Last week my Pastor shared the fact that we, people of the faith are facing more and more attacks  and even the very structures we worship in are being destroyed or desecrated. Even more disturbing is the increased attacks on anything of moral value that might be advocated by the faith of an individual or religious organization. We have become rather docile to the current stream of written and verbal abuse of the faith. Anything that can marginalize our Lord, the church and now the use of open hostility toward God’s people is an accepted social norm. This trend has now evolved to the next step. Physical violence is an unfortunate reality in many parts of the world and here at home we are seeing an increase in such activity. What is the proper Christian response to those who demean, threaten and go as far as to destroy property and use physical violence as a way to intimidate those of the faith? Well, the “answer my friend” is not blowing in the wind, you will find it in the word. We will take that up at another time in the pew. One way the world comes against us is the use of words that are used to hurt or confuse the believers.

I want to look at one word that is often mistakenly associated with being a Christian. The word weak, has a totally different meaning when Godly attributes are applied to it. If we apply the secular definitions to this word it can be misleading to those outside the faith.

Dictionary Definition: weak – The primary sense of the root is to yield, fail, give way, recede, or to be soft.

I suggest you go to this link and read a very good accounting of the word Weak.   https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/weak.htmlKJV

The biblical assessment is much different.

The point I wish to share today is simply that as Christians we are called out to be different and while it might be a stretch to get there, I used this reasoning to arrive at the thought that it might be we view the world and the words we use differently than some others. While the word weak, denotes a condition and position of negative meaning, in God’s eyes it is one of opportunity. In 2 Corinthians 12 we see this in verses 9 and 10.

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (ESV)

Weakness comes in many shapes and forms but it brings with it to the Christian, the grace of God. To Paul came the promise and the reality of the all sufficient grace. For Paul it was…

It was sufficient for physical weariness.

It was sufficient for physical pain.

It was sufficient for opposition.

It made him able, as all this letter shows, to face slander.

(William Barclay, DBS, pg 307)

We are subject to the burdens of life, all of us, but just as Paul discovered there is this wondrous grace available to those of the faith. Our weakness is God’s opportunity. Please take the time to follow up on this weeks blog by going to the link below for a wonderful read of faith.

https://www.learnreligions.com/power-perfected-in-weakness-day-15-701656

Stay safe and God Bless

Life is Good

jk

We are warned, through scripture, that in the last days people will not endure sound doctrine, but seek teachers who tell them what they want to hear… a ‘feel good’ or ‘prosperity’ gospel without true repentance or the power of His words to sanctify and guide us to life eternal by transforming our hearts, minds and lives to do the will of God. We are living in a time that defies sound doctrine, we, the church, have set aside sound doctrine in our rush to be remain relevant in the changes taking place in our culture and society.  I have heard people give many different reasons for this mess the church finds itself in. One phrase that sticks in my mind is one I hear often, those people. I have found an interesting anomaly in this term. I have found that those people without question think that it is those people who’re the problem. Confused, read the next sentence. I have found that those people, all those people, believe in God and believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. If those people are truly believers we have a whole other problem to deal with. You see if they were non-believers it would be so much easier to push them aside with the old southern phrase “bless your heart” but in this case they are as good as family, well they are family. After last weeks blog I got to thinking that maybe this mess is not about those people, yes including all those people. It just might be about us. We, after all have always been told, we are the church. We might be known for “Open Minds, Hearts and Doors” but is it possible somehow our minds are shut to meaningful study and discussion. We need to put aside this blame game, word play and the disgraceful lack of leadership in the defense of the written word and get back to what we are called to be doing.  Please read the following statement from the Methodist Church.

Wesleyan Quadrilateral

The phrase which has relatively recently come into use to describe the principal factors that John Wesley believed illuminate the core of the Christian faith for the believer. Wesley did not formulate the succinct statement now commonly referred to as the Wesley Quadrilateral. Building on the Anglican theological tradition, Wesley added a fourth emphasis, experience. The resulting four components or “sides” of the quadrilateral are (1) Scripture, (2) tradition, (3) reason, and (4) experience. For United Methodists, Scripture is considered the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine. Tradition is experience and the witness of development and growth of the faith through the past centuries and in many nations and cultures. Experience is the individual’s understanding and appropriating of the faith in the light of his or her own life. Through reason the individual Christian brings to bear on the Christian faith discerning and cogent thought. These four elements taken together bring the individual Christian to a mature and fulfilling understanding of the Christian faith and the required response of worship and service.

http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/wesleyan-quadrilateral

Consider…There are  611 commandments which Moses passed down to the Jewish people. Those along with the first two of the Ten Commandments, which were the only ones heard directly from God, adds up to 613. Now understand that I am not a theologian, just a layman trying to write a blog. These 613 laws, can be found in Old Testament books and the Jewish Torah.

