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

Tags: alcohol, Appearance, Belief, Bible, consumption, Creation, Culture, God, Interpretation, Kingdom, Love, Righteousness, Self, Sin, witness

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

Tags: atheist, Believe, Christians, Church, Faith, Good, Heaven, Hell, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Love, muslim, Penn Jillette, religion, Self, Sin, witness, Work

I can imagine it now.

I have been in line for a while now and have heard many wonderful things said about those in front of me.  One by one they present themselves before the throne.  The King of Glory looks down on one of them with a smile on His face and declares, “Well done, good and faithful servant–you have faithfully served me by giving your time, your labor, and your financial aid to spread the gospel to what used to be third world countries.”  There are many cheers from those gathered to witness the proceedings.

Then another moves forward and Jesus says, , “Well done, good and faithful servant–you have faithfully attended many in the hospitals and nursing homes, giving them a lot of love, joy and happiness in their pain and suffering.” Again, a loud procession of cheers and applause occurs.

The person directly in front of me moves forward and the Savior of the world again declares, , “Well done, good and faithful servant–you have faithfully ministered to and fed the homeless, the addicted, and the abandoned in my Name for many years while you lived in that previous world.”  The cheers are as expected.

Then it is my turn.  I move forward, not really ready because I have heard a lot of things that I never did.  Feeding people, visiting people, loving people, these seem to be the things that have gotten the accolades so far.  I stand and look on the awesome visage of the Creator of all things and He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant–you have faithfully fought to keep the Ten Commandments in the courthouse.”

Suddenly the throne room erupts.  There is so much noise and cheering that it is deafening.  It is much louder than I had heard before and seems to go on and on.  Then, I simply cannot contain myself any longer and start jumping up and down, shouting and crying at the same time.

This goes on for a while and finally the Judge of all creation raises His hand, a huge smile still on His face, and the room starts to quiet down.  Finally He beams down at me once again and asks, ” How, exactly did you realize what was really the most important thing I left you to do, when so many did not see it?”

I’ll stop here.  If you are reading this, I guess it shows what a glutton for punishment I am.  It means I actually posted it, knowing that some will disagree and maybe take it as a belittling of their convictions.  This is not what this is about.

I was just reflecting on all the thoughts and commentaries out there that I have been reading about Christian political activism on many sites and the current hot topics on my own site about duty and I had this vision.  But I am pretty sure, no, I am certain; it did not come from God.

Again, this is not a slam on anyone’s personal convictions.  I just realize that I need to look deep inside myself and actually determine if my convictions, and where I put all my strengths and focus my efforts, really do honor our Lord.  And do they mean anything at all in the eternal scheme of things?

Merry Christmas and I

Love you all

Tags: Christ, Christmas, Creation, Creator, Faith, Giving, God, King, Love, Pain, Personal, Self, Servant, throne room, War, witness

There was a time in my life, not too long ago, that I did whatever seemed right in my eyes.  In other words, whatever I wanted.  If I wanted to watch a vampire movie, or movies filled with profanity, nudity, violence, gore, destruction, or read a book or listen to music with the same things, then I did and thought nothing of it.  And I am sad to say that I didn’t keep much of it from my kids either. 

Then I got saved.  I accepted the call from our Lord to follow Him.  So everything changed, or did it?  This is a response about the discussion from Tuesday. 

1Co 6:12  “All things are lawful for me…”All things are lawful for me,”…

1Co 10:23  “All things are lawful…. “All things are lawful…

According to Paul, in these verses, I can pretty much still watch, read, and listen to what I want.  This whole concept known as the grace and mercy of God has freed me from a legalistic definition of the Law in an attempt to reach and serve God.  And some certainly do live a life, even after “accepting” the call of God, that show us that they believe what Paul said here wholeheartedly.  Paul even repeated this four times in only two verses. 

I, as an atheist, watched people for a lot of years do exactly what I did and called themselves Christians.  So naturally I concluded, along with a lot of other observations, that God was not real.  But this was a large part of the conclusion.  Christians and atheists were doing so many of the same things so, what was the big deal about a supreme being.  But look at the following verses in their fullness.

1Co 6:12  “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.

1Co 10:23  “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

I left the emboldened parts out originally to point out how it seems that Christians read the verses, based on their perceived lives.  Based on the choices of countless Christians I have watched both before and after I joined their ranks, I have to conclude some have never paid attention to the three concepts Paul stated about all things. 

In the first verse Paul has been talking about different types of sinners, not sin, but sinners.  And he has concluded that the believers at Corinth used to be these sinners but are now washed clean by Christ.  Then he does let us know that all things are lawful because of that cleansing. 

Looking at the next verse in context we find Paul again concluding that whatever he does is lawful.  But in both cases he is quick to let us know that it is not really good for us, because all things do not help us in mission, in our freedom, or in our witness.  Read chapter 6 and 10 of 1 Corinthians with this in mind.   

A real relationship with Christ brings change.  We become new creations and I stand as a witness to this.  When I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, some of the things I did for entertainment became vile to me.  So I knew instinctively that they were vile to the Holy Spirit because His taking up residence in me was the real change that had occurred in my life.  Dee concluded that Jesus being in the room would decide her choices and she is right.  We just have to remember He is in the room.

The questions we really have to ask ourselves about entertainment choices are; does it help us in our mission?  Does it help us in our freedom?  Does it help us in our witness? 

Does it help us in our mission?  Probably not in most cases.  As Laura stated about Seventh Heaven and such shows, they may actually hinder us because of the false gospel that is being presented.  Our mission is to reach the lost with the good news and make disciples of them.  The very idea behind entertainment implies a suspension of mission. 

I do not think it is terrible to take a break from the warfare and work we are to be doing for the Kingdom, but God gave us an example of six days work and one day of rest.  But it seems most Christians do the opposite.  They might actually do something for God on one day by going to church but then they take six days to relax from the real work by ignoring the things of God. 

Does it help us in our freedom?  Jesus freed us from our slavery to sin.  But many of us are so willing to visit it again and again like some really exciting, fun, and enjoyable relative.  The implications beneath the quote that Heath provided point to the reality of the intoxicating hold that ungodly things can have on us. 

Most of the comments had some suggestion of the idea that we need to be conscience of the effect on our spirit that our choices have.  We can become addicted to entertainment and addiction is the exact opposite of freedom.

Does it help us in our witness?  The very heart of the whole matter is how our choices can affect our witness.  Reread what I used to think about Christians.  People who see absolutely no beneficial difference in the narrow path and the wide highway are not going to creep along on the narrow.  Why should they. 

Finally, if you love your children, you have to filter what they watch, read, and hear.  There is absolutely no way that the correlation between the rise of violence, sexual promiscuity, death, the demeaning of women, and other things that are accepted in all the mediums of entertainment and the rise of the same in real society today, can be dismissed.

So to conclude I am offering these thoughts to ponder.

Do you watch The Shield but would never watch Charmed?  Do you watch Friends but would never watch Will and Grace?  Would you read Jeff Lindsay but never Stephen King?  Is country and western music okay but gangsta rap taboo? 

If you answered yes to any of the above, you might want to ask Jesus which one he would rather enjoy. He is right there with you.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Death, Entertainment, fun, gore, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Mercy, nudity, profanity, rap, Sin, spirit, vampire, violence, witness