"Traveling the Routes of Life..."

“Transiting Life According to My Way or God’s Way”

All of the following is to say that for most, it is easier to have a healthier expectation of a local transit system than to have a healthy expectation of God and His ways.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE TRANSIT BUS:  When was the last time you went to catch a bus and did one or more of the following?

Demand that the bus be there waiting when you arrived at the stop in order to avoid inconvenience.

Demand that the bus arrive in order to avoid unpleasant weather or a bad situation.

Demand that the bus stop be situated where it was most convenient.

Demand that the bus arrive on your schedule and/or according to your plan no matter the effect on others.

Demand that the bus travel on routes that are pleasant.

Of course this is most ludicrous.  The transit system plan insures that the bus arrives according to a schedule designed to fit with a greater plan?  Perhaps it is traffic volume, a city’s traffic flow pattern, the number of riders, where and when those riders typically travel, high use facilities such as shopping malls, etc.

BEFORE WE BEGIN:  Before continuing be clear about one very important thing.  God is not the prisoner of His own good ideas and thus He is free to interrupt our expectations of Him according to His good pleasure.  He is to be trusted beyond our understanding and we must be willing to accept His interruptions whether they be quiet or dramatic!  He is the great healer, the provider, the One who blesses, the destroyer of spiritual strongholds, the one who commissions signs and wonders, and the One we call on to be against the evil one and his kingdom of darkness.  However, there is a problem and we need to think about it in terms of man's limitations!

CONCERN - MAN’S LIMITED VIEW:  As one does not expect the bus to be there according to one’s personal plans, pleasures, purposes or agendas, so too one does well not place those expectations and others like them upon God and His interventions in the lives of His followers.  Consider the following.

God's Love?  Most certainly God does love each and every person.  However, such love is expressed in ways one may not understand.  The example is that of a parent who expresses love in a way that may not be understood or accepted by the child.  

Consider as well the matter of what God likes.  He may love everyone but that does not mean that He likes everyone.  To be in the favor or the "like" relationship with God means that one seek to live a life which is pleasing to the Heavenly Father (More about this in a later post).

Man's View:  Remember man’s view is limited by many factors.  To suppose that any one person has the grand plan is to suggest that the finite fully understand the Infinite.

Man's Supposition:  As one makes way through life, it is to say the least naive to suppose one knows the best course to follow and/or the best course of action.  From my Navy days consider the following.  Imagine a ship transiting the entrance to a sea port without soundings, navigational aids, navigational charts, and/or a channel master.  God is the ultimate Channel Master who knows best the channel in which His follower’s lives are to flow individually and corporately.

God's Timing:  Consider too that to demand God to be there upon one’s own schedule is very often to limit one’s view of God's intervention.  

When one enjoys the event we call a Divine encounter, most often it is best experienced when God shows up or intervenes in one's life in an unexpected manner at an unexpected moment.

MAN A GOD? A SUBTLE TRAP:  Consider this question.  Do you recognize these words, “…You will be like God?”  Yes, from the earliest records of mankind in the Garden of Eden, it was all about man placing himself in God’s position.  That which was once presented as a temptation now has become ingrained in man’s depraved thinking and the ultimate expression of the “self.”  

Whether tacitly or directly stated such insidious thoughts often becomes a part of one’s mental content and process.     Unfortunately such cannot be limited to those outside of the Church for it has made inroads into those of faith.  It all sounds so good, designer god on my terms at my time. 

RESPONSIBLE SURRENDER:  It is far better to surrender indeed commit to and live out the words, “Not my will but Thine be done.” Immediately some will counter that it is some kind of “Christian Fatalism.”  That is to say they counter with the criticism that such commitment means; “I am absolved of any and all responsibility when I pray, ‘Not my will but Thine be done’.”  Not so!

Join me back in my Navy days for another illustration.  In order for a ship to have steering, it must be underway.  In other words, a ship dead in the water and unanchored is at the mercy of current and tide.  Such is also true of the Christian. 

In order for the “Thy will not mine” to work one must go forward in one’s faith.  However, one must also be willing for such plans and purposes as are in place to be interrupted.  Neither does it serves God’s purposes to be unwilling to go in ways found to be inconvenient—God’s way is always comforting and confidence building but often found to be not convenient.

All of the preceding is to say that for most, it is easier to have a healthier expectation of a local transit system than to have a healthy expectation of God and His ways.

