Sometimes the most meaningful things are little things that we never really think about. Now I’m sure that there are some folks out there that go around humming, whistling, maybe even singing some of these little commercial jingles that are large part of our life. We didn’t really ask for them. They just keep sticking everywhere to get their message across. Just the other day for absolutely no reason at all I happen to run across one of those out of nowhere things so to speak. In 1974 Burger King introduced the iconic have it your way slogan to highlight their new policy of letting customers customize their food orders. “Have It Your Way” duetted with a famous musical jingle. Now in that jingle the lyrics included, “hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders, don’t upset us.” In simple every day language it simply meant that customers could change the ingredients they may want to more pickles, or they may want less or maybe add extra ketchup whatever, they could do it their way. For 1970 it was a pretty good fit. It was a message of independent style and   giving power to the buyer. Well, Burger King didn’t let that deal go by, they didn’t let it fade. They’re still with us and in 1991 and 1992 They came up with “Your Way Right Away.” Burger King knew at this time that they had a good thing going here so they turned right back around and in 1999-2014 they hit us again. “Burger King, where your the Boss!’

God created everything in this world, no matter what it was from the greatest thing down to the lowest thing in the dirt of this earth, and God knows all that goes on, and these things are difficult to understand and sometimes we don’t even try to. Of all the wonderful things that our God has created and of all the wonderful things we as his creation have been blessed with there’s one large gaping problem. People will be people, somewhere somehow we tend to wander off. It is my thought that when God gave us free will so to speak, We used it for all the wrong things. Today’s blog is not a knock against the fine folks at Burger King, but really hats off to a very perceptive bunch of people that recognized something that we try hard not to admit. Regardless of the situations we find ourselves in we, the human side of us wants to be in charge of everything. The folks at Burger King recognizing this… they created three very key slogans that has served them well over the years simply because they resonate with our weakness and our desire to “Have It Your Way”. The pages of Biblical history are littered with God’s people who I have affectionately chosen to name the “Hamburger People.” now we do not want to be disrespectful so don’t become upset with me, Just trying to figure some things out. But the Burger King folks came right back some years later almost back to back with the slogans “Your Way Right Away” and “Burger King, where your the Boss!’ Now that is a triple whammy for sure. That falls right in the path of everyone of us who are trying so hard to follow a Good Way. I can’t think of anything you could tell somebody that would persuade them perhaps to take a second look at the direction they are traveling then to tell them, you can have it your way, you can have it right away, and of course here’s  a big period at the end of that. “Remember, this is where you can be the boss.”

From a biblical perspective if I were going to have a fallen list, I suppose there wouldn’t be enough paper to put all of them on the list. The first on my list would be one that we all know about that would be the fallen angel himself, Lucifer. In mainstream Christian tradition, Lucifer and Satan are considered the same people. I’ll add this here not because I’m extremely brilliant but because I read it while I was researching, there are some biblical thoughts that shows they started as completely separate concepts. Why did Satan fall from heaven? One of the big causes was pride, Satan’s desire to be God, not a servant of God. When we read and Isaiah 14: 12–15 and Ezekiel 28:12–15. We see a picture painted of Satan, who was supposedly exceedingly beautiful angel, and he was most likely considered to be the highest of all angels, one of the most beautiful of all of God’s creation. But he was not content in his position. Satan wanted to be God plainly put,  he wanted to kick God off his throne and take over the rule of the universe. In keeping with one of my long held beliefs, evil cannot exist within the presence of the mercy, the grace and the love of our creator. Satan fell from heaven because he was pushed. It’s as simple as that. Let’s take a few minutes just to look at some other folks that decided to have it their way. When people try to do things their own way instead of God’s way the Bible shows they often face serious consequences. Biblical examples of doing things their own way  are as follows.

-there, of course, for Adam and Eve they ate the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden because they wanted wisdom on their own terms. This brought sin and death to the world.

-there were Abraham and Sarah, they tried to fulfill God’s promise of a child through Hagar instead of waiting for God’s timing. This created a family conflict and historical strife.

-Nadab and Abihu, Aaron sons offered unauthorized fire to God because they used their own method instead of God’s. The Lord soon dealt with them. 

-King Saul offered a priestly sacrifice himself instead of waiting for the prophet Samuel because he panicked and rushed things. God stripped him of his royal dynasty.

