A couple of days ago I asked some questions about alcohol and whether the bible condemns all consumption of it as sin.  On the face of this it seems pretty certain that it is not.  Any casual reader of the stories of Jesus would recognize the fact that His first recorded miracle was turning water into wine.  And there are other direct references of His very own consumption of it.  Yet I have read and heard many arguments about it being sin.

There are those that will use all kind of pretty far out excuses to say that this is not really saying what we think.  The scripture is not saying what it seems to say.  Grape juice?  Really?  Are we to believe that God is just trying His best to confuse us?

There are those that, in the past and probably still today, say that it is even wrong for a Christian to serve or sell alcohol.  Again, I point to Christ’s first miracle.  If I should not serve or sell it then why in the world would Jesus turn water into it?  We seem to still have tremendous problems with self-righteousness.

These thoughts and questions are not really the reason I raised this question though.  For some very thoughtful, adult insights about the consumption argument in general, please read Tuesdays post and comments.  Everyone who responded made points I not only believe to be correct but I hold to them myself.  And I especially think that when you vow or commit to something as Heath and Jason did as ministers, then you should adhere to those commitments like they pointed out that they did.

If the organization you join says you have to stand on one foot for 30 seconds and face east at 8:00 am every third Tuesday and you agree, then you must do it whether it makes sense or not, if you are a person of integrity.  The health and danger issues are also valid reasons why not drinking makes sense, and the witness in a culture that definitely glorifies alcohol as the means to get drunk is not one the Kingdom really needs.  I don’t drink myself for some of these reasons.

As I stated though, I brought it all up for the same reason I have brought up other things recently.  If we spent as much time as some do on defending these obviously unbiblical beliefs such as drinking being sin, with as much zeal and commitment, in reaching out to those outside the Kingdom, we could really glorify God. Instead we waste tremendous amounts of time on our own legalistic views and arguments.

Alcohol is only one small part of a whole host of things that some Christians seem to want to focus on in spite of the fact that they have a mission to do.  Appearances are important as some believe when talking about drinking, but what about the appearance of condemnation we portray that is not even biblically justified.  When the lost of this world see us bickering and fighting and even bringing the charge of heresy against a minister that obviously is not heretical, what do they think?  I will tell you what they think because it was not that long ago that I thought it.  They think that there is no God.  And if there is He is not that big, not that great, and not that powerful because His whole family is so hypocritical and unloving of even each other.

We must reach out in love to a lost and dying world and to do that we have got to stop adding our own lists of sins to Gods.  That is what Jesus condemned about the Pharisees and the bible even warns us about adding to His word, but we just don’t seem to get it.  This world of lost souls is not concerned about our petty arguments and disagreements about alcohol, about divorce, about creation, about (dare I say it) initial evidence.  What this worlds lost souls are concerned about, whether they even know it or not, is the eternal destination of their very being.  And even if they are not concerned, we must be.

As I said on my post about creation recently, let’s stop all the arguing about pet doctrines and interpretations in front of the kids, so to speak, and wait until we get behind closed doors.

Love you all

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Gal 5:22-23

On Tuesday’s discussion, right out of the gate, Doug made some comments about self-control.  Thanks Doug, for pushing this forward.  I have been pondering, jotting down some thoughts and praying about the fruits of the Spirit as listed in Galatians.  I was going to get a series together before I started posting, and then they might come along quicker.  I am so easily sidetracked it seems.  But Doug got me thinking again and I decided to start with the last in the list of fruit since he brought it up and I feel strongly about it also.

All of the fruit are things that should be naturally growing in and out of us as we grow in our relationship with Christ.  They are the visible attributes of truly walking the Christ centered walk.  We are first saved and then as we grow in sanctification these nine things listed as fruit should start to become apparent in our lives.

Self control is listed last but I don’t believe it is any less or more than the others with the exception of possibly love.  But if I stay in reverse order then love will be last.  Self control is a good starting point because it is needed so very much in the church today.  And it needs to be properly understood.

We live in a time and a place, if you are in America, where we are lost in our self-centeredness and materialistic view of life.  The war between the flesh and the spirit is raging in all of us to some degree.  It is so easy to look at everything we do with the attitude of ‘what’s in it for me.’  This is diametrically opposed to the servant attitude we should have.  It is why the world looks at us and sees no difference between us and them.

A well known speaker or preacher that demands a $10,000.00 ‘offering’ or they can’t come, a Christian writer who lifts one catchy scripture out of context and sets up a whole new revelatory way of making our lives richer to sell a million copies of a book, a perpetually smiling preacher telling us how great we all have it in the Kingdom of God while we live on less per year than he spends on his dental hygienics; is this self control?  Is this fruit of the spirit?  I believe I would file it under self-centered greed.

The above examples show people that really aren’t even trying to have their spirits win the war against the flesh.  But there are also those that try too hard in another wrong way.  These we sometimes call legalists, fundamentalists, extreme conservatives.  They try to find ways to make the Law of God, as listed in the Old Testament, or their own made up rules about many mundane parts of life, the methods of achieving and displaying self-control.

