I Don’t Agree

Our tribe has both a reputation and history of focusing on the differences between us and others. So these words have often been a part of our discussions about faith with others. Observing special days, like Easter, was one of those kind of dicussions.

I met a visitor at church a few weeks ago who informed me that God had given him the mission of visiting churches to observe and document the ways in which they differed from what he had been taught.

The experience caused me to think about what I believe and how I talk to others about those beliefs.

God led me back one more time to Romans 14 where Paul’s advice to the church settled the question for me. So I recommend it to you.

Romans 14 (The Message)

1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with – even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. 2 For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume all Christians should be vegetarians and eat accordingly. 3 But since both are guests at Christ’s table, wouldn’t it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn’t eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. 4 Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God’s welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help. 5 Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience. 6 What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. 7 None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. 8 It’s God we are answerable to – all the way from life to death and everything in between – not each other. 9 That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. 10 So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I’d say it leaves you looking pretty silly – or worse. Eventually, we’re all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren’t going to improve your position there one bit. 11 Read it for yourself in Scripture: “As I live and breathe,” God says, “every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God.” 12 So tend to your knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. 13 Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. 14 I’m convinced – Jesus convinced me! – that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it. 15 If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don’t eat, you’re no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? 16 Don’t you dare let a piece of God-blessed food become an occasion of soul-poisoning! 17 God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness’ sake. It’s what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. 18 Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you’ll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you. 19 So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; 20 don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. 21 When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love. 22 Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. 23 But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe – some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them – then you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.

Marriage is a Health Club

Some younger friends of ours are getting married next month after having lived together for multiple years. I still struggle with how we allowed ourselves to accept that practice as normal or healthy, never mind what God thinks of it. I haven’t asked the couple directly but I have talked with others in similar situations. Their usual explanation involves either a lack of need for the legal status of marriage or a desire to avoid the consequences of a messy divorce. The latter usually arises out of their personal experience within their family and usually their parents.

As I was thinking about it, I was struck by the parallels between marriage and the modern business of a health club. Almost all require a commitment (at least to the payments) for a specific period of time. Almost all require a signed contract to enjoy the benefits of the membership. Those benefits involve a commitment to work out on a regular basis using the facilities of the club. I don’t know of anyone who’s ever signed a contract thinking I’m just going to make the payments but never show up. So we sign up, full of hope and commitment that we will keep our side of the agreement and enjoy great bodies and stunning health as a result.

Then reality sets in. Getting up at 5:30AM is tough on a cold, wet winter day. Sleeping in is easier. Maybe we try shifting until after work or later in the day. But our schedules interfere or something we didn’t plan on occurs and the regular workouts that held so much promise in the beginning don’t seem so attractive any more. The early workouts are tough. We get sore and the sore lasts way beyond the actual workout itself. The workout involves hot and sweaty and showers and changing clothes and a bunch of stuff we didn’t think about when we signed the contract. And that new body and stunning health just didn’t appear after three months of workouts. What’s the deal with that?

So we walk away, disillusioned. Perhaps we vow never to do that again. And we continue to make the payments on our contract so our credit rating doesn’t get busted.

Wow, this is scary how much this sounds like a marriage. We enter them with such hope and high expectations for good results. We sincerely believe that we will keep the commitment we make. The payments seem reasonable and we can afford them.

Then we discover that marriage is about workouts, sweaty and sometimes boring. There are no instant results and the new body doesn’t happen in ninty days. Maybe the club doesn’t look as attractive as it did when we were just visiting and thinking about signing up. And even if the relationship ends, the payments are still due, one way or another.

The time to think about this is obviously before you sign the contract. But even more important is keeping your part of the agreement and being true to your promise once you’ve signed the contract. Just like the physical workouts, the benefits are there and spectacular. You just have to do them regularly and consistently.

Genesis 2:24 (GW)

24 That is why a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Ephesians 5:23 (GW)

23 The husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. It is his body, and he is its Savior.

Ephesians 5:28 (GW)

28 So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself.

Ephesians 5:31 (GW)

31 That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one.

Ephesians 5:33 (GW)

33 But every husband must love his wife as he loves himself, and wives should respect their husbands.

1 Thessalonians 4:4 (GW)

4 Each of you should know that finding a husband or wife for yourself is to be done in a holy and honorable way,

OK, there’s some of the fine print in the contract. The workouts are tough. But after 44 years of honoring my health club contract, I’ll testify to the world that the benefits are wonderful beyond description.

