Those of you who survived my first two bee stories will enjoy this. Either that or you will cringe at how so much stupidity could fit into one body. I bought yet another package of bees with a queen and with the assistance of my friend Doug, we managed to get them to the house. Now, as a matter of record, Doug showed the depth of his friendship here because frankly, he doesn't like bees. Despite this, he put 3 lbs of them in the backseat of his car and stuck around while we unpacked them. To his credit he was doing really well until the time came to shake the bees into the hive. Oddly, his interest waned and he wished me well as he headed out. I continued to fiddle with them, hoping to get them all set up before the rain came , and that's where I made my mistake.
See, I had a makeshift feeder, and after dumping the bees in the hive, I was going to give them a few minutes to calm down before I put the top on the hive. with this in mind, I walked away and was taking care of another errand when the rain hit hard and fast. It dumped probably half an inch of rain in about an hour and then stopped. I walked out to the hive, put the feeder in place, put the top on and went about my day.
The rain came again and I wasn't able to make it out to the hive for almost a day. When I did., the first thing I noticed was very little bee activity. The second thing I noticed was all the dead bees. I opened the hive and it appeared that I had lost roughly 2/3 of my hive. I also noticed that the feeder was untouched. None of this made any sense, and I called the apiary, but they were closed for the weekend. I went back out to the hive, and looked and looked, and thought. I pulled the feeder out and then it hit me; they had died of starvation.
You see, when the rain hit the feeder was outside the hive and although it had syrup in it, it picked up about a half-inch of water. The syrup was heavier than the water, and sank to the bottom. I had bees that had food, but couldn't get to it, hence starvation. I drained the water out and drizzled the syrup over the old honeycomb, and the bees went to work eating. It's been 4 or 5 days now and they are abuzz ( ha!) with activity. As far as I can tell, all is well.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Why Go to Church?
If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times; you don't have to go to church to worship God. This statement is usually made in response to a question like 'Are you saved?', and isn't an answer to the question at all. If I ask 'Are you saved?' and your response is 'You don't have to go to church', it's as nonsensical as if I had asked 'What color is my shirt' and you said 'It tastes like chicken'. It's a dodge; an evasive tactic to get around what was asked and at the same time steer the conversation towards whatever grievance the person has against some church somewhere or some pastor somewhere. In fact, just last week a guy told me that God was actually against people going to church. That was just one of several weird things he said all of which eventually led back to the heart of the matter; he was mad at some preacher somewhere.
Let me say this; I don't blame you if you're mad at some preacher somewhere. I preach, and I pretty much stay irritated with myself. But if you do as some of my family have done and stay away from church for multiple decades because this one guy in this one place did this one thing, you're just being stupid. Find another place, find another guy, and wait for him to do some completely different thing so that you can get mad all over again and stay home. Go for it. Take your ball and go home. Pout. We will all be impressed with your ability to not only get hurt and stay hurt because after all, that's hard to do. After all, you're the only person that's ever been hurt or discouraged or disappointed. In fact, we would all be really impressed if you started a blog or website or something where you can tell everybody how hurt you've been. Maybe you can find other bitter people and you can spend your 'worship time' blasting an making snide comments about people you used to pray for.
I'm getting off topic.
I won't argue that you can't read the Bible by yourself at home,because obviously you can and you should. You can also pray by yourself at home and sing at home, and you certainly should. But the fact is that God has instituted the gathering of believers together because there are certain things that God wants done in all our lives that can only happen when we assemble. If you stay home, you will miss out on what God wants to do in your life. Rather than listing all the really swell reasons you have for staying home, let me show you a handful of reasons from the Bible why you should go. Since we are all so self-obsessed, I'll even leave out the ones where God benefits, and just focus on the ones that benefit you.
1. Giving I figured I'd start out with the one that is most likely to make people stop reading. There is another post in the works that deals with giving, but the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16 " Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store , as God hath prospered him , that there be no gatherings when I come." One of the reasons you should go to church is so that you can give away some of your money. If you hold to the idea that church isn't for you, then you surely wouldn't be bothered if we showed up at your door with a collection plate, would you? Somehow I suspect that you would. The Bible is clear; God says get together on the first day of the week and take up an offering. If you want to skip that, go right ahead, I'm not your dad. But giving is fun, and the work will get done either way.
