Feathers

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” 2 Timothy 4:3

Nastolgia is a dangerous thing. Like many dangerous things it can be good or bad. A source of great renewal and strength to regain what has been lost or wright over history and memory forgetting the truth of what has come before. As a young man with my brother and mom and dad, I was blessed to tour Elis Island, and hear the stories of immigrant families both of joy and sorrow. As the season focuses families on bygone times this put me in the familiar mode and I chose to watch a documentary on the Island with Naomi.

One story stuck out above the rest on this particular documentary. The story of Israel Beilin who came from Russia with his family at the age of five. During his music career he became Irving Berlin and many of us dutifully watch and listen to his music every ear, pushing play on what ever medium we may choose to watch White Christmas, or simply dream of it to the familiar tune. One of the great ironies of the season is that one of the most loved Christmas songs of all time was written by an American Jew. This then pushed me to look closer at his life and wonder about such things. After the lose of his father the family had to work so he left school and started working. By 14 he was unable to contribute as much as his sisters to the family finances so he ran away to live on the streets.

Kipling noted of the Jews “For these immigrant Jews are a race that survives and thrives against all odds and flags” this proved true for Israel Beilin as well. It is amazing what a man’s stomach will push him to become. His skill at singing, the only skill he had, pushed him to sing and to sing what people wanted to hear. He quickly gained the skill of figuring out what people wanted to hear and giving it to them, a needed skill when selling something_. A strong Christian theology doesn’t sell, but snow, sleigh bells, and trees, that sells.

Looking at Paul’s warning to Timothy I reflect on the sorrow of this verse. Seeing the turning of our pulpits from mouthpieces of truth to feathers for ears, I mourn and wonder what has caused such a decline. America is falling victim to the realities of this world. William Perkins noted the rarity of God called ministers is partly simply because they will be monetarily undervalued, in 1605. This has not changed as preachers of every ilk try and make ends meet the temptation to take up the feather is always present, or at least avoid the sledge to the toes. It is not pastors alone that are tempted with feathers. As each of us try and walk that line not wanting to make waves, but longing to say what needs said. The Gospel of Christ is a sledge to our toes, but it is also a balm to our hearts. Let us not forget the season is not about snow, sleigh bells, glistening trees, stockings, candy or anything else. Let remember the child in the manger is useless to us if he does not grow, live a perfect life, die on a cross, RISE AND COME AGAIN. Christmas is the beginning of God’s mercies but it is not its fruit. Let us rejoice in the fruit and spread the news, “he is not here, he is risen”.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Ecclesiology

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

1 Timothy 3:4 ESV

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,

Titus 1:6 ESV

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Judges 8:21 ESV

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.”

Genesis 49:3,4 ESV

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence…

Parenting is hard. I was talking with a friend a few days ago. Since neither he nor I are good at living on Facebook this required actual talking. Listening to him brought a great amount of concern to my mind. His eldest daughter has gone the way of the world and was living with her non-Christian boyfriend. His second daughter was now moving in with the oldest and her boyfriend while she goes to school, seeming to have no moral qualms with the arrangement. I hurt for my friend. He knows the pain and hurt that is being sown into their lives, and they seem unwilling to listen or heed their parents’ petitions and pleas. I hurt with him and pray with him that God would reign in the life of his children.

Thinking and meditating on the verses above and my friends struggles lead me to some conclusions. The main being that I have not held the church in high enough regard. It’s a casual thing second nature really. As Parents raise children that are completely dependent on them, to start to assume they are the ones writing the program. As the bible clearly states they are a representative of our ability to manage our household. What of when they leave? As we read of the armor of God and the weapon we have been given on Sunday, I noted that Intelligence and Learning were gratefully not among those weapons. Yet, what is the reason our children often leave our homes? Is it not college? As parents across the country help their children decide what institutions to receive their further education from quality is often at the top of the list. Some may even choose a “Christian” college or University, hoping to encourage further spiritual development.

