In the circles in which I travel, there has been much talk about our (“our” being Christians, Ministers, etc) response to Barack Obama becoming the President-elect.  Most everyone agrees that following BIblical mandates regarding submitting to authority and also praying diligently for our soon-to-be president are good things. I’m with them.  (The conspiracy theory nut in me has some other ideas, but luckily my wife keeps me grounded.)  With that being said, I’d like to talk a bit about why I think people overwhelmingly, especially inside of Christian circles, voted for Obama and what I think that means. 

It is no secret that Obama is for social justice.  A look at his policies including health care reform, tax policies, and even closing the Guantanamo Bay Naval installment speak very loudly to the fact that he is very interested in social reform.  In the Christian world, we’ve become enamored with social justice, which I think is funny because isn’t that what we’re supposed to be about anyway? So here is a guy who says he is going to do a lot of stuff for the people that we want to help.  Cool!  He is also not the president that almost all of us voted for in the last two elections, but since he is so unpopular we no longer want to associate with him.  The only problem is that Obama’s social policies are not social justice in Biblical terms, they are social policies in governmental terms.  I’m all for government.  Small government that protects freedom and liberty among it’s people.  

The problem I see is that we’ve become enamored with the idea of social justice but don’t actually want to do the work of social justice.  We’d love for poor people to have more money.  We’d love to pay less taxes (which under Obama (or McCain), you probably won’t…The Fair Tax would be the way to go).  We’d love for everyone to have equal access to healthcare and education.  But somewhere along the line we’ve bought into the lie that these things are better left to the government.  Ask the good people in Africa how that is working for them.  Ask the people in Haiti how that is working for them.  Ask the people in Honduras how that is working for them. If it works so well, why do we use a lot of resources sending missionaries equipped with mobile clinics to heal these people?  Why isn’t their government taking care of them? 

The bottom line is that we need to be THE CHURCH.  We need to stop building church buildings and programs and put our money where our mouth is.  We need to be Gospel Incarnate and actually live out the things that we preach about.  We need to respond when Jesus tells us that we are to care for the sick, widows, and orphans.  We need to be sensitive to the needs around us and take action on them when we are able.  If we aren’t able, I guarantee that we know someone who is able.  

I might be preaching to the choir, but if that is so, then why do we still have Welfare, Food Stamps, and homeless people sleeping in the woods?  

Just something to think about.

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I was doing some cleaning in my garage today and came across a bunch of old stuff that has traveled the country with me. Some of the stuff is memoirs of past relationships. Some of the stuff is old 3.5″ floppy disks (remember those? I don’t even have a place to put them on this computer). Some of the stuff is just stuff, junk that meant something at one point in my life but is now just junk. Most of this stuff ended up in the trash bin, some of it wasn’t junk, and some of it caused me some deep reflection.

The above scripture verse was one of the things that I kept. It is written on a note card that was intended for me to carry around and memorize. I can’t help but be humbled and repentant when I meditate on this verse. Above all else, I am to be a person that loves God, obeys his commands, and serve him with everything I’ve got. If I’m honest with myself and with you, I must say that I have failed time and again at most of this. I don’t have it all together, I don’t always do what God tells me to do, nor do I always serve him with everything I’ve got. I’ve disobeyed, I’ve done enough ‘just to get by’, and I’ve rejected God on numerous occasions. I can tell you, however, that I’ve never been more resolved to hold fast to God, to serve him with everything I’ve got and everything I’m not, and most importantly to love God more than anything else.

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Lots of cool stuff going on. Stay tuned!

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I have begun reading in Romans. Wanted to share some of it with you…Romans 1:19-25 (emphasis mine)

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them??the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

What are the gods that you have made for yourself? Have you traded the glory of the one, true God for a trinket that is literally a dime a dozen? Today is as good of a time as any to get rid of the trade show trash that clutters your life.

I pray that this year has blessed you so far and continues to do so.

Blessings.