2. Growth . The Bible says in Ephesians 4 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:" God desires to grow you and to use you to grow others. To accomplish this, God gave to the church people who can preach and teach the Bible so that those people might help perfect each other. As you 'worship God' in your deer stand or in your living room, or at the beach (these are all places that people have assured me where they can worship God while avoiding the question) ask yourself this ; who are you edifying, and who is edifying you? The concept implies that you have to be around other people to do it. The local assembly is where you can learn some Bible, where you can have your iron sharpened by other iron, and where you can learn to tolerate people who are less mature and less spiritual than you.
3. Friendship In Romans 16 , Paul names some names. " I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks , but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them." All theology aside, if that group of people had simply gotten saved and then lived a Lone Ranger Christianity, Paul never would have known them, and they never would have known each other. They never would have known the joy of not only ministering, but ministering and labouring together. I have my own list, and it includes not only people in both churches that I've been a part of, but street preachers all over the world. If you don't have a list like this, you don't have any idea what you've been missing. How are you supposed to bear one another's burdens if you don't know who one another are?
That comes with it the risk that you'll be hurt, or swindled, or lied to or lied about. That's definitely a possibility. But everybody else you go to church with is also taking that chance with you. So you MIGHT have a bad experience if you go, but you WILL miss out if you stay away. That's pretty easy math, I think.
Let me say this; I don't blame you if you're mad at some preacher somewhere. I preach, and I pretty much stay irritated with myself. But if you do as some of my family have done and stay away from church for multiple decades because this one guy in this one place did this one thing, you're just being stupid. Find another place, find another guy, and wait for him to do some completely different thing so that you can get mad all over again and stay home. Go for it. Take your ball and go home. Pout. We will all be impressed with your ability to not only get hurt and stay hurt because after all, that's hard to do. After all, you're the only person that's ever been hurt or discouraged or disappointed. In fact, we would all be really impressed if you started a blog or website or something where you can tell everybody how hurt you've been. Maybe you can find other bitter people and you can spend your 'worship time' blasting an making snide comments about people you used to pray for.
I'm getting off topic.
I won't argue that you can't read the Bible by yourself at home,because obviously you can and you should. You can also pray by yourself at home and sing at home, and you certainly should. But the fact is that God has instituted the gathering of believers together because there are certain things that God wants done in all our lives that can only happen when we assemble. If you stay home, you will miss out on what God wants to do in your life. Rather than listing all the really swell reasons you have for staying home, let me show you a handful of reasons from the Bible why you should go. Since we are all so self-obsessed, I'll even leave out the ones where God benefits, and just focus on the ones that benefit you.
1. Giving I figured I'd start out with the one that is most likely to make people stop reading. There is another post in the works that deals with giving, but the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16 " Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store , as God hath prospered him , that there be no gatherings when I come." One of the reasons you should go to church is so that you can give away some of your money. If you hold to the idea that church isn't for you, then you surely wouldn't be bothered if we showed up at your door with a collection plate, would you? Somehow I suspect that you would. The Bible is clear; God says get together on the first day of the week and take up an offering. If you want to skip that, go right ahead, I'm not your dad. But giving is fun, and the work will get done either way.
2. Growth . The Bible says in Ephesians 4 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:" God desires to grow you and to use you to grow others. To accomplish this, God gave to the church people who can preach and teach the Bible so that those people might help perfect each other. As you 'worship God' in your deer stand or in your living room, or at the beach (these are all places that people have assured me where they can worship God while avoiding the question) ask yourself this ; who are you edifying, and who is edifying you? The concept implies that you have to be around other people to do it. The local assembly is where you can learn some Bible, where you can have your iron sharpened by other iron, and where you can learn to tolerate people who are less mature and less spiritual than you.
3. Friendship In Romans 16 , Paul names some names. " I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks , but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them." All theology aside, if that group of people had simply gotten saved and then lived a Lone Ranger Christianity, Paul never would have known them, and they never would have known each other. They never would have known the joy of not only ministering, but ministering and labouring together. I have my own list, and it includes not only people in both churches that I've been a part of, but street preachers all over the world. If you don't have a list like this, you don't have any idea what you've been missing. How are you supposed to bear one another's burdens if you don't know who one another are?