THE CHALLENGE:  Trust in the Lord and do not give in to the propensity to try to figure it all out for such is always limited by our finite perspective.  Leave such to the side and God will lead in the path in which one should go, the path that lines up perfectly with His Kingdom plan.

"Responding to The Intolerance of the Tolerant"

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACIOUSNESS:  May we who have standards and convictions not be intolerant of the intolerant!  What a curious situation the public debate this week as those who accept almost everything reject Chic-Fil-A based upon a thought expressed by its founder.

The owner of Chic-Fil-A simply gave his position on the matter of marriage being as the Bible describes it, between one man and one woman.  Someone said that God established marriage between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve and certainly he would agree with that idea.  Whether one agrees with it or not is not the issue.  How we disagree is in fact the concern.  Not so long ago the right was challenged with its need for graciousness in difference, now the left progressives need to hear the same admonition.

THE CHALLENGE OF BELIEFS EXPRESSED:  At question is that matter of one's right even responsibility to set forth his beliefs.  Certainly no one seems to object with those on the progressive side of the argument impose their notions but let the other side say something as benign as was said and there is an outcry but it does not end there.  Notice that there was to be a "kiss-in" as same sex couples demonstrate their "love" at Chic-Fil-A locations.

Chic-Fil-A being a privately owned company have not great responsibility to allow this sort of thing to go on however, since they seem to be gracious about this whole discourse I suspect that they will not take action.

THE CHALLENGE OF CONVICTIONS:  Such being so there are some things that we need to think about!  We who take a conservative view of the Scriptures must allow nothing to dissuade us from the position we take of the Scriptures.  The more that we are surrounded by the permissive message, the more those of us who hold to the Bible are placed in difficult even untenable positions.  Such is not so in reality only in perception.

The reality is that the same God who designed each of us in our uniqueness, also moved on righteous men of old to author the Bible.  Personally I do not find anywhere that I or anyone else is exempted from any of the Scriptures.  

There are those who would argue that the Christian's shortcomings are license for others to live outside the guidance of the Bible.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Certainly we all make mistakes but that in no way obviates others from their responsibilities.  In fact that is the value of being in a Christian community for in failure there we find support and care.  Then too there is the support to be found in prayer as we pray the Scriptures. 

THE CHALLENGE OF/TO THE CULTURE:  As alluded to earlier, there is a problem.  It is that we are so surrounded by the messages of the media and academia that we either consciously and rationally or without giving it much thought have come to embrace things that are not acceptable to God.  The drift from what is right and correct is so gradual that it is imperceptible.   However, think back a few years to what was acceptable and what was not.  

Of course the Bible is the same as it always has been.  It did not change but we did and in that course of that change we have reinterpreted the Bible to be what we want it to be. The outcome is as one post-modernist writer put it, “…we see the demise of personal definition, reason, authority. . . All intrinsic properties of the human being, along with moral worth and personal commitment, are lost from view...” (Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self)

Is it any wonder that people live largely insecure lives, without a sense of direction, a certain fatalism, and an inadequacy in and of themselves.  Perhaps that is why those who have followed along with culture are so threatened by those with conviction.

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACIOUSNESS:  As the business owner who made the statement regarding the family, let us take our stand wherever we are located but let us do so in wisdom.

Let us do so relationally and not with criticism and rejection

Let us do so graciously not returning evil and insult for evil and insult

Let us do so welcoming the person while disallowing the sin

Let us do so with understanding not condemning for that it is God’s to do.

Remember Jude’s command, “save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear…”  In other words, some we confront others we persuade over time but to all we in some form witness.  (Jude 23).

This is Western Progress? Maybe not!

Any system left to its own resources will eventually descend into chaos. Previous posts have discussed this notion.  However some things bear repeating and this is one of them.

There is a barometer and it is our memories of history.  If you think back a few years to your childhood and compare today's culture with the one in which you grew up as a child, it yields a certain understanding that the things that provided stability in our culture are being eroded away.  Gradual as that erosion is, it still is moving our culture toward chaos and ultimately none existence.

Recently I had occasion to think about what life was like in the 1950s.  Our family did not live in an affluent neighborhood and there were nights that we had a "beans and rice" diet, pants were patched in the knees, and "hand me downs" were okay.  Even so there was a certain ethic that guided even the poor among us.  

