The Blessings of the Big 5-0

“Just make it clear God!” I don’t know how many times I have either heard or said this. You know how it goes- you are at a crossroads of some kind and a decision is needed- and you are unsure of which way to go. If only God would just speak up, show me the exact way and give me some specific clues as to my future! Hmmm, I wonder if Abraham ever thought this?

Faith is the key. Life is a faith journey. All we can do is keep going in God’s direction and make our choices based on what we can see- and then trust him to handle what we cannot see.

For instance it was just a few short years ago that I could not see my way out of the aftermath of divorce and loneliness, but as I fretted God was already working it all out. Now, as I turn the big 5-0 this week (on Wednesday) I do so with a wonderful wife who married way below herself and two incredible, smart and beautiful little girls.

Who-woulda-thunk-it ten years ago? Well- besides God?

So, like Churchill famously said- never, never, never give up!

Here is a pic of the blessings of my big half century birthday:

And oh by-the-way- How bout them Ole Miss Rebels! Hotty Toddy baby!

My Concerns

The following observations are based upon my limited experience and knowledge. I certainly do not consider myself as some arbitrator of all things Church of Christ. There are experts among us who study church growth and trends within our fellowship who may or may not support my concerns. I am just writing as one preacher who has been hanging around now for a few years.

I love the Church of Christ. I have lived my entire adult life and spent all of my preaching career being blessed to be a part of this wonderful fellowship. I have always and still continue to find many good things about us. But I am also concerned.

Practically all of the congregations of the Churches of Christ with which I am familiar (and admittedly this is not that large of a sampling and it basically limited to one general geographic part of our country) are now smaller than they once were- some dramatically so- and very few within these churches seem alarmed. This concerns me.

I see the church growing older before my eyes. I love our senior saints and praise God for their faithfulness, but I lament the fact that few among us seem to possess vision to reach the younger generations. Even our own kids are leaving us. I am concerned.

Our fellowship seems very fractured. For a movement born of unity we are failing miserably in maintaining those ideals now. In my community there are well over thirty bodies of believers who identify themselves as a “Church of Christ”, but there is precious little fellowship among us. This is concerning to me.

Our leadership seems distracted. Far too many issues crowd the tables of our church leaders. Entirely too many non-spiritual concerns get in the way of shepherding. Evangelism is on very few agendas. Maintaining status quo seems to rule the day.  Where are the visionaries among Church of Christ leadership willing to take faith risks? Where are those who- in faith- are seeing beyond themselves to reach the lost and plan for the needs of future generations? Where are the prayer warriors on bended knee seeking God’s power and guidance? I am concerned by these questions.

Our Sunday morning worship assembly has taken on an entirely disproportionate importance with our fellowship. Worship wars rage about numerous issues connected to worship style. For some- being faithful means Sunday morning done in accordance to their preferences. For others their only connection to a Church of Christ is Sunday morning worship attendance. I think- from God’s perspective- that the rest of the week counts too. Again, this is concerning.

Before I am to be accused of being a pessimist or a naysayer please hear me out. I have full confidence in the power of God and in the power of the message of the cross. We have a wonderful tradition within Churches of Christ. We have people who love God and honor his Word. And I do know of Churches of Christ who are visionary, evangelistic and growing by preaching and living the message of the cross and becoming involved in their communities daily.

But for the most part I do not see this and I am concerned and I wonder if anyone else is too. The numbers tell the tale and according to our leading church growth experts we are losing ground to our population rapidly. So where is the urgency? Where is the alarm? What will it take for us to wake up?

These are my concerns.

Are they valid?

Church and State

Has anything been more politicized and skewed then the founder’s idea about separating church and state?

Prayer in school? Sorry, we must separate church and state. Teaching intelligent design along with evolution? Can’t do it. We must separate church from state. A copy of the ten commandments on public display? Nope. We must separate church and state. A nativity scene on public property? Absolutely not. We must separate church and state.

Last year I was asked to participate in a local school’s graduation ceremony by presenting an “inspirational” message. But, oh by the way, I could not use the word “God” or make any direct references to him. The reason? We must separate church and state.