Torah refers to the five books of Moses which are known in Hebrew as Chameesha Choomshey Torah. These are: Bresheit (Genesis), Shemot (Exodus), Vayicra (Leviticus), Bamidbar (Numbers), and Devarim (Deuteronomy). Jesus was a Jew and scripture shows us he went to the synagogue as all good Jews of that day did for worship and instruction. We must note that each and every teaching of Jesus is found within the Torah, Psalms and Prophets. We would do well to remember this and put aside the notion He did away with what He was taught and what He taught. He clearly said it is His word that will judge us on that day and that His word could by no means pass away. What about today? There are 1,050 commands in the New Testament for Christians to obey. It might be too many of us are living under the false impression that because that we go to church, accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, and have been baptized we are good to go. None of us will ever  be without sin, a common condition of our mortal status. The link listed here will list all of these sins and bible verses associated with them. It is long but an interesting read.

https://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201407/r1308729_17984331.pdf

So to all my Methodist friends, do not flee the church as I did. Stay and demand that those of leadership within explain why the very first of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral ….. “For United Methodists, Scripture is considered the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine”, is not being considered in this mess.  The covenant within the resurrection, the promise of life eternal requires acceptance of Christ and doing our very best to live a Holy Life and that requires repentance of our sins.  We are  all guilty of sin in God’s eyes and sin, all sin, is just that in God’s eyes. There is no wiggle room in God’s word, so what do you believe? How did you arrive at that belief? Was prayer and a sincere desire to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit what led you  to it? Even as laypeople we are called to go on to perfection which leads me to this question. The big part of this mess concerns a life-style the church finds objectionable based on scriptural content and God’s word and yes they are different. As Christians we are called, set apart to live a life that allows others to see Christ in us. How is that working for you? I left the Methodist Church because I truly believe that the content of the scripture should be the basis for living a Christian life-style and the establishing of church doctrine. We are to love not to condemn or judge but we should take seriously before we condone a life-style that is contrary to scriptural content and intent. We miss our calling when by doing this we encourage people to commit to that which is viewed unfavorably in God’s eye. There are 613 + 1050 sins we know of and none are seen favorably in God’s eye.

Be in prayer for me for I have fallen short of my calling. I stood up when I should have been on my knees and I ran when I should have stood. You have always been good friends and I do miss each of you. Stay the course, stand your ground, defend the faith and always serve and seek his will.

Life is Good

jk

For many years I sat in the pew, comfortably surrounded by those of faith and safely ensconced in the word, the good way as inscribed in scripture. The scripture, the fundamental teachings and written record of God’s will and relationship with those of his creation or as I prefer to say, the inspired word of  God. We know it as the bible, to theologians a treasure trove of information for those who are experts in the field of theology. Theology is the study of the nature of God and religious beliefs. That brings us to ‘laymen’ a non-ordained member of a church, a person without professional or specialized knowledge in a particular subject…. That would be me. It seems that the turmoil within the United Methodist Church is not in any way ready to go away. To me the greater concern is the marginalizing of God’s word in order to meet a social and cultural agenda. The attack on this denominations scriptural integrity is not a new thing. This is a decades long endeavor by people who are driven by their social or cultural belief to obtain what they believe is necessary to bolster the many causes of social justice. Forgive me if I sound harsh but at times this movement seems to take on an all about me attitude. As to the matter of hurt, we all have been hurt by this decades old process that has been forced upon the Methodist Church. The greatest victim in all this is the word, the scripture that has been ignored or marginalized by these events.