• Though the neighbor's daughter was an unwed mother, such was kept behind closed doors.
• Abortion was unheard of and certainly held to be wrong.
• Rumor had it that a classmate overdosed, even so drugs were something someone else did and were not condoned.
• Teachers could hug you, even so sassing a teacher could earn you hacks with his wooden paddle--there was always more waiting for you at home.
• Getting drunk was about as high as one might get and it was none too frequent.
• Jimmy's parents getting a divorce was whispered as a secret.
• Bobby Darin and "Mack the Knife" was risque music.
• Men did not cuss around women and women did not cuss at all.
• People stood up when a woman entered the room, the flag passed by, and when shaking hands.

More?

• A police officer was to be respected and teachers were always right even when wrong.
• Going out to eat was a real treat, fast food was waiting at a drive-in for your hamburger to be cooked. 
• We could count on each other when something went wrong.
• We had first girlfriends that we followed home but did not touch--well maybe we held hands secretly.
• Passing secret notes to your girlfriend was a big thing until  your teacher caught you.
• Any mother in the neighborhood could give you a tongue lashing!
• Sexual immorality was looked down upon--the movies kept bedroom scenes behind closed doors.
• We had heroes like John Wayne and the Lone Ranger who believed in God, Country, and doing right.
• Girls were to be protected, they did not cuss, and certainly did not smoke.
• A baseball cap wasn't a gang symbol and we kept our pants up.
• People waited their turn, opened doors for women, used words like Mr. Mrs. and said, "yes sir"  
• Boys were expected to join the military, girls were not! Women in combat?  Unheard of!!!
• When someone was in need we helped because there was no fear of being sued.

Shall I go on? 

• We had prisons not correction centers. 
• We would call on the phone, send letters on real paper, visit and talk, but not text and email.
• Most boys had a sling shot or a BB gun, we smoked stolen cigarettes, and played in the street.
• Character and values were important.
• Church was important even if you did not go.
• The evening news was news not hours of editorial opinion.
• Going on a trip once every year or two was a big deal.
• Men and boys opened doors for women, even those we did not know.
• We kids pushed the paralyzed neighbor around the block and were not afraid to talk with him
• World War II service men went to work despite battle fatigue because that is what men did.

Want more?

• We openly sang "God Bless America" and would have made short work of anyone who said, "Not God Bless America but God Damn America..."
• We rode in the back of pick-up trucks, biked with no hands and no helmet, climbed trees and fell out of them, and oh by the way, skinned knees were a part of being a kid.
• If we even had a television, we watched cartoons then went outside to play, even in the winter time.
• Corruption in government was dealt with.
• Conservation was in and important.  Culture was not controlled by environmentalist with their junk science.
• Seat belts and other government good ideas were unheard of.
• Neighbors were known to us and would lend a hand when needed.  They were not hidden in big houses behind locked gates and locked doors.
• Rock fights and slugging it out was survivable besides, that is what men in the making did.  
• Sex education came from your buddies.
• Only truants skipped school.

Well, you add yours to the list!

My, my, my haven't we progressed.  Imagine another 50-60 years.  If thing continue in the current constant state of unraveling toward chaos, and unless there is some kind of a major intervention (Revival, Great Awakening etc.), then we are headed for a moral, ethical, cultural, etc. meltdown and the ending of the United States of America as we know her.

The insidious part of all of this is that these changes are so slow and gradual that they garnered little notice.  Imagine if someone like Lady Gaga had suddenly appeared in the 50s.  She would have been arrested and hauled off to jail for indecent exposure among other things.  Imagine the open foul language that is a part the day to day media today.  You can argue first amendment free speech all you want but the reality is that potty mouth is potty mouth and it is uncouth.

As we have demanded our freedoms so very often they have lead to excesses and those excesses are often at the expense of the culture and the country at large.  Unless there is change we are doomed to finding ourselves as a page in a dusty revisionist history book.

"GOD BLESS AMERICA, LAND THAT I LOVE..." 

Thanks to you...

Thanks to you we now have had over 1,000 visitors to my blog.  I appreciate you stopping by.  Be blessed and be safe,  Alvie

"BLAMING GOD? What is the point?"