That comes with it the risk that you'll be hurt, or swindled, or lied to or lied about. That's definitely a possibility. But everybody else you go to church with is also taking that chance with you. So you MIGHT have a bad experience if you go, but you WILL miss out if you stay away. That's pretty easy math, I think.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Being Pretty
 |
| If my wife and I had known each other as children |
My wife is very pretty. I mean, we had 4 kids in 6 years, that's how pretty she is. When she recently revealed that she had never changed a flat tire, I was amazed. I wondered how this was even possible since she has been driving for over two decades now. She told me that , when the flat occurred, there was always some guy that would come along and be willing to do it for her. Man, that must be nice.
By comparison while my wife was not changing her own tires, I have spent an inordinate amount of time on my back in the dark , looking up at mystifying engine parts in the pouring rain while an indifferent cavalcade of humanity whizzed by mere inches from my feet in their perfectly functioning vehicles. Perhaps one of them did occasionally cast an eye in my direction out of morbid curiosity as to what sort of trouble the poor chucklehead has gotten himself into this time. Ah well, they probably think , better him than me. Not that I'm bitter.
It's bad enough that attractive people already enjoy the advantage of being well..attractive. Isn't it enough that people naturally like you , and naturally want to date you, and if you're a woman, naturally want to buy you stuff? Isn't that enough of a leg up on the rest of us? Apparently not. If one is (as a man) tall, and well-built and handsome, study after study has proven that doors open for you. The taller guy makes more money, and usually is elected President over the shorter guy. Attractive people tend to live longer and if you're an attractive woman , the world is unarguably your oyster.
We all know this is true, but the pretty people, amazingly, will argue with you over this. As ridiculous as their arguments are, and no matter how unhinged from reality the discussion becomes, it's hard to stay mad at them because they are just so pretty.
The rest of us do enjoy a couple of pretty substantial advantages over the 'pretties'. One is that, because there are so many of us and so few of them, occasionally one of them has to marry us. It's just statistically impossible to avoid it. Sometimes the gap between the 'pretties' and the 'not-so-muches' is so vast that everybody that sees them wonders "How in the world did he pull that off?' And yes, Danny, I'm thinking of you. So we get the advantage of having a pretty mate, and the subsequent advantage of being left alone while everybody talks to our pretty mate. For the misanthropic among us, that's quite a hefty win.
Time also is the great equalizer among the haves and have-nots. It has been said that being born beautiful is like being born rich and getting poorer every day. The musclebound jock loses his hair, the homecoming queen gains weight. Teeth fall out, eyes grow dim, and eventually they have to live where the rest of us have been our entire lives. That is an advantage.
The real advantage however is in toughness. Those of us whose lives have been defined by discomfort are better prepared for the ups and downs of life, especially the downs. You can hit me as hard as you can , literally or metaphorically, and I will (eventually) get back up because life has been knocking me down since I could stand up. Being a non-pretty has made me that way. Being short makes you learn to fight, and being slightly homely makes you able to blend in the crowd. Nobody notices you because nobody really wants to look at you. By extension, if the advantages of prettiness were ever stripped away by the circumstances of life ( maybe if the entire world went blind or something), my money is on the have-nots. If you're a pretty woman and you want a guy who wont crack and crumble and cry like a sissy girl when something goes wrong, marry an ugly guy. He's been dealing with hardship his entire life, and he'll make you look prettier by comparison.
Don't just root for the underdog. Go a step further, and root for the ugly, short, misanthropic, nearsighted underdog with a bad haircut. We have a surprising amount going for us. We have pretty wives, the advantage of time, strength in numbers and a hide thick enough to crack cinder blocks. That's quite a combination.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
The Sufficiency of Jesus Christ
We live in very curious times for the child of God. We live in an age in which the body of Christ has taken on and absorbed the philosophy of the world and put great stock in the pronouncements of psychiatry and psychology. We live in an age in which your every twitch and glitch has been given an acronym and a diagnosis by Christ-rejecting pill-dispensing doctors. It's a dangerous age.
