Christian Liberty

Hebrews 5:13 ESV

For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

As I look to my children, I recognize both my short comings and their superiority to me. I remember scouring the ten channels every Saturday morning starting at 6:00 am when the colored bars finally were replaced by programming of some form. I distinctly remember one non-cartoon on PBS. These guys would be working on a house and talking about all kinds of things that were simply boring. I would switch the channel. Every time I would get up and change the station, (yes, a bygone era I know) and it would fall on “This Old House”, if that was all I could find, I would go outside and play. My children eat it up. Currently every night Naomi wants the next episode they have put on. (Season 38 is available on YouTube.) As we make our way through, they know all the regulars, from Roger in the “yaad” to Richard doing the plumbing.

The tradesmen of “This Old House” are getting older and they see the lack of workers coming up behind them. Electing to start giving back they chose in Season 39 to make a concerted effort to bring apprentices on to train the next generation, with the regulars and all the subcontractors having an apprentice of some kind, recognizing that people need to be taught, trained, and led into becoming skilled craftsmen.

The book of Hebrews tells us that the original recipients were “unskilled in the word of righteousness” calling them children and pressing them to become “mature”. One of the reasons noted for some growth in the trades was a discontent with mediocre jobs and associated pay. The Christian must become discontent with a mediocre Christian life, and desire more from God. How then are we to attain such a thing? The model of Scripture is the model of apprenticeship, or if you prefer discipleship. A more experienced trained person working side by side with a younger. As Christ walks with his disciples and trains them in the way they should go. As Barnabus brings along Paul and then they divide and each take new men to bring along into mature Christian work.

In opposition to this is the modern over spiritualized trend of direct divine revelation. “God told me” has become the end all for answering the question “what should I do?” Even as this is clearly shown in scripture as exceptional it is portrayed today as normative. The normal Christian pattern for Christian Liberty is: What does the bible say? What do Godly Christian men and women give for insights? Is there a desire in me?

Recognizing this pattern is Christian Liberty. It touches everything from who you should marry, employment opportunities, church membership, and everything in between. The bible says Men should marry women, and Christians are required to marry Christians. If your desire doesn’t line up with this you shouldn’t get married, even if it means never Marrying. Godly men and women add another level of wisdom to help make good decisions. Then personal desire for something also plays into. Let us not be paralyzed waiting for a voice from heaven when God has already spoken in HIS word! Giving us a pattern to follow. Paul and Peter traveled extensively, and yet only rarely, I exceptional circumstances, did God choose to give divine direction or impediment.

Let us grow and become mature, skilled in the word of Righteousness.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Off the Reservation

Philippians 1:27 ESV

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

How often do I ‘hang out’ with people not like myself? One of the ways I justify my Disc Golf hobby/sport/problem is that I meet many people that have no or slight interactions with the church and even less with Christ. Even in this I was pushed this last week end. As I say and justify spending my time playing a game and leaving the kids with Kelly, no break for a homeschooling mom, I don’t know that I want to play this tournament again. Playing down in Marquette, Kansas it was a tightly wooded course with a very technical feel and a lot of ways to get in trouble or look simply amazing depending. It is a great course and a lot of fun to play.

Even as I ask the question about people “not like myself”, I must admit that the majority present would be, white males 20-40 years old with a few older and a couple younger (all the good guys), and one solo female competitor. So, in one since (the one the media likes to focus on) they were all just like me, but once you start playing, and getting back into the woods, it all changes. Tobacco, chewed and smoked, mixed with vaping of some flavor, combined with a hint of what I assume to be a substance legal in Colorado but not in Kansas, starts to fill the air. Drinks ranging from Gatorade, to niche market bears, name brand bears, and even Captain Morgan & Coke start to fill the competitors. Having been in multiple Tournaments were this variety was not the case I can only assume that the tightly wooded course in a small non-county seat town with no police department led to much of what was being done.

It is easy to falsely believe that people, because they are happy and having fun, are “doing all right” but God tells us that they are “dead in the trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). In the reality that matters there were two vastly different people at this tournament, the living and the dead. How does one walk in the midst of the dead? As our society continues to fall apart, and illegal substances become legal in state after state, how are we going to live a “manner of life…worthy of the gospel of Christ”? Is it best to remain sequestered in our communities only interacting with the dead when they look “like us” in their actions?