Something to Think About

When events like that in Aurora, CO happen, how convenient it is to blame God with some thought such as, if God is so good then why did this happen?  However, if that is the God you want then there are some things that you might like to consider.  No God did not create and leave but he did "left."  He left man to suffer the consequences of his own decisions and at times those effects do not end with the individual making the decisions.  Aurora is a good example.

First, consider that in any time of adversity and challenge there are those who respond in various ways.

BLAMERS:  There are the blamers who will blame whatever “whipping boy” happens to be in vogue at the time.  Understand that “Blamers are often inflamers.”

EXPLAINERS;  Explainers often follow the blamers.  Problem is explainers in reality can be speculators.  Often they cast about verbally looking for some reason.

IGNORERS:  Ignorers are those who just do not get involved mentally, emotionally, or in any other way.  They avoid at all cost any connection with the event.

FACERS:  Facers are those who will accept that some even has happened, learn, seek the truth, hold judgment in abeyance, and provide what care they can.  It is this group of people who are not afraid to invest feelings and also take action.

ACTERS:  Acters are those who take action, do something, fix it or contribute to the fixing of the situation.  Those emergency responders who run into the chaos of situations like Aurora are such people.  Of course there are those who fix things on a spiritual level; prayers, pastors, bishops, etc.

Second, we do well to understand some things about man’s present condition. 

We live in a fallen world that is in a constant state of decline.  It is far less than it was in its original creation and will continue in it freefall toward chaos unless and until there is a radical change—the return of Christ, Jesus.

We live in fallen relationships with God, others, and self.  It is in these less than whole relationships that we are attracted further away from God’s ideal. The further a relationship is from God's idea the more chaos reigns in that relationship.  Among other things the following may be true...

A fallen relationship with God results in the choas of sinfulness

A fallen relationship with others (the social arena) results in misunderstand, the disparaging of others, distancing, hurt, personal attack, and separation

 A fallen relationship with self results in mental-emotional health issues, a lack of character, failure to make and carry through with decisions, and sociopathic thinking and action.

We live among fallen people and very often what we perceive as a disconnect with others is nothing more or less than the work of the Satan and his kingdom as it seeks to attack, bring chaos, and destroy that which God seeks to save.

We live and within us is a fallen nature.  No matter how we try to explain it away, we find ourselves doing the very thing we know to be wrong. 

Third, we do well to remember that in Christ there is hope.  God’s Kingdom plan is that we align our lives with His Word through being saved, submitting our ways to Him, being obedient to His Spirit, and having a deep connection to His Word.  That does not insure that we will not be effected by such things as Aurora but it does mean that we keep firmly in mind that in the end and only for the Christian there is victory.  Victory over the fallen world, fallen relationships, fallen bodies, and the effects of the world, the flesh, and the Devil

Be strong brothers and sisters, we who know Christ will prevail—some now all later.

"Until then..."

Most people that even care are asking, "Why?"  If one take time to think about the culture that the progressives have given us, it is not too hard to answer that question!  

Until...

Until we stop distancing from and start connecting with religion...

Until we stop the hindrances and start demanding certain justice...

Until we stop explaining why and start hold people accountable...

Until we stop distancing from each other and start connecting...

Until we stop delaying and start demanding quick justice...

Until we stop making excuses and start penalizing...

Until we stop being careless and start caring...

Until we stop correcting and start punishing...

Until we stop moralizing and start ethicising...

Until we stop liberalism and start conservatism...

Until we stop incarcerating and start imprisoning...

Until we stop entitlements and start being responsible...

Until we stop valueless education and start teaching values...

Until we stop secularizing culture and start a return to faith...

Until we stop the liberal media and start fair and accurate news...

Until we stop the progressive church and start preaching repentance...

Until we stop mollycoddling offenders and start treating them as criminals...

  Until then... you might just as well get used to these things because,

these things will continue to happen with greater frequency!!!

"Fad of Faith or Balance"

picture from flickr.com

It was a warm day at Andersen AFB, Guam.  An official from the denomination of which I am a part and I were standing on the airfield control tower catwalk looking out over the field.  This man was a pastor to those who pastor local congregational pastors.  To say he had a strategic view of ministry in general and problems of those in ministry would be an understatement.
 
In the previous few years he had been involved in the discipline of two very prominent public religious figures.  These were men who had major international ministries and whose television ministries had touched millions worldwide.  Both had very different problems but both had failed and fallen under not just legal scrutiny but that of our shared denomination. 