Assuming that people have always been people, and that since Adam walked out of the garden mankind has been plagued with heartaches and sorrow one cannot help but ask questions about previous generations. How did the body of Christ get along before all this? How did we survive the Inquisition, and the Black death without Valium? How did Susanna Wesley raise over 20 children without Prozac? How did we survive the fires of Nero without Abilify? Could it be that Christians did the unthinkable? Could it be that they actually relied on God and shunned the vain babbling of the witch-doctory of their day as unfit for a redeemed child of God?
When questions like this get asked, usually the reaction is quite telling. People will defend their dependencies. People will say things like "You don't know what you're talking about." or "You don't know what it's like." or "You've never been through a storm like mine." Be careful with your assumptions. But truly, life is full of tragedy and sorrow and I haven't borne one tenth of the burdens some have borne. That's not the point. My storm versus your storm isn't the point. My heartache versus your heartache or my craziness versus your craziness isn't the point. The point is that Jesus Christ is sufficient for ALL our needs.
The Bible says in Isaiah 61:1 that "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted , to proclaim liberty to the captives , and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; " That means that Jesus Christ has a ministry to crazy people, to broken hearts and sons of Adam that are mangled and marred by sin. If you choose to deaden yourself by whatever means, then you miss out on a chance for Jesus Christ himself to minister to you.
We all have baggage, and we all have issues, and we also all have a choice in how to deal with them. You can rely on the Lord, or you can rely on something else. Jesus Christ is either sufficient for your storm, or he isn't. The Bible says in Colossians 2 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" You are complete in him, which implies that , as simplistic and bumper-sticker-ish as it sounds, all you need is Jesus. The world offers you a counterfeit in philosophy and vain deceit, and its a foolish Christian who trusts in the wisdom of this world when he can trust in the Author of life itself.
The Bible promises in Isaiah 26 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." The New Testament reminds us in 1 Cor 15 that "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." and commands us in Eph 4 to ".. henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk , in the vanity of their mind...".
The weaknesses of your mind and the frailties of your flesh and the storms of your life provide an excellent opportunity for God to minister to you and to show his strength through your life. that's why 2 Cor 5 says "Of such an one will I glory : yet of myself I will not glory , but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory , I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear , lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure . For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak , then am I strong. "
I have seen the ravages of modern psychiatry destroy the minds of people in my family. I have also seen the saints of God go through unspeakable, horrific circumstances with tears, and weeping, and the power of God on their life. With such clear contrasts available, it has always seemed so strange to me that the same crowd who would condemn me for seeking solace in a whiskey bottle for my troubles would seek solace for their troubles in a pill bottle. I wouldn't go to a lost person for advice on trouble with my spirit, so why would I trust an unregenerate psychiatrist or psychologist or therapist to help me with my problems, especially when Jesus Christ has promised that he would help me? After all the Bible says in Galatians 2 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. "
As a word of testimony, I can tell you , without hesitation that my mind is held together with God's help and by God's word. Outside of God's upholding hand, and preserving grace, I am as crazy as a bedbug and would probably destroy my entire life with foolishness. Knowing this, and knowing that the world offers no real help forces me to rely on God, and allows him to minister to me. I don't write this as someone who has no issues. I write this as a redeemed sinner whom God has helped beyond my ability to explain. I know a thing or two about this.
In closing, let me say that if you are trusting in some sort of medicine to make it through the day emotionally or mentally, I'm not mad at you, and I don't consider you a lesser Christian. I just think that you are missing out on a glorious opportunity. I'm not telling you to go pour your pills down the drain. I am just asking you to take a long, hard look at what the word of God says, and try to align your life to it. It's completely worth it.
Assuming that people have always been people, and that since Adam walked out of the garden mankind has been plagued with heartaches and sorrow one cannot help but ask questions about previous generations. How did the body of Christ get along before all this? How did we survive the Inquisition, and the Black death without Valium? How did Susanna Wesley raise over 20 children without Prozac? How did we survive the fires of Nero without Abilify? Could it be that Christians did the unthinkable? Could it be that they actually relied on God and shunned the vain babbling of the witch-doctory of their day as unfit for a redeemed child of God?