The moment finally came on Hole 15 when I was offered a ‘dab’, after I declined, the two that had played with me before educated the third man as to my status as a “preacher”. At this point the apologies and stories of how he had worked with pastors before and they were some the best guys to work with started coming, apparently, he was unaware that “preachers” go off the reservation now and then. To say I then educated them on the sins of loose lips, drunkenness, and wizardry (mind altering drugs), would be false. We played the rest of the round. I walked in a manner worthy of the Calling of Christ and God was glorified.

As I look at Christ, I find great interest that his conversations at the homes and parties he is invited to are largely not discussed. What is recorded would be a five-minute conversation or less and is normally in response to what someone is thinking not what was said. Why was the majority of what Jesus said not recorded? First, because we don’t need to know, but second probably because it was just simple normal conversation with people. Much of the salt and light we can be in normal conversations and regular interactions when we go to the dead and behave worthy of our calling is simply that. Let us walk side by side as we declare life to the dead. “Live in a manner worthy of your calling” and that calling is to be light in darkness, not a bulb in the lighting section of the hardware store. WE must scatter every week that light can confront darkness and then gather back together that we might grow in our faith and do it again next week.

CORAM DEO

Returns

1 Kings 2:5 ESV

Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel...Act therefore according to your wisdom.”

It happened once again. After awhile it is not surprising, people can only make so many unfulfilled promises before cynicism takes over. I don’t know how many times I have been told “I will be their Sunday.” And when Sunday rolls around, as it does every week, other choices were made. Was it even sincere when it was uttered? The weight of being lied to and avoided starts to creep into thoughts and actions and cynicism must be fought as the enemy it is, but leopards don’t change their spots.

As we come to the text this week, David has already given the Kingdom to Solomon, bypassing the presumptuous son and now he is giving Solomon the final charge of things that need done, that he did not have the strength or courage to do himself. Mainly the commander Joab and his murders. David never did more than cry for the deceased. He would not punish his nephew, but he did not forget the crimes. So, what does Solomon do after David dies? He does nothing. He does not seek out Joab, he does not destroy Shemei. He weights. Solomon has learned the lessons of history. As we continue reading in the text, we find that Adonijah has come up with another plan to regain the kingdom from his brother. When Solomon perceives the depth of the plan and its full intent, he then has his brother executed. At this point what would co-conspirators do? If you had been part of the first attempt, and know were part of a second attempt to establish a counter monarchy, what do you do? You run. That is what Joab does. He runs to the place where Solomon had given leniency and parole earlier. He runs to the altar of God. Yet, this time, his sin is found out and he is executed there for both his current crime and his past crimes.

Solomon knowing the realities of men and already being wise, does the same for Shimei, the man who cursed David on his way from the city. He gives him the room and space to hang himself. A simple scenario is played out in which he is given parole and fails to meet the demands of it so his is executed as well. This points us to the plain reality that man “does not quickly depart from it” meaning the way he was raised. A knowledge of history and the reality of men’s sin allowed Solomon to simply weight for men to fall and then executed judgment without the need to justify his actions. We too are given this ability.

Solomon, had to weight three years for Shemei to reveal his heart, but that heart is revealed. Meditating on this passage and realizing that people don’t change, I realized that I have been in Lincoln for three years. This creates a hard question for me. Is what I am seeing in our church the result of my leadership and shepherding or a result of a people’s hearts finally revealing themselves? Even as none is given opportunity to see into a man’s heart but God, wisdom told Solomon, that if people are faithful, they would remain so, if they are not then they would simply fall back into wayward activity. If gathering with the saints one day a week is a “take it or leave it” affair, your heart has been revealed.  “Like a dog that returns to its vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.” Proverbs 26:11

Coram Deo

Fiction

Romans 15:31-32 ESV

That I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

As I look at all the appeals of Paul I this strikes me as most sweet and endearing. Paul has often been someone I have found hard to love. Often in your face, he rubs many people the wrong way, as is evidenced by the different responses to him and Barnabas when they show up in town (only Paul was stoned…). Yet, despite all of this I come to this appeal and I am filled with empathy and my heart softened to this stalwart defender of the faith. With all he has done and will do he asks them to strive in prayer for these things: overcoming opponents, his actions would be acceptable, and he would be refreshed when he visits.