Now I am not hysterical about any of these issues. Banning prayer from schools? How can that really be accomplished anyway? Anyone can pray at anytime- anywhere- including school. But this church and state deal- and I am a long way from being an expert on constitutional law- it just seems to me that it is now being used in ways the founders never anticipated or intended.

A couple of observations:

• I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that the original motive behind the separation of church and state had to do with protecting our country from coming under the influence of ONE church tradition. Remember they had British roots where the Church of England ruled and European connections where the Catholic Church reigned supreme. So they shaped the separation of church and state ideal to prevent a single church monopoly from overly influencing the process of democratic governing. As a result they created the atmosphere of religious choice and freedom we have traditionally enjoyed.
• The idea of removing all Christian teaching, symbols and practices from schools was completely foriegn to the founders. Practically all schools, colleges and universities then were started and supported by churches and were- in fact- religious institutions. Prayer in school then was not controversial, it was the norm. The founders were among those who had the ten commandments engraved in public buildings.  Again, they were not trying to escape the influence of Christianity- just the influence of one, single church.

My guess is that they would never have been able to imagine what has happened with their separation of church and state concept. They were about creating a union where all kinds of diverse thinking could co-exist and flourish without oppression.

Somehow, someway this goal is slipping away. The skewing of their idea of separating church and state is just but one example of that.

P.S. I love my country and I love God and his church. But I do realize that God does not need America to accomplish his will. America is only “God’s country” as long as we honor him. Over the centuries he has worked through all kinds of people and nations- and his kingdom has actually flourished in some of the very worst and most immoral cultures in history. So, while I lament that our American culture is now “post-Christian”, I am confident that God’s will is being done even if I cannot mention him in a speech at school.

Misunderstood Scriptures

Over the years I have heard all kinds of Scripture used and misused all kind of ways. Here are some of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted among them:

Proverbs 29:18a- the KJV rendering says ”Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Consequently this verse has been widely used to promote the need for visionary thinking, leadership, etc. Nice and needed thoughts but actually this text does not support them. The NIV (and other versions including the NKJV) more accurately translates this verse as “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.” Totally different (and more proper) meaning here.

1st Corinthians 6:12- “‘Everything is permissible for me.’” I have heard this phrase (which Paul repeats later in this book in 10: 23) misused in a variety of ways usually connected to an idea that Paul was somehow granting the Christan some type of extra measure of freedom to engage in what might be considered questionable or disputable activities. But if you look closely at the text you will see that these are actually not even Paul’s own words. He is quoting someone else here- probably those who were advocating the same type of philosophy as those who misuse this text now. In reality Paul was teaching against this kind of thinking and using their own quotes (“”Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.’” ) to stress the importance of responsible Christian behavior when it came to morality and exercising Christian freedom.

John 9:31- “Now we know that God heareth not sinners.” (KJV) There is really nothing wrong with the KJV translation of this text- what is wrong is how it has been taken out of context and misused to prop-up a false idea that “God does not hear sinner’s prayers.” The context of this verse is about certain Jews’ reaction to Jesus healing a man who had been born blind. Obviously these were Jews who opposed Jesus and were wanting to discredit this miracle. They set out investigating it- including an interrogation of the healed man. It was, in fact, the healed man who spoke these words in an attempt to explain what happened and defend himself. These words are simply recorded by the Holy Spirit as part of that conversation and were never intended to form the basis for some doctrine about who God does and does not hear in prayer. For way too long this verse was used as sort of a condescending battering ram to discourage “sinners” from praying. We know from other texts that God hears and receives all who “earnestly seek him” and while sin does separate us from God- any sinner (and that includes all of us by the way) sincerely seeking him will be heard and will find him.

Matthew 24:6- “Wars and rumors of wars.” This phrase is taken from an entire body of prophetic teaching by Christ concerning what the heading in most Bibles indicates are “Signs of the End of the Age.” Most take this to mean the apocalypse or end of the world and anytime a war breaks out they quote this sentence to warn of impending doom, but this is not the meaning of Christ’s teaching here at all. While there are some “end-time” components later in this section of Scripture, Christ in verse six and the immediate surrounding text was speaking about what we now call “the destruction of Jerusalem” which occurred in 70 AD. Here he is warning those in this city to flee beforehand so as to escape the wrath of the Romans who carried out this devastation to squelch the Jewish freedom fighter’s acts of terrorism and defiance. Read the entire text. Jesus encouraged fleeing to the mountains, expressed concern for pregnant women who may have to flee and hoped that this would not occur in winter. What difference would any of this make if it were truly the end time? So don’t use “wars and rumors of wars” as a proof-text on the end of the world. If you do you will constantly be in turmoil- war and the possibility of war is always with us.

Last but not least there is this- and it could simply be just legend. Mark chapter thirteen is Mark’s account of Christ’s prophetic teachings we just visited in Matthew 24. In verse 15 he records Jesus saying this: “And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house..” It is reported that one preacher- years ago- used this text to preach against the then growing and popular practice of women putting their hair in buns and not letting it flow naturally down. The title of the sermon- at least when spoken- sounded like a direct quote from Mark 13:15- “Top Knot Go Down”!  

Now that was extreme! But it just proves that without proper interpretation we can make Scripture say anything. One major problem with all of this type of interpretation is approaching Scripture only as a “proof-text”- that is, reading it to prove what we already believe or to prove some point we want to make. Not a single word of Scripture was ever written as a proof-text. Scripture is about God recording real events and using real people in their culture and setting and using them, their words and examples to teach everlasting heavenly principles, doctrine and values. And we must always root every text within its original context before we begin making contemporary applications or we could easily create more misunderstood Scripture.

How about it? Agree or disagree?

Maybe you have more misunderstood Scriptures to add to my list.

Ruminations

Just assorted stuff on my mind:

Sarah Palin has taken over the presidential race, hasn’t she? Just amazing! To all of her critics who do not believe that she can govern and take care of her family at the same time- please read Proverbs 31: 10-31. I am not saying that Sarah Palin is the virtuous woman depicted here- I am saying that God taught us about multi-tasking, working wives and moms a long time ago.

Today is 9-11. Please pause and say a prayer for all who lost loved ones seven years ago.

Books I am reading: Toward an Exegetical Theology by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.; The Hermeneutical Spiral by Grant R. Osbourne; New Testament Exegesis by Gordon D. Fee (when it finally gets here); How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Fee and Douglas Stewart. These are for my latest class- Advanced Bible Study Techniques- in the MMin. program at Harding University.

Speaking of reading, the Christian Chronicle is one outstanding newspaper. They do such an awesome job covering all things newsworthy in Churches of Christ.

I don’t know if any of you play fantasy sports, but millions now do. This is one of the fasting growing online activities. I am a major player in fantasy baseball and it is playoff time right now and a real test of my managerial skills!

Is is just me or is that Santa and Rudolph I am already seeing in several stores? Mercy. Better hurry only 105 shopping days left until Christmas!

As I have already mentioned, I am a sports guy and I really enjoy watching football. But from what I have seen this season, the NFL is kind of boring. Where is the variety in the offense? The college game offers all sorts of spread and/or option formations that keep that game exciting. Could the NFL really be the “No Fun League”?

BTW, Go Ole Miss!

Our Sunday night Share groups are about to start back at Gateway after the summer hiatus. This home-based small group ministry is a joy. Do you have these at your church? If you do- my guess is- that more will attend them then your traditional Sunday night service.

Have you noticed how both the Democrats and Republicans use the same type of campaign tactics in attacking each other- and then fuss at each other for doing so? Hypocrisy in politics seems to run in shades of both blue and red.

My two must-see TV shows: (both are reruns) Everybody Loves Raymond and The Andy Griffith Show. (I am often Raymond and sometimes Barney, but I wish I were Andy!)

Yesterday I had lunch with Tom Hagan who works for Mount Dora Children’s Home near Orlando. Gateway will host a regional benefit dinner for them in December. What an awesome work they do in their Christian home and Bible school programs.

My buddy, Les Ferguson, Jr. is having an evangelistic revival at his church- the Orange Grove Church of Christ in Gulfport, MS. They are literally baptizing folks every day! Praise God for moving in this body of believers.

Saturday I play in a benefit golf tourney. It is one of those “scramble” types where teams compete. I think that is appropriate because when I hit a golf ball everyone better scramble- no telling where it is going! I really stink at this game.

Thanks for stopping in and blogging with me today!