Lastly we read of King Uzziah he became so proud that he entered the temple to burn incense on the altar, which was a job that was reserved only for the priest, God struck him with leprosy for the rest of his life. Christianity affords us many blessings and the assurance of better things to come. But, in the Christian faith there are three things that you can’t have. You cannot…

• “Have It Your Way”

• “Right Away” 

•   “You Are Not The Boss”

Life is Good

jk

9/11… A View From The Pew

The first thing we should do would be to get a good handle on exactly what tithing is. So first things first, the meaning and purpose of the word tithe comes from an old term meaning a 10th part.Tithing is the practice of giving 10% of ones income or produce to support a religious organization or place of worship. Can’t help but add this as I was sitting here at the keyboard when we’re talking about clubs or organizations tithes becomes dues and for some reason no one is put off by that. For many religious people it’s a way to put God first and show trust in divine provision. Historically as well as today, it’s a means of support for community. These funds that help maintain houses of worship pay religious leaders, and fund charity work for the needy. Now, some of this today will probably be repetitious, it’s a voluntary giving unlike past centuries when tithes were mandatory taxes of crops or livestock, modern contributions are generally voluntary. In the world we live in today. It’s a relatively easy process, people typically pay using cash, checks or digital transfers. The amount a person does tithe is up to the individual who usually will choose whether to calculate the 10% from their gross total income, our net take home income.

Back in The Day:

Biblical tithing was the practice of giving your 1/10 of one’s produce livestock or income to support religious leaders and the community? One of the earliest biblical validated gifts was from Abraham.  

• Abraham gives a tenth of his spoils to Melchizedek, the King of Salem, in Genesis 14:20 “Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he had taken from his enemies” — [Ministry Designs] (though the exact URL is https://ministrydesigns.com/tithe-in-the-bible/).

 As we continue to read and do research, we find that Jacobs vow which is in Genesis 28:22 where God commanded Jacob to give 10% of all he has been blessed with to the temple as an expression of gratitude. Another step in this process of tithing comes from  the Mosaic Law…what we speaking of here is the Old Testament system. Under the law of Moses tithing functioned essentially as a national system to support the theocracy, religious workers, and social welfare. There wasn’t at that time a Levitical Tithe in the amount of 10% annual tax on crops and livestock given to the Levi’s and priest who did not receive a tribal land inheritance…we read of that practice in numbers 18:21 where the Israelites were commanded to give a tithe to the Levites. We’ll take a quick look at two more of these tithes.

-The Festival Tithe: An additional tenth of produce set aside yearly for family celebrations and religious festivals in Jerusalem.

-The Charity Tithe: A specific tenth collected every three years to support foreigners, widows, and orphans “Deuteronomy 14:28 specifies a third tithe every three years to be stored in towns to care for foreigners, the fatherless, and widows.” 

New Testament and Christian Tradition

As I’ve shared with you so far this tithing thing has a very long and rich history, and in some instances instigated by God. In your early church, Jesus emphasizes the moral weight behind that practice, he was pointing to justice, mercy, and faithfulness. I don’t want dig a hole, it becomes way too complicated. We can find lots of rabbit holes to go down on this one, but we’re not going to. I will mention the church councils like the council of Tours in 567 A.D. that formalized tithing. And now, of course, that brings us right into the modern views towards this subject. Christian denominations differ on whether the 10% rule is mandatory today, with many teaching it as a helpful benchmark for giving rather than a strict legal requirement.

Now let’s take this in a direction of scripture. In the book of Leviticus 27:30 “a tithe of everything from a land with a green from the soil or fruit from the trees belong to the Lord it is holy to the Lord.” As we continue to read and search we find and Deuteronomy 14:22”be sure to set aside a tenth  of all that your fields produce each year” In the book of Malachi 3:10 “bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,’ so says the Lord of Heavens Armies, ‘I will open the windows of heaven for you.” In Proverbs 3:9 “honor the Lord with your wealth, and with the best part of everything you produce.” I’ll share one more with you from numbers 18:26 it instructs a Levis to also present a 10th of the tithe they receive as an offering to the Lord.

I know when you share information and you folks are kind enough to read the blog each week that a list of scriptures can sometimes really bog you down. But I do want to present this one fact to you.