When questions like this get asked, usually the reaction is quite telling. People will defend their dependencies. People will say things like "You don't know what you're talking about." or "You don't know what it's like." or "You've never been through a storm like mine." Be careful with your assumptions. But truly, life is full of tragedy and sorrow and I haven't borne one tenth of the burdens some have borne. That's not the point. My storm versus your storm isn't the point. My heartache versus your heartache or my craziness versus your craziness isn't the point. The point is that Jesus Christ is sufficient for ALL our needs.
The Bible says in Isaiah 61:1 that "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted , to proclaim liberty to the captives , and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; " That means that Jesus Christ has a ministry to crazy people, to broken hearts and sons of Adam that are mangled and marred by sin. If you choose to deaden yourself by whatever means, then you miss out on a chance for Jesus Christ himself to minister to you.
We all have baggage, and we all have issues, and we also all have a choice in how to deal with them. You can rely on the Lord, or you can rely on something else. Jesus Christ is either sufficient for your storm, or he isn't. The Bible says in Colossians 2 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" You are complete in him, which implies that , as simplistic and bumper-sticker-ish as it sounds, all you need is Jesus. The world offers you a counterfeit in philosophy and vain deceit, and its a foolish Christian who trusts in the wisdom of this world when he can trust in the Author of life itself.
The Bible promises in Isaiah 26 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." The New Testament reminds us in 1 Cor 15 that "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." and commands us in Eph 4 to ".. henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk , in the vanity of their mind...".
The weaknesses of your mind and the frailties of your flesh and the storms of your life provide an excellent opportunity for God to minister to you and to show his strength through your life. that's why 2 Cor 5 says "Of such an one will I glory : yet of myself I will not glory , but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory , I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear , lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure . For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak , then am I strong. "
I have seen the ravages of modern psychiatry destroy the minds of people in my family. I have also seen the saints of God go through unspeakable, horrific circumstances with tears, and weeping, and the power of God on their life. With such clear contrasts available, it has always seemed so strange to me that the same crowd who would condemn me for seeking solace in a whiskey bottle for my troubles would seek solace for their troubles in a pill bottle. I wouldn't go to a lost person for advice on trouble with my spirit, so why would I trust an unregenerate psychiatrist or psychologist or therapist to help me with my problems, especially when Jesus Christ has promised that he would help me? After all the Bible says in Galatians 2 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. "
As a word of testimony, I can tell you , without hesitation that my mind is held together with God's help and by God's word. Outside of God's upholding hand, and preserving grace, I am as crazy as a bedbug and would probably destroy my entire life with foolishness. Knowing this, and knowing that the world offers no real help forces me to rely on God, and allows him to minister to me. I don't write this as someone who has no issues. I write this as a redeemed sinner whom God has helped beyond my ability to explain. I know a thing or two about this.
In closing, let me say that if you are trusting in some sort of medicine to make it through the day emotionally or mentally, I'm not mad at you, and I don't consider you a lesser Christian. I just think that you are missing out on a glorious opportunity. I'm not telling you to go pour your pills down the drain. I am just asking you to take a long, hard look at what the word of God says, and try to align your life to it. It's completely worth it.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Christians and the State
On the issue of the Christian, and the role of government, I have friends on both ends of the spectrum and most points in between. I am probably going to leave out various important nuances in their positions, inadvertently constructing straw men. This is not my intent. but here goes.
I have friends that consider themselves stateless libertarians or will even go so far as to call themselves anarchists. Their position (perhaps oversimplified) is that liberty is a gift from God and that since governments tend to curtail liberty, the government cannot also be a gift from God. These anarchists will say that ,scripturally, the kingdoms of this world are satanically run, and satanically owned. The state, they would say, is the very citadel of Satan, and as such so we owe it no allegiance. They would point to the power grabs and abuses of the state (regardless of who is in charge) as proof of this malfeasance, and say that government power is the enemy of humanity. They oppose the initiation of force against any individual, and since that's pretty much all government does is make people do things by force, they must oppose the government. That's one extreme.