You may know a few of these people.  They look at things like tattoos, jewelry, makeup, and the length of both men and women’s hair, as ways of establishing or determining self-control.  There are many other things like alcohol consumption, smoking, dancing, card playing and others that make the list also.  And to many of these people these are not only self control issues, they are salvific issues.  A tattoo will send you to hell.

Then there are monks and other religious orders that simply take a person out of the world.  This is also an attempt at self-control or a method of mastering ourselves.  I even know of some people that declare that their own ‘personal convictions’ demand they do or don’t do certain things like watching TV or going to movies but that it is still okay for the rest of us.  How gracious on their part.  But do they have anymore self-control than I or are they just putting limits on their selves that keep them from actually growing this fruit called self-control.

God may not be honored in a lot of the things we do but we are living in a fallen world, occupied territory as it were, in a battle for our very lives.  Jesus set us free from the Law because He fulfilled the Law.  We are free in Christ but we must live in holiness, which is being separated from the world for service to Christ.  All while an angry enemy roars all around us.

A tattoo is not going to stop that service but self control will dictate that we set some limits.  Some jewelry or makeup will not send us screaming into hell because we had no self-control but the ability to know when we are making clowns of ourselves will display it to the world.  On and on I could go but I don’t want to lose you.

The very ones who practice all these things and many more and say “look at me, I have self-control”, are only living a life of rules and regulations that show no one but themselves any hint of self control.  True self-control is finding that line that separates self-centeredness from service-centeredness; and staying on the side of service.

We have to realize we do have to set limits.  But I believe those limits will be dictated to a certain degree on our place of service, our area of ministry.  A person might have just the right amount of tattoos, piercings,  or long hair to reach a group of lost bikers or youth.

Jesus ate and drank wine with miserable lowlife sinners and did not get drunk or sin in any way they did.  But He had a mission to go to them and tell them the good news.  We have that same mission so how are those that never associate with anyone but those of like-legalistic-mind, accomplishing their mission.

Jesus called a man to be a disciple named Matthew and he was a tax collector.  Jesus also called a man named Simon who was a Zealot.  As far as the Jews were concerned Matthew was an extreme, unpatriotic traitor and Simon was an extreme, patriotic loyalist.  They should have killed each other but instead they loved each other and became servants to Christ and to us all.

That is mastering one’s self.  That is self-control.

Love you all

The choir in my church sang a song today called, I believe, We Are Not Ashamed.  They have sung this song on many occasions and I am always moved by it.  It is about not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is something we should all take to heart.

But do we?  How often do we keep silent when we should speak up?  How often do we make sure we do not put ourselves in a place or a position where we might have to speak of the gospel?

Some of us, maybe even all of us at times, find ourselves embarrassingly inadequate at sharing our faith.  Are we really ashamed?   Probably not.  I truly doubt, except in certain situations, that most of us are really ashamed of our God and Savior.  That would be like being ashamed of our wives or girlfriends, husbands or boyfriends.  Most of us are really not ashamed of those we really love.

So what is really the problem?

I believe it is probably intimidation.  I do not, entirely, mean intimidation in the sense of being afraid, but instead being under the impression that it will do no good.  That it won’t really matter or make a difference.  Some of us are concerned with others attitudes toward us and opinions of us and some of us just really think we cannot make a difference.

Why bother talking to that guy at work who is bragging about his adulterous affair?  He won’t listen if he is that outspoken about it and I just might be ostracized from the group for my holier than thou attitude.

That Muslim you know is just so devout that you know you will never reach them, and you are a little intimidated by what you know of their religion; so why take the chance of being looked on as one of those hate spewing Christians?  We can all live together in love, if we keep silent.

And that goes for that very outspoken atheist also.  If we keep silent about our faith, we can all get along very well.  And maybe even love each other.  And if we can show enough love, then that will win out in the end.  Right?

Wrong.  What love is this that is willing to keep silent about something so important?  I started thinking about this post after listening to this video the other day.  In this video you will hear Penn Jillette, a very outspoken, oftentimes crude, but very logical and consistent thinker and atheist.  He is the talkative half of the comedian/ magician team known as Penn and Teller.

He is also what I call a true atheist.  I was one for many years myself.  I believe a true atheist is someone who says they do not believe that there is a God and they are not afraid of those who believe.  We seem to be surrounded today by people calling themselves atheist that are intent on silencing us.  They seem afraid of something, or maybe it is Someone.

In the video you will hear Penn say that if we, as believers, really love everyone and we really believe what we say about heaven and hell, then our love demands that we tell everyone about it; in effect, we should proselytize.  Evangelize, if you prefer.

I admire his stance on this and find that this was the way I felt also.  As a Christian we must tell everyone the gospel.  If we do not, do we really love?  I can’t see how.

We can never be ashamed, and as I stated, I doubt many of us really are.  But we must also never be intimidated.  We may be called intolerant, or a holy roller, or hateful, or many other things; but we must still tell the story because for the sake of love, it is necessary.  Those that can’t except this and call us all of these things are running scared and can probably be reached.

And those that are not running scared, like Penn and like I used to be, will be reached through the consistent witness of love and the telling of the good news.

Listen to the video.  And pray for Penn Jillette.  A transformation of someone like him would be a mighty witness for the Kingdom.

And the next time you feel a little timid about sharing, remember that if you really love them, you have to.

Love you all