There are approximately 39 verses in the Old Testament that explicitly refer to tithing or the tithe (using the Hebrew word ma’aser, meaning a tenth). [1]

These references span 11 distinct chapters across 7 Old Testament books. Depending on how strictly a count separates multi-verse narrative context (such as verses talking about the “storehouse” for the tithes or general giving principles), the exact number of verses directly containing the specific words for “tithe” or “tithing” is typically counted between 34 and 40 verses. (Robert Breaker)

Now there is a great deal of difference between your focus of core pressure rules of New Testament giving. Instead of burdening you with listing and have you reading the scripture I’ll just simply tell you that you will find plenty of perspectives on giving in the New Testament anywhere in the book of Matthew Second Corinthians First Corinthians, and on and on, but the New Testament principles of generous giving focus on voluntary joyful grace, rather than strict legalistic percentages. Jesus Christ gave everything for us, so it’s only fitting and right that we should give back. And should be given voluntarily and cheerful. It’s been suggested that we should give what we have decided in our heart to give and not reluctantly under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Paul instructed believers to set money aside methodically. We should be working at building generosity into the rhythm of our lives not just when we feel moved to do so. Giving in many ways is a sense of self surrender it allows a good   in our heart to flow to others who are in need. It’s hard to even imagine to set some kind of a percentage perhaps the best way to look at it is this it would be well received if we were to give proportionately based on how God has prospered us rather trying to meet an unmanageable burden.

To bring all this together to what I hope is a reasonable conclusion, it would be my advice, to give all you can, to everyone you can, as often as you can. Somewhere in all of this, I believe I read that tithing is a matter of the heart.

Life is Good

jk

From The Back Porch

The lead scripture today follows 2 Timothy 2:8–10…it is in these verses that Paul gives Timothy a pep talk. From the book of Timothy 4:1–5 we find the challenge and the charge. I realize it’ll probably take up some space, but it would only be fair to to put those verses here, for clarities sake, as we start this week’s blog.

2 Timothy 4:1-5

New International Version

4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

We will start with that pep talk from 2 Timothy 2:8–10. 

Paul has presented him with many examples in order to impress him of the importance of his task but none greater than the challenge to Remember Jesus Christ. A writer has written in the past that these words are ‘the heart of the Pauline gospel.’ There is no need to use a bunch of words to state the very obvious…Without the cross and the resurrection our faith is without merit. 

Paul continues on to urge Timothy to stay strong in the faith. There are some strong points that he reminds Timothy of. He reminds him to keep your mind on Christ. He’s fully human from David’s line and fully victorious. After all he was risen from death. “There is such a thing Timothy as the unbound word”, men can imprison preachers, but no one can stop or trap the message of God. Paul reminds Timothy that he must have an endurance for others. He must accept pain and trial willingly, he must do this to help others reach salvation, and eternal life.

In these few verses we see a pep talk and a challenge from the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Chapter 4 of 2 Timothy. Versus 1–5 is where we read that the Apostle Paul gives a solemn charge to Timothy. He commands him to faithfully preach God’s word, to warn against false teachers who will reject truth for myths and to stay strong through hard times to finish his work. There’s nothing really very complicated here. It’s a solemn charge. Paul reminds Timothy of future judgment in Christ’s coming kingdom, Timothy, must share God’s message at all times whether convenient or not. He must reprove rebuke and extort people using great patience and good teaching. He also leaves Timothy with a warning. He tells him that the time is coming when people will hate sound doctrine. They’ll choose to follow their desires. They will be people with what we might call itching ears, who will look for teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will walk away from the truth and only believe that which they want to hear. This will bring us to the charge which is a call to steadfastness. Stay calm, Timothy, you must keep a clear and steady mind in all situations you must be ready to suffer for the faith, you must do the work of the evangelist and finish your ministry. Our ministry has been given to us by God and it is intended to be for eternity. It is my hopeful prayer that each one of us will do the work of an evangelist and finish the ministry we have been given.