I also have friends that consider themselves 'minarchists'. They hold that government is a necessary evil and begrudgingly support some basic government functions as long as those functions support and protect their natural God-given rights. I personally think that Thomas Jefferson would probably qualify as a minarchist.
I have friends who consider themselves 'constitutionalists' and think that a person who opposes the government opposes God. There is some pretty significant scripture for this position. And rounding out the spectrum, I have friends who cite Romans 13 as their proof text that whatever the government says goes, and we ought to be happy about it. Pay your taxes with a smile on your face and thank God it isn't any worse. There is a subset of this group that don't even vote, since, by their logic, a vote against an incumbent is in itself an act of rebellion against the power God has placed in your life. That would be, in my estimation, the other end of the spectrum.
Perhaps its an intellectual glitch of mine that I can experience a certain amount of sympathy for all these positions. It's an issue I think about quite a bit, as a public minister, and by the time I get done exploring this, you may be as confused as I am about what I think, but here goes:
Governments are instituted by God. Scripture is clear on this, and the pattern, in scripture appears that bad government is a punishment for a wicked populace. Liberty is indeed a gift from god, and when that liberty is misused, that liberty is withdrawn. In the meantime, barring some sort of national repentance, we are commanded to submit ourselves unto every ordinance of man for the gospel's sake. The world systems and world governance are at the moment, satanically controlled, but even under those conditions, the Holy Spirit wrote to the churches to obey them and pray for the human representatives. It's a complicated idea, with tricky applications that must be universal to be of any use whatsoever. What in the world is a freedom-loving person who wants to obey the scriptures supposed to do?
I wont be doing a blow-by blow dissertation of Romans 13, which was the original idea for this post. I won't claim, as some have, that Romans 13 is mistranslated, but rather that Romans 13 must be understood in light of other scriptures. I won't waste one minute of your time ( at least not today) bogging down into the nuances of what is and is not legitimate government. Instead, I want to highlight three principles that should help establish what exactly our attitude and actions should be as citizens of heaven who are, for the time being, stuck here.
The First Principle: Non-Distraction
I think the first principle that needs to be covered is the principle of non-distraction. I am a stranger, and a sojourner here; a pilgrim and an alien. As the old song says "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through". That doesn't relieve us from obligations to our fellow man, but you must understand that the world is horribly broken, and has been for quite some time. Our emphasis has to be on the spiritual since our ultimate accountability to God won't be based on whether we got this ordinance passed or this law repealed; it will be based off of what we did with the the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no crown given out at the Judgement Seat of Christ for 'sticking it to the man'. Whether you live in North Korea, or Hong Kong, or the United States, Jesus still saves, and long after the empires of the world have crumbled to dust, he will still be all that he claims to be. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have lived their entire lives under tyranny and have fulfilled the Great Commission and led very successful Christian lives despite never having owned an AK-47. We cannot lose our focus squabbling over the things of this world. I could campaign to dismantle the TSA and succeed, but if that's all I ever did and my neighbor never gets the gospel, I have wasted my time. That's not a cop-out, that's a matter of keeping perspective, and keeping that principle in view will give us a way to keep our perspective amidst the clamor of application..
For example, let's say I'm opposed to taxation, which I am. Let's say that I believe taxation to be theft, which I do. Let's say that I believe there to be scant difference between the highwayman and the Congress, which I do. I do not gloss over that the state is stealing from me, but the same state is stealing from my co-worker who is lost. My attitude should be that, as abhorrent as the theft is, I may need to tolerate it for the bigger picture. In other words, it is better to have had a portion of your income consistently and systematically stolen from you, than to rail against it and lose your testimony. As a reviewer of this post pointed out, life very rarely is an either/or scenario. If you can do both, then by all means proceed.