Leading into this text he has asked the church in Rome to STRIVE in prayer for these things. In my humanness it is easy to understand the desire for the enemy to fail and my side to win. Yet, looking at his second section “winning” is simply that he would be “acceptable to the saints.” That is right Paul simply wants the church to see his service as valuable service. The desire for God’s people to judge my service as worthy service is a level of humility I do not normally find in Paul’s letters. His heart is broken and crushed at the thought that the bride of Christ would not find his service and sacrifice acceptable. He begs the Romans to strive with him in prayer that his fears would not be realized.

The indelible pull of the judgment of us and our work is powerful and present. Even today the idea of judgment holds sway of congress, the courts, and the congregation. It is no shock that politicians would care how their work is judged, but the courts are a different matter. Yet, the argument of not being on the “right side of history” has pushed many to the wrong side as they try to hold the tiger by his tail. Supplanting the judgement of God and his people with the judgment of a fictitious future historian/writer.

It is good to know that both sides agree that Judgment Day is coming. The real debate is who will be the judge. What must I do to please him? As thousands do crazy things to get in the Guinness Book of World Records, millions vote for candidates they don’t agree with, all on the hope that they will be part of or do something worth recording in that liberal historian’s record book. Yet, the Christian lives with a different judge. The Christian knows that the immortal judgment of the God of the universe and his bride is far more lasting and assured than any fictitious historian. He has even given the standard to which we will be judged. Praise God he also gives us the alien righteousness to meet the standard!

Let us live to please the Judge and his Bride, and be refreshed. We can let fiction write itself!

Coram Deo

No Sovereign

“We serve no sovereign here.”

1 Samuel 20:12 ESV

“When I have sounded out my father,”

The American value of personal autonomy is coming home to roost. The independent streak of Americanism has found fertile soil in the hearts of modern man desiring to reject all sovereignty but their own. As our founders rejected the sovereignty of the King of England, they replaced it with the revolutionary idea that we would govern ourselves. In more recent days this has mutated into the abhorrent theology of “I will be sovereign over myself” governing all aspects of my life, from my gender to my death bed.

This personal sovereignty over death itself has caused much debate and recently many states have chosen to agree that man is sovereign over his death. In so doing, I am curious how many follow this to its final conclusion. Even as they paint the picture of pained and dying individuals wanting to end their suffering, we see “mental trauma” being used as justification for Physician assisted suicide in Europe. As millions in this country declare that they have sovereignty over life and death, even over the life and death of others who have not been born. Yet, I wonder about the young men recently in the news, the shooters in Dayton and El Paso. I do not know all the facts, I have heard that racism and hatred played major rolls in the latest shootings, but I have to wonder if they had any hope of survival? I find it difficult to believe that they started these endeavors with hope of survival, this rightly being a suicide mission, like the vast majority of these events that have, like meteors, briefly lit the sky of public awareness.

Christians rightly condemn these men for what they have done, but what of those who demand Choice and personal sovereignty? These men suffering mental/emotional trauma have elected to end their lives in the same way they have re-enacted multiple times on their video games, and scene in movies. They take the lives of others in so doing, yet, if it is their choice to die in an adrenaline rush and pool of blood can a godless society really reject their choice? The idea that the cancer patient, or Alzheimer’s patient, doesn’t harm anyone in choosing to end their lives rejects the web of connections that exist and makes the bolder claim that they are aware of what the future holds. Only one who is sovereign could rightly know who is “harmed” by any action and the full scope of the ripples on the water.

Jonathan sought to plum the depths of his fathers’ heart on a particular issue. He found anger, pride, and death, and he only scratched the surface of one who thought himself sovereign. As Americans try and grapple with the evil that is coming out of young men in droves, we must wonder is it not a struggle over who is sovereign? John Guest noted the Revolutionary slogan “We serve no sovereign here” and wondered how he could preach God’s Kingdom to such a people. I hear of such a thing and I wonder how can we survive? Only in God’s sovereign choice do we have assurance and hope for the future. Only in God’s sovereign hand do I know that somehow “all things work to good, for those that love him”. Only in God’s sovereign judgment can I declare evil, evil, and that stands for both the invalid and the youth, who wish to make themselves “like God”, sovereign.

Coram Deo