In all of this what place do we give to finding a strong, discipling, Church? At least in my thinking I must admit little to none. Either as I prepared my self to go to college or as I looked to the future of preparing my children. The assumption that a strong, biblically faithful, discipling, church would be present where ever I went, and that I and my children at the ripe old age of 18 would be able to recognize and find said church. Creating the idea and impression that good churches are a dime a dozen and church is an after thought to more important issues like: dorms, intramural sports, NCAA sports, national rankings, majors, new buildings, fraternal organizations… 

This shifted focus onto the church, brings with it renewed scrutiny. Are we as individuals active in the spiritual development of other believers? I say it this way because the active discipling of young and old alike is what prepares those who leave us, young and old alike, for continued faithfulness with the expectation of development in Christ. Find someone to help grow, find someone who will push you to grow, and watch God move mountains!

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Returns

2 Chronicles 32:25 ESV

But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore, wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.

It is not unusual to expect return for our investments, but does God expect return as well? This verse should make it apparent that God indeed does expect something from us, for what he has done for us and given us. The passage above highlights Hezekiah one of the few kings of Judah who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done” yet even he was found wanting. On the brink of death, he is told by the prophet to prepare his house for he will die, then he cries out to God and God heals him promising him an additional 15 years of life. Yet he was deficient in the eyes of God.

His place in God’s favor and his riches quickly lead him to pride in himself and he did not give God the return he desired from Hezekiah. What return was God expecting? What return does God require from him that was deficient? Romans 1:21 gives some insight into what God expects from his people, “For all though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him…”. God expects us to Thank HIM for what has transpired, and to honor HIM, for how we have been blessed in this world. Romans continues to describe the moral depravity and blindness that comes from those who do not credit God with what has transpired. Hezekiah’s additional fifteen years led to the birth of the most wicked king Judah had known. This led to the fall of Judah but the chronicler places the blame for the fall of Manasseh and Judah on Hezekiah’s pride, not solely on Manasseh’s wickedness.

Looking at the Holiday we have just concluded and looking towards the Holiday we are drawing near; I must wonder how much of a return God expects for the Gift of his son? A thankful spirit not for worldly wealth, or temporal ease, but for God incarnate, the King of Kings, “born to die that man might live”. I see the ease with which my heart is captured by the spirit of the age. With wealth and purchases flaunted, commercials replete with “you deserve it” adds designed to convince you to buy for yourself too! What place is there for giving God his do? For providing the return of thankfulness and honor to the God who “gave his one and only son” for us.

Even as we celebrate the Hope we have, let us not forget that hope is for a future time, when our eyes glimpse our savior in the air and we rush with bated breath through the air, faster than light itself, to meet our King. With all the blessings of Church and family gathering around tables overflowing with festal cheer, harkening to the great marriage feast of the lamb, our hearts joyful, we must give thanks and honor to the Master of the feast, by whose providence we have been supplied with hope for his coming and our future feast that will reveal our current celebrations to be but crumbs given to dogs. (Matthew 15:27)

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Elitism

2 Chronicles 24:14,17 ESV

¹⁴ And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. … ¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada the princess of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim…

It is overwhelming, watching as men and women, fighting for their freedom, trying to maintain what hope they have of a viable future for their children. They march, they make bombs, they hide their faces so that the technology of their oppressors can’t identify them. This is the reality of those living in Hong Kong. Communist Elites doing as they please until something blows up, take a step back and then start marching again. Manipulating and pressing until eventually they have eaten away all hope of freedom from this people. That they might be controlled and monitored in an Orwellian regime bent on absolute rule.

Against such a back drop stands the United States set on a hill with light streaming down. Freedom to do as you wish. Freedom to identify and experiment with whatever gender or drug you choose. With phones bent on distraction and appeasement of our every whim that money might be spent and thoughts conformed to the latest and greatest, that yesterday would be a short eternity ago. The twenty-four hour noise cycle able to keep the populace to busy thinking about nothing and never taking time to contemplate the implications of what has happened or what is coming next.