Dis’ing the Word

I listened to a radio story on the way to work about the furor created by the burning of the Quran by American soldiers. There were lots of quotes from leaders outraged by this action. They apparently were interpreting the action as a deliberate expression of contempt for those whose faith is based on what the Quran says.

The intensity reached the level where our President felt it necessary to apologize on behalf of our country to the leaders of the country in which the incident occurred.

The story went on to quote a number of other religious leaders regarding their official and unofficial practices for disposing of a sacred text which was no longer useful. For a number of these people, burning was either preferred or at least an option. Burying was second most mentioned option. And a couple of leaders said their groups had no official process for disposing of a holy book.

I can understand why burning might be misinterpreted. Certainly book burning doesn’t have a stellar reputation in Western cultures. For me, it is associated with prejudice and bigotry. Books were burned to prevent to dissemination of the teachings contained in them. Oppressive leadership always fears too much knowledge in the possession of their subjects and burning books must have seemed an effective control. But whether book burning is good or bad is highly dependent on your personal viewpoint. Luke seemed to approve of the burning of books of witchcraft by the new converts of Ephesus in Acts 19. We burn old flags as a mark of respect while others burn the flag as a mark of contempt.

In the radio story, the outcry was against the disrespect shown toward to the Quran. But one of the quotes got me to thinking about other ways to disrespect a book of religious teachings.

Is it more disrespectful to profess a faith based on what a book says but never have opened the covers or to burn it? Or what about knowing what it says but refusing to do what it says? And maybe the ultimate disrespect is to allow others be the sole source of what we know about its teachings?

So I can shake my head at someone else’s disrespectful act. But before I try to take this speck out of someone else’s eyes, I’m pretty sure I need to check my own for the presence of serious lumber blocking my vision.

They Wouldn’t Bend; They Wouldn’t Bow; They Wouldn’t Burn

I bought a CD with a country group singing old-time hymns on one of our Saturday morning dates at Cracker Barrel. This is the really hard-core stuff like Mama Sang Bass and Shall We Gather at the River.

The title above is from a very lively, toe-tapping, sing-along song about Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah. You, I’m sure, will recognize their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Why we didn’t remember these men’s Jewish names is just one of those church mysteries that may be cleared up in heaven. It may have something to do with the way their names sound when set to music! 🙂

The song made me remember Bible school in a small basement classroom, flannel graphs and singing children’s songs of faith at summer Vacation Bible School. It also made me ponder how our songs reflect our faith journey.

I know of some really spectacular songs whose titles probably sound hilarious to contemporary ears. How about “Hello Central, Heaven’s on the line”. “Onward Christian Soldiers” certainly reflects a willingness to go to war for any cause that’s not a common sentiment that I hear regularly. “Turn the Radio On” probably doesn’t strike a chord with too many. About the only place we do that anymore is in the car and that’s fading fast with USB ports become standard accessories. “Theres a Little Pine Log Cabin” doesn’t reflect a majority lifestyle today either.

All of these songs grew out of a deep and abiding faith regardless of how strange the words sound today. While they reflect a time past and circumstances that don’t exist any more, they served the purpose that music of faith has always served. Whether it was Deborah’s tribute to deliverance at the Red Sea, David’s vision of God as shepherd or Alfred Brumley’s rural imagery of log cabins and telphone systems, music has created, fed and sustained faith since God put humans on the earth.

One of the most thought-provoking suggestions I’ve ever heard was that Jesus was singing on the cross. His words “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”come directly from the best known Jewish song book, the Psalms. Perhaps He sang these words or listened to a cantor chant them in His boyhood synagogue in Nazareth. We won’t ever know for sure until we can ask Him, but since He was fully human, it’s not unreasonable that he turned to music in his darkest hour to find strength.

So even if you can’t “carry a tune in a bucket”, let songs of faith be a part of your spiritual journey. Even if they sound funny or you don’t understand all the words (like sheaves or ebon pinion), His Spirit will find a way to use them at the moments in your life when you most need assurance that He’s still around.

And I Will Live Among You

8 “Then have them make a holy place for me, and I will live among them.
GOD’S WORD Translation. 1995 (Ex 25:8). Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group

First, a garden. Then, a tent. Then, a body. Finally, a heart.

