error, life and death, heaven and hell. (Sorry to be quite so blunt there.) This is why Christians generally do no better at living the zoe, the God kind of life, than do unbelievers. That is also why The Church in Santa Maria has failed to recognize the insidious affects of the religious spirit that rules in this valley. As Pastor Jack Hayford has often said, "A diluted Gospel has produced deluded Christians."
I am guessing I probably get a C for effort in shortening these posts. Still some room for improvement there. I am working on improving that mark and still saying everything I am hearing. God bless!
Granted it was a long time ago when we attended Bible college. At that time, we were told in homiletics class, approximately 80% of preaching should be expository. Expository preaching broadly means to expound or explain the meaning of Bible verses. We were taught and encouraged to study the Bible in such a way as to be able to understand and teach the meanings of the verses under consideration according to their original intent. To that end we took basic Hebrew and Greek classes and studied the scriptures diligently. Expository preaching was, we were told, to be preferred to either textual or topical sermons.
We are at a loss to remember the last expository sermon we heard. This is not an indictment against any particular church as we have been to many different churches recently. Expository preaching seems to have been lost in the race to be relevant somewhere in the past few decades. In the church's haste to be relevant in society, we seem to have lost sight of the concept that the Bible has been and is always relevant. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16) Speaking of Timothy, he was told to, "Preach the word..." (2 Timothy 4:2), not "Tell the people what you think."
The mode du jour for preaching seems to be the topical sermon. The preacher chooses a topic, from daily life or from the Bible, and searches out other Bible verses to validate his or her opinion on the topic at hand. Interestingly, we have had weeks when the Holy Spirit has put things together in such a way, that we have heard a recurring theme several times in the same week. These occurrences have come via Sunday sermons, Bible studies, morning devotionals, and materials that have been given to us personally. That kind of thing cannot be all bad. So what is the big deal about expository preaching if the Holy Spirit is weaving together topics that Christians should know? Were our college professors wrong? Perhaps expository preaching has simply run it's course and is no longer relevant?
Review the scripture verses in italics above. Now let us look at what they do NOT say. Neither of them says anything remotely resembling "The word of the Sunday morning speaker, small group leader or Bible study teacher." Nor do they include writers of devotionals, books about the Bible, etc. God is the sole author of truth. Any truth that is spoken, written or taught is simply a reiteration of His truth.
It probably would not be so bad that we have done away with expository preaching, but most churches have also done away with Sunday School and have replaced Bible studies with "fellowship groups" under whatever name they have chosen for them. Not having either of those times of teaching the Bible has created a generation of Christians that is largely ignorant of basic, Bible doctrines (teachings) and their application to daily life. As a result, there is little sound, consistent doctrine throughout the church. Many Christians believe anything they hear from a pulpit on Sunday morning because they to not have the understanding and discernment to know whether the preacher is telling them the truth.
Most all preachers endeavor to tell the truth, and even go to the Bible to validate their version of it. A large percentage of the time they are correct, but the times they are not could mean the difference between spirit and soul, truth and error, life and death, heaven and hell. (Sorry to be quite so blunt there.) This is why Christians generally do no better at living the zoe, the God kind of life, than do unbelievers. That is also why The Church in Santa Maria has failed to recognize the insidious affects of the religious spirit that rules in this valley. As Pastor Jack Hayford has often said, "A diluted Gospel has produced deluded Christians."
I am guessing I probably get a C for effort in shortening these posts. Still some room for improvement there. I am working on improving that mark and still saying everything I am hearing. God bless!
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