As we visited he commented to the effect that the more he saw of Christian service the more he valued balance.  He certainly understood the meaning of what he had better than most.

Balance conveys the idea of equilibrium or "...be equal with... ...bringing into equilibrium..." and "...harmony between parts... ...balance of power..." (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php).  Balance synonymously shares company with words such as poise, steadiness, and stability.


For years the comment of this pastor has been at the fore of many of my thoughts and attendant concerns as there seems to be a need on the part of the Church general and the local congregation to chase one fad or another.  Yet, when we look at the Judeo-Christian Scriptures over and over again we see examples of those who have sought to do so and thus have been rash in judgement, extreme in statement, imbalanced in behavior, and/or have been carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14).

Notice that the Scripture just referenced does not suggest that it is errant doctrine.  It was just out of balance doctrine which at first they embraced and then as they became more and more involved it began to control them and carry them just as the wind carries a feather.

This is most troubling in that it involves not just the principles but those surrounding them.  However, those examples are provided for the warning of all who care to heed such.  In today's world there is no dearth of those who even when counseled and challenged do not pay attention and believing they have special light plunge onward in some doctrinal pursuit or another.

Some of the Fads of Faith I have observed are as follows.  There was the Charismatic movement which went and still goes well beyond the Scriptural models of doctrine and ministry.  Later there was the Grace movement and it seemed every one was publishing books on the subject of grace.  The Laughing movement.

Part of the Charismatic movement moved off into new revelation which was at times taken over the Scriptures just referenced.  The Inner Healing movement was popularized by a former President's sister while that President made being a saved Christian popular--somehow we never got around to the Lordship part of being a Christian.

While my Pentecostal theology is well in tact and based on the balances and principles set forth in Scripture, others made speaking in unknown languages necessary for salvation.  Yet others denied the validity of the experience and attendant practices.  The Prosperity gospel with its notions of material prosperity as an end is at this writing still influencing many.  Part of that movement is the notion "...what I speak will be so and I claim it to be so." 

Shall I go on?  There are those who have imported Eastern religion into Christianity and claimed "special" truth.  There is the Soaking movement that seems to be gaining traction, only time will tell where it will take many.  Of recent date I've been discussing with another the his notion that God's will is that all are healed. What has been left untreated in this posting is the various beliefs about the deity and/or humanity of Jesus Christ.

The sad truth is that people make these choices without giving any thought to the consequences and outcomes.  Certainly and has been said by many, "God gives you the power to choose but not the consequences."  It is those consequences that have carried many off into error and ultimately defeat of their faith.

This is not to disparage those who participate in these movements, for I am sure that most are good people who are seeking a deeper religious experience.  However, good people can be deceived as they follow religious tangents.  If one will look at the effects of many of these movements in the lives of people, one will find those who are hurt, disillusioned, and who feel disenfranchised--just plain left out because they have not had some "special" experience or some special "blessing."

As well, within these movements and those like them are the "special" and the "blessed" who have had this or that special experience or revelation of the "truth."  If great care is not taken, that specialness can lead to a spiritual smugness as one falls further into the deception of new revelation and new directions of "truth."

What is needed is a balance of faith.  Just as the pastor said on the catwalk that sunny day in Guam.  It is a grave error to suppose that one can dissect out any of the essential Trinitarian Orthodox doctrines from the others and then interpret the others by that doctrine.  Neither can one legitimately emphasize any one doctrine to the detriment or exclusion of the others.  This would be so much the more so with non-essential doctrines.

Even a cursory reading of Church history past and present will reveal an historical landscape that is littered with movements and those who have populated those movement that have tried to make such doctrinal dissections.  Even a cursory visit with those of the less developed world will reveal that these things do not work in their world.  They have no choice but to cling to the reality of a real faith and not wander off into speculative doctrine.  It seems to me that if it does not work in their world why should we expect that God ordained it for the western church?  Something is wrong!

Further consider that the genuine Christianity that has survived throughout the ages of Church history did perfectly well without these fads of faith, we then would do well to steer clear of them and chart a course back to the pure milk of the Word of God and bath that pure word in generous amounts of prayer.  It is then that the doctrines based upon those words of life, give life!  Living that close to and in conformity to the Scriptures may not be comfortable but it is in that place that we find the comfort of the One who inspired those Scriptures, the Comforter!