It seems that God has always been seeking some way to live among us.

He was no stranger to Adam and Eve. They lived with Him daily walking in the garden. Until Satan messed things up, He lived among them.

He had his people build a tent so he could live among them. His presence had been with them constantly since they left Egypt. With clouds and fire, he lived among them. He had His own special chair in that tent. And when He was in His home, His people celebrated His homecoming.

Then, amazingly, He came to earth and lived among us in a natural body. He forsook the glory of Heaven so He could live among us. He lived among us with his mother and father and brothers. He had friends among us and visited their home in Bethany. He went to funerals among us. He attended synagogue among us. And finally He died among us.

Now He lives among us in the most intimate of ways. His dwelling place is in our hearts. There, He gives us energy to praise Him. He transforms us into His ever increasing glory. He changes us to look like Him.

Welcome home. I’m glad you’re here! Thanks for coming to my house.
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How’s Your ‘Do?

I was raised with a strong sense of the importance of doing. We always seemed to be at odds with some group that wanted to keep doing as far away from believing as they could. So we resisted with all our might and learned to quote Jame 2:18 in our sleep – “But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” (NIV)

But we always had to come back to all the verses that said that faith wasn’t about what we did. In fact, God made it clear that he didn’t ever want us making a connection between our behavior and our salvation. The whole of Romans argues that faith is the free gift of God; it cannot be earned by doing. See, God knew too well that if doing had any part in saving us, we’d take credit for it. We can’t help ourselves; “Look what I did” just comes too easily to our lips.

So what do we “do”? Well, let’s start with the part that says we were created to do. God made us through Jesus Christ to do “good works” (Eph. 2:10) Not only did he create us to do; he worked out in advance what he wanted.

And that’s the rub. See God decided the purpose for our doing. And it wasn’t about us. Jesus explains it early on sitting on the side of a hill. “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your ”uc”>good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:16)

Our doing has only one purpose; it’s supposed make it obvious that how we behave is because of who our Father is. Our actions are to connect the dots between us and God. The answer to the question “Why do you act that way” is supposed to make it obvious that we are His children.

So that’s the daily challenge. Does my doing connect the dots for someone that I act this way because I follow Jesus? When my light is on and what I’m doing is visible to others is it plain who’s in charge of my life?

That’s a whole lot tougher question for me than “What do I have to “do” to be saved”?

How’s your ’do?

A Sorry God

Today’s sermon at church made me think about the times when the Bible says God was sorry. That there are any at all seems amazing to me. In fact, the whole idea that God ever said “Oops” is one of those migraine headache issues that being serious about the Bible often creates.

The first thing to wonder about is – why couldn’t an omniscient God see it coming? Did Adam and Eve’s rebellion, the pre-flood society, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. really surprise Him?

Second, what about His “I’m going to wipe them off the face of the earth!” reaction? And where did Abraham find the courage to talk Him out of it? Did He change His mind? Was He responding to new information or something He hadn’t thought of when Cain reminded Him that his punishment was a literal death sentence. Had God never thought about what the minimum number of righteous people required to make a place worth saving before Abraham asked?

As I remember our parenting experience, I think I can identify a situation when I could have been described as “being repentant that I had brought them into the world” when one of our kids had been particularly exasperating. And I suppose some God-like impulse intervened on their behalf since all three of them are still alive. So there’s a glimmer of understanding about what His feelings and reactions mean.

I’ve found some answers to the questions above by thinking about the emotional side of repentance. When repentance stops being just a part of a five-step formula and starts living inside me, I start to realize the nature and purpose of it.

Repentance is a deeply emotional state of sorrow. It rivals in its intensity the grief of a lost loved one. It is painful, gut-wrenching and unforgettable. And taking action appears to be the healthiest way to deal with it.

So that’s what He did. Adam and Eve lived. Cain was spared. The ark floated and saved the 8 souls aboard. Lot’s family (at least most of it) was spared. And that’s where the answer lies for me.

Out of repentance comes mercy. Abundant, grace-filled, loving mercy. Saving mercy. Mercy that sent his unique Son to earth. Mercy I can experience and rejoice in. Mercy I can praise. Mercy that strengthens me to live for Him.

So I’m glad God is a sorry God. I love to read about His sorrow. Because I so need Him to be sorry for me and to extend me His mercy.