This coin has two sides. Huxley and Orwell feared the same thing from two different sides. Huxley feared a Brave New World where people were conformed not by overt monitoring or pressure but by a constant stream of drugs, sex, and entertainment make them so flippant and selfish as to not care as long as the drugs, sex, and entertainment keep coming. Orwell feared a government with a heavy hand controlling, changing, and monitoring to keep its populace in line. These men together feared Elites bent on controlling the “masses” just with two different methods. Such is the nature of this world, for “nothing new is under the sun.”

The “princes” of Judah couldn’t careless about the God they appeared to worship. As long as Jehoiada had the king’s ear they flattered and bent the knee. When opportunity presented, they flattered and pushed to relegate worship and faith to a simple matter of sociology and control. One method in many of binding a society together. This was Jeroboam’s sin to the north. He also saw religion as something he had to control that he might control the people of God and stop them from turning from him. The Elites needed to destroy the stronghold of the priesthood that the people might be more readily controlled. This is what has taken place in the United States and is taking place in China. As churches, preaching, and the word of God are relegated out of mainstream discussions of right and wrong and Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology are moved in.

Let us not deceive ourselves the Elites of yester year had no desire for the God of the Bible anymore than today’s they simply had to wait for Jehoiada to die and now they are having their way. Will the people of The United States of America follow into irrelevance or stand on the convictions of our forefathers? Or maybe we that choose to blow the horn will follow the course of Zechariah, standing strong for the truth of God against a corrupt government only to find we stand alone and not for long?

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Sons

Job 1:18-20 ESV

“…your sons and daughters…were in their oldest brother’s house…a great wind came…and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead…Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.”

Raising children is hard. Even as everyone has an opinion and has experience with the rearing of children no one has a monopoly on how it should be done. Just as no two snowflakes are the same no two children are the same, no two circumstances are the same, how then do I do this thing? I look at my two sons, one far smarter than I ever remember being, easily able to sit and contemplate for hours, and struggles with quitting when things get hard, and another who seems to be bent on loosing all feeling in his posterior. Unable to sit lest he fall asleep. Only willing to quit on those things I ask him to do. Have no fear the toy is never to high; the candy is never too far removed for him to find a way. I have determined that one more rightly resembles myself. While the other more rightly resembles his mother. (My best friend and I were not allowed to repeat 1^st grade together, separate schools were needed to help us focus!)

What means must be used to help a boy grow into manhood. Many of you have already experienced the epic trial, that bears resemblance to the pole vaulter or high jumper, after exerting all your energy, thinking you have finally cleared, you hit the pad and quickly look to the bar to see if you were imagining it fearful that you might have somehow touched the it, or aware that you did touch it praying beyond all hope that it would magically stay up! This is the struggle of parenting. The challenge of raising Christian men and women, not good boys and girls. How is this accomplished? Even as I strain and struggle with my son who acts more like me than I want to admit, I know it is the constant beat of the drum. Dori singing “just keep swimming”, the riddle “How do you swallow and elephant?”, or the proverb that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, all of these pointing to the reality that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

Yet, in time Rome is built, and you start to rest easier thinking the trials and strains are behind you. You have finally reached that point in the movie when it fades and “happily ever after” comes across the screen, then the news hits, their dead. No one knows how bad new shoes pinch except the person wearing them. For all the words given in comfort only God really knows how bad it feels. I pray that I might only imagine how Job felt that day. As the children he held to his bosom, watching grow into fine upstanding adults. Feeling the pride that swelled in his breast as he watched them and heard of their exemplary conduct, and then hearing the news that GOD had taken them from him.

In David we see a little of this, as he endures the death of three of his son’s, with two of them being truly despicable people, and yet he cries and mourns for them. How are we to respond when the young precede the old in greeting their maker face to face? In sorrow. In mourning. Celebrating those we know to merely be preceding us in paradise, and mourning with the family what should not be but what sin has wrought in our world, death. Sin and death are the great enemies of the Christian, the enemies that have been conquered. Conquered on the cross, as one father watched, his son die for those who did not deserve such a sacrifice. And we are loved for it.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO