Prayer Request

In case I hadn't told you already, my supervisor passed away at age 37, and I would request you pray for his bereaved wife and immeadiate family. It was quite sudden and makes it difficult for me and my co-workers as well, though that is obviously far inferior to the grief of his family. Please remember this in your prayers.

The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

Here is an eye-opening blog post from a site I frequently visit called littlegreenfootballs. I think it reveals how we can pray for Israel's peace, and just how minimal their security is right now.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32760_Yon-_Photos_from_Israel

President Obama From the Past

Here's a helpful video on Obama's faith. It is quite revealing,
and shows how we can better pray for him as followers of Christ.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2bf9DNVB4

Got Therapy?

The radio has recently been advertising about relational conflicts and how to resolve them. Sometimes they just mention a dramatic relational conflict with a closely followed disclaimer that the advertised product will not be able to remedy that kind of situation. But other commercials have been claiming that therapy is something that would solve these problems, most specifically with your marriage, or with your children. Among other techniques, the claim goes that if you simply use certain words, your marriage will thrive with harmony and romance, and/or your children will stop being disobedient or obnoxious. But is that what it really takes to remedy the problem? Are there really words that, if said, would heal months or even years of conflict with another person or group of people? Or if you simply do certain things like take someone where they like to go, or buy them something special, or any combination of things like these, will that gain true peace?

We have such a tendency to want quick-fix solutions, and often they only provide surface-level solutions. If a child gets put in his/her place by the parent and no love is shown, bitterness can easily take root in the child's heart. Friends can have long-term division between them just over one conversation, and there's no quick fix to restoring the trust that was once there. It takes a deeper change within us to enact lasting restoration at the heart level.

To effect the heart to have true liberty from bondage to our sin, God says that we must go to His Word, and only His Word, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent (or complete), thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. God's Word is the manual for overcoming any sin issue, no matter how long-standing they have been. And the range of these issues are unlimited because the Scriptures equip us for every good work.

Now this does not diminish the need for counselors. The Scriptures are replete with looking out for each other in the local body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 says that very clearly. So then the quesiton arises, who should counsel? I'm glad you asked! Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, writes, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another." (Romans 15:14). The answer to the question is that all believers are (at least potentially) able to counsel one another. If you are following Christ, you can tell others to follow you as you follow Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). If you are skilled in the word of righteousness and are no longer a baby needing milk in the spiritual sense (Heb. 5:13-14), you can help others in their childlike understanding to become mature (Heb. 6:1ff). If you are mature and see a brother dealing with a besetting sin or carrying a huge burden, you can help him deal with that (Gal. 6:1-3). These are (among other things) the foci for the true Christian. Why should we need anything else besides God's revelation to us to make us who Christ wants us to be? In Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So, is modern psychology useless and helpful for nothing? No. Is it something that can help us in the sanctification process? No. Why? Because we have begun following Christ by the Spirit, and cannot be perfected by the flesh (Gal. 3:1-6, esp. v. 3). Modern psychology is rooted in viewing man as basically good, not responsible for his sin, and/or no different from an instinctual animal (referencing http://www.crechurch.com/counseling/comparison_of_counseling_philoso.htm).

How can this be adopted by the Christian, or even mixed just a little bit with the giving of sound biblical advice? They are two completely different worldviews with two completely different results. The Scriptures are what we need to live out to be completely acceptable before God, and we ought to listen to people who encourage and warn us to heed Him in all things.

Image used from www.cdc.gov/std/EPT/

Where are all the grown ups?

One of the best things that I can think of doing is blogging on an issue that relates to our culture and try to look at it from a biblical perspective. Today I finished a great book called The Death of the Grown Up that I heard of from one of my living heroes, Dr. Albert Mohler. He wrote a blog on it over a year ago and it was sitting on my mind until I finally decided to read it, and I am glad I did! The author of the book, Diana West, gives a great historical analysis of how America has gone from training children to be adults, to letting the youth stay in perpetual adolescence. Some of the statistics I found were alarming. One that has stayed in my mind for many months was about the show SpongeBob, which is on the Nickelodeon channel. That channel has its target audience between the ages of 6 and 11. But about one-third of the people who watch SpongeBob are between the ages 18 and 59! Another fascinating thing related to Seventeen magazine, a magazine started in 1944, with the aim to, "give stature to the teenage years, give teenagers a sense of identity, of purpose, of belonging." And just to bring the point home, West brings up that, "The average video gamester was eighteen in 1990; now he's going on thirty." So instead of prodding teenagers to become adults and be attracted to things that adults were doing, a whole new market was made for this age group to be comfortable in and feel no pressure to grow up. They could even stay as an adolescent beyond the teenage years in this new subculture.
As if that's not bad enough, parents are also contributing to this delayed adulthood. We have probably seen or heard of the parent that dresses like his/her children, listens to the same music, and just wants to be the child's friend. As a result teenagers have no role model or example in society of what a grown up is. Even if the teenager wants to grow up into a mature man or woman, there is nowhere that that teen could belong. It's not hard to see how this applies to everyone beyond the teen years.
The consequences are great for this sort of immaturity. For American society, there is another force out there that preys on this detriment according to Diana West, Islam. If people don't want to look at what is really happening in our society and they don't want to deal with it rightly, which has happened many many times in regards to Islam, then Europe and the US will slowly start to become more and more like the Middle East. We don't want to offend Muslims so that bombs won't be detonated on civilians, so we'll call Islam a religion of peace. We don't want protests or assassinations, so we'll call a cartoon unacceptable that jokes about someone telling Islamic martyrs that paradise ran out of virgins. We fear intimidation and threats of more bombs blowing off, so we'll refrain from saying Islamic societies are evil, even if they treat women horribly and have a history of expansion by violence.
It's easy to lament this sort of thing, but how do we handle this as Americans, and even moreso as Christians? The Bible says for older men to teach younger men to be self-controlled, and for older women to teach younger women a myriad of things including being pure, self-controlled and keepers at home (Titus 2:3-6), and Paul exhorts all guys to "act like men" (1 Cor. 16:13).
Being unskilled in God's Word is how the writer of Hebrews describes an immature man (5:13). Discerning between good and evil is what the mature one does (5:14). That obviously goes for more than just recognizing that Islam is not a religion of peace and a direct threat to our freedom (as important as that is). It means testing all things and holding fast to what is good (1 Th. 5:21). It means being able to descern truth from error, false teachers from true shepherds of the flock. It means not letting the culture define what you do, but to let the truth do that as it pertains to all issues. If you are a Christian, don't stay a spiritual baby. Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

Starving Sheep

It's funny how God uses circumstances sometimes to make us think of a particular thing. For me, there were two things that God had me hear and that spawned this blog. The first was a radio podcast of Renewing Your Mind, a ministry by R.C. Sproul that was endorsing a book called "Feed My Sheep." The book is directed at pastors and teachers to not be trying to attract the unchurched or unsaved people in their teaching and preaching. Instead they are to simply explain to the congregation what the Scriptures say without bringing any personal presuppositions to the text.

The second circumstance was from reading Ephesians 4. There was a part in that chapter that I remember hearing before in a different context. It regarded what role the church has in whether or not to be relevant, and if so, how important it should be. The specific passage was Ephesians 4:11 and following, "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for..." stop right there. How would you finish that sentence? What would you say pastors and teachers are given by God (verse 8 talks about God giving gifts to men) for? Or maybe the better question is, who are pastors to focus their pastoring or teaching on? From the way many pastors act today in the U.S., the answer would be for unbelievers. Even more specifically, it would be to get unbelievers to come to church, using means that may not based on Scripture, or may even be further fueling their greed or selfishness. Once they are in the church, relevance is key. If your teaching is relevant, which usually means trying to be cool, you will try to avoid the less cool parts of what Christianity is all about, things which are essential to Christianity. Some of those things include telling people they are not in good standing with God right now, or that God will hold them accountable for their actions after this life... all of them. Also, hell awaits all who do not give their life to Jesus Christ. There may be more, but these truths are part of the gospel. And if we leave those out and simply teach the positive things, then it would be as empty as only talking about hell and sin and that everyone is wicked without mentioning that God loves us or Jesus died for sinners so that we might be forgiven. Some of those positive things that may be taught are that God loves us and wants us to be in relationship with Him (which I never fully understood because we all have some relationship with God, either as His friend or as His enemy), and that Jesus died on the cross for sinners and we have a way of escape from hell, which in their intended meaning are true, but what is the point of only teaching that? In other words, I am claiming that only understanding the good news and not the bad news is just as wrong as only understanding the bad news without the good news. It takes both the good news and the bad news (for of what purpose would the good news be if there was no bad news?). The bad news is that all are sinful, and sinful people deserve hell. The good news is that Jesus died for sinners and those who commit the rest of their lives to God and believe Jesus is God's Son and that Jesus rose from the dead are forgiven. But I digress.

This good news without the bad news is what many pastors end up doing when trying to use their gifts for unbelievers. But let's finish the Ephesians 4 section: "He gave some... as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Pastors and teachers were given for the saints. Shepherds don't shepherd those that are outside their fold, only the sheep in their fold. Their concern (in this passage) is not to try to get the unchurched in the church building and preach a relevant message that avoids the less easy-to-swallow teaching of Scripture. Their purpose is to equip the saints by teaching and preaching to them about "the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man..." This surely means more than just recognizing Jesus is God incarnate. In Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). So the sheep (speaking as one of them) need to be taught wisdom and knowledge of which the storehouse for these is greater than anyone could imagine. Surely we are not able to understand everything that God understands since we are finite and He is infinite, but the Word needs to be preached and explained to us who are so easily led astray (Isaiah 53:6).

Pastors and teachers were given for this reason. Yes, we need to hear the gospel too. Both the saints and the unbelievers need to hear it, but not at the expense of failing to equip the saints, or making them to be somewhat of a mature man, or just a little like the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We are called to be fully perfect (Matthew 5:48), and that is what we are to be trained for. God will bring those whom He has chosen; there need not be compromise for unbelievers to believe, for all they have is compromise. We, both pastors and laymen need to fulfill our calling by God which is a holy calling: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

It's been a while since I've posted I know, so I'll get back into it with something simple. I heard a really good hymn at church this morning. It's called, "Let All Mortal Flesh Be Silence" and here are the lyrics.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

The tune is somber against the typical worship music today, which makes it all the more interesting. Here's the link to the tune if you care to hear it.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/e/letallmf.htm