Life is Good

jk

Galatians 6: 1-10…and for me….a New Word

This week The Pew will take some time to look at the meaning and significance of the phrase in the Bible, “Let there be light”. The phrase let there be light comes from Genesis1:3 in the Bible. “God said, let there be light, and there was light”. It’s the first recorded spoken word of God in scripture, and it marked the beginning of the creation narrative. So, let there be light is of biblical origin, in Genesis light appears before the sun, moon and stars showing it is something of independent reality rather than a celestial object, which is no more than a fancy way of simply saying it was God’s will that there be light. God brings into reality light, emphasizing his authority and sovereignty. Light in the Bible is not just a physical illumination, It represents goodness, order, truth, and God’s holiness. There’s a separation and order here. God separates light from darkness, and he named them day and night, thus establishing a rhythm and structure in creation, we find in the New Testament that light is linked to Christ as an example, “in him was life, and that life was a light of all mankind”and that is from the book of John 1: 4–5. I believe that would not be out of order to ask why light first? It has been written that placing light in the creation sequence shows that all understanding, more order, and life sustaining energy flow from God.(Bible Hub.) in reality the “Good Book” as we sometimes refer to the Bible set the stage for the rest of scripture’s themes of revelation, salvation, and guidance. But also has become a motto for different organizations, symbolizing new beginnings, enlightenment, and the power of knowledge. So the phrase let there be light is both a literal account of creation and a theological statement about God’s nature, the origin of order, the symbolic role of light as life, truth, and divine presence. The exact phrase “let there be light” appears only once in the Bible and that of course is in the book of Genesis 1:3 so the exact phrase let there be light has only one occurrence but the word light in the Bible appears 236–433 occurrences across the old and new testament, those figures being the courtesy of the Online Bible.

Some quick reminders as we move through this week’s blog. God and Jesus are referred to his light. The Bible states that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.  1John 1:5 simple meaning for those of us that want to pursue this further is that He is entirely holy pure and true. Jesus calls himself the light of the world in John 8:12, stating that whoever follows him will not walk in darkness because he brings spiritual sight and eternal life. When we look to the word of God for guidance in truth, scripture is described as a light that directs a person’s daily choices, we can read about that in psalm 119:105, “your word is a lamp to my feet.” Light has another very understandable quality it exposes hidden actions and reveals things as they truly are. Ephesians 5:13. And I think we could most likely say with some assurance that it is also the call of believers. It reflects God. Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 5:14 “they are the light of the world meant to let their good shine so others will honor God.”

This week’s block is another example of short, sweet, to the point. Matthew 5:14 Jesus tells and confirms to each one of us that we do have a place in his kingdom and in the kingdom to come. We close this week’s blog with a question…will you answer the call?

Life is Good

jk

Fair Time / Festivals of Worship Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name… Deuteronomy 16:11

Thanks for joining us in The Pew this week. If you’ve been traveling along with us, you know that we’re kind of keeping up and looking for The Good Way in this life that we live here on this earth. As we travel along this road of The Good Way, we’ve written about the bumps and things we run into and now we’re going to write about those detours that pop up every now and then and kinda get us off the road, The Good Way.

I have never thought about this, Revisionist culture, new thing to me. It refers to “a social or intellectual environment that prioritizes re-examining, challenging, and actively changing long-accepted traditions, cultural narratives, and historical records. Instead of taking the status quo or traditional heritage for granted, a revisionist culture views established norms through a critical, modern lens to correct perceived past errors, systemic biases, or structural inequalities.” I also would like to add the advancement of social justice agendas.

Revisionist culture in the Christian faith refers to the movement to reexamine, reinterpret, or alter traditional Christian doctrines, historical events, and biblical texts. This approach often seeks to align Christian theology with modern social values, scientific understandings, and progressive cultural norms. It is very controversial and not something that really truly mainline denominations are willing to talk about. When we look at biblical texts through historical and critical lenses or modern social frameworks like feminism are LBGTQ+ we find ourselves unknowingly entering into the world of political thought and social agendas. There are also some other outcomes like we find ourselves, questioning long held orthodox traditions, such as the nature of salvation, hell, or even original sin. The things that I think we need to really consider is that shifting church stances on social issues, which would include the LGBTQ+, marriage, general rules, and environmental justice, years of doctrinal teachings biblical truths, moralizing them to fit a particular situation. It doesn’t stop there either. It even goes into the historical revisionism, like reevaluating church history to highlight marginalized voices or critique past intuitional failures. Leaving our faith to take  a real hard hit when we’re told our beliefs must evolve to stay relevant and meaningful to modern society. 

I really don’t think it will take that many words to express a very serious concern that many Christians have today. When we alter foundational doctrine, it compromises the ultimate authority of the Bible. When we view revisionism, we see a surrendering of timeless spiritual truths to temporary secular trends. And when we modify core creeds, this leads to division and a loss of unified Christian identity across the denominations. Let’s encourage each other to know what we believe, and why we believe it. Let’s once again lift up the Bible as the word of God and the source from which we acquire our knowledge and draw our strength. I encourage each of you who are reading this wherever you might be, to stay on the Good Way.

Life is Good

jk

The Spirit And Heart of A Pastor…An Emulation of Worth… I Thessalonians 3: 1-10