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In Hebrews 9:23 we read the following:  “It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be
purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these.”

The context of this verse is a discussion on the new and old covenants and the style of atonement, but that really isn’t what is tripping me up.  What I am thinking about is “the copies of the heavenly things…”  In Exodus, God tells Moses to tell the people to build the tabernacle and furnishings with exacting specifiactions.  This was to be God’s very literal earthly dwelling place.  So if God is laying out these exacting specifications for things on earth that are exact copies of things in heaven, is there a tabernacle in heaven?  The author of Hebrews writes that as the earthly tabernacle was purified with sacrifices, the heavenly things were purified with an even better sacrifice, that of course being the blood of Jesus.  I get the teaching here, I get that when you are speaking to a bunch of old school Jews you have to speak their language.  But is this all that is?  Is it contextualization?

Why do I care?  Because my mind works in funny ways.  This is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night (or day when I am working).  I don’t lose a lot of sleep, but sometimes its tough to turn my head off.  Really, I care because it is interesting to me to think of what Heaven is like.  Maybe Randy Alcorn answers this kind of question in his book Heaven, anyone read it?

On a side note, I do think that it is interesting to think that if there is a tabernacle in heaven it has been gathering dust for over two thousand years.  Christ’s once and for all sacrifice took care of any sin offerings that we might need. Or maybe God put white sheets over everything?

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In human development it is evident that there is a cycle of growth, both physicially and mentally.  For the first several months of a babies life the “eat” nothing but milk from their mother or formula.  Both of these milk sources are perfectly formulated to provide the basis of nutrition for the baby.  As the baby matures, the need for more diverse and full nutrition develops.  Ask any mother and they will tell you that the day that their little one starts to eat strained peas and any number of fine Gerber products, and they will tell you that this is a huge day in the life of their child.  A giant step toward being able to eat solid foods is what it is.  When that day does come the joy is nearly unspeakable. 

The author of Hebrews likens this human life cycle development to the spiritual development of Christians.  MIlk is for beginners, solid food is those who are more mature and have the basics covered.  That is not to say that the basics don’t need to be revisited and talked about when one becomes “mature”, but they aren’t the main focus of the more mature believer’s diet.  Think about vitamins.  They are good for you and you should be taking them.  Can you survive on vitamins alone?  Some wackos out there might suggest so, but I think the medical community as a whole would disagree.  Should you stop taking vitamins? NO! But should you have some bread and meat also?  Yes!

What is your church feeding the people? All you can drink milk?  A cornucopia of spiritual food?  While I am a proponent of the role of the individual in their own spiritual development, there needs to be a grocery store where than person can go and stock up.  What tools are you putting out there?  What discussions are you having?  What seminars/training sessions/classes are you hosting?  While church should be geared toward those who are seeking and not-so-mature, it must also be catering in some dinners for the others.  When the rubber meets the road, they are the ones teaching your children, your sunday school classes and leading your worship.  Doing these things burns a lot of calories and sometimes we cannot take in enough calories on our own to replace them and keep our energy up to continue in the roles we play. 

Take a look at what you are putting on the table.  Take a read from Hebrews.  Enjoy the feast.

I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one??baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!

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For what its worth, the name Peter means rock or stone. In Matthew 16, Jesus confirms that Peter is “the rock” and the rock upon which the church shall be built. (An interesting side study is the setting in which Jesus gives the disciples this sermonette, literally at the gates of Hell a.k.a. Gehenna. What a powerful object lesson, Jesus is the man)

What does all this have to do with anything? In my daily reading today I decided to read 1 Peter. Who cares if he is the rock? Well, read this book and it is quite easy to see why he is who he is. The dude is solid. In his writing, he BRINGS IT! There is no confusing his words for some soft spoken wuss. Peter speaks some convicting words and doesn’t hold anything back. I can understand why Jesus loved the dude and used him to build the church.

Need a little fire under your rump? Check out the word from the Rock.

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James 1:19-24