It is important that I make you aware that after well over thirty years in the Methodist Church, three years ago I left. People change churches all the time for a number of reasons and worst case being they just quit church altogether. My reason was not the church as much as it was my inability to control an obsession I had with the direction the church was moving. My decision to leave was not an overnight thing but a three year process of prayer, talking with other members and following closely the directional signs one can see in decisions made by governing bodies of the church. If you have read this far I hope you will stay with me, as I have been wanting to write this one for a while now. I have written other blogs in the past about this subject, then would put it aside awhile but it always seems to pop up at a later date. I consider this to be a distraction and an embarrassing weakness in my ability to stay focused on that which is important to my serving God and growing in the faith. The number of articles, blogs, comments and denominational news letters about this cancer that has been attacking the faith always draws me back. I strongly feel that the issue now on the table is destroying the Methodist Church and is part of a social justice agenda that has grown into a motivating factor in redefining our culture identity and practices. I have come to favor the term same-sex issues. The discomfort they cause on both sides of the aisle truly hinder any attempt to approach the issue from any point other than that of a debate as to the understanding of our differences. When you engage in a debate someone has to lose. To that point, I don’t believe that this is an issue that belongs in the church, any church. This is a social issue that needs to be addressed within the social and cultural expectations of society at large. On the human rights side to this, any discrimination that lessens a person’s rights or self esteem is of course everyone’s concern anywhere it occurs. 

The real issue within the faith is the disturbing lack of scriptural support that lends itself to their (same-sex advocates) position that this is acceptable behavior in living a Holy Life as we have been called to do. On my side of the aisle is the astounding lack of knowledge as to the Methodist Church and its position governing whom is acceptable and who is not. Let’s start here. The Methodist Church is open to all persons and no one is to be turned away from the Communion Table. Let’s be honest about this. Not all Methodists or Methodist Churches practice this. There is always an element within that just can’t accept people as they are, even though Christ did and even preached the need to love all people. Now to be fair we must go a step farther. The entire Christian Community is guilty of this. The issue is that this debate is about a social and cultural change that has been taking place for some time now and it has become a part of redefining the church as we know it. There was a time when the church changed society and culture but today it has flipped. The church is now being changed by society and culture and to its detriment, in order to make this change the very foundation of its soul, the scripture, the written word of God is being re-defined in order to meet the demands of this changing world we live in. In my research to prepare for this blog I discovered The Free Methodist Church and their position on the issue of same-sex and the place of  scriptural authority in decisions which affect church positions on this matter. The following is from one of their positional papers…

The biblical understanding and evaluation of homosexuality stand at the center of the Church’s response. This centrality of the Bible in the current discussion stems from two considerations. First, the Christian Church in general and the Free Methodist Church in particular hold the Bible to be the ultimate authority in all matters pertaining to faith and conduct. Indeed, the refusal to accept homosexuality in the Christian tradition throughout history derives from the biblical witness. Second, the Bible’s consistent negative appraisal of homosexuality is the primary obstacle to the acceptance of homosexuality by the majority of contemporary Christians and Christian bodies.

There has always been a broad consensus throughout history as to the interpretation of biblical passages dealing with homosexuality. This consensus is now being challenged by a few revisionist voices. From these few a vast amount of writings have emerged that challenge past interpretations.  It is my thought that the real issue is how do we as a church view scriptural integrity? If we believe it to be the inspired word of God are we to also believe it is subject to revisions crafted to meet the pressures of societal and cultural changes of the current day? Without going into great detail, we will just deal with intent. What was God’s intent in the creation of this world? Genesis from the very beginning sets forth the fundamental framework for human sexuality.

The whole of Gen. 1-3 functions as a “foundational narrative,” whose purpose is to set forth not only the origins of the cosmos and more specifically of the human race, but also the divine purpose and design for humanity. (David R. Bauer)   

I do not believe consensus of any kind can be reached amid the level of animosity that prevails concerning this issue. Read carefully this insert: “Paul would object most strongly to heterosexual Christians assuming an attitude of moral superiority and condemnation towards homosexuals. Homosexuality is a sin; but it is one sin among many. And all persons, “Both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin” ( Romans 3:9). It is thus imperative for Christians to embrace a proper perspective regarding homosexuality in relation to the sinfulness of all humanity, and to adopt an attitude that acknowledges and indeed emphasizes their own sinfulness outside of the grace of God rather than delighting in excoriating the sins of others.”(David R. Bauer) 

There are so many sides to this issue that many of us struggle to understand but to me the real motivator is God’s intent and his superiority over his creation. The fact that God created humankind “male and female” means that human beings are meant to be heterosexual. The bible, both Old and New Testaments suggests that  legitimacy of the heterosexual intent and in both books of the Bible the total denunciation of same-sex practices is consistent. This consistency is not subject to specific times or places but applies to all people, in all places and at all times, up to and including now. Until the Methodist Church deals with the issue of sin as determined by biblical definition and ignores the pressure of those who consider social and cultural change the dominant factor, there will be no peace in the church. The real issue is scriptural integrity.

Thanks for being in the pew this week, come back and join us next week.

Life is Good

jk