The Second Principle: For the Lord's Sake
But in the meantime I do still have to live here and I do have to function under a government that is increasingly restrictive and hostile. It's a common mistake in Bible exposition to quote only part of verse, but the oft cited "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man" isn't the whole verse, and it certainly isn't the whole sentence. Looking at the whole sentence gives us our second principle.1 Peter 2:13-16 says "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme ; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God" There are caveats and qualifiers given for your obedience to wit; you are to do it, not for your own sake, but for the Lord's sake. Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 goes into various inconveniences and restrictions he put on his own life "for the gospel's sake". You are required to obey the government and treat it as if it was performing it's legitimate functions if doing so gives you more opportunities to put the gospel out. If obeying the government hinders the gospel , it seems clear to me that you are free to disobey, and the Acts 5:29 principle ("We ought to obey God rather than men.") comes into play. Paul went to prison and never once complained that he was wrongly imprisoned, even though he was. He suffered, and suffered well, and that put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Paul understood that his imprisonment enabled him to reach men with the gospel that couldn't be reached any other way, so he endured tyranny for the Lord's sake.
Here is an application. I despise the TSA. I believe them to be wicked, and a violation of all that used to be America. I have, on purpose avoided flying because of them. But soon I hope to be traveling to the Philippines to preach. I will probably have to submit myself to their degradation, but I do it not because I think they are right or legitimate; I do it for the Lord's sake, and for the gospel's sake. I honestly can't see any way around it. I also maintain that , as I will give an account to how I handled it as his representative, they will give account for being perverts and horrible instruments of a corrupt state.
The Third Principle: Prayer
Moving on to another oft-half-quoted passage of scripture, we arrive at 1 Tim 2. It is often said that we are to pray for those in power, but looking at the whole passage ,we see once again, conditions and caveats. 1 Tim 2:1-4 says "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved , and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.". I am not obligated to pray for Mr. Obama's drone warfare to succeed or for the continued inculcation of socialism. I am supposed to pray specifically to God that Mr. Obama will leave me alone. Left alone, I can live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Why would I want this? According to verse 4, I should want this so that the gospel can be put out! There obviously are some other benefits to being free, but the main advantage of being free is not that I am free to do wrong, but that I am free to do right!
There are obviously many facts to this, and I don't purport to be smart enough to explore them all, but let's take these three principles and apply them to an extreme scenario.
You are a Christian living in Nazi Germany in the the early 1940's. You are commanded by the government to turn in your Jewish neighbors. Are you obligated to obey? They are, after all, the government. If they take your neighbors and haul them off to a death camp, they will probably never hear the gospel. You are obligated by the gospel to disobey, and when the men come with stick and guns to thump you in the head you will be suffering for righteousness sake.
This same Nazi regime is taxing you to pay for the death camps. I think you are justified in hiding your income from them by any means possible without lying, committing fraud or losing your testimony. If you do any of these things, be aware that the men with sticks and guns may come for you and put you in jail. You must weigh out if it is worth it and if you are going for the right reasons. If you must go to jail, go to jail for the gospel, not for tax evasion, but if a mugger tells you to empty your wallet, you are under no obligation to tell them about the money hidden in your sock.
You are also allowed scripturally to flee persecution if possible. If Jesus' mom and stepdad can skip town to avoid being killed by Herod, rest assured you can too.
In the meantime you are to pray that God will turn the hearts of the Nazi overlords and that they will leave you (and your neighbor ) alone so that you can continue to get the gospel out.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
Man at His Best State is Altogether Vanity
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| The Burning of an Anabaptist by the Church of Rome |
A few years back, a friend of mine started digging around in his Bible, and he found something. This particular something flew directly in the face of everything he had been taught, and ran contrary to the position both of his denomination and of his church. But there it was. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t see it. He kept looking, and found out that he wasn’t the only person that believed this. But it still was an unpopular position among his immediate ministry circle. Some would even call it a heresy. So what is a guy supposed to do?
He talked to his pastor about the ‘something’, but was unsatisfied by the answer. The ‘something’ was so obvious; he couldn’t believe he had missed it so long. He kept looking, and kept digging. He didn’t want to make waves, so he was very select in who he spoke to regarding this ‘something’. I was one of the select few, and I disagreed with him. Sometimes loudly. We hashed the issue, and its various sub issues back and forth over the next couple of years, and the more he looked, the more convinced he became that there was ‘something’ there.
His pastor was concerned that this heresy, with it’s various implications, would get a foothold in the church and cause a great disruption. Such is the job of a shepherd. He promised his pastor that, although he would continue his own private investigations, he wouldn’t share his findings with anybody outside of the people that already knew. As far as I know, he stuck to that. His pastor recommended that he write his thoughts down. The pastoral intent , I believe, was that once it was all written down and out there for him to look at, the error in his ‘something’ would be obvious. My friend began to dutifully take notes and write.
From his continued research, he concluded that the common teaching regarding the ‘something’ was in error. To stand by what he now believed would put him at odds, at least privately, with virtually everybody he fellowshipped with, both home and abroad. My friend is an excitable guy by nature, and he began to be very excited about this. The implications of the ‘something’ began to cause him to rethink some of his other theological assumptions. That made him run even more contrary to his peers, and his long-suffering wife worried that his passion over this subject and its ancillaries would cause great division among the people they both knew and loved. One day, he looked down at his notes and realized he had the makings of a book. What’s a guy supposed to do?
He wrote his book, and self-published it after enduring the scourging of his manuscript by friends of his in the ministry from across the country. I was also part of this scourging, and bled red ink all over my paper copy before returning it to him. We continued to disagree, though I tried to be not so loud about it. I felt that eventually he would see his own error and I saw no point to make a return to his previous position any harder than it had to be. We all have goofy ideas now and then, and the less people know about them the better and easier it is to outlive them.
Unfortunately, it got ugly after that. The sentiment was while it was acceptable to have a doctrinal disagreement with your church leadership, it is open rebellion to publicize that disagreement. The sentiment was that such an open proclamation drew more attention to this issue than it deserved, and made it appear that he was disloyal to his pastor. People equated disagreement with disloyalty. I can honestly say that I don’t think he meant any of that. But now it was out there in the big bad world, and various people felt the need to confront him over it. Some esteemed ministry figures weighed in on the book. They wrote letters that were pointedly personal, and tried to make a connection between this book and some family issues that he was having. He was accused of being subversive and an enemy of the truth. Like I said, it was ugly. He spent his evenings with his stomach in knots and his wife in tears. Was the ‘something’ really that dangerous?
I watched all this from afar, and tried to learn something from it. What I had already learned was that it was very difficult to not get emotionally wrapped up in this issue. I learned that I am way more petty than I give myself credit for. I saw, revealed in myself, great chasms of immaturity. I found it difficult to disagree without being disagreeable and equally difficult to contend without being contentious. I backed away from the issue, and avoided the topic. I even told somebody that I wouldn’t discuss this topic until I could discuss it like a grown-up, and I wasn’t even sure if that would ever happen.
The end of the story was this; he pulled the book. Keep in mind that he hasn’t changed his mind about his position; he simply decided that it wasn’t worth his wife’s tears and his pastor's blood pressure to continue publicly in this position. I asked him if he had learned anything from all this, and his answer spoke volumes; “it’s better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
Let me tell you what I learned from all this. I learned that our ‘crowd’ who pride themselves on individuality and soul liberty are capable of just as much blind groupthink as anybody else. We count ourselves as being the independent crowd yet when somebody displayed independence, we turned on him. I learned that NOBODY handled this the way it should have been handled. I learned that personality is as much a factor in the ministry as truth, and those of us that claim we live by ‘faith not feelings’ get our feelings hurt surprisingly easy when somebody disagrees with us. I unfortunately, didn’t learn anything that made me happy, just things that made me very sad.
Knowing things like this, why would anybody in their right mind glory in their church or their pastor or their denomination when they could glory in the perfect Son of God and his perfect substitution death on the cross? Why put your faith in people who apparently don't even know how to handle themselves when you could put your faith in Jesus Christ who always handles everything correctly? Somebody once told me that they didn't think I could ever disappoint them. They said this despite the fact that I disappoint myself all time. The old songwriter was right when he said "The arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own". The smartest guy you know is a fleshly idiot if you catch him on the right day. The most spiritual man you know is a big bag of dirt who will not only do the unthinkable, but justify it under the right circumstances. We are as grass, and we need God's help more than we have any idea. Not just for the big things, or the big somethings; we need God's help not to devour each other with our reactions to things. Maybe that was the good that came out of all that. Maybe those of us that were willing to see it needed to be reminded what a bunch of chuckleheads we are. Maybe people like me needed to be reminded that we are still people like me.
Thank God for Jesus!
Thank God for Jesus!
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